There's a lot of big IF's and BUT's to be thrown around here. But I've ran a go kart engine with nitromethane as fuel and it easily made twice the stock power with only fuel delivery modifications.

So, I'm considering trying to build an N/T that runs on nitromethane. Not sure yet if I'd risk blowing my ride up or just buying a cheaper car as a lab rat.

Let's talk theory. What exactly might be needed for this little 420a to run well and make good power from nitromethane? Obviously we will need a tuning solution, first and foremost. Fill it up with a fuel that different from stock and the stock ecu won't know what the hell is going on.

Now, we will probably need more fuel. I haven't yet done research on the energy of this fuel. But I would assume you will need at least a little more fuel to make decent power from it. So maybe a good fuel pump and good injectors? Fuel rail should be fine. Maybe need to modify or remove the fuel filter if it can't handle that kind of fuel.

"Cars typically need about 15 pounds of air to burn one pound of gasoline. With nitromethane, you only need 1.7 pounds of air. Drag racing motors are big, with an average engine displacement of 8.9 liters. When supercharged, they can produce about 6,000 horsepower." - quoted from fueledby com

Does anyone here run nitromethane in their DSM? regardless of engine type. Input on this idea is greatly appreciated. For now we're really just talking theories and ideas.

Main word i see in this post is assume.
Get some facts. More power is more pressure. Look at the bottom end also.
You aren't the first to think of this.

Are you sure you're not talking about Ethanol or Methanol? Nitromethane is illegal in Kart racing, there are rumors of people adding an ounce or so per gallon of Methanol but if they dipped your fuel, you were done, the stuff is also an explosive and the fumes are toxic, its also around $100 a gallon and is non flammable so your car cant be started on Nitromethane by itself, also its highly corrosive, more than even Methanol, and both require you to drain it all out and run other non corrosive fuel through your engine before shutting it down and putting it away for the night and then you have to drain the now acidic oil and put fresh oil in and run it on that to lube the engine with non acidic oil, if you dont you will have rusted cams when you come out in the morning from condensation. Your fuel system would need completely setup for it and your aluminum parts should be coated also to protect them from the corrosive effects of it on aluminum, you would need a massive fuel pump to ever pump enough of it also, it burns at 1:1 and even less in the big leagues, you would likely go through $1000 worth of it in one day at the track.

Thanks to @motomattx for a great answer. The Wikipedia article on "Top Fuel" also has a nice summary of the technical aspects of these cars. I guess anything's possible with enough time and money, but it doesn't sound remotely practical to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Fuel#Top_fuel_engines

motomattx said:

Are you sure you're not talking about Ethanol or Methanol? Nitromethane is illegal in Kart racing

Click to expand...

I don't officialy race it, but it is a racing kart. It was definitely nitromethane, it came with the kart when I bought it. Seemed to burn through the whole tank quiet quickly though.

So if this were to be done, what should happen is nitromethane should be mixed with regular fuel so the car can actually start. And the oil should be changed at the end of every day it runs. And if it burns 1:1, and stock burns basically 14:1... assume a 50/50 mix nitromethane/fuel, then you'd need a fuel pump 7 times stronger than stock. And a forged bottom end and strong headgasket to handle it. And stainless steel valves to prevent melting.

Nitromethane won't mix with regular fuel, it WILL mix with Methanol though, you would have to start the car on one fuel and then switch to the Nitromethane after its running, you could do what I do and run dual fuel rails to do this or run the car on Methanol with a percentage of Nitromethane added to it.

motomattx said:

Nitromethane won't mix with regular fuel, it WILL mix with Methanol though, you would have to start the car on one fuel and then switch to the Nitromethane after its running, you could do what I do and run dual fuel rails to do this or run the car on Methanol with a percentage of Nitromethane added to it.

Click to expand...

motomattx said:

Are you sure you're not talking about Ethanol or Methanol? Nitromethane is illegal in Kart racing, there are rumors of people adding an ounce or so per gallon of Methanol but if they dipped your fuel, you were done, the stuff is also an explosive and the fumes are toxic, its also around $100 a gallon and is non flammable so your car cant be started on Nitromethane by itself, also its highly corrosive, more than even Methanol, and both require you to drain it all out and run other non corrosive fuel through your engine before shutting it down and putting it away for the night and then you have to drain the now acidic oil and put fresh oil in and run it on that to lube the engine with non acidic oil, if you dont you will have rusted cams when you come out in the morning from condensation. Your fuel system would need completely setup for it and your aluminum parts should be coated also to protect them from the corrosive effects of it on aluminum, you would need a massive fuel pump to ever pump enough of it also, it burns at 1:1 and even less in the big leagues, you would likely go through $1000 worth of it in one day at the track.

Click to expand...

It’s impressive how much our members collectively know and what we can learn from exchanging information.

I’m half-hoping Black’98 does this so we can see what happens. Videos are a must.

Sol, we have a Nitromethane powered Top Fuel car here in town and he usually shows up at the bigger car shows and starts his car for everyone to see and hear. He has to start it on Methanol and then he just turns a knob (like switching tanks on a truck with dual tanks) to go from that to the Nitro. You can tell it immediately when the car picks up the Nitro, it is loud and very fumey so your eyes will water. I watched at the last car show (and we are old time friends, another story there) and that is how he operated that monster. They had hearing and breathing protection on since they were so close to the car and they needed it. I like your ideas, you always think outside of the box! Best of luck to you for sure!!!