Inliners International Forums General Discussion Hi Performance METHANOL IN A 300 FORD RACE ENGINE

I am thinking of switching my bracket racer over to run on methanol and I have some questions for anybody who has switched their 300 Ford six from gasoline to methanol.
1. What kind of performance improvement did it make? Dyno sheet, e.t., lap times, MPH increase?
2. If you run carbs what did you do to the carbs? I presume a change to billet aluminum methanol metering blocks and down-leg methanol boosters. What about floats? What else? (I currently have (3) modified 500 Holleys on there.)
3. Which fuel pump did you use? Did you keep the gas pump? What pressure worked best?
4. How does it start? Do you ever have to prime it to get it started? Do you have an on-board gasoline primer / warm-up fuel tank? Any other issues due to the corrosive / toxic nature of this fuel?
I have talked with other alky racers about their experiences but none who race 300s or any other inline six for that matter so I am looking for some first hand inliner insight. Thank you.

Try to get in touch with Bruce Murray in Portland. He built a 300 for Gary Wilcox's ~51 pick-up and later converted it to alcohol in part to keep head gaskets in it. I believe it also had 3 Holleys. They did set-up a primer using a windshield washer motor and reservoir.

He is not an internet type, so you will need to call him. He is listed in the Inliner directory.

I have no first hand experience with alky, but from what I read you need a lot more fuel for a given volume of air. If I remember right gasoline wants something like 14+:1 air/fuel ratio where alcohol is more like 6.4:1.

Thanks Bruce. I did get in touch with Bruce Murray and got some suggestions and insight from him. He was very helpful. Plus we both like big Ford sixes in little cars.

I race an inline 6 T bucket and have just finished changing over from petrol to methanol. I machined the head for 13:1 compression, fitted twin Holley blue fuel pumps and regs with twin fuel lines feeding my tripple dellorto carbs. You use 2.2 times more fuel with methanol so I multiplied all my jet diameters by 1.4 and redrilled them which which will only leave some fine tuning at the track to do. Methanol is corrosive so fit drain plugs to your carbs and flush the whole fuel system with 2 stroke petrol after each meeting to protect the insides. If you have trouble starting the engine squirt some petrol staight down the carbys with a small bottle and the engine should fire and run ok after this. The engine will run heaps cooler and expect up to 20% increase in power if the tuning is set up right.

Thank you screamin six. Your combination sounds interesting. Please let me know how much quicker you go when you get it all sorted out. I imagine your drag racing season is in full swing about now. I am looking out the window at a foot of snow. Good luck.

Unfortunatly it may be summer here in north oz but it is also the wet season and i am looking out the window at a foot of rain. I have completed the methanol conversion and I am waiting to get to the track for some testing. The altered ran a best of 11.05 @ 119mph when it ran on 98 octane pump grade petrol but this was with a leaking head gasket as the engine ran very hot and warped the head. This is one reason i changed to methanol to cool the engine and eliminate overheating problems. The engine is 202 cubic inches and i hope to run consistant mid 10 sec passes.

Back when I was running V8 Pontiacs, I could get about 5 tenths out of methanol compared to 93 octane gas and that was just changing fuel. I didn't change anything on the motor other then the carburater. Biggest problem was keeping the engine warn in cooler weather! I did change the thermostat to a 195*. I had to change oil more often due to condensation in the block, I could drain off a cup of water a week if it was damp out when racing. Also, if you keep the fuel lines and carb full, you don't need to drain the system. We raced once a week and sometimes twice a week so I didn't have any problems with drying out lines. Each winter I would replace regulators diaprams, pump diaprams, filters, and some hose. I figured with gas I would have to do about the same anyway. Joe H

The “stoichiometric” (chemically correct) air to fuel ratio of methanol is about 6.46-1. 5-1 A/F ratio, which produces maximum power, is 29% richer than chemically correct.
Methanol requires about 250% as much fuel as gasoline for best (richer) full-throttle power,, so the diameters of the passages will have to be enlarged as much as 58% (flow varies roughly as the square of the diameter - 1.58 squared = 2.50, &c.).
The main jet should be enlarged based on the same
250% proportion, so the jet diameter will have to be enlarged as much as 58% as well.
These increases are in addition to any enlargement made for tuning purposes, and are not added (summed) but are incremental.