Brad.R

iTrader: (25)

I have heard of people puting their nitro fuel in a cooler on ice. Is this a good or bad thing and what are the advantages other then keeping it out of the heat. Can fuel get to cold?

crash666

i dont know about rc cars but on my dragrace car and i know some oval track guys do it. cooler fuel is denser than warm fuel which in turn burns better and dont cause vapor lock on the old carburated cars. and for real cars tou can purchase a fuel cooler just like a oil cooler and tranny cooler. id be more precise but not a engineer or scientist sorry

beebone

I think the concept is from old skool F1 - solid fuel, increase the fuel density in same volume, means more fuel.

DJ_Shakespear

i guess the "denser fuel burns better" idea is more key to this idea.
it makes sense, and it cools the engine in the process, but is it worth the added weight to the car? (especially Onroad racing where weight placement is a tricky area)

NiTrO BoOsTeR

iTrader: (7)

its not so much denser fuel burns better you can more fuel/air mix into the chamber due to the molecules being tighter together, thus more fuel/air mix = more power but due to getting more fuel into the chamber the more fuel is used in each stroke. plus larger vehicles mostly use a fuel to air transfer of heat with the fuel cooler, im not 100% sure but most drag cars would run a fuel to dry ice style of cooling or something along those lines plus the benefits of running a cooler fuel setup is minimal and remember these guys are trying to get the most out of it as they can.

with our nitro cars they dump the return fuel from the exhaust pipe straight back into the tank and the benefit of running chilled fuel would be gone with in a few minutes also you would have to adjust tuning mid race duel to the mixture riching out.

even if you could succeed in making a cool fuel system that keeps the fuel cool it would cost a fortune and the benefits would be minimal the money spent on this mod could be used in other places to get the same benefit.

after saying that there are benefits of running cool fuel, it would be interesting in seeing a system that works.

mitch

rc carnage

iTrader: (1)

Hi Bigblock

All this does is help increase the Nitro content and makes it burn better and generate more power

Down side is that if you do put the fuel in a cooler of ice and your fuel was to be test you may have the change of going over on the Nitro tester. (Example as if it was a really cool day you may go over)

JT

jackrc

I am going to try to cool the fuel to see the improvements in the performance of the engine that temperature must be?

Rubio

Maybe it's possible to do some quick test simply by utilising the small radiator normally utilised on pressurization tubing and installing it on feeding tube.

thilo-alexander

too cool rc car fuel will get flakes in it,
they lock the fuel lines.
we had problems with that on a indoor nitro race in deep winter,
it was -18C celsius and plastic brokes like glass, i will never forget.

Rawz

The nitro on the fuel is highly volatile. So you chill it and ...
Thats only it. So, use this only if you have a VERY hot day ... otherwise, I can't see why to bother ...

nitrodude

iTrader: (8)

Just make sure to keep in the shade.

EEL Monster

Surely the only practical reason to chill fuel would be for the same reason you keep it in a dark cool place at home.
I don't ice my fuel, but I do carry it in a cooler bag to meetings
I would think that any performance advantages to be gained would be lost due to the small size of the tank and the close proximity to HOT things in the chassis, by the time the engine was up to temp it would've heated the tank and fuel and numerous other things
You would need to actively cool the fuel going to the carby to gain a performance advantage

EEL Monster

Btw…
Methanol freezes at somewhere around the -90C to -100C
Nitro methane freezes at about -30C
Not sure about the synthetic castor they talk about these days, but normal castor oil freezes at approx -10C
The castor would be the only thing you could get close to freezing but I seriously doubt a cooler bag will freeze to anywhere near -10C

revoracer10

iTrader: (3)

i thought nitro fuel always gelled up if it got to cold

avs

iTrader: (2)

the general precautions are to store in a cool, dark, dry location. like has been stated, keep it out of the sun.

i suspect that 'fuel coolers' are really just protection from heat, NOT to refrigerate the fuel.

as far as BTU's absorbed by the fuel, there are many more BTU's expended by the phase change (evaporation) than by the few degrees temperature change.

i don't see how refrigerating the fuel could have any discernable effect, although theoretically you would increase your effective fuel tank size very slightly?