Engine reliability: Alky vs Gas

OK I have always ran gas and now I have a Rupert Alky carb (actually it has been in the cabinet for over 6 months). I was thinking about trying it BUT the question remains;

Is alky harder on parts and does the engine have to be tore down each season???

If you wear it out faster with alky your doing it wrong.

This is my 3rd season on this motor, only had the valve covers off for lash checkng, intake off once but only because I put a different one on.

Mine will come out this winter to get made bigger, its still as strong as the day i put it in, leakdown numbers are awesome.

richter69 wrote:If you wear it out faster with alky your doing it wrong.

This is my 3rd season on this motor, only had the valve covers off for lash checkng, intake off once but only because I put a different one on.

Mine will come out this winter to get made bigger, its still as strong as the day i put it in, leakdown numbers are awesome.

KEEP THE MOISTURE OUT ......

Bruno I didn't alky long on my car.My patience was short with it,but mostly because of other problems with the car.My car ran cool,'just used a vac. pump and the lean out on the toliet.I've been around David C's set up alot he had no! reliability problems.His cars always runs like a clock.He usualy freshens every two yrs and he races a good bit and goes alot of rounds.The biggest problm I had was it seended to kill me in the car even with turn outs behind the doors,but I think I have some kind of allergy or something.I get a severe headach if I'm parked by several cars that run it.
I do know my car hit the tires much harder with the alcohol than gas which was causing spinning problems that I had no way of dealing with.I just have a 6AL box.Your car should hook better than mine.Mine is on a stock set up.I think you would like it.I got a lkey carb from Jon I did not run it but a good friend of mine has it and loves it.
I still have the vac. pump and rad. If you need it let me know! good luck!

Some learning curves with it, and moisture can be reduced with some simple tricks, I just drained my oil this weekend because its been in there since last fall, has about 9 races on it, looks like it was drained from a gas burner.

I've been on injected alky for about 7-8 yrs. Never any issues. Broke a crank, oil pickup tube and a couple of rocker arms. That's it and those had nothing to do with alky. The key is getting the temp up enough to keep the alky and water condensation out of the oil. I do that with a combo of a gas primer and electric vac pump. I drive the car to staging and up the return road on the gas primer with pump gas. It will get the engine up to 180 ° fast. I use the electric vac pump during the run and for 3-4 minutes after each pass to pull any vapor out.

I don't think I would ever use an alky carb. I like the injection. Just my opinion, but when you get above a certain engine size the amount of alky required in a single carb application will start to crowd out and displace the air, plus you have a huge suspended fuel load trying to turn and go down the intake runners. With injection the air flow is dry until just before the head, so it's not crowding out the air and the fuel is shot in directly at the intake valve.

David, do you think a D0VE headed 514 is too many cubic inches for a alky carb?

Moodyblues wrote:David, do you think a D0VE headed 514 is too many cubic inches for a alky carb?

I ran a carb on my 529, back when the air was good I did an A-B-A test and the 1050 alky carb was a tenth and a half faster and picked up 2 mph. The injection has been about the same gain over the carb.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,more to do with the cfm rating of the injection.

Nothing wrong with the carbs, and honestly for a first time user its a simpler deal......plus if you already have one..............

Moodyblues wrote:David, do you think a D0VE headed 514 is too many cubic inches for a alky carb?

A carb is fine for the 514 as long as it's a Dominator. I've seen a few guys try to run a 4150 style alky carb on 500+ ci. They would run, but none lived up to what they should have been.

Dr. wifes racing- I know that the alky can burn when your the driver. Jon was talking about how his M5 will burn like hell and it manages to find a way into the car. He said everyone in the burnout area would move away because it was so strong. You might just be sensitive to it, the stuff can be VERY strong at times. I would headaches a LOT for the simplest of things, just about every event my head would hurt. I know, it sucks, but you have to just suck it up and take some tilenol (however you spell it). I hope it doesn't bug you too much, that would really suck. I cant get enough of the smell of burnt rubber and race fuel now that it doesn't give me a migraine.

Plain alky I can handle pretty good....M5...............that stuff the instant it hits you its tears and snot.........gotta nitro twang to it...........

Even with turnouts the doors need to seal real good etc....it will find a way in.............I messed up here a month ago and opened the door to get the slip, didnt flip the M5 off and go to gas.............even this HeRo damn near had to bail.......lesson learned.


Gas fumes will mess me up bad where alky just makes me blow some snot...odd how it affects people different ways.

What size carb you got moody?

richter69 wrote:Plain alky I can handle pretty good....M5...............that stuff the instant it hits you its tears and snot.........gotta nitro twang to it...........

Even with turnouts the doors need to seal real good etc....it will find a way in.............I messed up here a month ago and opened the door to get the slip, didnt flip the M5 off and go to gas.............even this HeRo damn near had to bail.......lesson learned.


Gas fumes will mess me up bad where alky just makes me blow some snot...odd how it affects people different ways.

What size carb you got moody?

And he drinks diesel with his donuts!! Just one of those mechanic things....

I was helping a buddy with his TA/D a few years ago, he was running it in his shop. I had to bail right quick! Eyes burning and much snot as tHe HeRo said.

Bill

richter69 wrote:Plain alky I can handle pretty good....M5...............that stuff the instant it hits you its tears and snot.........gotta nitro twang to it...........

Even with turnouts the doors need to seal real good etc....it will find a way in.............I messed up here a month ago and opened the door to get the slip, didnt flip the M5 off and go to gas.............even this HeRo damn near had to bail.......lesson learned.


Gas fumes will mess me up bad where alky just makes me blow some snot...odd how it affects people different ways.

What size carb you got moody?

950 cfm 4150

a 950 cfm alky QFT is what was recommended for my small block 393 works great too

I'd give it a whirl, the deal with the dominator is the amount of fuel that can flow through the boosters v.s the 4150.


FWIW we run a 950 QF on our 306.