Track Results with Water/Methanol

sneaky98gt

10 Year Member
Apr 23, 2008
2,387
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NC State University
Just got back from the track tonight. This was probably the last time I'll have the opportunity go in the car's current configuration, and I wanted to see exactly what kind of gain I'd get from the AIS Meth kit I installed a few weeks ago.

The setup:
-COMPLETELY full street trim. Left the street tires on, and didn't take anything out of the car. Still had my books and lunchbox from school today in the trunk, haha.
-AIS meth kit with single 7 GPH (440 ml/min) nozzle (way too big). I was using windshield washer fluid, which is 30% methanol and 70% water.
-I adjusted the tune the best I could with my SCT programmer. I was able to add 4 degrees of timing before I heard any detonation. I also leaned out the WOT AFR as much as I could with the programmer. With the meth, it was still 10.2-10.5.
-1500 feet DA at a VERY slow track. New 5.0s were only trapping 105-106, and everyone I talked to said their trap speeds and ETs were down 4-5 mph and .3-.4 seconds from what they normally run. The track had problems with the timing system early in the night, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if it wasn't calibrated correctly. I know that my speedo indicated over 110 on every one of my runs, but my best trap was only 106.

I randomly picked if I ran the meth or not on a particular run, but I made sure that I had at least a couple of runs of each type with a good cool-down, and a couple of hot-lap runs.

The best run without the meth was a 13.44 @ 103.2 mph. The best run with the meth was a 13.21 @ 106.1 mph. Both runs had a 60' of 2.01. On average, I trapped 2.4 mph faster with the methanol! Considering the weight of my car (probably 3700+ tonight), I'd estimate that that's at least 25 rwhp, which I think is very impressive with no dyno tune.

To say that I'm happy is an understatement!
 
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Congrats, Will! That is good to hear and about what I expected. I picked up 5mph with 100% M1 in a good DA, so with that mix and a bad DA, it should be right on. The HP is nice, but the torque curve on meth setups is awesome on blower cars.

I apologize for not getting back to you on that PM. I will figure out the details you asked, talk to my tuner and see what he says.
 
Congrats, Will! That is good to hear and about what I expected. I picked up 5mph with 100% M1 in a good DA, so with that mix and a bad DA, it should be right on. The HP is nice, but the torque curve on meth setups is awesome on blower cars.

I apologize for not getting back to you on that PM. I will figure out the details you asked, talk to my tuner and see what he says.

Yea, the torque is what I really notice the most! I actually gained less than 1 mph in the 1/8. The torque increase with the converter locked in 3rd gear is where I really notice the gain. I'm pretty sure tuning/excessively rich AFRs with the converter unlocked is the main reason for that on my setup.

It's all good about the PM. I had actually forgotten about it till you mentioned it. And the day after I sent it, I called the AIS guy and talked to him about it for a while. After that conversation, I sided with my tuner. The AIS guy said that with one 7 GPH nozzle (what I currently have): my car would run fine with no tuning changes, there would be less than a .5 drop in the AFR, I wouldn't notice anything in the way of cooler IATs. (His argument was that 7 GPH was nowhere near enough; he insisted that I needed 14 GPH at the least. :eek:) Meanwhile, I've experienced the exact opposite: my car will not run at WOT unless I pull some fuel out, my AFR is dropping nearly a point even after I pull all the fuel out I can with the SCT programmer, and I recorded via a laser temperature finder a 100 degree drop in the surface temp of the blower.

Like I said, I sided with my tuner and bought one 2 GPH and one 3 GPH nozzle. They are supposed to be here next week. I'll be contacting AIS when it's all said and done about returning my two 7 GPH nozzles.
 
Nice gains. I can't wait for things to cool down a little more here in NC and hopefully you run on a quicker night so you can really experience a difference in times. :D
 
That is a nice improvement for not accounting for it in the tune!

Definitely. I knew that it was a measureable amount because I could DEFINITELY feel the difference when playing around in the street. I didn't really expect that much, though.

Nice gains. I can't wait for things to cool down a little more here in NC and hopefully you run on a quicker night so you can really experience a difference in times. :D

Oh, I LOVE some cool October/November nights at the track. That, in combination with some college football and the fall peanut/cotton harvest, makes for my favorite time of the year by far.

I suspect that the next time I go to the track, there will be a REALLY big difference in my times, regardless of the weather. ;)

What part of NC are you from? If you are from the area and interested in going, I'll include you on the PM list that I send out sometimes when we head down to the track.