Nitro methane

How hard is it to obtain Nitro in your area??? I have been looking for this stuff ever since I got carried away with my castor oil last year and lost a plane due to flame out. I have aquired three gallons of pure methonal, have lots of castor, but had to look for two months before I finally, today, got some Nitro. You would think that with two race tracks and a dragstrip it would be available. Two guys put me onto an engine builder way out on the edge of town and they had ONE gallon. $50.00 for 99% pure/gallon. Just enough for my needs at this time. But the looks, questions, etc I have received, one would think I was from Al "you know what" with a camel out front and a rag on my head. Don't give me any lip about politically correct, as politics are never correct. From a GoKart racer and a local Rice Rocket shop I got the lead to the engine shop. Amazing how hard it is to find pure Nitro. The local hobby shoppe carries 2 stroke fuel up to 65% nitro. But trying to figure out just how much of that to make my fuel 15% gave me a headache and the gallon jug overflows before that is reached.

Ty,

Just give that problem to Rollin, he loves to figure things out!!!

Ha, ha. He turned it over to me!!! Since you left and I had to take over as the big kahuna, I get all the dirty little details. got voted in Monday night again. No one else wanted it or had an office.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-07-04 AT 07:46 PM (CDT)
 
Ty, I've been lucky as my oil supplier also carries Menthanol and Nitro.
Nitro is $38.00 a gallon, but the rub is I usually wait till they have an opened 55 gallon drum. The way I understand it is that is is used as a drying agent in some process?> and I have a friend there that calls me to see if I need any. Menthanol is 2.25 a gallon but is cheaper by the 55 gallon drum. Even cheaper if you decant the stuff to 10 gallon cans and leave the drum there. Saves you the deposit.
Dennis

Find out who the local Klotz dealer is.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-08-04 AT 01:55 AM (CDT)
 
The methanol here is about the same per gallon $2.23. There is no Klotz dealer here, but I did find a source of pure Nitro.
The brand is VP Racing Fuels out of San Antonio, Texas. They have a rgional office in Georgia, but not sure where in GA.

It comes in a one gallon blue plastic jug that can be reused for mixing fuel.

The speed shop in Nashville Tennessee has Nitromethane $25.00 per gallon. They have 2 kinds of Nitromethane one will mix only with gasoline and will not mix with alcohol. The other kind will mix only with alcohol and will not mix with gasoline. The local speed shop in town where I live can order it.

The problem with some Nitromethane, especially that used for drag racxing, is that it is cut 10% with methanol. I have never heard of a nitro that would not mix with alcohol nor gasoline. What additives are in it or are they pulling your leg??

>The speed shop in Nashville Tennessee has Nitromethane
>$25.00 per gallon. They have 2 kinds of Nitromethane one
>will mix only with gasoline and will not mix with alcohol.
>The other kind will mix only with alcohol and will not mix
>with gasoline. The local speed shop in town where I live
>can order it.
>
>Gary Weaver [email protected]

Ron B.
F4Fguy

Better check that gasoline miscible stuff,it's probably nitropropane,not nitromethane.Incidentally,you can mix up a gasoline based glow fuel using 1part SAE70 oil,2 1/2parts "white"gasoline and 1/2 part nitropropane.I wouldn't run it in a PA65,but it's ok for an old Fox or McCoy 35.

Sounds about like the stuff I used to run in my O&R .60 ignition engine on a Playboy Senior.

I haven't had to buy nitro for a while, but I used to buy it by the barrel and it was very expensive compared to the other ingredients. IIRC, it is (was?) used in certain dry cleaning processes. At one time, there was only one plant producing the stuff in Shreveport, LA. The demand from the dry cleaners dropped so they were only producing one railroad tank car lot per month. The supply ebbed and flowed each month as we competed for the leftovers. The local drag racers hoarded the stuff (we used seven gallons per run in our funny car) and would only give it out if you promised to pay back in kind.

I still have a couple gallons left from those days. It will keep a long time if you store it correctly: dark brown glass bottles placed in a cool dark place.

As far as mixing the stuff for modeling, I learned a long time ago that doing the math for gallon size lots is difficult for us number-challenged folks. (I used to be dyslexic, but I'm "KO" now ). It's much easier if you mix it in 100 ounce lots, max. The math numbers are so much easier to remember.

Have fun, don't blow up anything

Ron King

Get a 5 gallon jug, put a quart of your 65% nitro fuel in it and add 106 ounces of your other stuff and you will have 15%nitro. This does not take into account how much caster or alky you want.

The Fox factory was substituting Nitroethane for Nitromethane in their fuel for a while, they said that 25% nitroethane is about like 22% nitromethane. Maybe Nitroethane is easier to get???

Frankly I'll stick with nitro methane. The engine shop also has gallon bottles of Propylene Oxide. Heh, heh.

Ty,

You're real close to an answer with knowledge of VP Racing Fuels.

Get to their website and look for VP distributors. If one is not close, call distributor to ask for local dealer.

The last 5-gallon container I bought (last summer) was 99% nitromethane, where previously I had purchased 98%. The other one or two or ten percent is methanol. My understanding is that 100% pure nitro can get a little unstable, quite sensitive to shock, and the methanol pretty much eliminates this concern.

The reason you are hearing about 90/10 nitro is the NHRA a couple years ago banned use of "pure" nitro--actually 98/2--by instituting a rule requiring fuel which is no more than 90% nitro, balance assumed (by me) to be methanol.

There is no reason not to use NHRA-legal nitromethane, other than it clutters up the math a bit.

Further unsolicited advice is to quit worrying about the cost of either nitromethane or methanol and worry quite a lot about the supplier of either. As in don't go for the cheap stuff just because it's cheap.

Along with the nitro I bought two fi-gals of methanol. I *will not* admit to anyone the cost of the latter, although the nitro was around $35.00 per gallon and I picked up both ingredients at a Tacoma KTM dealership.

**HOWEVER,** my fuel-blending methanol is quite dry, thank you very much, and the nitro truly is 99% pure, just like all my thoughts toward my fellow man on this beautiful day.

On the other hand, buying methanol from the bottom of an open 55-gallon drum, at the end of the racing season and in the garage of a sprint-car driver, is a real bad idea.

Dan

P.S. America is a fabulous country, one where a poor black boy can grow up to be a very rich and very ugly white woman.

I usually pick up a couple of gallons from Klotz at the Toledo show.

Ty,

Buying Nitro can be an aggrevating experience. I, like you, have found that the best source is VP Racing. I buy mine in the 5 gal drum. The hazmat charge is outragoues and since Oklahoma and 9/11 the screeing process to purchase from VP Racing is very strict.

I would seriously warn anyone against the $25.00 a gallon variety at the local speed shop. It will only contain anywhere from 25% to 30% nitro with the rest being methanol. Expect to pay $45.00 to $55.00 a gallon for fresh pure 99% nitro.

I buy about 10 gals of nitro a year and mix up fuel for me and my buddies at the field. If anyone is looking for nitro in the Memphis, Tn area give me a shout. I can float a couple of gallons your way.

"I would seriously warn anyone against the $25.00 a gallon variety at the local speed shop. It will only contain anywhere from 25% to 30% nitro with the rest being methanol. Expect to pay $45.00 to $55.00 a gallon for fresh pure 99% nitro."

Good advice on speed shop-sourced nitromethane. These guys all have ready access to methanol, and it is sooo easy to cheat.

Also good advice on pricing, although I would like to point out that working with a VP Racing dealer can work to one's advantage. In my case the KTM dealership is buying race gas for the motocross crowd, so I told them to fold my nitro and methanol orders into the next shipment, this hugely reducing the shipping cost.

Thus it was that 99% VP nitro came in at around $35.00 per gallon, or at least close enough that was all I charged Rush for his (heavily diluted with methanol) gallon.

>How hard is it to obtain Nitro in your area???

Hello Ty, It's easy here in Austin, TX. We're about 25 miles from where they make Powermaster Fuel. We can get their 1 gal. Nitro in a local hobby shop for about $ 35/gal. Where is your closest Powermaster fuel dealer? They can probably order it but I think Powermaster only ships gallons in cartons of six. I think they have a website but I don't have it handy. I can get it if you want it.

I'll have to check with RC hobbies here and see if they have even heard of Power Master fuels. The local engine builder stated, "no one around here uses Nitromethane because they can't affored it".
I forgot where I was. In St. Louis there is lots of it due to all the major drag races. No NHRA "roun these parts".
I think Power Master is available in Lexington, Kentucky.