We've all heard it time and time again on how hard alcohol is to run and keep the water moisture out of it. I changed my oil "last year" at the beginner of September to get ready for all the long weekend races around Halloween. Last week 7-24-18 I changed it for the first time this year. My racing season ended the last week of October and started again the second week of April. I prefer Brad Penn as I have stuck with it through 3 different name changes at least over the last 44 years and have had zero issues with it. The steps are easy.

1. Get the jetting right. I have both O2's and EGT readings that I use.
2. Get heat in the engine (180 plus) 30 minutes before race time.
3. lean-out valve to build heat. I use a 1/2 inch ball valve
4. get it up to at least 165 degrees before starting your burn-out
5. After a pass shut off you fan, water pump, and open the lean out valve driving back to the pits after a pass.
6. Never ever just for the heck of it start your car during the week and rev it up to impress your buddies.

Pretty simple procedure that works. Here are some pictures from my oil change last week. I didn't even have to wipe out my valve covers or head drain-backs like I see guys doing that run pump gas or race gas.


Untitled by John Cadamore, on Flickr

Untitled by John Cadamore, on Flickr

Untitled by John Cadamore, on Flickr

Untitled by John Cadamore, on Flickr

You forgot Rule 0.: "be an adult who listens to good advice".

Alcohol Myth #1: Margaritas on the rocks are better than frozen.

Seriously, a Tequila Slushee rocks!


Alcohol Myth #2: Margaritas without salt on the rim of the glass are totally acceptable.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?! NO SALT???

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We now return you to your regularly scheduled Moparts post.

I'm with Brad, although I prefer mine on the rocks with GOOD tequila I can rock a slushy when the time arises

My blown alky hemi was so rich at idle/staging that we changed all 18 qts of oil after every run. We also changed the oil to cool the motor. The oil came out anyway after each run so we could replace the upper rod bearings so I could tune off of them for the next run.

Once in a while we would reuse the oil for a second run the next day if it looked good enough, most times not.

It took 18 qts in a 10 qt dragster pan to keep the pickup covered up for 5 seconds since 60 pounds of boost did not allow the oil to drain back very quick.
I had one crew guy who did my oil changes each run. It was up to him if we reused it the next day.

IIRC chamois used as a filter will remove water on each pass? Enough to make it worthwhile - IDK.

Fear the Kraken is my best alcohol advice.

And some wonder why Mopar guys are stuck in the purple shaft days. Lol 😂

6. Never ever just for the heck of it start your car during the week and rev it up to impress your buddies.

I like 1921 Tequila. As far as running in an engine ...very good advice!

I agree with Pittsburg, only thing I did diff is added a star vac pump. I ran injected with 2 toilets on a tr and another motor with a single toilet on a 4bbl intake. Loved the injection, I ran that stuff on a w5 combo and a 360-1 combo for 10 or so yrs. Both ran well, I would still be running it if I wouldn't have switched to a f2, e85, w8 combo.

Sham-WOW. 😁

That usually happens after the Margareta's LMBO

Your just a "special" guy, thats part of it.

Not sure what you mean by that but I’m all ears. Let it out

Just an off the cuff comment after coming in from finding the cat I buried got dug up and drug off by some foxes or coyotes.

Ive never bought into myths on fuels myself, ive had zero problems many mention with pump or race gas, carbs, fuel lines, ect.

So I dont go for the common myths on alky either, used to run a pull tractor on it and dont recall any big pitfalls then except things staying cold and making ice.

I guess "special" will be banned form use soon.

Pittsburgh, Best advice I've seen on here in quite a while.

How about a PTO? You can start the car, whack the throttle and some daquiri's at the same time!

What about fuel system storage corrosion?

I’m certainly too lazy to ever entertain the idea, but how many O2 sensors and egt’s along with location.

BG400 pump that I had in the car for 7-8 years and have never touched it. 8 gallon plastic fuel cell, number 10 black line going to front regulator, 2 number 8 black lines going to carb. I buy 1-2 (55 gallon plastic drums) at 160-165.00 each. Out of habit and it the only between round maintenance I do add 1/2-3/4 gallon of fuel. Still using last year alcohol but I did recently purchase another drum.

one O2 sensor in a collector that I really relied on back when I ran pump gas. Rarely read that on my Racepak now but where pump gas ran great at 12.5 the alcohol number is 1/2 that. I welded two EKG bungs on my header tubes but only read one. temps range around 1150-1200 degrees 2 1/2 inches from head. I tear the carb bowls off before the race season starts and clean any residue from the bowls and spray everything out good, check the gaskets, and put it together. I usually do this at least once later in the season. Upper cylinder lube is added to the barrel of alcohol from the guy I buy it from.

Sounds good. I entertained the idea around 1983, but stuck with race gas. My buddy Gregsdart constantly fights alky injector slime. But, in all fairness, we can't race as much as we want.

When and IF I ever finish my heads up car I will probably have tears in my eyes when I have to pay for "race gas." I haven't had to buy that since 2010 when I ran my Daytona.

I'm sure. I get by nicely with Sunoco Supreme. 11.785-1

How about answering these 2 questions-
1. Need to run minimum 12.5 compression?
2. Toilet is better than a carb?

Yes and Yes.

More like 15-1 for alky.

Stack injection out runs toilets, this was my 632" big chief with kinsler injection. It out ran all other big chiefs with it's stack injection. I qualified #1 every race one year and won 2 of them. We had to run 4.50 et and no faster and did it without nitrous. This combo could run that number every time with great consistency. It ran a best of 4.21 et before I sold it to go TAD racing.

There was not a carburetor that would come close to a toilet or stack injectors.



That is me behind the spark plugs doing the leak down. They already have the clutch out of it, got a fresh one every run.

That is me, 1991 572" BBC with dart 360 heads with crower stack injection on metanol. It ran 4.80s and I was the 11th member of the original 4 second club.

I had a kick azz group of guys help me race this car, that's me again with my head out of the picture.

Raced my azz off for 20+ years and it was always injected on methanol. Never burnt a drop of race gas.

Someone keeps trying to make this a top alcohol Dragster post from 25 years ago but most of the bracket style engines out there are under 12.5 compression. Matt’s engine and mine are around 11.5


The carb engines are very popular and can be set up to run a lot cleaner than the toilet engines. Matt had a 750 on his engine and sold it wanting to update to a Billet carb. He has his friends 900 on it now and they both ran 6.54 on his stock crank 360@3200 pounds. My 422 has gone 6.001 in the 1/8 and 9.42 in the 1/4@2860 pounds with an 850 carb. When and if I go to a roller cam I too may step up to a bigger carb.


So simple answer you don’t need a high compression engine and the alcohol carbs run super clean if you use the tools available to set them up right.

The point of diminishing returns as far as maximum CR for alcohol will also vary somewhat as the dome/chamber shape begins to interfere with OL flow. This is not only design sensitive but also bore:stroke ratio sensitive.

John,

Why do you turn the water pump off after the run? I understand the fan part, but shouldn't water still be circulating?

I flip them both off as it’s a short ride to my pit spot and I want to retain heat in my block. If I get jammed up I will toggle it a few times. I gain around 6 degrees max on an 1/8 mile pass and if I don’t turn everything off I would be back to 160 degrees by time I hit my pit spot. Heat is your friend with alcohol.

IMO ANYONE running O2's should ad bungs to all 8 cylinders. Even if you only run one or two O2's they can be moved around from cylinder to cylinder that way to find any issues in the mix and cylinders that need more attention than others. Especially with single 4 stuff sometimes the distribution is HORRIBLE on certain intakes. O2 in the collector is ok if all you care about is an average O2 reading from one bank. When you want to get everything out of a combo more is better

Once again I am a budget racer and there’s no way in heck am I going to buy 8 O2’s or 8 EKG’s. My single O2 had me printing time slips on 93 BP pump gas and my single EKG printed 5 passes over two days from a 6.078 to a 6.091 and the only reason that pass was so far off is because it wheelies way to high and I came down a hair out of the groove and had to bring it back.

That consuming more than 3 drinks a day means you are an alcoholic?

Just like racing, its only an addiction if you are trying to quit. Birdtracker

Good thread!

liegh, for whatever reason, i no longer have issues with injector slime. I think the klotz fuel lube was the fix? Not serious corrosion issues for several years, then i screwed up and started running M5 by vp. It cost me dearly. Barrel valve siezed , fittings coroded , replaced all of the hose. This after a couple of years on m5. If you try it, FLUSH YOUR FUEL SYSTEM THOROUGHLY for storage, and i did it each night, still had problems.

For those that enjoyed it thank you. I just wanted to show some of my findings and things I’ve learned over the past few years. I too was ready to blame my oil for moisture issues and was beginning to think I needed a vacuum pump but a few tweaks to my race procedures fixed my issues. I still get a ribbing once in a while from my friends for saying I would never ever run alcohol. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks and for 3.00 a gallon i couldn’t be happier.

You know the problem don't you with running alcohol.
After everyone changes over then the price goes up to the race gas price. S&D

We have similar issues but not quite to that degree. If we get the idle/tip in to where it doesn't dilute the oil it can go lean when were mat the loud pedal and lean backfire. We actually lost a race recently exactly that way. Dry sump oiling systems take care of the p/up uncovering issue. That's why we run one. Our bearings get changed with the rods and we often use more than 60# boost.

M5 sucks. It also eats O-rings that aren't nitro methane compatible.