I have 200 gals of methanol race fuel left over from past racing days, all still factory sealed. I was thinking of putting 5 gals in every tank full in my flex fuel truck until it is gone. That would put the overall alcohol content to around 25%

Anybody done this before? Any problems mixing ethyl and methyl alcohols?

 

I'm pretty sure I read in my owner's manual that methanol will cause damage. I'll have to check up on that.

Choosing the right fuel

If your vehicle is a flexible fuel vehicle (FFV), use only UNLEADED
FUEL and FUEL ETHANOL (Ed75–Ed85).

If your vehicle is not a flexible fuel vehicle (FFV), then only use
UNLEADED fuel or UNLEADED fuel blended with a maximum of 10%
ethanol. Do not use fuel ethanol (E85), diesel, methanol, leaded fuel or
any other fuel.

The use of leaded fuel is prohibited by law and could damage your
vehicle.

Your vehicle was not designed to use fuel or fuel additives with metallic
compounds, including manganese-based additives.


Note: Use of any fuel other than those recommended may cause
powertrain damage, a loss of vehicle performance, and repairs may not
be covered under warranty.

(Ed75–Ed85), “Regular” unleaded gasoline or any mixture of the two
fuels.

Use of other fuels such as Fuel Methanol may cause powertrain
damage, a loss of vehicle performance, and your warranty may be
invalidated.

It is best not to alternate repeatedly between gasoline and E85. If you do
switch fuels, it is recommended that you add as much fuel as
possible—at least half a tank. Do not add less than five gallons (18.9L)
when refueling. You should drive the vehicle immediately after refueling
for at least 5 miles (8 km) to allow the vehicle to adapt to the change in
ethanol concentration.

If you exclusively use E85 fuel, it is recommended to fill the fuel tank
with regular unleaded gasoline at each scheduled oil change.

 

He has a flex fuel truck, so a lot of that doesn't apply.

The issue is, what are the technical differences between methanol and ethanol. I am not a chemist, so I dunno.

It may simply be the only difference is that a type of poison is added by the manufacturer to ethanol, to discourage human consumption and/or avoid having to pay the ($$$) excise liquor tax. If that is the case there will be no problems adding it to the fuel. Although maybe there are supposed to be road use taxes paid. Ain't government grand?

 

The poison you are referring to is gasoline, which is added to the ethanol to render it unfit for consumption.
While some of what I posted doesn't directly apply, it serves as a framework to support the statement -
Use of other fuels such as Fuel Methanol may cause powertrain
damage, a loss of vehicle performance, and your warranty may be
invalidated. -
Seems to be pretty clear.

 

No. Methanol (itself) is often added to ethanol as a denaturant, to prevent human consumption. Can't have Vodka running .50c a gallon after all. The E85 folks may do something like that too, I dunno. I believe they are talking about gasoline engines, the important thing here, he should be just fine* running it in a Flex-Fuel from a technical standpoint.

"Methanol ingested in large quantities is metabolized first to formaldehyde and then to formic acid[13] or formate salts, which are poisonous to the central nervous system and may cause blindness, coma, and death. Because of these toxic properties, methanol is frequently used as a denaturant additive for ethanol manufactured for industrial uses. This addition of methanol exempts industrial ethanol (commonly known as "denatured alcohol" or "methylated spirit") from liquor excise taxation in the US and some other countries."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol

* It will eventually dissolve fuel pump seals (compared with gasoline and ethanol) that are usually made with Viton. Buna-N is a way around this.

 

what about selling it...Craiglist...etc.

 

Tried a few times, no bites, I may just keep it to fill tractor tires if needed...

 

If you have a local LP Gas Dealer, sell it to them. The LP Industry uses Methanol to absorb/attract water in Propane. It keep regulators from freezing up in the winter.
That would be an easy sale.

 

Hmmm, you might have something here. Cannot hurt to try...

 

You can mix methanol and ethanol in any proportion, as they are freely miscible.

Methanol is more corrosive than ethanol. It will weaken certain polymers (seals) much faster. It also has half the energy content of gasoline.

If you are using E10 (90% gasoline, 10% ethanol) standard gas station stuff, I would not add methanol to that.

5 gallons for a 35 gal tank is way too much. Don't forget, all alcohols also absorb water too.

If you really want to get rid of it, I would go max 1 gallon, into a full tank of gasoline with no other alcohol in it (premium). And that's only if you don't care about your warranty.

 

All you moonshiners out there had better review this thread lol

 

I wouldn't recommend it. It also has the tendency to soften any and all old fuel deposits in your fuel tank or system, which will then clog up your fuel filters pretty badly.

I used to mix methanol in my fuel in my old 74 Dodge Power Wagon to get it to pass emissions in AZ. Worked great. 5 gal of pure methanol mixed into a 35 gallon tank and the engine would burn so clean you'd think it wasn't running. One year I didn't do the mix, and took it in and failed all limits by a good margin. Went and mixed the methanol and went back the same day to the same check station and it blew so clean they were crawling all over it trying to figure out what I'd done to it to get such a dramatic difference in only a couple hours. It ran terrible on the mix, puking and hesitating, and I had to take all the initial advance out of the ignition timing, but it would pass so I could get the tag renewed.

I would get it home, top the tank off again with racing gas, and drive it until I got all that burned out of the tank. I would change the fuel filters (2 in line) after the second tank fill. At 6 mpg, it didn't take long to drain the tank. 440 big block, 11:1 pistons, .474 cam with some nice overlap, ported "906" heads converted to unleaded.

Anyway, TL;DR- I wouldn't do it. You'll end up with some fuel system headaches over it.