Abuse of Fuel Additives

[guedo499]

To a CSH racer in California that often races in the Mid-West, stop using illegal additives in your fuel. Just because the meter can’t read it, doesn't mean its legal or should be used. It is a Class 1 Carcinogen. Not only is it harmful to you, but we smell it / burns our eyes when racing. I confronted you at the race, but your nonchalant attitude about the issue is an issue. Next time I smell it, I’ll make sure that will be the last time you’ll be racing in APBA. You know who you are, time to knock it off.

John Peeters
jp(at)johnpeeters.com
360-435-644five

[Lee Sutter]

Not good. Thanks john. Kyle Bahl mentioned this (without a name) at the SOA meeting last night. Is it possible to take a sample even if the fuel passes basic testing? In this case, where it does not pass the smell test, I think impounding a fuel sample would send a message. What is done with the sample is another topic. Lee

[westcoastracing]

Besides the smell and burning of the eyes .What is the competitive advantage.

[crfabbro2F]

Sounds like using dioxane or propylene oxide, and both are bad stuff especially dioxane!

[laddies]

It would have to be Dioxane as Propylene Oxide as propylene would show up on the Digatron meter. here is a link for illegal additives from the go cart association. http://www.foxvalleykart.com/fuel6.html

[Hard Wood]

Anyone know where or how he's getting it? I could use some too!

[Team B&H]

A water solubility test will pick up many water-soluble compounds which have zero or very minimal effect on the Digitron meter. It will pick up dioxane but does take time to settle out. An inspector doesn't have do the same inspections on every entry. Dioxane is a chemical solvent that was common in many labs and is commercially available as a racing additive in Zlotz CoXoC. As I remember it contains more water than dioxane. When it first came out a number of snowmobile racers played with it and burned down motors because the water froze in the barrel and only the dioxane poured out. Back in the days of the IOGP tunnel boat series several teams played with it until the inspector did a water solubility test on boats just as they were ready to launch. After he detected a big-name guy using it, things calmed down. It can be detected

[daveracerdsh]

most likely he was using Toulene.....not sure if I have the spelling correct. At the 2005 Stock nationals in Dayton a CSH racer also had some kind of addative in fuel.....when he came into the inspection tent the smell was so toxic the inspector had to have him leave......he was disqualified from race and a fuel sample was sent in for testing. I honestly do not remember what the outcome of it was, but what is the point in trying to get around the rules? This is supposed to be stock racing....everybody on a level playing field. I would personally never knowingly cheat....99%of racers I think feel the same way. I as a stock commissioner am somewhat dissapointed that the inspector at Bakersfield did not take action on this. Maybe more to come. Dave

[Big Don]

I heard that same driver from 2005 is still using it, also heard that he has learned through his chemical engineering degree that if you put a small amount of liquid dial soap in, it will mask the smell.

I believe in 2005 they sent that fuel to a lab and they had to reverse the disqualification.

[pops67g]

My thoughts are bit more basic on this issue. If a competitor either is not good enough to run up front or just not willing to do the work required on motors and setup, what makes them think that there is some magic chemical crutch that will vault them to the front of the pack. After all, fame and fortune certainly await any kneeldown outboard racer who runs at the front of the pack.

[Team B&H]

Sorry Dave but toluene is undetectable with either the Digitron meter (electrical conductivity test) or water solubility. That is not a problem as toluene is a basic compound of only carbon and hydrogen (C7H18-can't do subscripts) and is commonly a part of ordinary gasoline. There are many C-H- compounds in gasoline. Things ending with "...ene" are all just carbon and hydrogen and have very low conductivity.

[daveracerdsh]

Interesting....I have been told that Toulene is a performance enhancing product. Not sure what you are saying Team B&H.....is this something that adds horsepower? Do we now need a test for this in stock outboard? Or do we need to have sealed fuel on site for sale...just sayin....

[Shane_B]

If you are into chemical performance of toulene in fuels (increases hydrogenation, i.e. temp and pressure), here is a technical paper written in Finland: http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2002/isbn9512...-hydrogenation

Bottomline, increases octane...

Don't know of a simple field test for it to differentiate from fuel manufacturer's normal octane booster...

More info gathered for what it's worth:
Toluene is one of the higher-value molecules already in use in many gasoline blends. The main benefit is that it's an octane booster that does not dilute the energy content of the gasoline like ethanol does. It's a C7 aromatic molecule, which means it contains a lot of energy and vaporizes easily, but not so easily that it's an air pollutant like lighter benzene (C6 aromatic) and butane (C4) molecules (so if the smell was quite noticable, potential it wasn't toulene). Toluene, while it will definitely raise the octane, is a very caustic and dangerous liquid that one should never breathe in or get it on their skin (very cancerous). One only needs higher octane if they're running high compression and a lot of advance (believe the Y302 was designed specifically for ~86 octane). Higher octane burns slower than low octane, therefore too much octane can result in loss of power because it has lower BTU's and burns slower than low octane fuel...

[Yellowjacket]

"Higher octane burns slower than low octane, therefore too much octane can result in loss of power because it has lower BTU's and burns slower than low octane fuel..."

t's a common misconception that "higher octane burns slower"... It does not. Flame speed isn't related to octane rating and there is no correlation between the two. Here is a link that explains that:

http://www.whitfieldoil.com/www/docs...p-racing-fuel-

Some fuels that have higher octane ratings, such as alcohols, do have a lower BTU content, but that is commonly addressed with running a richer mixture. A second order effect (ie minor) is that some additives like alcohol, and benzene evaporate better than gasoline, so when they are vaporized the suck some heat out of the intake charge that improves charge density, but this is a pretty small effect.

Bottom line is that you won't make less power by running higher octane fuel than what is required for the compression ratio and timing you have, but you won't make any more either.

Consequently, just pouring toluene in the tank does next to nothing by itself, you need to raise compression ratio or advance the timing to take advantage of it. Boosting compression ratio is easily caught so you can't do that, but timing is free so that is what one would do if you had higher octane fuel. The gain is real, but not big and you've got do slag down some motors to get it all figured out.

If it stinks to be behind they guy he's burning something a lot more nasty than toluene.

[Shane_B]

Right you are - quoted a chem engineer on toulene/xylene additives... should state higher octane withstands higher pressure, i.e., more controlled detonation, than lower octane. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating.

[Smitty]

I don't understand this guy's attitude; he could buy or make himself a 125cc engine and play with exotic fuels to his heart's content yet be fair to everyone else. Maybe he could even use his same boat, with the airtraps cut down some to spill any excess lift . . . ??

[Shane_B]

Amen. If you haven't looked at laddies link on additives above (http://www.foxvalleykart.com/fuel6.html), worth a read. Looks like Dioxane may be the culprit and its very, very nasty stuff...

[Smitty]

Well, I have to say that there are a lot of "nasty" fuel additives, starting with straight methanol. Yet some of the old PRO racers here, and Inboard racers, spent most of their lives being exposed to these things, yet they seem to be about as healthy as the rest of the population of their age, and have about as much brains as they ever did. I remember standing about ten feet from a methanol powered 266 at a Greenlake Inboard race long, long ago, while they adjusted valve-lash with the engine idling. The thing was running so rich that the unburned fuel burned my eyes and nose, and I and everybody by me backed away quickly. But none of us went blind or crazy, as you'd expect when you read the MSDS sheets. Back in the Twenties and Thirties, board-track auto racing was a big sport, with grandstands next to the oval tracks where alky-burning roadsters roared by. Yet I have never seen any media expose of later health problems for this group of racing fans. And don't speedway motorcycles burn fuel? For that matter, look at Garlits and Prudhomme and Tommy Ivo, guys who drove Top Fuel dragsters and funny cars for decades, burning very rich mixtures of 85% nitro; they are now in their seventies and eighties, and still come to the old-timers get-togethers. So while care should certainly be taken, and perhaps our clubs should consider offering a once-a-year class on fuel handling safety for alky drivers (which would have an additional advantage in demonstrating responsibility on our part in the event of a court case), I'm not convinced that these fuels are so "nasty" as to be disallowed . . . except for that Stock guy.

[runabout333]

I do not have a dog in this fight at all.. Is there really GLORY in winning by cheating???

[blueskyracer]

Many folks think that winning is the only thing and at all costs.. Fun has nothing to do with it

[runabout333]

Cheaters hardly ever win,,, but they are hard to beat!!!

[mathrich]

Does anyone know a good place to send fuel and figure out whats in it?

[G Stillwill]

Most of the time when you send fuel away for testing they need to know what your looking for so they know what to test for second problem is most stuff that is added evaporates long before it gets tested best thing is not get around the fuel being used in other words don't help the person running it

[krazy karl]

When I was a Weights and Measures inspector we had to get gasoline samples to the lab on the same day they were taken.