We are not PhD's...

(under construction.)

Prologue   Basics   Limits   Issues Addressed   Effective Measurement   How to Make a Remix   Comparisons   Dyno Results

Prologue
 
    Fuel used to be cool. We think it still is, even if the face of fuel is changing. Biofuel fascination here wasn't a leftist fascination with universal harmony. It meant new jobs and some fun new fuel types. 1,000hp from virtually anything becomes possible with various alcohols. Growing fuel or making it from foreign substances was just as fascinating as potential uses. Making biofuels was too regulated, but we could make a difference using it on the receiving end. Implications showed themselves as the technical challenges that they really are. Grossly understated power gains, the role of water, and the history of leaded gas were just a few strange twists in our tales of exotic alcohol fuel use and development.

    All of this work was by no means easy and has been a difficult test of patience and knowledge. We're NOT fuel guys by trade or association. If you are looking for an easy explanation of all of our fuel work...well...good luck. There just isn't one. If you want to hear our story and how things unfolded, then read on. The power restored with proper fuel use is more than what is lost at altitude with standard pump gas. Quantifying the results and the problems both required careful attention.

    First and foremost, no one will "save the world" with an exotic alcohol fuel blend. In fact, you can quite de-harmonize it with potential for 1,000hp+ out of darn near anything! Alcohols allow more ideal spark timing for spark ignition engines but have historically had reliability problems such as oil contamination, water absorption, and cold start issues. Ethanol and other exotic alcohol fuels are not to be taken lightly or envisioned with green fields and pink fluffy bunnies. They are instead buzzsaws among butter knives. Their correct application requires some knowledge and delicacy. Green or not, these fuel's improper use can be devastating to both the driver, occupants, and surroundings even if they are considered "green and wonderful". Alcohol fuel like methanol is a separate racing class with improved safety equipment for several reasons. 

    Bluntly, we don't trust most average Joe's with the capability of making 1,000hp+ even if it is from green sources. No offense. Just because it's "green" isn't a valid excuse for abuse. There is some level of novelty and exclusivity with exotic fuel use. It isn't for everyone, but that is gradually changing. Learning curves, technical challenges, and hard lessons abound in the world of fuels. Habits, technologies, and results all change from where you were inching along with gains on unleaded pump gas. People have forgotten they are tuning around problems with typical pump gas that decrease performance. When using exotic fuels, you deal more with the consequences of that power production.

    Let's clarify a little--our "exotic" fuels of choice aren't actually all that exotic. Unleaded gas mixed with ethanol is the  equivalent of diet soda in racing circles. It's almost pointless in some aspects yet is rapidly becoming a necessity in our fueling infrastructures. Gas and ethanol blends are used in several countries to extend fuel supplies and clean up tailpipe emissions. These exotic fuels can readily run in modern day equipment--where leaded gas can not in some cases. Nitro makes fuel violent as only nitro can, and Oxytane makes it smooth and responsive as only Oxytane can. We've also never used lead in any of our 35+ different fuel blends. In the pursuit of clean race fuel technology, we gave additives a wide berth knowing that basic rules had changed from unleaded gas to alcohol.

    There was no happy middle ground with exotic fuels until a happy accident with something called Oxytane. Tempermental fuels began to behave nicely, like a beast that purrs until you poke it. Instantly we could run E85 on gasoline jetting with cooler temperatures and no real exhaust smell to speak of. Hydrous alcohol and gas blends didn't separate and storage and cold starts became a non-issue. "What the #&%@"  took on a whole new meaning.


The Basics: There is no learning curve, but a learning cliff. Bring your wings, hot shot...

   When it comes to alcohol fuel usage done right, we hope you can either fly or stay on the ground. The power gain seen from an exotic fuel switch really isn't a gain, but a recovery to a pre-existing high standard of leaded gas  performance levels. Leaded gas used to be on every street corner in America for cheap. We were turning out not to "defeat altitude", but were putting power back into the motors with better fuel usage. It was a nice history lesson as opposed to anything new and advanced.

   The "gains" from an exotic fuel switch are greater than altitude losses on pump gas.  Unleaded gas still has its demons and detonation is the big nasty one. Carbon deposits and poor power production are his two equally spineless buddies. In high heat and altitude, unleaded gas performs worse. Alcohol doesn't lose its edge at altitude and suffers less. Additionally, there are less carbon deposits with ethanol itself, but more carbon deposits from the gas portion in E85. The "jolt" of a power difference looks bigger at altitude and even more in the heat when you can finally use your equipment at its best. A power difference can also look bigger compared to an older, dirtier engine. It is important to look at where power comes from, and where it goes, and why some never even see it. Proper fuel usage lets the engine run at its most optimal AND stay physically clean. You run better on a good meal as opposed to empty calories and engines aren't much different.

    The torque and horsepower gains we have made with exotic alcohols only seem like bigger gains when compared to already poorer performing unleaded gasoline and carboned up motors. That kindof power gain and even it's "shock" underfoot isn't a power gain at all, but a recovery to better previous standards. Unleaded gas is just a starting line set several positions back, like sandbagging. We feel that what really makes our Oxytane treated exotic fuel blends special is their functionality, usability, and stability under a wide range of conditions using clean stocks that are readily comparable to untreated blends.

  


Limits: What "Better Fuel" Can and Can Not Do.

    The detonation problems that still arise from excessive heat, poor combustion chamber design, and poor fuel quality can not all be averted. They can be mitigated with better fuel usage. Detonation of fuel is always a present specter. Fuel technology goes a long way towards that. Unleaded gas really does not perform well under pressure. Yet every other fuel fluid whether it be leaded gasoline, ethanol, or methanol has it's own trade-offs. Lead was deemed a harmful particulate. Ethanol draws water and doesn't start too easily when cold. Methanol makes more power but is still toxic and worse with water problems. Butanol is expensive and burns slow, even though it has the most BTUs among alcohols we've tested. Leaded gas and alcohols can also fall apart when mixed together! Extracting available power becomes a more demanding task than just avoiding detonation. Consistent fuel quality over time and multiple conditions is something really hard to test, much less explain for your average consumer.

    There are basically no perfect answers for fuel use anymore, and a lot of questions and challenges. Nice can of worms, eh?

    We were essentially using stable and friendly exotic fuel mixes of ethanol and unleaded gas that still didn't perform as well as real "jungle juice." Our blend's advantage was better stability over time. The disadvantage was less detonation resistance. Unleaded gas in the mix still detonated when pushed hard on hot days. Ethanol could push back unleaded's detonation problem, but not eliminate it. E85 still detonates just the same, and it's the unleaded gas that's doing all the misbehaving. Available clean materials still had limits.

   How could we push limits further or fix the issues at hand? Every hotrodder thinks that way. Oxytane usage in exotic alcohol fuel blends is at least another step in the right direction. One of those funny twists in our story is the total lack of any lead in any of our fuel blends. There's nothing in there to "interfere" running what we knew to be "clean" fuel blends. Emissions is in the tuning. A "level of purity" involving a base substance is a different notion. Unleaded gas by itself is essentially gasoline in its natural state AND filtered. We were trying to develop more clean blend usages with different neat alcohols, or refined, pure alcohols. Tuning options changed but so did the problems. Oxytane very much appeared to mitigate several known problems of clean exotic fuels and gasoline together. It wasn't a matter of looking harder, but taking a step back to look instead.


Issues: What issues did we address and fix?

    We didn't initially set out to fix anything. At all. We've been saying for a long time that we "saw something" with Oxytane usage. We actually saw and noted a lot of different things just from that one additive's use. It is always referred to as a "happy accident" for us. Hard work still produces things like this. Essentially, we made exotic alcohols and unleaded gas play nicely together and also really pop underfoot!

1. Treated hydrous alcohol/unleaded gas blends didn't fall apart and maintained their performance over time.
2. Multiple treated alcohol blends with gas such as methanol, ethanol, and butanol all showed nice performance characteristics upon treatment. All showed significant idle improvements, less exhaust stench, and better throttle response.
3. Nitro use was irrelevant to Oxytane concentrations and still behaved normally, requiring richer AFR settings as usual on nitro.
4. There were increases to be had on the dyno in back-to-back testing with Oxytane in exotic alcohol blends.
5. A neutral pH was maintained in Oxytane treated hydrous alcohol/gas blends.
6. Even hydrous blends ran clean. Approximate water contamination in our blends was 5-7%.
7. Unleaded gasoline's detonation issues appeared to be further mitigated in Oxytane treated unleaded gas/alcohol blends.
8. Essentially, we took clean blend stocks a step further.

    Just pouring something in "to go quicker" shouldn't fix all this stuff. It was all about the power first until we noticed all these handy and usable results. The blends constantly ran clean with no deposits left behind. Additives typically cause as many problems as they solve. It sells Oxytane short to just look for gains on a dyno and ignore its real functionality. We're wordy with this because what was noted during the last four years of testing and use. We were first excited about making such huge gains until we realized what was already cut off the top with unleaded gas. Tuning options were limited by unleaded gasoline's behavior. As things developed, it was apparent that we could tangle with race gas power figures at half the price with no lead, easier maintenance and even water in the mix. Unleaded gas as a base stock meant there was no lead to fall away. Water had no real use but was no longer a technical hurdle that made even the base fuel mixtures fall apart. Water didn't appear to hurt or help emissions, either. There was never enough water to cause hydro-lock issues however it did appear to affect cold starts. That in itself was bigger news yet harder to relate as a good (or comparable) thing.

    These are some video examples of static issues with clean oil and gasoline. Oxytane was made to address these kinds of static issues.

Churning oil grounding out against the crankcase.



Static fire at a gas pump.



    If you want to learn more about basic fuelling issues, then go to the "mysteries" section of Oxytane.com. There is information about fires, static, vapors, and volatility. We didn't intend to address those kinds of issues with our clean fuel blends, but we knew they were basic issues. We know what we used, what we saw, what changed, and what to compare to. Those notes above are dead serious and repeatable! Folks used to exotic fuel procedures and results should seriously look at the changes in behavior of these fuel blends. Oxytane is modest and will never claim all of that, but it's true rom what we've seen and done. We are calling it like we see it, respecting what we've been taught. If you really want to get deep into the history of gasoline and fuels, visit Oxytane's library.

    There is no substitute for experience. Dyno sheets, opinions, and lap times are interesting but don't accurately tell any tales by themselves. We're sick of all the arguing and just going to lay it all out there and let it be. Much more happened than just dyno testing or racing. Actual tangible results are there that you can work with in your hands, too.

Effective Measurements: Quantifying Fuel Performance--What's the Right Kind of Yardstick?

    There is firstly upwards of 300hp or more to be gained over typical unleaded pump gas. Very bluntly, that's the difference in capabilities between leaded and unleaded gas. The same is true for alcohols compared to unleaded gas. However, the addition of lead to gas does not make 300hp. Lead does not combust, dissociate, or add BTU content to gasoline. Unleaded gas loses that much power without it, though. We're not sure why because we're still trying to understand the problem. Why does unleaded gas suck? There is a wide swath of differences in power potential with it compared to a lot of other fuels. It can be explained more easily that unleaded gas simply performs poorly. We think this the difference in performance quality of unleaded gas vs. leaded and alcohols, not a "huge gain" with the addition of lead or alcohols. Gains from either lead or alcohol don't explain why unleaded gas detonates or misbehaves without lead. Putting lead in refined gas doesn't explain why unleaded gas detonates, either.

    Gas and alcohol is otherwise known as "jungle juice" in racing circles. Real "jungle juice" is leaded gas and methanol. It is not known for easy storage, easy tuning, or easy drivability. The fluids together just hate each other even though they make good power. Nitro makes those three traits worse and makes a mild acid with water to boot! How does Oxytane help mitigate those issues? Why does it clean out gunk and varnish, too? We really don't know. Why did Oxytane treated E85 start without a hitch in -25F weather? Again, we don't know. Why does it work in hydrous blends? Why does it tame, yet sharpen alcohol/gas blends? Technical functions and even misconceptions can step aside just for the fact that whatever is in that little bottle works pretty darn well. Something happens that looks "happier" and there's a trail of positive physical evidence like cleaner fuel tanks, valves, ports, injectors, and consistently better mileage. A dyno is only as useful as those who run it.

    It was an "extended yardstick" by which we first stumbled upon Oxytane doped ethanol blends compared to an old carboned up Subaru engine. It was unknown at the time, but that was like going 5 or 6 rungs up the performance ladder. We first tried Oxytane and unleaded/ethanol blends in a 275,000 mile old Subaru Legacy station wagon with a 2.2L naturally aspirated motor. It barely wanted to do 65 on the highway allllllll the way up in Colorado's mountains, even with upwards of 50% ethanol in the tank. After dosing the fuel with Oxytane, and then upping the concentration slightly, everything changed. Ethanol helped clean out older engines, but not quite like Oxytane. The three together ran clean, burned clean, and stayed clean. It never once failed emissions. With ethanol and Oxytane, we were making better performance even with unleaded gas as a base fuel. We saw a (repeatable!) gunk removal process and a responsive alcohol fuel combination with better mileage. Never before had alcohol blends seemed efficient, clean, tame, AND responsive in our hands.

    It is worth repeating that lead and alcohol together falls apart and hates cold temperatures. Useability, repeatability, and stability are other important factors to consider with exotic fuel use. You can't reuse methanol and C16 a few months later. Oxytane treated unleaded/ethanol blends did stay consistent, useable, and friendly. Stored nitro blends didn't fare so well and did turn acidic after enough time in-tank. "Spoiled" nitro blends would also still run. Again, "WTF?"

    Could we maybe address fuel performance problems from the inside out? Carbon deposits, detonation problems, and heat sensitivity of modern unleaded gas point to issues that still aren't being mitigated within "clean" unleaded gas. Modern ethanol blended gas still leaves carbon deposits and detonates. Both race gas and exotic alcohol blends pummel it in the performance department by a wide margin. In fact, alcohol vs. leaded race gas is often a heated matchup of a more fair comparison. Both can use proper settings available in the engine to ratchet up available power. Most of that "300hp or more" recovered from pump gas' losses are made with better timing and fuel settings in conjunction with the new fuel types.


Recovering Power vs. Restoring Power

   Recovering performance and restoring performance have two separate meanings for us. Since unleaded fuel is such a giant step backwards, we refer to power gained from a fuel switch as a "recovery", back to the standard of leaded fuel's known performance numbers. Unleaded gasoline restricts the amount of boost, timing, and compression that can be used in an engine thus limiting power potential. Better fuel allows for more proper settings that take advantage of the entire combination.

   Power gained from cleaning out gunk is more like a restoration. We view restoration as a cleaning process to eliminate gradual power loss from deposit formations. Oxytane was meant to always perform its type of cleaning function. We are die hard, egotistical, butt-scratching hot-rodders to our very core. We were addicted to the power gain from it first and foremost, not the reasons why the gains got there. "Power gain" is at least sexy sounding. Power restoration is boring but makes much more sense and is easier to explain the power differences. Power gains and losses are honestly more like accounting. The most boring explanation is usually correct.


Comparisons: So, what's the final word on Oxytane?

   We don't get the final word on Oxytane. Neither do you. Neither do whining keyboard jockeys or stiff competitors trying to look like unbiased critics. Oxytane gets the final word on what Oxytane does. Sure, it works. But, you should try selling a social taboo that doesn't trance you like eye candy! It's not shiny, so folks don't think it works. People hate fuel additives. It is even harder to sell not entirely understanding the problems Oxytane solves. What were we really seeing with Oxytane treated exotic fuels? There was indeed something different, and in a lot of ways, better. A lack of deposits after use, easy storage, easier starts, and hydrous performance capabilities were just a few traits of Oxytane treated gas/alcohol blends. Dyno runs did not tell the entire story. Oxytane stands firm by it's static mitigation argument and we still aren't sure where that fits into these other tangible and observable results.

   We've pursued feasible solutions with multiple alcohol and gasoline blended fuels in hobby and "off-road" form. Racing comes later when you can afford it. Simply put, we saw something really cool and repeatable using that funky monkey juice. Eliminating lead and it's carrier agent made room for some different technology like Oxytane. We knew we were using clean fuel stocks. But, clean fuels still have dirty habits like charge separation and deposits. We didn't know that, but Oxytane did. Clean fuels didn't have any sort of inherent cleaning action. They always left stuff behind, until treated with Oxytane.

    Oxytane was actually the first additive ever used by us in an alcohol and gas blend. Nitro use here honestly came about 3 years later. Oxytane is the only additive we've seen work flawlessly in hydrous or older alcohol blends that have drawn water. It also helps with cold starts. Many performance racing fuels leave deposits behind and require "pickling" to clean them out. Alcohol fuels can require the same pickling procedure but for a different reason. Oxytane let us store those different blends and preserve performance that would otherwise have degraded over time. Nitro blends were the only exception to that. In tank, in carb, or in a container didn't really seem to matter much to our Oxytane treated clean fuel blends. pH measurements held 7.0 for months on end even when mildly hydrous. Clean gas and alcohol blends would store and play nicely unlike nitro blends or anything leaded. Stuff that is known to fall apart out of suspension we couldn't stop. Treated clean-fuel blends stayed happy, though. Treated straight alcohol's were also happy. They all started easier and ran cleaner and smoother. Oxytane was designed for gas. What the heck is wrong with alcohol that it fixes, too?

Oxytane compared to other additives and nitro.

   We will never know exactly what's inside those little bottles of Oxytane. Neither will you. We can say that it isn't like other additives or base fuel-type changes on a qualitative and not a quantitative level. Nitro makes air/fuel ratios run lean because of its oxygen content and has to be richened accordingly. Alcohol runs leaner because of its BTU and oxygen content. Other (purposely un-named) gasoline fuel additives also run lean. Fuel types and known fuel additives alter AFRs in known ways. 100% of them run leaner! When we saw AFRs actually go rich on Oxytane even in nitro blends...something very different was up. No wonder they won't tell you or me what it is. That's okay because it really does perform as advertised.

   The following years were a lot of fun and a worthwhile experience. Seeing something happening with your own eyes, ears, and bones is much more verifiable than any dyno report. Observable behaviors such as a smoother idle and crisp response don't show up on conventional dynos but do show up in your hands. It took one tinker-minded nut with a pH strip to confirm why a stored exotic fuel blend still performed well. It wasn't acidic and didn't fall apart!


How to Get Our Repeatable Oxytane Performance Results for Yourself

    Through course of use and experimentation we stumbled upon just one more little unique thing using Oxytane with alcohols. There appeared to be, and still does, a specific titration curve related to Oxytane for a little better pep in alcohols. There's enough there to be addictive. Our clean exotic blends ran happier with slightly more Oxytane in the mix as alcohol content also increased. The process is easy to do. Oxytane always recommends treating 5 gallon fuel treatments of any kind. We love them dearly, but it was indeed this funny little titration curve that was the "laser pen dot" we constantly chased. Slightly higher concentrations in gas/alcohol blends really came alive.

    Oxytane's performance in alcohol blends is very real but not as pronounced or violent compared to nitro. It just doesn't work that way, caveman. We're not grunting our way to a power increase. If alcohol were the head chef, nitro would be the sous chef and Oxytane would be the chef saucier. Seeing Oxytane smooth out the idle on alcohol blends, make them more responsive, and keep them running clean was worth the pursuits involved. We even gave it a label known as a Remix, it struck us as that special. The end result is like having an exotic pet instead of an exotic mess.

    The unofficial Oxytane titration curve in alcohol is for experienced and advanced users. This is how to make a Remix.  It's easy to use as long as the end user remembers some basic high school chemistry. Oxytane concentration depends on the base fuels used. Nitro concentration has no effect upon the amount of Oxytane used and remains independent. Two stroke blending follows the same rules, as well. Base fuel stocks used dictated the Oxytane concentration we used for best results.

Oxytane titration curve notes:

• 1 Oxytane motorsports bottle treats 5 gallons of regular or leaded gas
• 1 Oxytane motorsports bottle treats 4 gallons of E30
• 1 Oxytane motorsports bottle treats 3 gallons of E50
• 1 Oxytane motorsports bottle treats 3 gallons of E85
• 1 Oxytane motorsports bottle treats 2 gallons of straight methanol, butanol, or ethanol.

Again, these aren't official in any way from Oxytane. It's what we found to work best that was directly related to the base fuels used.

What about really tiny applications like 1 cup sized fuel cells for RCs or 1 gallon kart cells?
There are about 6 capfuls in every bottle. Again, these are our recommendations, not anything official.

• 1 capful from Oxytane motorsports bottle treats 1 gallon of gas.
• 2 capfuls for 1 gallon of E50.
• 3 capfuls for 1 gallon of hobby nitromethanol fuel.
• 3 capfuls for 1 gallon of butanol.
• 3 capfuls for 1 gallon of E98 or methanol.

**2-stroke alcohol applications are the same. 2-stroke oil ratios stay the same. We recommend Klotz Benol oil for 2-stroke alcohol blends. 1 bottle will treat 5 gallons of 2 stroke gas blends. 1 bottle will treat 2 gallons of straight methanol, ethanol, or nitro-meth.

****We buck trends like you do, too. Coming from folks that don't follow instructions very well and don't often listen----FOLLOW THESE SIMPLE DAMN INSTRUCTIONS!!!


Results:

   The basic gist of what we noticed with Oxytane's alcohol titration curve is contained in the following dyno sheets. Simply, with more alcohol in the fuel, was more additional Oxytane showing a gain as well? Yes, sort of. According to Oxytane it's a "further restoration of power." Us butt-scratching hotrodders liked the results anyway and noticed a little extra pop. We couldn't tell you if a higher concentration of Oxytane "cleans more" or "conducts more electricity" or even if it "makes more power"--just that it appears to work really well in alcohol based fuels or alcohol blended gas.


E85 + Oxytane before and after. N/A 2.5RS


 
E85+Oxytane, 2.5L WRX, VF39, 1bar boost. Before and After Oxytane.




Dyno sheet for above.


E50, VF30, 2004 2.0L WRX swap. Before and after Oxytane.



Dyno sheet.


542 C.I. Chevy Big block. Before and after Oxytane.



**We apologize for not having the base dyno report! It's the only one we couldn't find! A few pulls were made after dosing the tank and these were the reports we grabbed. The video shows before and after.






Two stroke treated alcohol comparison:

Gas two stroke boat:




One of our Oxytane treated alcohol fuel blends:



Oxytane in Jeremy Clarkson's Gallardo (The host of Top Gear. Not recorded by us!)




How did the numbers stack up?

   This is the really weird part. How did all of our testing stack up? The numbers by themselves do more to confuse than solve anything. We were swamped in data. Showing you the right numbers was more important than showing all of them. Our little spec of validation with Oxytane was in the performance alcohol titration curves. It was repeatable, but what exactly is being seen? "More power" wasn't an adequate enough explanation. We've tried to be explicit here, but if you want to be really, really, nosy then go to Oxytane.com and ask! If you believe everything you read on the internet--especially at the hands of whining keyboard jockeys--then you probably didn't make it this far in the reading, anyway. Oxytane knows what they are doing. We were simply curious, noticed some things, and have a story to tell.

   Restoring an old engine to stock performance levels looks like too big of a jump to be true, like a wild flaw or wrong lower gear on the dyno. Posting those and claiming a huge jump in power would be very misleading. If you want those reports, again, go to Oxytane.com. Older cars showed the biggest restorations where higher powered machinery often showed incrementally smaller gains or perfectly neutral results. Detuned cars sprung to life with base fuel changes and again with treated fuel. Older machinery coming back to life looks like a "big gain", but is really a restoration back to stock. Old engines didn't surpass the built ones, but yet would show the best gains in testing. Just dosing unleaded gasoline also still cleaned everything out.
 
   Is it fair to call a power increase a gain concerning something dialed back in the first place? "Gain" has been gradually erased from our vocabulary concerning engines and power production. It all goes back to the yardstick you use. We no longer believe there were any real power gains but instead many basic little recoveries and restorations. Starting with unleaded pump gas makes any other fuel look good. Making unleaded gas perform on any level, even in an exotic blend, was startling. Thanks Oxytane!

   It is impossible to sell you a social taboo. Fuel additives in America have an unsettled place in history that's always compared to leaded gas for performance. Controversy that overshadows real science--and even curiousity--is detrimental. The curious and open minded few who have crossed that line with Oxytane understand our years of work and for that we are very thankful. That simple little titration curve we stumbled upon years ago got the validation that every good inventor desperately desires. Enough debate, criticism, and character attacks from outsiders. Hard work persevered in the end. We could not be more appreciative of those who listened and showed us how to listen better, our loved ones for tolerating us, and getting some tough love when it was needed most.