First off-season on alcohol. “Winterizing” tips?

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demon322

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Hello all. Made the switch to alcohol last summer so this is my first winter not on race gas. Wondering what all you guys do to protect your carbs and fuel systems and help be ready for next spring. I have heard some say wd40 and others mention marvel mystery oil. Do any of you remove the carb completely? Or just try to make sure it’s cleaned out as much as possible. The last time I had a bowl off for jets change I noticed some slight white chalking starting to develop.
1050 carb, Magnafuel 500 pump with filter.

Also, do any of you back off your rocker arms during the off season?

Thanks!

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I remove and disassemble the carburetor, and spray everything with WD-40. I also spray all the cylinders and the intake manifold tracks with WD-40. I turn the engine over by hand and then back off all the valves. I will also take the electric fuel pump apart, clean and spray it also. Even racing fuel is corrosive, I have seen the underside of throttle blades and intake valves get rusted from racing fuel
 

I remove and disassemble the carburetor, and spray everything with WD-40. I also spray all the cylinders and the intake manifold tracks with WD-40. I turn the engine over by hand and then back off all the valves. I will also take the electric fuel pump apart, clean and spray it also. Even racing fuel is corrosive, I have seen the underside of throttle blades and intake valves get rusted from racing fuel
Thanks for the tips! So do you then leave the carb apart and WD coated until spring? Spraying the cylinders seems like a good idea also. And you do relieve some valve pressure so that answers that question.

I was going to look at the removable filter on the fuel pump. Sounds like cleaning the pump itself is a good idea also.

Thank you
 
I lent a carburetor to a friend of mine, and he sold the car. So he had bought another carburetor, and gave it to me. This carburetor had been sitting around with old fuel in it for awhile. The accelerator pump diaphragms were solid, every gasket is stuck on. So I am cleaning everything, and leaving it disassembled. But normally, I have them back together and ready to use.
 
I lent a carburetor to a friend of mine, and he sold the car. So he had bought another carburetor, and gave it to me. This carburetor had been sitting around with old fuel in it for awhile. The accelerator pump diaphragms were solid, every gasket is stuck on. So I am cleaning everything, and leaving it disassembled. But normally, I have them back together and ready to use.
Ah, gotcha. That makes sense. Thank you
 
I do not run alky but im very familiar with it as I have many friends that run it. If I was ever to switch to alcohol, my winter process would be as follows:

Take my alky carb off, put on gas carb. Drain alky out of the fuel tank by running the fuel pump and disconnecting the regulator lines from the carb and directing the alky into the fuel jug. Fill fuel tank with race gas, fire car up on race gas, get the engine nice and hott, at the end of the heat cycle, shut fuel pump off, while engine is running and have someone spray a bunch of fogging oil into the carb, preferably "foggit". Shut car off after being fogged. Drain remaining race gas out of the fuel bowls and pump the rest out through accelerator pump into a rag. Open throttle blades, spray more foggit into the engine while someone is cranking the engine. Close throttle blades, crank engine some more, done. Next would be change the oil after the heat cycle on race gas.

As far as the alky carb, I would spray foggit into the fuel bowls as well as throttle blades, or wd-40. From what I have been told and read, the alcohol really becomes corrosive when the alcohol is exposed to air. A lot of people I know dont drain their fuel bowls in between weekends and keep their fuel cell full to avoid any air getting to the alcohol and causing extra corrosion. Some of this is coming from Chris Baer from APD. He goes as far as taking spark plugs out of his engine and spraying fogging oil into the cylinders that way. He also puts race gas in his alky fuel bowls after a race so that the car starts easier next time, and so that its more resistant to corrosion from sitting. A lot of that is during the season type of maintenance, but for the winter, I would be doing the above listed method. Before the next season I would rebuild the alky carb and replace, needles, seats, floats, accelerator pump diaphram, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

Love your Demon by the way!

R.J.
 
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This is insightful. I was going to switch my derby motors over to alcohol but all this talk made me realize definitely not doing that!!
I know so many people that run alcohol and do next to nothing to their setup and have no issues. But working closely with an engine builder and seeing what alky does to an engine if not properly maintained, I would be doing a lot of maintenance to help keep corrosion and cylinder wall rust to a minimum. But like I said, I don’t run alcohol, I just know what I would do if I did run it.
 
i run 2 toilets. my winter routine is not much at all. i have a gas primer plate under each toilet. i use gas to warm up engine in the morning and to start car for each pass. other then that it's drinkin methanol.
winterization consists of running car till it's 180-190* on gas to burn off any methanol. i drain the methanol tank and lines. as for the pump, i spray WD-40 and rotate the pump by hand to lube it. i also spray WD-40 in the barrel valve. that's it. very simple and effective. been running methanol for years will no issues.
 
i run 2 toilets. my winter routine is not much at all. i have a gas primer plate under each toilet. i use gas to warm up engine in the morning and to start car for each pass. other then that it's drinkin methanol.
winterization consists of running car till it's 180-190* on gas to burn off any methanol. i drain the methanol tank and lines. as for the pump, i spray WD-40 and rotate the pump by hand to lube it. i also spray WD-40 in the barrel valve. that's it. very simple and effective. been running methanol for years will no issues.
That primer plate is also something I would like to get if I ran alky
 
I do not run alky but im very familiar with it as I have many friends that run it. If I was ever to switch to alcohol, my winter process would be as follows:

Take my alky carb off, put on gas carb. Drain alky out of the fuel tank by running the fuel pump and disconnecting the regulator lines from the carb and directing the alky into the fuel jug. Fill fuel tank with race gas, fire car up on race gas, get the engine nice and hott, at the end of the heat cycle, shut fuel pump off, while engine is running and have someone spray a bunch of fogging oil into the carb, preferably "foggit". Shut car off after being fogged. Drain remaining race gas out of the fuel bowls and pump the rest out through accelerator pump into a rag. Open throttle blades, spray more foggit into the engine while someone is cranking the engine. Close throttle blades, crank engine some more, done. Next would be change the oil after the heat cycle on race gas.

As far as the alky carb, I would spray foggit into the fuel bowls as well as throttle blades, or wd-40. From what I have been told and read, the alcohol really becomes corrosive when the alcohol is exposed to air. A lot of people I know dont drain their fuel bowls in between weekends and keep their fuel cell full to avoid any air getting to the alcohol and causing extra corrosion. Some of this is coming from Chris Baer from APD. He goes as far as taking spark plugs out of his engine and spraying fogging oil into the cylinders that way. He also puts race gas in his alky fuel bowls after a race so that the car starts easier next time, and so that its more resistant to corrosion from sitting. A lot of that is during the season type of maintenance, but for the winter, I would be doing the above listed method. Before the next season I would rebuild the alky carb and replace, needles, seats, floats, accelerator pump diaphram, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

Love your Demon by the way!

R.J.
Thanks, love your Demon also!

This method sounds great, but unfortunately I don’t have a spare gas carb at the moment I could start the car on. This is the first I have heard about ‘foggit,’ I think I will try some of that. I like the idea of fogging oil in the cylinders, especially since I can’t run it at the moment.

I think I will clean the carb and lines, drain the tank, and see if I can clean the fuel pump also. Fogging oil in the cylinders and turn the engine over before backing off the rockers some to relieve some pressure.

Thank you for the tips!
 
Thanks, love your Demon also!

This method sounds great, but unfortunately I don’t have a spare gas carb at the moment I could start the car on. This is the first I have heard about ‘foggit,’ I think I will try some of that. I like the idea of fogging oil in the cylinders, especially since I can’t run it at the moment.

I think I will clean the carb and lines, drain the tank, and see if I can clean the fuel pump also. Fogging oil in the cylinders and turn the engine over before backing off the rockers some to relieve some pressure.

Thank you for the tips!
No problem. You could also just drain all the alcohol and fill it up with race gas, prime the lines with gas and let it sit as well. Just to help against corrosion. My one close friend who runs alky doesn’t drain or do any of that over the winter. Just parks the car full of alky, foggs it down, drains the oil after a few days of it sitting. We have found that trying to run the car on alky before an oil change just makes the oil look worse coming out. The penn grade oil he uses really lets the alcohol evaporate from the oil after it sits for a few days. Then he changes it and primes the engine and it doesn’t make noise til the next season.

No matter what you’re gonna do, you’ll find what works best for you to help keep your engine happy. So many run alky and do nothing for maintenance and get away with it.
 
No problem. You could also just drain all the alcohol and fill it up with race gas, prime the lines with gas and let it sit as well. Just to help against corrosion. My one close friend who runs alky doesn’t drain or do any of that over the winter. Just parks the car full of alky, foggs it down, drains the oil after a few days of it sitting. We have found that trying to run the car on alky before an oil change just makes the oil look worse coming out. The penn grade oil he uses really lets the alcohol evaporate from the oil after it sits for a few days. Then he changes it and primes the engine and it doesn’t make noise til the next season.

No matter what you’re gonna do, you’ll find what works best for you to help keep your engine happy. So many run alky and do nothing for maintenance and get away with it.
Thanks for the advice and the kind words. I forgot to mention an oil change but I plan to that as well. I probably didn’t change it as often as I should have when I was on race gas, but will for sure now on alcohol.

And I agree! After talking with a few of my alcohol buddies (race fuel, not drinking buddies lol) it seems that many of them hardly do anything different over the winter and kind of looked at me funny for asking. So maybe I’m overthinking it a bit. But like you said by this time next winter I’ll have a better plan of what works for me and hopefully keep my engine happy for several seasons to come.

Happy New Year!
 
This is insightful. I was going to switch my derby motors over to alcohol but all this talk made me realize definitely not doing that!!
I have to ask, ....why?? I don't know what kind of 'derbys' You're running in, but the old late-Summer ones I ran in wouldn't qualify as real safe, I saw a lot of fires. Sure the Feature was at night, but all of the heats were daylight save maybe the last, F*(k having a fire I can't see...or the perimeter guys w/the extinguishers.
I watched a lot if horrific sh*t shows in the pits & wreckage on-track over the decades at Indy,......like I said, F*(k that........
 
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