6. What fluid can I use in my meth/water injection system?
• Boost Juice®: This is the best fluid to use and is Snow Performance’s 49% methanol, 51% water mixture that can be shipped to your door or picked up at a local dealer. (If you are using your washer reservoir as the injection tank, Boost Juice® is a great washer fluid – works as a de-icer!)
• Windshield Washer fluid: Only if it is blue in color and rated for -20 deg F. It should have no special additives. This means it is safe to use and made of about 30% methanol, 70% water. If it is another color or another temperature rating, do not use it.
• You can “spike” your Blue -20 Washer fluid to a 50% mixture by adding 2 yellow bottles of Heet® gas-line-antifreeze to every gallon of washer fluid.
• Mix your own: You just need to make sure the methanol is “neat” and contains no lubricants or other additives. We recommend a 50% mixture.
• Ethanol: It is not as good as methanol, but it can be used as a 2nd best option if you can’t find methanol. It can also be mixed with water up to 50%.
• Do NOT use E85 or any other fluid with gasoline mixed in. It will destroy the fluid delivery part of your Boost Cooler® and instantly void the warranty.
• Isopropyl/Denatured Alcohols: These can be used, but are not as good as methanol. They have a lower BTU, or energy content, and a lower latent heat of vaporization (fancy way of saying how much heat they absorb) as well as a lower octane rating compared to methanol.
7. Why Methanol?
100% Methanol is a very high octane fuel that is extremely resistant to detonation with an excellent cost/benefit ratio. Its high latent heat of vaporization also makes it an excellent air charge cooler which means a denser mixture and more horsepower. Because of these characteristics, it suppresses detonation more effectively than ethanol or iso-propanol although they will work in a pinch. It is toxic and should be handled with rubber gloves in well ventilated areas only. Care should be taken to avoid skin contact.Methanol in a 50/50 mix with water is NOT flammable.
You will notice that ordinary washer fluid is 30% methanol and 70% water. That means every car with a windshield washer system is currently running around with this "fuel".
Water/methanol injection is not dangerous in the concentrations being used for detonation control. It should NOT be treated as a fuel any more than the washer fluid under the hood of every car on the road. If it were a hazard,you would see the Dept. of Transportation stepping in to do something about it. I know of no other sanctioning body that treats a methanol/water injection system as a fuel.
If you are going to run 100% methanol in your car,there are already rules that cover fuel storage and delivery.
I say leave meth/water injection without regulations.
