Has anyone used a Methanol injection?
Seems to be very common with turbo mods but have not seen it dicussed on any recent thread with aspirated Cayman/Boxster. Some companies are already making specific kits for aspirated engines and the claims on increased performance and others sound interesting...

Jose
P.R.

 

methanol injection is great for combating detonation, but by itself doesn't add any power. it's usually a fix needed to deal with either 1) forced induction, 2) increased compression ratios, or 3) unusually high engine temps (for whatever reason).

 

What would be your thoughts on a approach on it as an Ocatne booster alone?

 

oops Octane. Lol!

 

it works great as an octane booster compared to anything in a bottle from the local car shop. just running it by itself would be a bit of work for the install, but if you're not having any detonation problems, there isn't much point. well, i'm assuming your car runs fine on the pump gas you're giving it now.

remember, while octane is a combustable hydrocarbon, the octane rating given to gasoline is a is only a comparitive measure of the fuel's ability to not self-detonate under pressure. the additional power developed by high compression engines comes from increasing the compression not from the high octane fuel. going to a more compressable fuel (higher octane rating) simply prevents the fuel from igniting too early (which under extreme conditions can throw break vital engine parts).

here's the other little catch: if you're engine isn't tuned for a notably higher octane fuel, such as running race gas in a road car engine, you'll actually lose power. higher octane rated fuels tend to burn slower so you need to advance you ignition timing to start the fuel burning earlier. otherwise, when your exhaust valve opens, you'll be sending unburnt fuel through your exhaust instyead of using it to push the pistons.

this is why you hear people say that running 93 octane premium gas is bad for your 87 octane regular gas engine.

okay, so back to your question. running methanol injection is also used to cool the incoming air. the methanol (usually mixed with water) is sprayed into the incoming air stream just before the air enters the intake manifold. when the pistons compress the air/fuel mixture the methanol/water mix absorbs some of the heat generated by the compression which (ideally) keep the air/fuel from reaching the temps needed to self-detonate.

so if you live in a really hot state and your engine can't seem to cool itself very well (or you're running a track car or forced induction car) and you feel like you're losing power to a heat soaked engine, a methanol injection kit could definitely protect your engine from severe mechanical failure and restore a few lost horsepower. but on the realistic side, a high volume radiator would do better at keeping the engine cool which would also protect and restore.

unless you're running a 993 or earlier air-cooled porsche.

hope that helped.

 

That was a great explanation! Greatly appreciate it.
I drive my 06 Cayman S with some bolt on parts. (RS...) and the island
has hot weather year round. From the cars I have owned before never had one with an engine running as hot as this car even though the gauge indicates "175" all the time.
So you think that the 3rd rad install would work better?

note; this car is mostly raced on a 1/4 mile

Thanks again

Jose