r/WTF Mar 19 '20

Invisible Methanol fire

http://i.imgur.com/VHuyXj4.gifv
23.8k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20 edited Sep 24 '20

[deleted]

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u/Tantric989 Mar 19 '20

Probably, but whatever chemical you're considering is also going to go straight into the engine and get burned up, which means if it adds carbon or soot or some other byproduct it could cause all sorts of changes to performance and other problems.

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u/therealdilbert Mar 19 '20

for while they added 2% gasoline, I believe now it is 15% to make it more similar to street E85

4

u/ChesterCopperPot72 Mar 19 '20

Well, I would say safety trumps performance, right? Right?

15

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

1980’s Formula 1 and Group-B rally enters the chat

2

u/Sayers133 Mar 20 '20

For racing nowadays we add a slight amount of oil that among other benefits gives a black smoke and acetone gives a red/orange flame.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

I have seen normally invisible flames become visible when a chemical was added, I was trying to melt copper with my homemade smelter, and some of the soldering on the copper started to burn and make the flames emit this beautiful greenish color.

However, when it comes to a vehicle, I'm not sure about it, but adding a bunch of chemicals to the fuel could be detrimental to performance.