[stratos_335]

Hello everybody,

a few months ago I tried to dyno my car. The results were disappointing and car made 387 rwhp on a mustang. After removing the car from the dyno a small lake of meth mixture was underneath the front left wheel. The log showed a meth leak too as the methanol injection raised to 50 (M10 injector) and should be around 17-18.

Time to get rid off the nasty meth leak. A leak is dangerous for both the engine and safety: engine is not cooled properly at high boost settings and mixtures above 60% are flammable whatever it means.

How to resolve this:

1) First of all you can use shorter lines. Move the pump and the controllers inside or near the engine bay (inside the fender or behind the bumper) from the trunk. Shorter lines mean better system response and easier leak control as there are no meth tubes running under the car.

2) Push fittings tend to leak. How to avoid that: the secret is cutting the nylon tube correctly and making a perpendicular cut as there is no way to achieve sealing with the o-ring inside the push fitting

3) Nylon tubes tend to shrink due to engine heat, reducing the diameter. Maybe high meth concentration tend to shrink the tube. Thus, you can use something like this:



stainless steel lines with AN fittings from devils own or from another manufacturer. No push fittings required as all connections are tapered. You can also use some PTFE tape for better sealing. But I'm not sure if DO can provide long enough tubes to run from the trunk to the engine bay.

4) Push fitting like those Vishnu tuning added to their new pumps.



I will be surprised if someone can fit the nylon tube to those fittings. The nylon tube is very rigid and it is almost impossible to push it into the fitting nipple. You can try a glass of hot water, put the tube for a minute inside the water to soften it and then slide the tube to the nipple. The tube will harden after a while but it may tear down and experience another meth leak

5) Use other material. Nylon tubes will shrink after 5-6 months depending on the heat. PTFE tubes are chemically inert to methanol but are soft and may expand due to pump pressure. These PTFE tubes are mostly used for pneumatic systems to deliver air pressure to a piston or to get vacuum to a BOV for instance. I don't know other materials that can be used for meth delivery. Anyway, the meth tube that you are going to use must be chemically inert as methanol is corrosive for concentrations above 50%

6) my solution: compression fittings with compression brass cone.

The fitting is similar with what Shiv use to his pumps but two more components are used: a brass and hollow rivet like small tube that will be inserted into the nylon tube and a brass cone shaped fitting that will compress the "rivet". This type of fitting is used even in hydraulics and can sustain 800 bar of pressure (steel tubes) without a leak.

This is the fitting:



And this is how you can assemble it: Slide the screwed compression ring along the tube, put the brass rivet inside the nylon tube, slide the brass cone inside the fitting and tighten them all up. Do not use excessive force. The only disadvantage is that the fitting is so tight that doesn't allow rotation of the tube. So it will be difficult to tighten the fitting to the solenoid. You must cut the wires of the solenoid, twist the solenoid clockwise as you tighten the fitting with a wrench and then connect the two wires again. Each fitting costs less than 1 Euro.

This is how the assembly looks like:





After that, I tested and logged my car. I really missed the power and after the second pull OEM clutch started to slip. Hopefully, ACT 6-puck clutch will arrive in a few days.


Sorry for the grammar or spelling mistakes, English is not my first language.

I'm here to answer your questions.

Stratos

[Mike@N54Tuning.com]

Where was your system leaking?

Mike

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

Yes this would be the ideal way of running methanol. Nice write up.

[Tzu]

I'm not entirely sold on the leaking compression fittings. The theory of how they work is identical to your solution. Innovative alternative though for sure.

[stratos_335]

Originally Posted by Mike@N54Tuning.com

Where was your system leaking?

Mike

My system was leaking at the inlet and the outlet of the solenoid. The solenoid is mounted with tie-wraps on the car body, at the two holes located on the left wheel dome. There was no leak before the injector or in the trunk compartment where the pump, the controllers and the tank are located.

How did I determine that? Under the solenoid, the car chassis was full of a thin layer of slurry, which is dirt and oil coming out from my synapse (Alpine white car so the dirt is obvious). After the leak, the place where the meth was dripping was very clean as methanol acts as a dissolver to oil. My logs look pretty fine now.

[triggz]

where do you get the SS lines from?

[stratos_335]

Check Devil's Own website http://www.alcohol-injection.com/en/183-an-fittings

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

Originally Posted by triggz

where do you get the SS lines from?

Originally Posted by stratos_335

Check Devil's Own website http://www.alcohol-injection.com/en/183-an-fittings

If you order with a full kit you can save money to. They charge us full price if you dont order a kit. Otherwise there is a price break to upgrade a new kit.

[stratos_335]

Of course, Jeff is a vendor and you can always ask him prior to purchasing an upgrade for your car. Thanks Jeff