Back in my go-kart racing days we ran Methanol. Once the carb was modified to run on alky, it was way too rich to run on gasoline. It took just abut twice as much alky to run the same distance as gasoline. So what was the advantage? Alcohol runs cooler. We ran milled heads, big ports, and drastically advanced ignition timing (as compared to stock) on Briggs & Stratton engines. The engines would seize in just a few laps if we tried to run gasoline with those modifications...

I understand that E-85 will probably not save me any money, but when it becomes available in this area I want to use it. I'm all for anything that keeps my money from going to the middle east. Those assholes have enough of our money already. I have a couple of questions, though: First, what's the difference between Methanol and Ethanol? Second, would E-85 allow me to boost the compression and timing?

It would be cool if somebody (someone a lot smarter than me) could come up with an easily switchable retrofit that would allow older carbureted engines to switch back and forth between gasoline and E-85...