alky vs gas

**mbaker76** · 10-09-2006, 08:52 AM

Last weekend I switched our mod motor over to gas to fog it and put it away for the winter. After starting it up i was amazed at how much crisper it sounded. Its hard to describe, almost a 'tighter' more responsive sound, off idle throttle response seemed better, just crack the throttle and it screamed I know its not necessarilly an indication that it would be better on gas, just wondering if that was typical of alky vs. gas or if our alky carb needs some work or updated.

**perfconn** · 10-09-2006, 09:46 AM

Alcohol burns slower than gas and if you don't have a cam designed for alcohol then your not gaining anything.

**mbaker76** · 10-09-2006, 10:43 AM

So you thinks its cam not carb or anything? Not sure what the cam specs are, when we dynoed it going from gas to alcohol gained about 25HP and 30# torque though.

Do you know anything about Morgan carburetion? good/bad. Thats what the alky carb is.

**perfconn** · 10-09-2006, 11:57 AM

It must be a pretty good sized motor to gain 25hp and 30# of torque.
All carburetors are good unless there is something wrong with it.There's not a whole lot of difference in any of them in spite of all the advertised claims.

**mbaker76** · 10-09-2006, 12:07 PM

Its decent, 406 roller, a little over 14:1 with cleaned up 215 Iron Eagles, prob could use a little more head as well.

I had been told that Morgan only started building alky carbs a year or so ago, just wondered if he might still be playing catch up to some of the other builders is all. We bought the carb 2nd hand from a guy selling out middle of last year, planning to send it in to be gone through this winter, just cant decide whether to send it back to Morgan or send it to Stealth and have him go through it, thats who built our gas carbs.

**perfconn** · 10-09-2006, 12:16 PM

Like I said,as long as it was built right in the first place and its not dirty,then about anybody can go through it.Dirt is the worst enemy of carburetors.I don't use Tony at Stelth because he is so hard to get a hold of.

**JDR Performance** · 11-14-2007, 04:22 PM

Has the alcohol carb always been lazy off idle, or is that something that you only noticed in comparison to the gas carb? If it has gotten worse it may have dirt in it as Perfconn said or may need to be gone through. With alcohol, it should really be freshened up every year. Throttle shafts wear a little more quickly, o-rings and gaskets dry up. It could also be in the calibration if it's always been like that. An alcohol carburetor should be just as responsive as a gas carb if it's right. I've seen a lot of them that have the idle circuit and squirter sizing far enough off to cause a lazy spot.

**mbaker76** · 11-15-2007, 07:25 AM

We never raced it on gas, just ran it to flush the alky out of everything. But it just sounded tighter, and crisper, cracking the throttle, from about 2000 rpm 'in the shop'. I have no idea what it would do on the track. I originally asked the question last fall, and since then had it gone through, and it did seem to make it better. The carb we bought used, and it had been neglected some. So Im sure it needed some work. I cant remember for sure, but i think 1 of the power vavles was shot as well. It ran much better this past season though. But I noticed once again, switch it to gas, and it still sounds tighter, and meaner, if that makes sense. I guess its just the difference in alky vs gas.