Octane Boosters - Methanol & MBTE

["Geoff Jenkins" <jenkinsg@pilot.msu.edu>]

After looking across the http://triumph.cs.utah.edu/sol/tech/octane_b.html
octane booster page, I note that they are hostile to Methanol. Given what
I've experienced of it, I can understand that.

However, it reminded me of a couple of questions:

a) What about MTBE (Methyl-tertiary-butyl-ether) which I can get hold of
virtually free. Anybody had any BTDTs about using it, esp. (i) how high it's
wise to push it (and/or how often) (ii) whether it has any nasty side
effects.

b) Has anyone ever seen a water-methanol dump kit (a la Nitrous) for
automotive use? As I recall, in late WWII, these were used as a (brief)
extreme boost for various German aero engines (I even saw references to
engines with 2-stage turbos, a NOx dump _and_ water-methanol). Did they
vanish due to the corrosive properties of methanol, or is just NOx a better
solution?

Geoff

...who can't justify the cost of racing gas... ...until he realizes it's
cheaper than high grade petrol in the UK...