So I was wondering, from a post here about a bone stock engine running nitro methane instead of gasoline, how much extra horsepower could a stock engine produce just by changing fuels from gas to nitro? I'm thinking that the engine won't run very well. Now, I'm sure that if the compression was changed, and the carb re-jetted, and the cam changed, things might work better. But if all you do is change fuels I think there won't be much of an increase. This is of course in response to gunner's assertion that he was clocked going 264 mph on a bone stock Ninja motorcycle burning nitro methane fuel. I don't think the motorcycle could develop enough power to push itself and someone sitting on it to over 200 mph no matter what kind of fuel it was burning. ERic
At the time Gunner initially made this (absurd) claim, an all-out lakes-modified Ninja did 231 at Bonneville. That was considered to be the world record for Ninjas, although it wasn't a class record. Some other make was slightly faster.
The 1000 cc Honda that topped 270 was claimed to have 400 hp. That doesn't sound unreasonable: the engine was built by Honda specifically for this attempt. That must be very recent, because Gunner held the world record for sit-on motorcycles until very recently.
That is, if Gunner had actually gone 264 when he said he did, that would have been a world record at the time. The record for "sit-on" motorcycles was broken by Al Lamb in 2012. It was 265 mph, and the bike was another Honda.
As for running a stock engine with nitromethane; only if you want to turn your engine into shrapnel. It is very weird stuff, behaving differently with different percentage combinations of gasoline or methanol. You may get lucky with small amounts, or, if the gasoline sucks up the oxygen in the mix, you may blow your muffler into the next county when the resulting hydrogen explodes in your exhaust pipe. If you use much, you will blow up any of several parts of your engine. It's strictly for people who know what they're doing. It also costs too much to be practical. And if your engine is newer than, say, 1980, forget it unless you're an electronics expert, too.
If you want a chemical jolt for more horsepower, go for nitrous oxide ("the bottle"). You'll find kits for it all over the Web. We used to have an expert on it here (Bottle Bob) but I think he left.
With nitrous, your engine may actually hold together long enough for you to get home.
An added bonus is that if you get a misfire it's gonna explode on the next cycle ... I read up a bit once on nitro burning drag cars , them motors are running very close to hydraulic lock . It was also interesting to discover just how few times the motor actually turns over in a quarter mile . At 10k RPM's , on a trip down the track that lasts say 5 seconds that's only like a bit over 800 revolutions - and many of those care do it in way less that 5 seconds .
Right. The stoichiometric ratio for pure nitro requires one heck of a lot of nitro. But even mixed with gasoline, the products of a misfire are themselves explosive, and your engine can grenade in a spectacular way.
Which makes you wonder about Gunner sitting on a nitro-fueled bomb, just one misfire away from suffering high-speed castration...
I think the nitro story is a new addition to his account of the event, BTW.
Heh , I was following a friend on a little motorcycle ride . His was a stroked 92 ci Harley Shovelhead . As he attacked a sweeping uphill turn at a "high rate of speed" I heard a loud BANG and saw him and the bike basically disappear in a cloud of smoke . After attempting roadside repairs we discovered that the rear cylinder had cracked most of the way around at the base flange . It wouldn't have castrated him as there was a frame top tube between him and the jug , but it sure would have been exciting if it had broken all the way . Pretty good chance the flying bits would have done at least some minor maiming of his lower extremities ...
I think the issue with a motorcycle reaching those speeds is not so much horsepower as stream lining. After all, if there was no resistance of any kind, you could reach 264 mph with a 1 horsepower engine. The only motorcycles that have reached speeds close to that I know about have had fully enclosed shells. It was clear from Gunner's original description that was not the case. I am not sure why there is so much debate about this. Gunner is a text-book classic sociopath. He will say whatever he thinks he can get away with to gain status among his percieved peers. When questioned, he resorts to threats.
In the early 80s I found a radio control airplane store that sold nitromethane for the engines in these model planes. It came in quart bottles at different concentrations. So I used to buy the stuff and run it in lawnmower engines. I would mill the heads until they would just clear the valves to increase the compression some too. I was amazed at how much better the lawnmowers would cut tall, thick grass. Engine life was poor though. I never did try to run straight nitro. It smelled good too. Eric
Just think what a quart of the full strength stuff would do to the engine of one of those idiot's who roar down your street at 3 in the morning, ratting windows for blocks? :)
My older brother thought it was funny too. He would tell me if he saw a lawnmower dumped on the side of the road. I'd get it and see if it was worth fixing. Usually they were. Just needed points or something simple. Then I'd have another mower to modify for the tall weeds. No bogging them mowers down. Eric
Well, I'm with you on that. Until I bought my current Honda from my neighbor, when he moved away, I never spent more than $10 for a lawn mower, at yard sales. Points, plug, maybe a condenser, fresh oil, sharpen the blade...another five to ten years of mowing happiness.
FWIW, the 2011 Kawasaki Ninja with the 1350 cc engine will do around
200 -- if you disable the electronic governor that limits speed to 189 mph. It had close to 190 hp. The newer ones have 100 more cc and another ten hp.
However, speed is an exponential-ratio thing, and the record set with one of the recent models was 231 mph. If a bike will go 200 mph with
190 hp, it will take 298 hp to go 231, and 450 hp to go 265. So a Ninja with standard streamlining is not as efficient as that special factory-built Honda.
A Ninja that makes 450 hp is not likely. Not for long, anyway. And you'd better wear a bulletproof jockstrap.
Oh, yeah, I have great memories of flying models, too. We flew control-line combat in our neighborhood. I must have build a dozen planes, because we kept crashing them.
I had a six-footer from Edmund Scientific. Was that it? Glue sticks were easier.
They always burn sooner or later. My dad set *his* dad's field on fire with one when he was 10 years old. In those days, they put a crossed pair of fine wires across the bottom, wrapped a piece of rag around the intersection, soaked it in kerosene and lit it. Then they ran when it caught fire.
Those things have been around for a very long time. My dad was 10 in
Bone stock? Who the hell made that claim? It was a heavily modified custom engine that may or may not been built by a guy who later busted the land speed record on an improved verson. Might even have been the same bike..shrug. Or not.
Bone stock? Sounds like a bone head was making buffoonery again.
Gunner
The methodology of the left has always been:
Lie
Repeat the lie as many times as possible
Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
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