I agree with Jay. For a street car get a good intercooler setup and if you want more, use meth on top of it. Or you can get the meth kit first to get a bit more out of your current setup, and then upgrade the IC later, but the preferred method is to get the intercooling squared away first.
Don your math doesn’t make sense because the meth isn’t used all the time, only under certain conditions (high throttle only or in boost only, etc.). I use 1 gallon of meth per 30 gallons of 93 octane (2.5 tanks of gas) in my daily driver and I’m spraying more methanol than anyone else I know of around here that’s running it as a piggyback system.
That 31 gallon mix at your prices is 30X2.80 + 3 = $87
31 gallons of 100 octane at your price 5.29 is $163.99…about double.
I do agree that unless you’re running methanol as your primary fuel, that a 100 octane race gas tune with very good intercooling that isn’t getting heat soaked may outperform the pump + meth setup. A c16 tune with good intercooling should definitely outperform it. However, you left out major benefits of a meth setup. Unless someone is going to roll around on 100 octane at great expense all the time, they have to drain their gas tank somehow, fill up with 100 octane, and change your tune before every time they want to hit the gas with that full power higher octane tune. With a pump + meth setup you just hit the gas any time you want and the meth is there immediately so you get your full blast. That’s a huge advantage, not a gimmick. The way to do this with 100 octane in a separate fuel cell with separate lines, fuel rail, FPR, injectors, and the engine management and tuning to control secondaries is more complicated, in my opinion, than a meth kit as we sell them. Obviously that 100 octane setup would be WAY more expensive too.
In the case of someone who uses race gas all the time because they always want the power there, they can’t go away from areas where they know they can find the fuel they’re tuned for. Bringing a drum of their chosen race gas with them in their car is obviously not practical. With my 1 gallon meth tank and my little 2 gallons can of meth I’m good for around 93 gallons of mix if I go on a trip. I just get 93 octane at a normal gas station and I’m good to go. Compare that to a full tank of race gas and an extra 55 gallon drum which probably amounts to less total fuel.
With the new meth injection pumps we have we haven’t seen a single failure. They’re the first ones to have methanol safe seals so yes some of the older pumps had issues when running straight meth, but I don’t expect any with the new pumps. We swapped out our customers old pumps for the new ones at no charge when they came out for anyone wondering. The brand we sell, Coolingmist, has worked with us in designing their tuning software, new components and more so we’re very happy with their service.
There are some cases like Spencer’s where he drives the car a couple times a month, only in the summer and mostly around town. He doesn’t mind running race gas all the time and for him I agree that is better than pump + meth. However when he goes to Carlisle with it or somewhere else out of town he gets his laptop out and switches to the 93 octane tune, turns the boost down and drives there and back like that. He loses whatever race gas was in the tank because he doesn’t syphon or pump it out somehow. Because going out of town is a rare thing he doesn’t mind so much, but for people who drive their car on the street on a regular basis, I think pump + meth is a much better option.
-Mike