Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins
The biggest problem, as our intrepid hot-rodders in the above video discovered, is getting enough nitro into the motor. They wound up running the injectors at well over 100% duty cycle, and still couldn't get enough fuel into it. The stoichiometric ratio for nitro and air is only 1.7:1, compared to gasoline's 14.5:1. That's why Top Fuel motors burn about 1 1/2 gallons of fuel per second. It also needs a lot of timing. I remember setting full advance at over 60 degrees on the funny car I helped out with very briefly in the late '80's to early '90's.
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When Don Garlits switched from the old 392 Hemi to the new 426 block he couldn't get enough power out of it. Out of frustration he started advancing the timing and it got better and better, he finally finally settled on somewhere around 50 degrees. He said he wondered what would have happened to the 392 if he had had the courage to crank up the advance.