Glow fuel

Glow fuel is a fuel source used in model engines – generally the same or similar fuels can be used in model airplanes, helicopters, cars and boats. Glow fuel can be burned by very simple two-stroke engines or by more complicated four-stroke engines, and these engines can provide impressive amounts of power for their very small size. Glow fuel is primarily for two-stroke engines with the need for oil mixed in the fuel and limited exhaust and fuel/air between cycles. Top Fuel race cars with 4-cycle engines may also use glow fuel, but in this case it does not contain appreciable oil.

Other commonly used names are nitro or just model fuel. Note that the nitro name is generally inaccurate, as nitromethane is usually not the primary ingredient, and in fact many glow fuels, especially the so-called "FAI" type, named for the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, which requires such fuel in some forms of aeromodeling competition, contain no nitromethane at all.

Glow fuel is a mixture of methanol, nitromethane, and oil.

Methanol is the primary ingredient as it provides the bulk of the fuel, and is needed as a solvent for the other ingredients. The presence of methanol vapor causes the glow plug found in model engines to heat via a catalytic reaction with the platinum wire and glow.

Nitromethane is added to the methanol to increase power and to make the engine easier to tune. Typically glow fuel is about 0-30% nitromethane. While higher concentrations can result in better engine performance, use of highly concentrated nitromethane is rare because of its cost. Although a given amount of nitromethane contains less energy than the same amount of methanol, it increases the amount of available oxygen in the combustion chamber, which allows the engine to draw in less air and more fuel. The increased amount of fuel increases power output and also helps cool the engine. For racing use, the nitromethane content can be increased to the range of 30%-65%.

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