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-stroke engines may also use glow fuel, but in this case it does not contain appreciable oil. 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-stroke 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.