toluene will "melt" any plastic compounds it comes into contact with.besides it will also cause "gray matter" to fall out your ears 
if you breath enough of it.
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below is a Cut an pasted section from an online Chemical source..sam
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What is NITROMETHANE ??
NITROMETHANE : (Ni`tro`meth?ane)
n. 1. (Chem.) A nitro derivative of methane (CH3.NO2), obtained as a mobile liquid; - called also nitrocarbol.
n. 2. (Chem.) A colorless, oily liquid, (CH3NO2), used in making dyes and resins, in organic synthesis, as a fuel in race car engines, and as a rocket propellant.
Nitromethane?..everybody knows it's there, but few, it seems, really know much about it. Although most seem to know - at least vaguely - that's its primary purpose is to add power, we still ask "Why do you use it in drag racing?" At best, there is much misinformation regarding this somewhat exotic ingredient. Let's see what we can do to clear some of it up.
Nitromethane is just one of a family of chemicals called "nitroparaffins." Others are nitroethane and 1-nitropropane and 2-nitropropane. Nitroethane can be used successfully in small quantities. (Top Fuel drag racers, which generally run on a mixture of 90% straight nitromethane, sometimes add a little in hot, humid weather to prevent detonation.) At one time, nitroethane was only about half as expensive as nitromethane, but its cost now is so nearly the same, using it to lower cost is hardly worth the trouble. Neither of the nitropropanes will work in model engine fuel. Incidentally, nitromethane is made of propane, in case you didn't know (and I'll bet you didn't).
Yes, NITRO = POWER! But?.there are conditions and contingencies. First of all, it doesn't add power because it's such a "hot" chemical. Not at all. This may come as a surprise, but the methanol (methyl alcohol) in the fuel is by far the most flammable ingredient?.nearly twice as flammable as nitromethane. As a matter of fact, if nitro were only 4 degrees less flammable, it wouldn't even have to carry the red diamond "flammable" label!
In actuality, nitromethane must be heated above 36 degrees Celcius before it will begin to emit enough vapors that they can be ignited by some sort of spark or flame! (I demonstrated this not long ago to a friend by repeatedly putting a flaming match out in a lidful of nitro. I might add that he insisted on standing about 20 feet away during the demonstration!)
So?.how does it add power? We all know (I think) that although we think of the liquid part substance we put in fuel tanks (in our automobiles or model airplanes) as the fuel, in truth, there is another "fuel," without which the liquid part would be useless. Remember what it is? Right?.just plain old air (in reality, the oxygen in the air).
Every internal combustion engine mixes air and another fuel of some sort?.in our case in TF drag racing, methanol. The purpose of the carburetor or injector system is to meter those two ingredients in just the right proportions, and every individual engine has a requirement for a specific proportion of liquid fuel and air. Try to push in too much liquid without enough air, and the engine won't run at all. That's the purpose of the supercharger in drag racing engines?.to cram in a lot more air than a simple carburetor or fuel injection system can handle.
Now?..suppose we were to find a way to run more liquid through our engines without increasing the air supply? That would add power, wouldn't it? Well, guess what?.we can! An internal combustion engine can burn more than 2 ? times as much nitromethane to a given volume of air than it can methanol. Voila! MORE POWER! That's how it works, and it ain't all that complicated.
High performance TF or injected nitro alcohol racing engines, for example, are specifically designed and tuned?.compression ratios, intake and exhaust timings etc?.and are usually intended to run on very high nitro blends. Those engines are a serious bitch to tune and run, and are definitely not user-friendly! In fact, they are well beyond the skill levels of most average people. That's why not everone can make a TF dragster turn 1/4 mile times in under 4.5 seconds.
Another statement i hear frequently is that nitromethane is acidic and causes corrosion in engines. It isn't acidic, and the manufacturers say it doesn't happen?..it can't happen! Every professional TF crew chief i have asked this question to has said "No - Never."
Why does nitro cost so much? While I have no clue as to the cost of manufacturing, other than it takes a multi-million dollar investment in a large refinery to produce it, there is one pretty good reason: There is only one manufacturer of nitromethane in the Western Hemisphere. Figure it out for yourself.
Also (and this will come as a big surprise), the drag racing industry only consumes about 5% of all the nitromethane produced world-wide; and the hobby industry about another 2% or so. This means we have no "clout" whatever, and simply must pay the asking price. Where does the rest of it go? Industry. It's used for a variety of things - a solvent for certain plastics, insecticides, explosives (yes, it was an ingredient in the Oklahoma City bombing) and I'm told it's an ingredient in Tagamet, a well-known prescription ulcer medication (no wonder that stuff is so expensive!). Please note that while nitromethane is an ingredient in making some explosives, under normal use, it in itself, is not exploseve. (Remember?.the guy used fertilizer, too.)
Finally, remember in the beginning of this, we said that nitro adds power because we can burn more of it than we can methanol, for a given volume of air? This also means that the higher the nitro content of the fuel, the less "mileage" you will get. In a typical TF dragster engine using 90% nitro, you will use approximately 14 US Gallons (53 litres) of fuel per 1/4 mile run (in less than 5 seconds)!
Hope this helped..
sam
[This message has been edited by mustangs68 (edited 09-14-2004).]
Mustangsandmore Forums
posted 09-14-2004 02:21 AM
