Methanol has been recently used as an alternative to conventional fuels for internal combustion engines in order to satisfy some environmental and economical concerns. In this paper, the ignition in a high compression ratio SI (spark ignition) methanol engine was studied by using LES (large eddy simulation) with detailed chemical kinetics. A 21-species, 84-reaction methanol mechanism was adopted to simulate the auto-ignition process of the methanol/air mixture. The MIT (minimum ignition temperature) and MIE (minimum ignition energy) are two important properties for designing safety standards and understanding the ignition process of combustible mixtures. The effects of the flame kernel size, flame kernel temperature and equivalence ratio were also examined on MIT, MIE and IDP (ignition delay period). The methanol mechanism was validated by experimental test. The simulated results showed that the flame kernel size, temperature and energy dramatically affected the values of the MIT, MIE and IDP for a methanol/air mixture, the value of the ignition delay period was not only related to the flame kernel energy, but also to the flame kernel temperature. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.