Water and Methanol Injection

[thevet]

Has anyone used a water-methanol injection system such as Snow Performance's stage 1 boost cooler as a means of both "chemically" intercooling a S/C engine and also increasing the power? It seems relatively easy to fit from the instructions, but so far I only have the manufacturers info to go on and that can always be rather biased. If anyone has used such a system was it easy to install and maintain, and did it give a worthwhile performance boost? Any comments would be very welcome.

[chuntington101]

yes mate loads of people in the US are sn meth jecton t elpruce inaetmps ad increase the octane of the fuel a point or two! it works really well!

also if you mix it 50/50 with water then you have a very good anti-detination mixture to! i think the kit mentioned is pretty good but also take a look on www.corvetteforum.com and ask few qrstions! lod of info on this sort of thing!

thanks chris.

[mkoch1]

I use www.alkycontrol.com/ kit and run 100% meth. So far it seems to work great.

mark

[Boosted Ls1]

I've used water injection and love it. It worked really well but I wouldn't over do it. Also, if using methanol injection be aware you need quality fittings throughout, stainless I think because methanol is corrosive. Lastly make sure it's fully leak proof. A friend had a methanol fire at night in his boosted TR8 engine bay and afaik he couldn't see any flames despite the bonnet distorting and the paint flaking off. By the time he realised what was wrong it was to late, his car was scrap after that.

Boosted.

[thevet]

Thanks for the replies and info, the story of the invisible fire is rather disturbing though, and suggests perhaps 50:50 mix is a safer bet, but what about effect on cooling and then performance? what boost are you running? Did it alter the carb requirements for fuel? Cheers Tim

[chuntington101]

i think it would be best to tune for the water/meth mix, but if you dont i cant see it making a huge diffrence! and if you dont want to tune then just run water. but the whole point of these things is to allow you to run a little more boost safely, and that requiers tuning! lol

Chris.

[mkoch1]

In my case I don't have an IC. I had the car tuned for 5.5 psi, then added the meth. This way the meth is not needed so if it doesn't spray for some reason I am not risking the motor. I guess that kind of defeats the purpose or running meth to run higher boost. In my set up even though it's not needed it still dropped the intake temp like a rock, increased the over all octane and made 20+ more hp at the same boost in back to back runs.

Mark

[Boosted Ls1]

thevet said:

Thanks for the replies and info, the story of the invisible fire is rather disturbing though, and suggests perhaps 50:50 mix is a safer bet, but what about effect on cooling and then performance? what boost are you running? Did it alter the carb requirements for fuel? Cheers Tim

The invisible fire is how it was conveyed to me and that's quite frightening. I used 9:1 compression and boosted through a holley. It was ok for 9 psi with a squirt of water at peak torque. That was fine. The water was squirted into the compressors so I guess it was pretty well mixed up before it hit the carb. The compressor outlets were only a few inches away from the chokes. Nowadays I build to a lower compression in the first place so my current ls1 is on 7:1 and I hope to run 15-20 psi with or without a squirt of water. We shall see.

Boosted.

[thevet]

I hadn't considered the possibility of the water/meth injection failing and then screwing the engine which is a slightly worrying thought, but as my engine is already 9.5:1 I can't increase the boost safely without some form of charge cooling, unless I go for a rebuild to drop the compression a bit. I guess I can rig up some sort of monitor system to sound alarm bells if the injection fails. Can't afford to rebuild the motor just yet so maybe best to wait until that can be set up and drop the compression at the same time........decisions decisions!

[chuntington101]

thevet, mate guys in the sttes are running over 10psi on bone stock LS1/2 blocks! as long as the fuel system and tuning are up tothe job you will be ok!

and some are running upwards of 700bhp through them to! this is a hell of a lot of power for a stock motor to take! but thet seem to manage it!

but the meth/water injection is alwys wise just to make sure!!!

Chris.