WATER INJECTION?.....HHHHHMMMMM? One for the almighty "Chris Monster?"

[gtsr515]

In the, I believe late 70's, early 80's, there was a "Cobra 4 cyl." Mustang, ("The King Cobra? was it?") and an article about "water injection" greatly improved the performance of this style engine configuration, anyone recall this, or comments? Or how it applies to any engine configuration?

CHRIS???????????????

UNIT???????????????????

MR. 5 0 ??????????????????????

ANYONE ???????????????????????



Please hurry with your responces, as I will lose 1 tooth an hour until a responce is heard........."Is it safe?"

[jimberg]

Water injection cools the combustion chamber temps so that you can run higher compression or more timing without the dangers of detonation.

[PKRWUD]

Water injection was the poor mans nitrous. It added oxygen to the cobustion chamber, and increased power. It was very dangerous, though, because you can't compress water. There were kits offered by dozens of companies, though, because it was considered affordable, and performance mods were alot fewer back then. I have an Edelbrock water injection system tester around here someplace. I'll see if i can find it, and post a pic or two.

Take care,
-Chris

[gtsr515]

Chris, your answer was consistant with my thoughts, but one thing, was the water actually injected with the A/F charge, geez, that just seems to me that with water in there, wouldn't it just would screw up the fuel (dilute, or taint) and the air and yield "watered down "whateverfuel", I just don't see how it "ignited" to produce "extra" power?

I left half my "brains" at work I guess?

No arguments, just I usually have excellent "understanding" of things and i just don't see how water in your combustion chambers does anything "positive"

later Folks

[MattwantsSpeed]

I actually was looking into this when I had my Mazda MX-6 Turbo, as it has been described, it decreases detonation. It is most commonly mixed with alcohol, commonly called alcohol injection. Alot of guys that have Grand Nationals use this. If I remember correctly, they almost manufactored GN's with the alcohol injection. There was a toggle switch for them and all. I have a couple websites here describing this and a "how-to" build your own. http://www.geocities.com/rad87gn/tech/SteveCkit.html
http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/fuel...lkyrecipe.html
http://www.geocities.com/rad87gn/tech/alcohol.html
Hope these help!!

[PKRWUD]

When used for power, there were different ways of injecting it. It was the same theory as nitrous, adding oxygen, but it wasn't as controlled or as safe as nitrous. I suppose it also have the same side effect of cooling that nitrous has, but that was never discussed when i raced with guys using it, or when it was covered in an engine performance class i took in college 17 years ago. here's a pic of the tester I have. Edelbrock called it Vari-Jection.

Take care,
-Chris

[jimberg]

Chris,

I think it's correct to say that water injection is like nitrous, but only as far as cooling down the air inlet temperature. Water has oxygen in it, of course, but it is too stable to really add any oxygen to the combustion since it doesn't burn. The instant boiling of the water will also add to the expansion of the gases. They have some pretty decent descriptions on how it works around the web. Here's a good one:

http://www.rallycars.com/Cars/WaterInjection.html

[Old Guy with 87 GT]

jimberg and mattwantspeed are right ,water reduces detonation ........i'm not sure about it's aplications for adding power (ie alcohal mix or adding oxegen)....but i do know it can be used in conjunction with other combo's to produce more power -higher compression or higher boost

i had a friend that was using water injection on a turbo eclipse ,he made the system himself with a stock mustang fuel pump and a fuel injector .......he had it set up with a management system to inject water when his management system was set on high boost .....he was able to run alot more boost with it ,around 26 - 28 peak lbs on the stock origanal moter (after market turbo and intercooler).......he managed to get an all wheel drive eclips to run mid 11s with it ......but he did eventualy toast the moter ,he litererly stretched the head bolts ,blew the head gasket ,then when the head gasket blew the moter hydro locked and scored the crank bearings ........he's currently building a stronger moter for the car

[riverrat1952]

My understanding is the water injection cools air and helps lower the possibility of detonation. (Already said) This allows you to do other things that cause detonation like increase boost with higher compression ratios, higher pressure from you turbo/supercharger and/or advancing your timing. The cooling effect also allows more air (oxygen) to be brought into the cylinder because cold air is dense. The price paid by the water molecules taking up air and fuel space is out weighted by this cooling effect, when optimized.

[HotRoddin]

I remember being told by an aviator, that the water injection thing came about with some experimentation they were doing during WWII with fighter planes. His story was, it was used in an emergency for a temporary boost in HP. He also said it usually destroyed the motor very quickly if used. He said it increased the compression ratio by just taking up space in the combustion chamber, as stated you can't compress water, so it effectively made the combustion chamber smaller ???
I have no idea if there is any truth to that story, but the guy that told me that was a P-51 Mustang pilot, and he told a damn good story

Rod

[redsn95vert]

I think you guys are talking about a methanol injection system. It's mostly used for turbo or supercharging setups. What it does is use -20 winter washer fluid to cool the air charge. Usually they are powered by the map sensor so that they are only engaged and spray the intake air under high manifold pressure. I think 5.0 or Muscle Mustangs just did an article on it a month or 2 ago..
hope this helps...