Anybody have any experience with methanol/water injection instead of an intercooler?

Specifically the one's offered by www.snowperformance.net

These units are supposed to work well to prevent detonation . Do they wash off the oil from the cylinder walls and if so can't this be compensated for by using an oil stabilizer like Duralube or Slick50 and changing the oil every 2000 miles?

I'm thinking of instaling one of these when I up my Powerdyne to 6 psi for added security.

Thanks in advance.

 

I am using water injection in lieu of an intercooler. My friend Bob Kennedy makes a nice kit. www.kennedysdynotune.com

Rich Krause

 

That kit looks interesting.
I live in the Buffalo area too.
Is your car a daily driver?
I put 20-25000 miles a year on mine.

 

5-6,000m/y. I use it three seasons, but not every day. Water/alcohol injection is really great stuff for a blower car. I run 17psi on pump fuel, and water is one of the main reasons this is possible, though there is more to it than that.

Beware of really cheap water injection systems. A decent pump that can generate enough pressure and voume reliably will cost nearly $100 alone, even when bought in bulk. So ask yourself what the quality of components is in a $250 dollar kit?

Rich Krause

 

So you've had no problems with cylinder wash running 17 psi?
I'm not planning on running more than 6 or maybe 8 psi if I use a modified mustang pulley on my powerdyne as thats the limit.
My car's a daily driver that can cruise at 2000 rpm@ 70 mph with the 3.73 Gearvendor .78 OD combo.(3.73-2.91)
I don't race but do have big leadfoot in dry conditions.
The snowperformance kit seems like a good deal with the high pressure pump and supplied reservoir for 300.00 or 400.00 with adjustable delivery.
I've read a lot of posts on the boards and haven't seen much about these Water Injectors which seem like a much easier and superior solution to detonation than fitting and piping in space taking air/air intercooler.
Your experience with Water Injection is encouraging me so far.

Dan

 

Water and intercooling serve somewhat different functions. If you want me to elaborate, I can do so later. But basically, water adds relatively little hp but protects against detonation. Intercooling will add hp primarily and also helps prevent detonation.

There is absolutely no evidence of abnormal wear on my motor or any of the others I have seen that run water. I don't know about the kit you're referring to, but I can vouch for Kennedy's.

Rich Krause

 

Ditto what Rich said. Alcohol will provide a small gain in IAT, nowhere near what a decent intercooler would yield. However, it is very good at preventing detonation, especially with alcohol. Kennedy's kit is good. Carrol's kit USED to be good. I PMed you with more info 2cub.

 

Yes I'm more concerned with preventing detonation.
The alchohol soaks up heat as it expands thereby cooling the intake charge.
An intercooler increases the density of the charge by cooling out the heat caused by compressing it.
I was looking on eBay for intercoolers and this one looked interesting.
Its big, the inletss and outlets are just over 3"

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEBWA:IT

Im gonna go with the water injection for my application as plumbing this intercooler in is more work than I want to do for 6 psi.
So far we.ve turned up 4 injection companies so I'm going to look at them all more carefully before I decide which one to go with.

 

This was interesting too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEBWA:IT

 

WS6 what does PM'd me mean. I haven't seen any info in my email box.

 

It's called a private message. The website should have alerted you, but to check it you have to click on "user cp". Then you click on private messages. Then open the pulldown menu to include the past few days. It should have a private message from where I broke down some of the basics of alcohol injection.

 

Ok, I had to scroll all the way to the bottom to see where it says if I have any messages.
Should be at the top.

 

I have been using the STS kit:
Methanol/Water STS

It has been allowing me to run 7psi on stock fuel.

 

www.smcenterprises.com

 

Thanks Guys

So along with www.alkycontrol.com I have 4 suppliers to chose from.
Looks like 450.00 will get me a lot.