Crazy thought: pure O2 instead of Nitrous??

Hey all,
I'm just getting into the game of gears and I had a wild thought: if nitrous gives and "X" amount of HP increase then would pure oxygen (at a lower amount of course) do the same thing??

I immedately had visions of push rods being blown through the hood and pistons through the block. :eek:

I did a search for anything pertaining to oxygen injection and got nothing that was along my train of thought.

I have access to all kinds of o2 so I was just throwing the thought out to all you n2o2 guys. :bow:

it would do nothing.

Carrying a oxygen tank around would be incredibly dangerous as pure O2 is very volatile...spraying pure O2 into your engine would be an instantaneous explosion, as it would ignite from the heat/combustion process and the flame would travel all the way back to the bottle. A nitrous backfire would be very mild compared to this...this would look like the Fast and the Furious scene where they blow up the green eclipse.

N20 is a very stable molecule...the heat/pressure in the combustion chamber breaks the bond between the nitrogen and the oxygen. The o2 burns and the Nitrogen is a waste gas.
The nitrogen prevents the oxygen from burning while in its base form.

nitrous 101. nitrous expands air. increase air+fuel=hp

Nitrous Oxide is 33% oxygen, which is a higher O2 content then normal air....this allows you to burn more Fuel, with a given A/F ratio....this is why you want to be richer on spray.

HP is made by burning fuel only....more fuel = more HP...but you have to be able to burn the fuel so you need more oxygen.

This is also why weather conditions affect the performance of your car. Density Altitude will also affect the amount of oxygen present in a given amount of air.

Okay, okay....no o2 injection

Thanks for the increase in knowledge you just gave me

well i learned somthing about 02 today.

As the percent O2 in the A/F mixture increases, the burn speed increases. Injecting pure O2 would change the burn rate to the extent it is no longer a burn, it is approaching an explosion. High oxygen levels cause higher combustion temperatures, and the resulting metal temperatures cause the metal to oxidize and start to burn..... sort of like an oxy-acetylene torch. Not something you want in your trunk. Not something you want in your combustion chambers.

As noted above, the presence of the added nitrogen than came along with the N2O is in effect a buffer on the burn rate. It increases the burn rate, but not as much as it would if the same amount of O2 was mixed with less nitrogen.

The "nitrous 101" lesson above is scary.

well it might work if you cranked up the fuel A LOT! but then again what would the difference be from "02" injection to a supercharger????

well it might work if you cranked up the fuel A LOT! but then again what would the difference be from "02" injection to a supercharger????


one would work....and the other would be a car bomb

well it might work if you cranked up the fuel A LOT! ....????

No... because of the burn rate increases with the O2 mole fraction. There are three major chemical components in the combustion chamber.... hydrocarbon vapor, nitrogen and oxygen. When you add "air", you are only adding about 1 part O2, along with roughly 4 parts of N2. When you add "N2O", you are adding about 1 part of O2 with roughly 3 parts of N2. There is a small increase in the O2 mole percent. When you add pure O2, there is no N2 being added, and the mole percent of O2 increases rapidly, increasing the burn rate exponentially. It goes out of control.

I'm not exactly a nitrous guru like a few of the guys here, but no one has mentioned the heat involved with adding pure oxygen. The nitrogen "waste gas" cools the combustion process. You're definately talking about fried pistons tryingt o inject pure O2.

Okay so you're all saying the original post is correct then. Injecting pure O2 is in fact a crazy thought. :D Sorry, I found this post very entertaining and had to join in and have a little fun.

If anyone ever plans on trying this...make sure you have a video camera...I love watching things blow up

I work for a glass company and our furnaces are natural gas and oxygen fired. We converted our first furnace to this sytem back in '91. There are specific materials and cleaning procedures for dealing with pure oxygen. If you try to run oxygen through a system setup for nitrous it will more than likely be a disaster.

The motor may handle it fine but the system won't.

If anyone ever plans on trying this...make sure you have a video camera...I love watching things blow up
YouTube fodder.