Water injection experience and thoughts...

[Gareth]

Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone out there has any experience with water injection? Looking for thoughts as to the pro/cons, anyone got one on a street car? Whats it like to live with? Is reliability an issue? We are contemplating a snow preformane kit for the race car ( vt v6 n/a ) so we can run more timing safely. Do they work as well as they say?

Cheers.

[vlad01]

I wouldn't bother unless you are running heaps of boost an no intercooler.

being N/A, nothing to worry about.

[Holden202T]

I guess the N/A part of it depends on the compression of the motor .... if you were running high compression that's a little too much for pump fuel than water injection would probably be of use, but not as much as it would with boost.

even without anything like high compression or boost, it will still drop the temperature of the inlet charge if the nozzle sprays a fine mist, so it would have to have some benefit, even if its only 1hp ...

I know most of the kits are activated via boost, so might be harder to get it to activate if your not running boost ....

as far as the kit goes, my brother has one that hes planning to fit to a turbo v6, it looks reasonable, but that's about all I can tell you thus far

[vlad01]

currently the engine is stock i believe.

[Gareth]

Yeah it is - pretty worn out at that... Its used in autocross and spends 10mins at a time under high load, maybe if we could turn up the timing, create more torque, we wouldn't need to work it so hard? and also add reliability? It would be interesting to see a before and after egt....

The unit we are looking to fit from snow performance is maf controlled.

[TdracerTd]

Why not just go e85? Set of l67 injectors replace some rubber hoses, maybe a surge tank and knock off 044 and you're away.

[krusty]

I think the air speed through the throttle and runners is a bit fast to catch much heat which may negate the injection which would possibly dilute octane anyways.

More fuel in the tune would cover timing but would more timing make more power or create more heat? Logs will have to answer that or on the dyno if you use one

[Gareth]

Thanks Krusty, I think we'll fit one up and hit the dyno for some testing. Was hoping someone had real world experience with these, if you read up on them they seem to capable of a lot... (race fuel characteristics from pump fuel??..)

Thanks TDracer, I'd love to play with E85 but the nearest servo is 40kms, not worth the hassle

I do wonder why we don't see any F1 or engine masters competitors using them though

[Charlescrown]

I think a new set of rings is the first thing to be done. There are a lot of false claims with water injection. All manufacturers design their engines to get maximum pressure on the piston a (correct me if I am wrong) at 20 degrees after TDC. Modern engines are fast burn to achieve this as quickly as possible. Water injection slows down the burn rate by putting obstacles (water) between the fuel molecules to slow the burn rate down to hopefully eliminate detonation or at least delay it to a point where it is so small it won't do any engine damage. In the olden days yes it had a place but not now unless you have the magic weapon BOOST then it can help. I think the E85 is the best bet under these conditions otherwise 50/50 water Methanol is also a good choice.