Finding the benefits of adding
water/methanol injection.
Increasingly the power of an engine is
a goal of any gear-head. Deny that fact, and we’ll take your man card. Whether
your preference is vintage muscle or the new offerings, increasing the power
output of your ride is something that has built multi-million dollar
businesses. One of the leading concerns though when increasing an engine's
power is breaking something. Especially with newer-model cars, many folks are
afraid that adding a power adder could cause something to break, and the cost
to rebuild could be enormous. For some though, increasing engine power is an
ever-expanding goal, breakage be darned. Lucky for us, we were contacted by
Snow Performance, and were informed that Razor’s Edge Motorsports was about to
increase the power of a supercharged, 6.1-powered Challenger by adding one of
Snow’s water/methanol injection kits.
Although misunderstood by many,
water/methanol injection remains a popular upgrade within the high performance
automotive market. For many, it’s hard to believe that injecting water that is
blended with anything into an engine in the quest for more power can actually
be a good idea. But the truth is, water/ methanol injection is beneficial to
all forcibly inducted and naturally aspirated engines—if done properly.
The process involves injecting water and
methanol directly into the engine’s incoming air and fuel mixture. This
injection occurs somewhere before the carburetor or throttle body. But the
effect of gaining power by injecting this blend is not simply a by-product of
the mixture alone. Methanol contains high-octane properties, and that high
octane along with the cooling properties of both the methanol and water, lower
the intake temperature. Depending on the amount of water/methanol injected and
the type of mix used (pure water, pure methanol, or a mix of the two),
substantial gains in actual octane can be achieved. This has the potential to
make 91-octane pump gas seem like 105-116 octane racing fuel. Wouldn’t you be
happy eliminating your dependency on expensive race fuels that can cost upward
of $8-$ 12 per gallon? Although the mixture doesn’t actually increase the
power, this additional octane and cooling effect enables you to run more
aggressive timing (or boost) without increasing the chance of detonation.
Depending how spark-knock limited the application, this tuning capability has
the potential to increase horsepower and torque output by 10 to 25 percent when
properly used.
This
has the potential to make 91-octane pump gas seem like 105-116 octane racing
fuel.
Although computer-controlled vehicles have
the ability to recognize the cooler air charge temperatures and add some timing
automatically, to get the most out of water/methanol injection you must adjust
the tuning parameters of your engine to get the most out of it. You can adjust
your air/fuel ratio with tuning, and this enables you to run the same A/F as
you would with a pump-gas tune with less fuel added to the fuel map of your
engine management. Look at it like this, when the system is spraying the
mixture into the engine, the addition of methanol is able to make up for the
fuel that gets taken away during the tuning process. What this means is that
you end up with about same 12.5:1 or so A/F ratio, while using less fuel. With
the added octane properties, you also increase knock resistance.
Although
computer-controlled vehicles have the ability to recognize the cooler air
charge temperatures and add some timing automatically, to get the most out of
water/methanol injection you must adjust the tuning parameters of your engine
to get the most out of it.
The proper mixture of water and methanol is
50/50, although ratios of anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent methanol work
well, and deliver excellent octane gains and cooling. The 50/50 ratio has been
demonstrated to be the best for intake charge air cooling, detonation control,
and safety. It should be noted that 100 percent methanol is easy to ignite and
burns with a nearly invisible flame. For that reason, any ratio that far
exceeds the recommended 50/50 ratio can be hazardous.
Snow Performance’s water/methanol injection
systems are designed for both carbureted and fuel-injected applications. When
used on relatively stock compression normally aspirated engines (10.0:1
compression or less), Snow Performance says you can gain up to 15 hp since you
can now increase timing, and achieve more effective air/fuel ratios and
increase gas mileage. In naturally aspirated higher-compression engines (10.5:1
or more), Snow Performance’s water/methanol injection system allows the use of
pump fuel in most situations, making it a more budget-friendly alternative to
race gas.
Snow
Performance’s water/methanol injection systems are designed for both carbureted
and fuel-injected applications.
