I have a 98 coupe with 99K miles, auto, with some minor mods...B2 Vararam, Exhaust, otherwise its pretty much stock. I have been kicking around the idea of adding a Nitrous system, but know very little about them. Any suggestion as to what type to get (wet or dry). How much should I expect to pay for a good system ? Will this be too much for a car with this many miles to handle ? Will I have to upgrade other components to handle the additional power. Any comments or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Retired SF SGM

 

Me personally, I hate nitrous. That stuff has blown more motors than turbos and s/c's combined. To each his own though...

 

You have no idea what your saying do you? Have you ever SEEN someone do this?? Nitrous is very safe, especially with today's electronics to deal with ignition timing. Anything under 125HP or so will be no problems. Wet systems are always the safest, more fuel is always good when you spray. Small boosts (75HP or so) your injectors should be able to supply enough fuel to keep up with the extra Oxygen from the Nitrous from a dry system.

Get a book on Forced induction, there are many. Blowers/turbos and NOX really all do EXACTLY the same thing-add more air than the engine could ever pull in on it's own. You'll have EXACTLY the same problems with all 3 without enough fuel and correct timing. Nitrous systems are easier to tweak since all you do is use different jets. Nice systems with all the goodies can be had for less than $1k (System itself, bottle heater, blow off setup, remote arming/bottle opener). Do it-they are fun and your car is stock the rest (99.99%) of it's life, had one on my last Vette.

 

anything that pushes down harder on the pistons will find the weakest link your car is in reasonable mechanical cond. should have NO problem what so ever put it on you won't regret it.one thing nitrious does and does VERY GOOD As soon as youu hit that botton whatever power level you have in at that time is INSTANTLY released unlike turbo or S/C WHERE YOU HAVE TO BUILD BOOST HIT THAT BUTTON AND GOOD NIGHT IRENE ITS PRETTY IMPRESSIVE EVEN AT THE LOWEST POWER LEVEL next time a non car person wants a ridehit the juice they'll be impressed

 

If you need to build the motor to handle NOS, really depends on how you intend to drive the car. If you are planning on driving it hard, and making numerous passes per year at the strip, then you should take care of the bottom end accordingly. NOS certainly is cheap HP, but it's never been my personal choice. To get REAL experienced opinions, post up on the FI/NOS section.

 

You can actually spray up to a 150hp dry shot on a stock LS1 with not much more than a basic kit and a good window switch. The trick is to use 2 fogger nozzles aimed right at the descreened maf sensor. The cold nitrous spray instantly richens up the mixture. The LS1 computer is advanced enough to handle the process. The stock injectors are ok. Go to the LS1 forums and ask for some guideance. The window switch will allow you to bring on the spray only at WOT and at a set RPM as well as allow for no spray during the A4 shifts to protect the trans. You can also set the window switch to lock out in first gear to stop from roasting street tires.

 

I know exactly what I'm saying partner...and yes I've SEEN exactly what I say. I would venture to guess I've been around more motors than yourself over the years. Yes, Nitrous kits have come a long way over the past 15-20 years, and they are safer than before...but I still don't care for the stuff. It's cheap HP, but I will always prefer my vehicles to be all throttle with no bottle.

 

 

a blower/ turbo is no more "safe" than a properly set up nitrous system. An improperly setup nitrous kit is what gives nitrous a bad name.
Go buy a turbo/supercahrger kit and run too much boost and knock to hell and you will get the same results as an improperly setup nitrous system.. chipped pistons/ boom.
Nitrous is a great way to make power, and if you use it a lot you will actually end up spending MORE on it than a blower/ turbo setup (filling bottles over and over again). I have been tossing the idea around of putting a fairly large,150, shot on my car to increase the power. One thing you have to be weary of is a faulty noid. Check your noids regularly as a faulty noid will wreak some havoc.

 

i have a couple of kits in stock wet and dry so i think u should lol

 

Been fooling around with nitrious a long time bought my first nitrious kit sometime around 1980 no such thing as NOS back then only kit avail. was Marvin Miller and mail order as we know it today was non existant local speed shops knew very little had to go to a boat yard on long Island to get it $400 back then was a ton of $$ but 5 tenths improvement in the 1/4 mile it was a bargin.I've used it sucessfully for years there are a lot of accepted practices that are in fact bad practices, heating the bottle,while keeping bottle pressure consisant will help with repeatable times unless you change the bottle every run this is not true as there is less n2o in the bottle the pressure drop increases successively with each pass.With a heated bottle pressure is at its highest with the inital hit hundreds of pounds of pressure on the n2o side while 6 to 8 lbs on the fuel side And to make matters worse the n2o side is purged,think that first second of fuel delivery gets to the combustion chamber before the n2o? (you must make sure that you have not only enough fuel pres but vol.too) get a little ring flutter each time that happens before you know it rings break or ring lands break and it snowballs.I don't heat the bottle to be consistant I use a 20 lb bottle and whatever it runs that particular day it will be consistant and to stay that way i refill when it is 1/2 empty.On the fuel side before i use the system that particular day i activate the system with bottle turned off so there is no fuel sputter with the inital hit.Always use a throttle switch and activate at full throttle that should be the only time the system is activated, hitting the button with throttle closed is a no no a button on the shifter or anywhere else is a safety issue in addition to being in consistant.Full throttle activation is the safest and easiest on the car.Always take out the reccommended timing i always take out 4 to 6 deegrees more the car will slow down an insignificant amount vs the risk of detonation which can be catastrophic in a nitrious car.while it is true many nitrious cas have blown up it is more because one small slip and you're toast plus the fact its cheap vs a turbo and turbo or supercharger requires experienced mechanic or assistance of, where anybody w/a hammer and screwdriver can put nitrious on a car so the combo of youth ,innexperience and unforgiving nature of the beast is receipe for disaster...Before fuel injection came along those turbo cars sure did have their share of engine failures and roots supercharger had their probs. with half the power made was siphoned off just to run itself.to say I hate nitrious it blows cars up is just untrue it it a safe and cost effective alternative to a turbo or superchargerAnd lastly while a 500 hp hit of nitrious sounds nice there comes a point of dimishing returns where it becomes un controllable and instead of burning in a controlled condition across the piston top it explodes.My opinion is 75 to 100 hp shot could be used everyday with no problems and if you gotta step up 175 to 200 while harder on the car is safe also. Nitrious is a safe way to dramatically increase hp just beware of the pitfalls cause it won't forgive you

 

nitrous is safe. ive dealt with it since i was 12 years old. (my stepdad had a 150 wet kit on a 331 SBF with a jacobs mastermind) anyway, what i learned right away is not to skrimp on anything. get the best stuf, get all the safety bells and whistles. and go have fun without any worries. that engine lived for 60K miles on a 150 shot. it was eventually replaced with a vortech S-trim.. and after two blown headgaskets (i was young then and didnt know any better, and apparently he was dumb) he finally blew goold ol' #7 to hell and back, and took some of #8 off as well. AFTER going to the supercharger, it lived only 2K miles so the dude who says supers and turbos are SOOO much safer than N2O, is of course entitled to his opinion, but i disagree - theyre all about the same. what it amounts to, is he doesnt understand nitrous.. most likely becasue he hasnt taken the time to. its pretty simple actually, especially in your application. anybody who is competent enough to deal with one can easily deal with any of the others. i've since grown up and learned from his and other's mistakes, and piled onto my knowledge and understanding.. i suggest you do a little research, as you are kind of doing now as well.

my system would have
-WOT [I]and[I] window switch

-either a timing retard or tuned to run N2O all the time which is kind of a dog due to the pulled timing. i know a guy running the FJO to control his solenoids and first gear lockout, and is using.. i think its a timing retard from LPE. he LOVES it.. use to have to run his car around on the street with 18 deg total timing (8.8:1 DCR on 93 octane), now thats not necessary

-also, dyno tune has a wideband 02 setup that you can program to kill (it interrupts the ground for the solenoids) the nitrous system if you reach a certain A/F ratio. so if your fuel pressure drops for whatever reason or the air is better than you expected and your going lean.. say 12.5:1, the safety net kicks in and it kills the nitrous, no blown motor, you live to race another day. which.. id set mine more around 12.0 or lower depending on the application and dosage.

-you can run a FPSS as well, but it pretty much does the same thing as the dynotune setup, just not as well. the A/F ratio cutoff is a catch ALL, as in it doesnt care waht the cause of the issue is, it just shuts it down regardless.. the FPSS only shuts down due to fuel pressure.

-bottle heaters and stuff are just a luxury, but i always run them anyhow

-double check on the capacity of your fuel pump, it may be time to upgrade.

so this adds up to over a grand if you do it "right" per my recipe, but its also safe.. and if you're decently competent, or trust someone who is its almost fool proof. LSx's can take 100-150 all day long over and over.

i have nothing at all against dry kits if you upgrae your fuel system and know what you're doing, in fact.. in some applications i prefer them.

do it.

 

Here is my basic info for you. Do a compression and leakdown test before you do anything. If all is well, then you can spray the car. Make sure you have money for a new motor (just in case) Nitrous will not hurt your motor any harder than a SC or turbo. It does create higher cylinder pressure than the two, but your car is not consistently going into boost like a turbo/sc car. I would go with a wet kit, do a 100 shot, and call it a day. You probably won't need to upgrade your fuel pump, but double check. Change the plugs, and have a tuner mess with the timing. Make sure you get all of the safety products, window switch, WOT switch, etc etc. Good kit installed with all the goodies will be a little under 2 grand.