Water/methanol injection?
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 115
Likes: 0
From: Middleburg FL
Water/methanol injection?
Has anyone had any experience with water/methanol injection? If so what are the benefits, drawbacks, horsepower gains and whatever other information anyone might have? Thanks in advance. :thumbs:
Race Director
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 11,535
Likes: 115
From: Arlington TX
Re: Water/methanol injection? (JACSZ06)
About methanol, never used water injection...
First of all the drawbacks: it would take major modificatoins to the C5 to make it Methanol compatible. Methanol eats through normal fuel lines, it eats through aluminum. Only a few cars on the market have fuel pumps compatible with methanol (seen those flex fuel badges on the back of some Fords? those are compatible have used them out of I think it was a Taurus) You also have to way richen he system as it takes alot of methanol compared to gas (almost double).
The advantages of methanol is its heat of vaporization. When it is sprayed out of the injectors it gets cold. We used M85 (15 percent gasoline 85 percent methanol which is safer because you can see it burn unlike pure methanol) at school in our turbo charged race cars. With M85 there was no need for a intercooler because the methanol cooled the incoming charge. Also methanol likes high compression. We were running 7-9psi of boost on an 11:1 compression engine.
However my last year of school we went the non-turbo charged route and determined there was no advantage to methanol if we were not boosting and used gas.
[Modified by rgregory, 9:35 AM 4/18/2003]
First of all the drawbacks: it would take major modificatoins to the C5 to make it Methanol compatible. Methanol eats through normal fuel lines, it eats through aluminum. Only a few cars on the market have fuel pumps compatible with methanol (seen those flex fuel badges on the back of some Fords? those are compatible have used them out of I think it was a Taurus) You also have to way richen he system as it takes alot of methanol compared to gas (almost double).
The advantages of methanol is its heat of vaporization. When it is sprayed out of the injectors it gets cold. We used M85 (15 percent gasoline 85 percent methanol which is safer because you can see it burn unlike pure methanol) at school in our turbo charged race cars. With M85 there was no need for a intercooler because the methanol cooled the incoming charge. Also methanol likes high compression. We were running 7-9psi of boost on an 11:1 compression engine.
However my last year of school we went the non-turbo charged route and determined there was no advantage to methanol if we were not boosting and used gas.
[Modified by rgregory, 9:35 AM 4/18/2003]
Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 6,071
Likes: 297
From: Savannah GA
Cruise-In IV Veteran
Re: Water/methanol injection? (rgregory)
However my last year of school we went the non-turbo charged route and determined there was no advantage to methanol if we were not boosting and used gas.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 115
Likes: 0
From: Middleburg FL
Re: Water/methanol injection? (aaaa)
Are there any advantages in putting it on a normally aspirated engine? Let's say you have a supercharged vehicle with an intercooler. Would it be possible to use the water/methanol injection, in fine mist form, to create lower intake temperatures even with an intercooler? Has anyone tried this setup on any type of vehicle (supercharged or NA)?
Racer
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 331
Likes: 0
From: Spring Texas
Re: Water/methanol injection? (JACSZ06)
We used to use them years ago. It was ran thru the PCV system.
All it was was a plastic cannister. 2 parts water, 1 part methanol.
the cannister had a small hose routed from the cover to the bottom inside allowing air to come into the cannister and make it bubble and another hose on the top allowing the vapors to be pulled off by way of a tee in the PCV line.
.......The vaccum pulled by the pcv line would cause incoming air and bubbling and allow the resulting vapors to be pulled up the pcv line.
....these were kits sold in the 70's.......They allowed use of lower octane gas and kept the plugs cleaner......
other benefits........I just don't know...... :flag
All it was was a plastic cannister. 2 parts water, 1 part methanol.
the cannister had a small hose routed from the cover to the bottom inside allowing air to come into the cannister and make it bubble and another hose on the top allowing the vapors to be pulled off by way of a tee in the PCV line.
.......The vaccum pulled by the pcv line would cause incoming air and bubbling and allow the resulting vapors to be pulled up the pcv line.
....these were kits sold in the 70's.......They allowed use of lower octane gas and kept the plugs cleaner......
other benefits........I just don't know...... :flag
