Nitrous Oxide
NOS or Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous Oxide is the cheapest way to add alot of hp. But with it comes many risks. Setups can run from $400 and up. Most come with all the stuff you need including a 10lb bottle of Nos. The Nos itself is the nonflammable compound N2O.
How it makes horsepower:
- By weight the Nos is 36% oxygen compared to the air being 24%. This will allow the engine to burn better.
- Not only that but a liquid is more dense then a gas. So it delivers even more oxygen to the engine
- Nos also has a cooling affect on the engine. It can cool an engine at least 65 to 75 degrees. And you can about 1 or 2 hp for every 20 or so degrees lost.
How does it work?
Nos as I said is normally a nonflammable compound, so you might ask how does it help the engine then. When Nos is injected into the engine, by the 900 psi bottle pressure, it is heated and at about 570 degrees, it breaks down into nitrogen and oxygen. Then the added oxygen is used in the combustion process. If your wondering how it gets to that high of a temperature, well it simple the engine reaches those temperatures easily.
How much do I use?
Normal stock cars can use up to 75 hp or 50% of stock hp setups. For more hp setups the tranny and engine would have to be built up with some stronger materials. Tuned NOS built engines have been able to reach 500hp setups.
Nitrous Oxide Setups
Nos systems come with steel braided high pressure tubes, steel brackets, high pressure 10 lb bottles, injection nossles, ignition retarders, the remote arming switch, wiring and connectors, Nitrous Managment Unit(NMU), vacuum hoses and clamps, and all necessary hardware. The system and what comes in the kit can differ depending on how the extra fuel needed for combustion is injected. The two choices are wet or dry injection.
A Wet Setup
A wet injection system is a system where fuel and Nos are mixed before they are injected. These systems are inject the fuel into the intake. The fuel injected with the Nos is extra fuel and is used in addition with the regular fuel injectors. Injection can occur with nozzles that will inject the mixture somewhere before the throttle body, on the intake manifold. Other systems can inject the mixture through a plate between the throttle body and the intake manifold.
The main problem with this is if the mixture piles up on the hot walls of the intake manifold it can ignite and create huge dangerous problems. Thats what happens when you see hoods exploding off of a car. The fuel is also some-what corrosive and will damage the connectors, so replacements will be needed over time.
A Dry Setup
In a dry setup the extra fuel comes from the regular fuel injectors. Depending on how much Nos you use you can increase the fuel pressure of the stock fuel injectors so they will inject more fuel. But this is limited to how much pressure the injectors can take.
The problem with this setup is that Fuel:Nos ratio will not be even with all the cylinders. So some cylinders much run a little richer or leaner then others.
Problems
When Nos bottles run low they loose pressure. That means less Nos will be injected when you push the button. This will make the engine very rich and risks detonation. This is a problem when trying to find the right fuel pressure when using a dry system. If you set it to low you will run lean and which will cause problems. If ignition retarder does not come with your kit you will have a problem. You will need to delay the ignition for 2 degrees for every 75 hp you add. Spark plugs and wires should be change if using platinum to copper. Platinum flakes at high temperatures. Incase a failure where to occur a copper spark plugs might save your engine. Thats because copper spark plugs are cheaper and they fail sometimes, so if your engine fails because its got too much fuel in the cylinder and theres no spark it would save your pistons. Higher fuel octane must be used to prevent detonation; the companies that make the Nos kits will usually suggest what octane you should use.
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