Inliners International Forums General Discussion Hi Performance Water Injection vs. Intercooling

What are the pros and cons of these two systems?

It seems to me water injection would probably be a better way to go.. less plumbing, better cooling.. however it seems to me like not a very common option, why not?

I've found some contradicting info on water cooling. Some people say mixing with methanol is best, others say with ethanol.

Any info?

With methanal you will make the most power.
Having both intercooling & water inj. will be the best way to go.I would go with intercooling, it will not run out of water & the pump can't stop working.

Using both is the best. The turbo Buick guys do and get additional boost and power in an engine safe manner. If intercooling is that disagreeable to you, go with methanol injection. www.snowperformance.net He uses water and methanol. However, I've heard very good things about straight methanol. www.alkycontrol.com

Here's a question this raises . . . .

Beside the obvious cooling properties of Methanol, doesn't it also have a slower burn rate than gasoline and therefore would have the same effect as running higher octane fuel ?

Hmmmmm . . . . . .

'Crockett

heres my 2 cents.

I was one of those rice rocket guys, who had spent 8000.00 on my engine just so I could run an 9.32 @ 167mph in a 4cylinder honda civic. Now for the good part, I was running 36psi of boost and liquid to air intercooler and jackson racing water injector. With the water injector I gained 12mph in the quarter mile. Now that I have outgrown the rice rocket age and have gone to a 50 chevy deluxe and a 74 nova that 8000.00 could have gone a long way. INTERCOOLING AND WATER INJECTION GO TOGETHER LIKE BREAD AND BUTTER!

have a great day guys

jack

WOW thats alot of boost.

According to some people, water/methanol injection not only cools the charged air but it:
-makes the engine act like it has higher octane fuel
-cleans out your cylinders

OK, having both intercooling and water injection would be best.. I would imagine even more if you could mist the outside of the intercooler as well..

Now suppose your had to pick ONE, which would allow the higher boost?

Luis

Luis BRW,

Jackson Racing is claiming a reduction in temperature of 100 degrees.

http://www.jacksonracing.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=33358

I'm a little sceptical of that but it may be so. . .

If it is then it has the edge in the cooling department, however if your timing and boost are all set up to operate with H2o/methanol Injection and then your pump, solinoid or water tank fails your in deep s...t !

The intercooler is the reliable method in my opinion.

If some one builds a controller that would retard your timing and reduce your boost in the event of any component failure then that would significantly improve the safety factor.

I have a large Intercooler that I'm setting up to run with a Vortec "S" trim blower on my 250. This thread has really peaked my interest in the H20 injection though !

I have also seen where the guys with the Turbo drag cars spray Nitrous on their intercoolers to chill them.

'Crockett

Here's another quick thought . . . .

If a guy were going to run Nitrous any way, why not add it in ahead of the intercooler and benefit from it's cooling effect on the aluminim intercooler ?

I guess that could cause problems with a Mass air sensor in some EFI applications but it would work on a blow-through or draw-through carb Turbo set-up or a speed density EFI.

'Crockett

If youre going to do one or the other, a properly sized intercooler would be most efficient and give you the best gains. Also, unless youre going to run a high powered drag engine a water/alky injection setup really isnt necissary if you have an intercooler. If you plan on running a draw through setup however, water/alky injection is pretty much your only option. both will help, but on nay kind of street driven vehicle, water injection really wont give you the results that an intercooler will...especially at the horsepower ratings that one would expect from a six.

what happens if a water injection system fails and you get TOO MUCH water sprayed into your intake? someone told me that just a few drops of water in a combustion chamber would kill a piston.. is this true?

Luis

luis,

the water injection is sprayed as a fine mist. It is only used for short bursts. If it were to fail...let me say that I had the one made by jackson racing and it never failed....It would still spray as a mist. A few drops will not kill the piston, just clean it.. Imagine a leaking head gasket, no killed pistons there.

I hope this makes sense

jack

That was an old remidy to clean carbon off your pistons. Fill up a bottle w/water run the warmed up engine to about 3000 RPM & slowly add water.
Worked great. If you ever pulled off a head that had water leaking into the combustion chamber/cylinder area it would be really clean as compared to other adjacent cylinders that no water pumping/leaking into them.

Alky injection may not be mandatory for an intercooled engine, but it does have significant benefits. Some have an LED that blinks when the system is working. That way they know if it isn't.