Well, it seems like our last two Saturdays of automotive hacks have been keeping you interested, so we’re going to keep it up. By popular demand: Here is a guide to building your own nitrous oxide injection system. The nitrous oxide molecule has a better oxygen/nitrogen ratio than normal air so it is more useful for the combustion process. The site describes all of the components you will have to gather to build a fully functional system and has instructions for modifying stock parts for better performance. Nitrous is really hard to use properly and I can’t imagine someone putting one of these together without some experience with a commercial unit first. Nitrous can lead to really high cylinder pressures and temperatures; so, be careful or you’ll just end up with an aluminum foundry.
[thanks XyTec]
this is cool and all, but i don’t drive.
perhaps… make this a weekly thing? Auto Saturdays… hmm, works for me.
hmmm, but this is just the burgerman page, shows up first thing on a google search for “diy nitrous.” oh well, it’s a good page, just was hoping for something a little more homebrew…
Don’t mean to rag on an excellent hack, but i’m going to clairfy a couple of things on nitrous oxide systems. I ran small zex nitrous kit in my tiburon (50 shot).
First, he was almost correct in why people use it… It has a better oxygen density than normal air, not oxygen/nitrogen ratio. The nitrogen is just along for the ride. I guess you could argue that air 78% in nitrogen… but blah. Nitrous oxide just contains about 70% more oxygen per square inch than normal air.
Second, he didn’t mention this, but it’s a good thing to throw in here: Contrary to popular belief, nitrous oxide will NOT burn. N20 is in all reality the ashes of burnt nitrogen. It supports the burning of over substances… At 572
This guy lives in my hometown….
nothing constructive – that is all…
Except he doesnt mind helping you out by email if you attempt to add nitrous to a moped (successfully in the end i might add!!!)
Nitrous moped? That is a terrifying idea. For the love of god, why?
Don’t follow this guy’s design, you are liable to kill yourself. He advocates using non-spec components for very critical items. He is using a regular ball valve instead of the proper safety multi-turn valve with siphon tube. Also, modifying solenoid valve “for 1000psi” is crazy. There is a reason why you can buy a dozen nitrous kits for $500 or less, and it includes the proper bottle, valve, solenoids, hose, and all the mechanical items you need.
its not meant to be safe/sane/rational, its supposed to be cool. die like a real geek!
i used to rig up nitrous injector systems in college– all it takes is a good whip cream canister, and hoo-wee what fun, you take off like a rocket and be at like 100 mph in two seconds. sometimes it would make your voice drop because of the coldness of the gas on your vocal cords… oh wait… you people are using this stuff in your cars? nevermind…:o
Ahhh Brings back some fun times….Fuzzy…but fun times^^^
The bottle he’s using is likely safe. I looked into it before I decided to run a turbo on my bike. Anything from paintball to nitrous bottles have the same rating spec. It’s the valve and seal that makes the big difference from bottle to bottle.
The only exception I have with his design is that he says ‘any *blank* will do’ for a lot of components. If you used a component (valve, solenoid, etc) that was designed for high pressure air (like scuba equipment for example), you instantly have serious trouble on your hands as the seal freezes the instant the liquid nitrous hit it (it gets damn cold when it goes from liquid to gas), breaks into pieces and proceeds to leak nitrous all over the place…hopefully not into the engine…BOOM!
This does look a little unsage… fun, but unsafe. If you are/under supervision of a professional who is used to dealing with this kind of thing, you could do it on the cheap. For anyone else, it might prove less costly (and less life threatening) to buy a NOS kit or similar. Still, if I had the parts, I’d probably be doing this right now :-D
Someone above said about my site…
First, he was almost correct in why people use it… It has a better oxygen density than normal air, not oxygen/nitrogen ratio. The nitrogen is just along for the ride. I guess you could argue that air 78% in nitrogen…
WRONG!
the nitrogen is absolutely essential, as adding just oxygen causes horrendous heat and detonation problems. It increases the thermal mass of the charge, absorbs the heat produced, and expands producing power and is the reason along with the charge cooling effect that nitrous oxide is safe in engines.
And Zex is possibly the worst engineered nitrous system on the market, although cheap, and good enough for very small 50bhp increases normally, but it certainly wouldnt be my choice!
How can I email this websites owner and get him to change the URL to http://www.nitrous.info as the site will be moving to a new proper host soon? Cant see any contact adress.