Definatly keep this mature.. there are more than a few mods and supermods watching this thread VERY closely.

Now then, aside from the GrandNational crowd, I have heard of very few other people using water injection. I do know that in one of the first Ultimate Sport Compact car challenges as put on by Sport Compact Car Magazine, somebody adapted one of these systems to another car. The problem they had, alcohol is flamible, they actually had to turn up the boost to avoid running to rich.

Something else not mentioned about Alcohol. Water removes heat by evaporation. In the hot confines of a pressurised intake and cylinder, it evaporates off VERY quicky, taking heat with it. Alcohol evaporates even faster. MUCH faster. If you were to pour water on your hand on a hot day, it would cool slightly, if you poured denatured alcohol on your hand, it would feel chilled because of how fast it evaporates off.

Which brings me to a question I have had for a while. I like water cooling on an Intercooler. Especially since I am planning on using a sidemount (trust me) instead of a front mount. The problem I have with water spraying on a cooler.. what to do in winter when the temps dip below freezing. I do not want to spray glycol as that is toxic, would it be possible to do a 50/50 mix with alcohol?

 

I'm sending Xorro a PM about this thread, lets see what she's got to say about her experiences w/ FIWI.

 

It would eliminate knocking in certain conditions.. your right.

Either way.. if WI is actually helping the situation that much, that engine has other issues.
Either the turbo/supercharger are way out of their efficiency range, car needs way better tuning, or the combustion chamber has waaaayyy too many hot spots.

Regardless.. WI should not have to be used in a proper setup. Its used in a setup to save money and to avoid switching a turbo, sc, or redesigning a setup.

Its just a half assed way of doing the right thing.
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i agree...
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BTW

just to note.. she has a supercharger without an intercooler and she was raising the boost.
WI was the only way she could cool down the air temps. A proper s/c setup with that amount of boost would have an intercooler. Unfortunately her alpine setup had the sc welded onto the intake manifold, which would make that virtually impossible.

So...
It goes back to what me and random where saying.

 

Personally, I think you guys are saying the same thing. Essentially:

For those that are trying to get a street setup to work, but are running into detonation problems, but don't have the cash \ intelligence to get the setup to work properly without WI, then it becomes a cheap, viable option.

I agree with the above statement. Its much like using a decompression gasket, its slightly harmful to the engine, but it eliminates something more harmful... detonation.

 

Why wouldn't that work? I was always under the assumption that you would spray the intercooler, not the actual charge air.

So I guess this is something that you have to keep replacing when you run out. Could this be on the same lines as a CryO2 system.

 

he was saying that using water to cool the charge air by spraying the intercooler is a good idea, while spraying it directly in charge isnt such a good idea.

if you wanted something you could spray on the intercooler and not have to worry about replacing, well then you are looking for an air-water intercooler.

 

You mean water-air intercooler. There is no air-water intercooler. wink1.gif

And spraying mists into a water-air intercooler wouldn't do much, b/c W-A ICs itself is a unit that uses water in a way similar to the radiator, which you prolly already know. And I think W-A ICs are just normal air-to-air ICs encased in a box for the water reservoir.

Spraying water on the IC probably won't be as effective as systems that spray nitrous/CryO2 to the IC. It may decrease charge temp by a couple of degrees, but it probably won't be as effective as nitrous or CO2. Maybe cold water mixed w/a saline solution to hold the temp at a much lower temp than normal, but it may also expedite rusting, depending on the type of IC you have.

 

bah, details.

yeah, i know spraying into a water-air intercooler is well, impossible(or something thinking.gif ). it is a A-A intercooler in a box pretty much with intake and exhaust ends for water at each end. the water also flows through a heat exchanger somewhere else to keep the water from staying hot(sometimes, the heat exchanger is not needed though). i was just saying go the extra yard and get a water-air intercooler setup if you are worried about continuously replacing water in a misted air-air IC system.

i dont know about the saline idea. it wouldnt help that much, and there are prolly to many bad sideeffects. rustin on the IC, like you said. i bet it would also tear up whatever type of pump and lines you use to push it through the nozzles(oh, and they would get clogged too.)

 

Actually, spraying water ONTO an air to air intercooler is a great idea.. why do you think the WRC cars do it?

It would also work on an air to water intercooler.. except that air to water is already more efficent than air to air. Air to air cannot take a charge temperature below ambiant temp... air to water can. It also resists heat soaking better. Spraying water on the radiator of an air to water intcooler will just make it shed heat all that faster.

 

b4 this goes further theres seems to be 2 different types of water sprays being talked about. sprays on the intercooler(good), and sprays elsewhere(bad). correct?

i mean every scc says to spray water on the intercooler.....