There's a lot of hype surrounding razor's kit but I dont think it's any better than any of the major kits out there. The only benefit to his kit is that he provides instructions for a somewhat stealth install specifically for a turbo Buick. Actually if you want to just jump on the bandwagon or not engage much thought into the alky process, keep it simple, its probably the kit for you.
I think I'm probably more familiar with how his kit works, and how alky injection works in general than most. I have had his kit apart I have bench tested it.. I know how it works. it does a job but I would hardly call it over engineered or even say that it does its job very well. In fact it is well well well behind what the other alky systems are capable of in terms of technology. Razor just has a strangle hold on this forum and though I harbor no ill will toward him or his products, I think that he is simply resting on his laurels. I would be the first one to commend him if he stepped things up a few notches.
Any thread that comes up about alky kits is the same, little technological info and a lot of bandwagon.
When you absolutely depend on your alcohol kit to work you start to notice the shortcomings, and I have personally had a kit from him that worked intermittently. If I wasn't keenly observant as to the warning signs I might have driven over my crank. He was very gracious and provided me with a new kit but it was quite obvious that his stuff was being left behind and that there were issues that have not been discussed.
Perhaps the absolute most major issue is the evaporation or siphoning of primed alky lines on a highway driven vehicle. Here in California this is a major problem since we tend to cruise on a freeways for extended periods of time. Perhaps solenoids could alleviate this problem, maybe insulating the lines may help. As for now after some time on a free way I have to prime my alcohol system. I have had several pumps and have disassembled them and they are not internally leaking. If it were a pump issue the system would lose its prime over night which it does not do.
Externally is another story. Every pump has eventually leaked and my methanol is from sealed 5 gallon drums from well known fuel suppliers (so I don't think contamination is a major issue) . I have come up with work arounds to seal my pumps at least temporarily (though my fixes have held so far)
As far as tuning goes, I would hardly call the razor kit the racers choice considering the alternatives, you have only one input with the razor kit, boost. This can make transitional tuning very difficult if you don't have an efi system that furnishes you with good work arounds.
There are other kits out there that use more than one input and are scalable. For example, from a roll, full throttle kick down, you will come up on boost very fast and a transitional lean condition is likely to occur since the pump will only react after it has seen boost and has overcome internal inertia, started pumping, and has moved a column of fluid out of your alcohol nozzles, and that alcohol arrives at your cylinders.
By then, its too late, you probably already hit 25 psi at your map sensor, and THEN the alcohol pump reacts. Not good. If for example you had an rpm input you could conceivably anticipate these types of situations and have alcohol flowing before boost hits your map sensor. That's just one example.
I actually attempted a work around with a WOT microswitch that was more or less a brute force fix that ended up making me to rich on a standard launch.
If you do a search on the alky forum you'll find a rather long thread where these things were discussed (and many more issues) when one of the other alky manufacturers was bashed for no reason.
I don't run alky because it makes a little difference for me. It quite simply is responsible for all of the power I make period. I run twin M15 nozzles 30 psi of boost, a gen II translator with wideband correction, and nitrous spooling the turbo. I absolutely depend on it flowing. If it weren't for the GEN II providing me with much better fuel control than stock type chip setups, I would still be pulling my hair out over transitional knock due to the inadequacies of an inconsistent aux fuel system (the alky kit). Fortunately the GEN II compensates with wide band correction which is really critical when pump response time can be behind depending on the situation.
I think a lot of people don't run into problems because:
Number one they don't run a whole lot of boost so knock suppression with alky is not absolutely immediately critical.
They don't recognize knock, especially transitional because believe it or not, scanmaster won't show you a lot of the knock you are getting. Your knock sensor is just a microphone tuned for a specific range, it's not perfect. I can't tell you how many cars I have ridden in that were knocking under boost and the owner was none the wiser. Surprisingly a lot of people don't know what knock even sounds like.
three, I think people run really conservative timing with alky (whether thats on purpose or just because they purchased an "alky" chip with subsequently low timing is another issue)
four, a lot of folks just don't know any better. This is a hobby to have fun and some of us get really into the nitty gritty details that probably bore the hell out of a lot of people that just want to drive their car.
In the four years I've owned my car I've run into a few people with blown HG's that were running alky and not even very high boost. I know there are some locals. Here I am, 4 years of high boost, and still the stock headgaskets, still have the stock bottom end, with ~170k and still good oil pressure. Maybe my luck is running out, but for now she still runs like a bat out of hell so I may be doing something right, anyway, thats just some background so you know where I am coming from with my opinions.
All this said, I still run his kit. Why? I have come up with work arounds for most of the short comings. The ones I haven't solved, I have "fixed" by adjusting my driving habits. Ultimately the only major issue I have left is the de-priming problem. I have "fixed" this by recognizing the conditions that have likely de-primed my system. This is still a major major problem. Beyond that, leaky pumps (not exactly razors fault since shurflo makes these pumps) and flickering low alky light when not low are my only problems.
Like I said before, I've worked around the rest with engine management, but I believe there are better alky kit options that offer much better tunability.
Anyway, just my 2 cents, maybe 4 cents since this was kind of long.
SMC is a great kit, but if I were going to keep the car for any length of time...Razor, the kit has been problem free for me !! But this is of course just my personal opinon.. :biggrin: