This will probably sound dumb to guys in the game now, but....

[Old Has-been]

Could someone please explain, in the simplest terms possible (I'm not that bright....), how alcohol injection works....the benefits...the drawbacks, etc.??? I know you guys could write books on this stuff, but I'm just looking for the most basic explanation possible.

Please bear in mind that I haven't been in the game for a over decade. To put it in perspective, I remember the first set of injectors we tried on my car were Ford Thunderbird Supercoupe injectors....and we crushed my stock fuel pressure regulator down with a socket and hammer to up the pressure.

As a side note....anyone else here remember the same rigged-up stuff in the early days????

Thanks in advance for any light you can shead. I've been lurking around for a while, and this really seems to be a great group of people here.

 

[19gn87]

"Has-been"

I think you'll get most of your answers HERE


...and excellent systems/components/service HERE

HTH

 

[Razor]

Heres the 1 minute explanation in easy terms.

It starts with water injection. You have to understand how that works. And the US in WWII used WI on the fighter planes to combat detonation.

How.. you have air thats compressed being fed into the motor. The more you compress(TURBO) the air, the hotter it gets. Hence why the cars have IC's to combat this hot air. But leaving the IC its still pretty hot.. the higher the boost pressure, the hotter the air. the hotter the air, the harder it is for the motor to make power with it.

Think of doing exercise inside a sauna thats 140 degree's. You'll get a stroke. Now what we'll do is we'll mist that air with moisture(water) and this misted air's temps fall dramatically. Same principal as those little fans with a water bottle attached.. you mist yourself, you now feel cooler. Bringing the air temps down, the motor now can perform better(detonate less). Follow so far

Next is the introduction of alcohol into this mix. Who was the first person to do this. Dunno. But alcohol has the cooling benefits of water, and has the ability to burn. So its a two fold benefit. The burn benefit is that its higher octane than the 93 octane we pump into the tanks. Heres a quick example, get some rubbing alcohol and pour it on your arm.. you'll feel a huge temp drop. Now blow on it.

So now your pumping a liquid into the motor that cools the air and burns clean. I hope you see where this is going. The big debates is whether or not to use water with the alcohol. We faster cars dont play with solvents that dont burn, since they make the motor lazy. Hence why all the faster guys run straight methanol vs any water.

How the liquid is pumped in... thats a whole other subject. But hope this gives you a baseline as to why.

Do some reading through this section, spend a couple days.. and any questions ask. We have plenty of knowledgeable users on this board, that have been on the stuff for years.

Drawbacks to a properly executed system. None. Zero.. Benefits.. you'll be breaking suspension parts

 

[Old Has-been]

Thanks a lot, guys.....exactly what I was looking for I'm gonna keep reading up on all the new stuff.

The wife has noticed me hanging around the "Cars for sale" section a little too much lately....I feel a mid-life crisis brewing.

 

[6SENSE]

Good post Julio/Razor. Im gonna print this out and from now on anyone asks me about the alky injection, instead of going into a long in depth conversation with them looking like this , I will whip out a copy and give it to them .
Oh and thanks for considering my car fast...... I use straight methanol

Welcome to alcoholism "Old Has-Been"

 

[purple88]

So alcohol injection isn't like nitrous where it breaks internal parts? And it's OK to run on a bone stock engine? No internal parts need to be replaced befor alky injection?

I've heard of alky injection before, but I thought it was a power adder like N2O.

I've been in class since 8:00 this morning, but the only thing I've learned today is about alky injection! Maybe I got a car addiction problem

 

[1badTTA]

Originally posted by purple88
So alcohol injection isn't like nitrous where it breaks internal parts? And it's OK to run on a bone stock engine? No internal parts need to be replaced befor alky injection?

I've heard of alky injection before, but I thought it was a power adder like N2O.

I've been in class since 8:00 this morning, but the only thing I've learned today is about alky injection! Maybe I got a car addiction problem

It isn't a power adder anymore than running racegas and higher boost is. It just simulates high octane gas so you can run regular pump gas still have the boost set high. All the extra power is from running more boost and timing compared to running only premium pump gas.