Nitrous Oxide Basics - Tuner-Junction

DCxMagus · #1 (**permalink**) March 5th, 2006, 03:39 AM

Nitrous Oxide: So you want be bottle fed?

NOTE: this is one of my biggest pet pevves NOS is a BRAND of nitrous systems N.O.S. stands for Nitrous Oxide Systems
PLEASE refer to Nitrous Oxide as such or N20 it's chemical name k thx =)

Using nitrous oxide will make you feel like nothing can touch your car, you will be able to beat cars down the track that should have murdered you. Your car will feel like a rocket, your engine will feel like it was transformed into a jet engine and will catapult your car down that track faster then you ever though possiable.

Why to chose nitrous oxide over Boost

Well nitrous oxide in a way is a form of boost basically how it works is the heat from the combustion chamber breaks down the chemical bond between the Nitrogen and the oxygen(2 parts nitrogen + 1 part oxygen = giggle gas aka N20)

once the bond is broken the oxygen is used in the combustion process while the nitrogen actually help keep the intake temps down meaning more are can be shoved in your engine producing more power.

But why choose nitrous oxide over turbo/super?

Nitrous Oxide is bar-none the BEST money to horsepower power adder you will find on the market today. Simple as that you can shell out a grand for headers to get 20whp (AFTER tuning which cost money on the dyno too) or you can get a wet kit and get 50-75whp. While the nitrous system is not engaged you car runs N/A meaning that there is not the added stress like with turbo/super charged cars all the time. This means you have N/A advantage of rock soild reliabilty as well as the drivability, reduced stress when you need to pick up pampers for you kid at 2 in the morning(although sparying to the store and back can sometime save you cleaning up the carpet =P) and over all most of the time your car won't be having compressed air shoved down it's throat

OK nitrous oxide is awesome it's boost when I want and cheeper screw turbo right? Wrong unless you have a Nitrous oxide tree in your back yard this shit isn't free, Also with nitrous you can't just roll up to our local dentist and ask for some, NOS has a list of local refill centers around the USA if the nearest one to you is 3 hours away you might want to consider saving for a turbo system. Refills cost money, money that could be saved for you turbo project or other things.

So how do you figure if nitrous is for you?
Well if you want power on tap all the time save for a turbo/super, if you want to have that ace under your sleeve while keeping N/A relability nitrous is for you.

Where to get it
www.nitrousexpress.com
www.holley.com/index.asp?division=NOS
www.zex.com

those are 3 of the bigger nitrous kit providers in the game right now, and honestly some of the best. Unlike piecing together a turbo/super kit for you car it's hard to get better then the kits already made since there aren't as many faction as there are with a F/I kit ie. turbo sizing, intercooler sizing fueling tuning.

Some of the rules of nitrous use

So you firgure out a nitrous kit is for you, but you've heard stories of every spary addes 30,000 miles to your engine and how nitrous was at fault for you sisters boyfriends brothers motor exploding. Nitrous oxide is completely safe if your smart with it.

Some things you want to avoid are:

Sparying under 3K rpms
Sparying on an empty bottle
Sparying between shifts
Sparying on a sub mint condition motor
Sparying while under cloosed loop operation(or sparying while not at Wide open throttle)

Before adding any performance parts to your car you always want to make sure you motor is up to par, the same goes for nitrous. Get a compression and leakdown test down if you even have the slightest question as to your motors condition.

The various types of kits

What is a wet kit
A kit denoted as "wet" in the nitrous world means that you are injecting nitrous and fuel into your intake assembly through a nozzle this nozzle is connected of course to your nitrous and fuel solenoids and dump the nitrous and fuel into your throttle bodys. As for safety reasons you should never go above a 75hp shot with a wet kit

What is a Direct port kit
Direct port is for the big boys (75 to motors content shots) basically each runner in your intake manifold is tapped with it's own "wet" kit of nitrous oxide this insurses equal nitrous distrubtion over all cylinders and reduces the chance of puddling in the intake track.

Dry Kits

*INFO NEEDED*

"I've always been told this was outdated technology so I never researched it but I know it has to do with using the returnline and stock ECU to add more fuel for the nitrous"

I want the super cool cloud of nitrous shooting from my car!

This is known as purging and besides shooting nitrous into the air to look cool in the parking lot it has a purpose. you see when nitrous oxide is placed in your bottle it is a liquid and it stays a liquid but when you run it thru the lines all the unused nitrous fro your previous spary is trapped in the lines. This nitrous will become a gas over time and the next time you go to spary it will "lag" this is becuase your car is running rich since gassous nitrous takes more space then liquid nitrous and you system has to get all that gas out before it can get the liquid nitrous in. Purging before each spary insures a nice strong hit every time you spary right off the bat. Now we have all seen the ricers sparying 20 foot nitrous clouds in the air in a parking lot and while looking cool all I can do is add up in my head the amount of money that kid is wasting. Once the spary on the purge becomes a nice SOILD stream you kit is ready to roll this usually only takes a second or 2, anything else your just wasting your hard earn money and it is literly being blown into the atmosphere for no reason.

so there you go hopefully a real nitrous guru will come around and add to points I missed. Also if noone gets around to it I'll add my knowledge about various safety devices for nitrous systems (ie. window switches, gauges for monitoring) as well as getting the most out of your system (ie bottle heaters and remote bottle openers)

Tips for installing Nitrous
installation is pretty straight foward if you can red a 3rd grade english book you can read the instructions for nitrous and if you can install your own CAI and catback system then you can install your own nitrous kit.

Take your time it's not a race to be the first on your block in install nitrous if you are reading this and taking notes your probably not the first anyway.

when running your lines run the nitrous line thru the cabin of you car, if you run it under the carpet in the door jams it will be protected and make sure the lines do not get kinked. You don't want to run it under your car becuase if that line get puncurted you kinda screwed not only will you be sparying your giggle gas all over the pavement that line isn't cheep to replace nor is the nitrous.

while it's all nice and cool to have a nice flashy engine bay if your in california or any other hard ass state then you might want to consider going ninja style on your install.

run to the store by some vaccum tubing and spilt in in half, place it over your nitrous lines so they look like they should be there, while it may not fool a true nitrous use/liker you should fool most the newer kids/ricers/and cops

*Note I do not condone illegal activities but I do love the sleeper look any benefits that come with that well :ninja*

Using Nitrous Oxide with a turbocharger/supercharger

while nitrous alone can be very powerful and fun enough for the mild tuner to the weekend warrior, if has even greater benefits when combined with forced induction!

NOTE: Turbo and Supercharger kits are complicated as it adding nitrous oxide into the mix CAN add more problems before using nitrous with any form of boost make sure you understand you kit and it is working without flaw.

So how can nitrous help those guys with turbochargers?

Well if you strap a giant turbo to a small engine it takes a while to spool that monster up, and while your top end will soar you will be beat off the line by most N/A cars and supercharged cars, remember combing nitrous with F/I is for those looking to get every last drop of power out of the engine and this means you want the fastest car you can possiably have. So to turn the best time out of a car you need a BIG turbo with out the dreaded "lag" that comes with it, and the hybrid turbos are too small for you goals.

This is where nitrous comes in you can add a small shot of nitrous during your lanuch to help bump the engine power to help spool up your turbo faster, then once the turbo gets rolling and is spooled let that take over or keep sparying the nitrous threw for even more added power.

While you can keep sparying the nitrous threw your system once the turbo is spooled there is even a better way for nitrous to help the turbo system. This is in the form of an intercooler sparyer. If you need to know how an Air to Air intercooler works I'm sure it will pop up in the boost section so I will skip over explaing that in this write up. Basically an intercooler sparyer is a small diameter tubing that is placed in front of your intercooler that has small holes poked in it, while you are racing down the track you simply arm your sprayer and start to spary nitrous DIRECTLY on to your intercooler, this helps lower the temp of the air rushing thru you cooler and in turn this lowers the air temps of your charge into your TB. Also the lower the temp the MORE air that can be compressed More air = more power!

I have seen dynos of intercooler sprayers adding upwards of 45WHP to set ups... and this was on a dyno with the car standing still imange how cooled 100mph winds get flow thru an nitrous freezed intercooler?!

the same type of usuage can also help a centerfugal supercharger by applying this to the aftercooler.

For a roots type blowers used in the Jackson racing Supercharger kits (JRSC) you can use a direct port nitrous kit and get the best of both worlds in 1, lower intake temps meaning you can raise the boost a bit as well as the HP that comes with the shot you used.

Clone · #2 (**permalink**) March 5th, 2006, 11:28 PM

Can I run Nitrous on my car?

The quick answer to that is yes. Nitrous can be run on every car known to man. No matter how many cylinders, strokes, or mods you've got done to it, you can run nitrous. Your motor can be 100% stock, you dont even need basic bolt ons. The trick is how to "safely" run it without destroying everything in the process. Mileage is not necissarily a concern, but it is a good indicator of the kind of wear your engine has. Either way, a compression or leak-down test must be run before using nitrous in any fashion. The compression numbers for each cylinder should be within the manufacturers specification. Keep in mind that using nitrous (or any sort of forced induction) will create higher temperatures and cause premature wear of engine components. This doesn't mean your engine is going to blow up after a couple uses... it means more that instead of 300,000 miles out of your Honda motor, you might get more like 200 or 250 before major problems occur. Also, any sort of aftermarket ECU chips or control modules that advance timing are not safe to use with nitrous. Due to the higher oxygen content in the air/fuel mixture when spraying nitrous, advancing the timing can cause predetonation and is what blows up motors.

Types of Nitrous Kits

There are many different ways to inject nitrous into an engine, from dry kits, wet kits, direct port, fogger plates... amongst others. I'm only going to go into the two most common of the systems, as if you you were going to use one of the others, you'd better know your stuff or you'll probably mess something up...

Dry Kits
This is the simplest of the nitrous kits and the easiest to install of them. Dry kits consist of a single nitrous nozzle plumbed into the intake tube about six inches upstream from the throttle body. Extra fuel is provided by the injectors, when the ECU's sensor detects an increase in oxygen. Some kits up the pressure at the fuel pressure regulator by using a nitrous pressure regulator to send a small amount of pressure to the FPR by way of vacuum to increase the pressure accordingly. (NOS is one of these kits). Although a dry kit can be set to produce any amount of horsepower, it is recommended to not jet past 75hp or half of the motor's stock hp, whichever comes first. This is due to the fact that because nitrous is injected through the intake manifold, it is not distributed evenly to the cylinders, while the fuel is being distributed evenly. therefore, some cylinders will see a more rich condition, while some will be more lean. A lean air/fuel mixture is what causes predetonation, and that blows motors. Some dry kits use only one solenoid, others use two.

Wet kits
Wet kits are basically the same as dry kits, except for the fact that while spraying nitrous, they also spray fuel. Wet kits use a fogger nozzle (named as such because it helps to mix the nitrous and fuel together while injecting). The fogger nozzle is mounted in the same place as the dry kit, six inches upstream from the throttle body. These kits use at least two solenoids, one for nitrous and one for fuel. Obviously, they're a little more difficult to install, but not as difficult as one might think. (it really just requires fuel system work and running new return lines and such... plus drilling into places some people are kinda afraid to drill into, in case they mess up). The principle is to rectify the uneven distribution of dry kits. It's still not perfectly even distribution of the mixture (as the fuel is more dense and heavier than the nitrous) but it works a little better than the dry kits to help prevent detonation. think of a wet kit as just added insurance for your motor.

Other types of injection
these include direct port systems and plate systems, amongst a few less standard injection theory kits. these kits are designed to inject nitrous and fuel together, evenly, into each cylinder individually. I wont really go into much detail on these kits, cause they're installation is time consuming and much more work than the previous two... plus, it's a good idea to do some real motorwork with these kits as there's no point in using one of these kits if you just want a light hp increase. A lot of work goes into a kit of such stature, and shouldn't really be discussed here.

What should I do before running nitrous?
This really depends on what size shot you want to run. First you'll need to run a compression test and be sure all your numbers are within spec. Second, familiarize yourself with spark plug heat ranges and also how to read them to determine combustion productivity (i.e. how well your ignition is working on burning the mixture). When you've done all that, now you can start building your nitrous powered motor.

For a 50 shot or less, all you really need is a set of colder plugs (one step colder than stock). On H22 motors, the stock plugs are a six heat range, colder goes up in number, so you'll need a set of 7 heat range. You can keep everything else how it is, including ignition timing.

For 60 shots, again you'll need the colder plugs and you'll want to retard your ignition timing by a degree or two.

For 75 shots, you'll need the colder plugs (you might decide to go two steps colder now), and you'll retard your ignition by three degrees. Any other ignition-oriented mods you can do will be great, like a multiple spark discharge ignition (MSD), new performance plug wires, and a new distributor cap and rotor will all help increase the effectiveness of combustion. A shot of this size will likely blow out the stock clutch very shortly, so look into getting a stronger one designed for the other mods you have (a triple plate clutch is worthless to a virtually stock motor). It is also a good idea to upgrade the fuel pump to a unit that has a flow increase over the stock part. Also, if you find you're running too rich or too lean, pick up an adjustable fuel pressure regulator.

For 100 shots and higher, you'll need to do some serious work to the motor. Forged pistons and rods, along with piston sleeves will be your first step. A performance head gasket should be installed as well. Also a progressive nitrous controller or a dual stage set-up would be ideal, so that you dont overpower the tires and lose traction upon jetting the system.

Purge valves
The point in a purge valve is not to look cool. If you want it for that, you can do a much more simple set up using C02 and get the same results. A purge valve is designed to purge the nitrous line of air, allowing a fresh supply of nitrous to the solenoids when you begin to spray. After purged, there are no delays in injection and no 'gaps' during spray. Purge valves come in a variety of styles, from single line to quad line to l.e.d. lighted. Using hydraulic air hose, you can pretty much mount the purge line to spray anywhere outside of the car to purge to the atmosphere. "stealth" nitrous kits generally choose to purge either down towards the ground under the car, or onto the intake manifold to help it cool a little, as the nitrous purge comes out very cold.

What's with the retarded ignitions?
hahaha, your ignition is retarded! nitrous powered engines will produce more power if the spark occurs later in the combustion cycle. It's proven. A good rule of thumb is to retard the ignition two degrees for every 50hp of nitrous.

What type of fuel should I use?
You should never use anything less than 91 octane fuel when using nitrous. NEVER. the lower the octane number, the more prone the fuel is to predetonation. like I've said before, predetonation is what blows up motors. Octane boosters might be a good idea if you can afford it, just cause the higher the octane, the more power you'll produce with nitrous. If you can find race gas... use it.

Anything else I should know?
Yeah. A lot. But you'll learn as you go really... but for now, know that the higher the pressure in the bottle, the more power you'll get out of it. Most people try to keep their bottle above 900psi. You can use a bottle heater to increase it and keep it steady, as use of the nitrous makes the bottle cold and decreases the pressure in the bottle, therefore decreasing power. Optimal pressure is between 1000-1100 psi. Be careful when using a bottle heater, as incorrectly wired ones have been known to overheat bottles, causing them to explode.

If you really want to get the most out of your nitrous set up and use it safely, invest in both fuel and nitrous pressure gauges, so you know their pressures at all times. Keep an eye on them while spraying so you'll know how well your car is doing with it.

Basic bolt ons like intakes, exhausts, and headers will help the nitrous system produce more effective power. You should look for an exhaust that has piping diameter of over 2.5". 3" is optimal. Same thing for the intake. With the intake, be sure it is the same size diameter as the throttle body for the most effective airflow. Plus, like I said before, any upgrade you can do to the igntion or fuel system will greatly increase the reliability and effectiveness of your nitrous system.

Johnlude85 · #3 (**permalink**) March 5th, 2006, 11:43 PM

those are both awesome write ups. i was thinkin of goin with a nitrous kit in my lude. this helped me with alot of questions i had.

Clone · #4 (**permalink**) March 5th, 2006, 11:45 PM

Where to get Nitrous / Fill your bottle

The most common place is obviously your local performance shop or service center that does performance work. Here in Atlanta, GA, the common price is around $3/lb, and most users have a ten pound bottle... that puts a fill around $30. On my old nitrous powered prelude, I could go through a bottle in about a weekend... one day if I purged a lot at a show or something.

Some NAPA parts stores are also getting in on the action... if you can find one that has a large performance department, ask if they can fill bottles or if they know of someone that can. There's three NAPA parts stores in the city of Atlanta that fill bottles at $3.50/lb. You might also be able to find an autozone or pep boys or something that'll do it, but no guarantees.

The best place to get nitrous, in my opinion, is your local welding supply company. They'll sell it to you in a huge bottle (generally around 65 pounds) at a really good price (I was paying $110 for 65 pounds, which made it about $0.60 per pound). Keep in mind that you can't put a 65 pound bottle of nitrous in your car. it's just too large. So you'll need a nitrous refill station or some sort of transfer unit.

The major refill stations (like NOS, ZEX, or NX) are basically too costly for what you're getting. it's really just an air pump. I bought one from Compucar, and their top of the line model was still half the price of a new NOS refill kit. Keep in mind, that when buying any refill station, they're gonna be missing two VITAL peices... an air compressor and a scale. You need the air compressor to power the pump, and a scale to tell you when the bottle is full. All nitrous bottles have a weight rating on the label, one for empty weight, and one for full.

Obviously, the "fill it yourself" route is a good bit more expensive, considering you have to buy the air compressor, the refill station, the nitrous mother bottle... and still buy the nitrous kit for your car. But if you're going to use it a lot, it's really the only way to go... it'll save you money on your bottle fills, you can refill at 4 a.m. for those long race nights, and when you sell your car or your nitrous kit, you can sell the pump/compressor too, and make back some of that money. that's what I did... I think I actually made profit on the pump... thanks ebay.

Blake · #5 (**permalink**) March 6th, 2006, 01:20 PM

good stuff guys

Pooch 1069 · #6 (**permalink**) October 6th, 2006, 01:02 AM

Awesome info glad you guys are here!