Water injection

[oiler]

Interesting article......
http://www.greaseolineplus.com/page2.html

[mike90045]

a yankee is just like a quickie

Wow - I done learnt something there.  Shucks, golly, hootenanny and Y'all

[vdubnut62]

a yankee is just like a quickie

Wow - I done learnt something there.  Shucks, golly, hootenanny and Y'all

Oh Please!.........
Ron

[Crumpite]

From the way the article was written, I'm surprised that they weren't advocating mountain dew for injection. 
So many things to try, so little time...
Crumpite

[cognos]

I had a 1976 Chevrolet van with a 305 in it, and one of the first engines with a catalytic converter.

I put 50,000 miles on it in 3 years, driving it around North America.

It got 29 MPG on the highway, and my foot is as heavy now as it was then... It would get from 11 to 20 mpg around town.

I was in Arizona, and a friend said he could put a water injection system on it for $50, would help my mileage, I said go for it.

Had a water tank, pump, and atomiser nozzle that went in under the air cleaner. Had a toggle switch to turn it on/off under the dash.

I never noticed any increase in mileage or power, and when I went back through Colorado via the Wolf Creek Pass, at close to 11K feet, I had my foot to the floor and the van would barely go 30 MPH - yet before, without the water injection, it seemed more powerful (on the way there). Then again, when I remembered to turn it off, it didn't make much difference.

Plus, when I got back home to Canada, I couldn't use it in winter, or the tanks/piping/pump/injector/etc. would freeze. So eventually, I just quit using it...

Just my experience.

[mobile_bob]

i too tried the water injection thing

i used it on a 400cu/in pontiac engine with ~11:1 compression, it was installed in a '67 elcamino i bought for
a song because it was so unruly.

on pump gas the engine would ping so badly you just knew the pistons were going to end up in the pan, i had to retard the
crap out of the ignition just to be able to drive it at all.  it was then a pig that just didn't have any power to speak of
and that was probably why i got the car for 500 bucks

one of the things i did was pull the saginaw three speed, and implant a muncie 4speed

the next thing i did was build up a water injection system that would feed two water jets straight down the venturi's of the holley
spreadbore secondaries, i controlled the pump with a throttle switch mounted on the firewall, stuff the throttle to the floor
and the secondaries were wide open and the pump was adding water.

i could then crank the timing back up to 8 degree's btdc, and that damn car would run like a scalded cat!  it was not at all hard to
turn the car sideways when the throttle was stabbed while rolling 30mph.

it was a lot of fun, and we used it as our junkyard parts chaser for the local 55 chevy club,

although the water injection allowed for full advance, and therefore full power output from the engine running pump gas, i don't recall it doing
anything for mileage,

actually iirc the fuel mileage went to some ridiculously low number of probably less than 5mpg, because for then on the car was driven like the
general lee from the dukes of hazard fame.

sort of like drive it like you stole it!

and yes, my bet is the pistons were spotless!

bob g

[Ronmar]

That was pretty funny:)  Yep, water or water/alcohol injection = chemical intercooler.  Allows you to run more boost/timing before the onset of detonation. 

The Harrier jumpjet uses it.  It has a 145 gallon water/alcohol tank for injection at full power.  This provides a slight density increase and cooling to the airflow to allow short duration, about 30 seconds I think, hover at it's max gross weight.  After 30 seconds, the water is gone and power drops and temps rise...  I believe it has been used on other military aircraft over the ages, P-38 comes to mind, but I don't recall the details.

I was contemplating doing this for my turbo toyota.  Rule of thumb I believe is no more than 25% of the fuel volume in power applications.

As for mileage increase, well a clean engine is a happy engine, but I don't see it improving fuel efficiency over that of a new engine.  But maintaining new engine fuel economy over the life of the engine is a savings I guess, as well as cutting down on carbon buildup.