This is my first post so I'll say hi and introduce myself. I'm Mike and I live in the UK. I do not own a Honda, but I'm interested in the US tuning scene. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but if people in the UK think of the US tuning scene, they usually think Honda.

I own a Vauxhall Astra GTE 16v. Vauxhall is a GM owned company and the car uses one of the best ever all motor 2.0 16v engines. As standard the engine had 156bhp and a few mods can get this up to 170bhp (not bad for a 1989 engine!). I've modified mine up to 250bhp now and I'm running mid 13s (the car is FWD). I don't want to add a turbo or anything as I like my engine as it is, but I wouldn't mind a Nitrous system (just for fun).

The only problem is that nitrous is not that common in the UK. The main company here says a dry system will be fine for my engine - but I know this is bull.

My engine is running a compression of 12:1, rev limit of 8000rpm and ignition advance of around 30 degrees. I need a wet system other wise the head will blow clean off the block right?

Who in the US does good wet systems? Which campanies can I trust and which should I stay away from?

I only want to run 50-75bhp of nitrous - just so that I can get in the 12s.

If anyone is interested, here is a video of me doing a 13.89s quarter mile (when I had 225bhp) - this is against a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo6 Tommi Makinen edition. (only 552kb)
http://www.migpv.plus.com/stuff/mike1389.WMV

 

Ok you're going to need to retard your timing while you are spraying, especially with that high of compression. You can run a dry system up to a 75 shot, assuming your fuel system can supply enough fuel, and your ignition timing is correctly tuned. If you want to go above a 75 shot, direct port wet is the way to go. Each intake runner has its own fogger nozzle spraying fuel and nitrous into the combustion chamber. However over there I assume you can get higher octane pump gas than us, so you won't have to retard as much ignition timing. Most of the time on nitrous requires retarded from stock ignition timing, or the use of high octane race gas, especially with high compression like you have. You could always fab up a fuel cell to use to supply a direct port kit its fuel, and use alcohol instead of gas. As long as it's tuned correctly, and you don't detonate, it'll be all good! Good luck......The darkside is waiting

 

My engine is close to detonation already - I currently use a 98.6 Octane fuel which is the best stuff we can get over here.

I have stand alone fuel management so I can reprogram it myself with a laptop. One thing I thought about doing is connecting the nitrous system to the air induction temperature sensor. When the nitrous is in use, I could set it up to earth the sensor which will throw out a strange valve to the ECU. I could then set it to adjust the ignition and fuelling to suit the nitrous when it sees this value.

This is all theory at the moment and I need to do a few tests, but if it works, I could run a dry system and simply add more fuel directly from the current injectors.

My engine can take 350bhp as it is, so I guess I could add up to another 100bhp. The only thing limiting my engine's strength is the conrods. I need to get steel ones to go any further than that.

What Octane fuel do you guys have over there? Oh - over here fuel is expensive - one litre is $1.24 ($5.64 a gallon)

 

93 or 94 octane is the maximum you can really find but there are rare gas stations that carry 100 or 110 octane for off-road vehicles, drag racers, etc. In my town we have is 87, 89, 91, and 93 octane.

93 octane, US$1.55 per gallon (give or take US$0.10)
100 octane, US$3.60 last time I checked

I have a 5 gallon can of VP C16 racing fuel :naughty: at my place that I think I paid US$40 for.

 

When I said fuel costs $5.64 a gallon in the UK - that is regular fuel, not a specialist type. You only pay $1.55!!!! I wish fuel was that cheap over here. It costs me about $60 to fill up my car and it will only do 250miles on a tank.

 

Another part you could look into is a progressive nitrous controller. Jacobs electronics makes the Nitrous Mastermind, which you can use to control timing retard only while the nitrous is flowing. You can also set a desired rpm for nitrous flow to begin, and a desired rpm to achieve 100% flow, kicking in the nitrous gradually. Or you could do what you said and have your standalone take care of the timing. If you wanna go above a 75 shot, you need to go direct port wet to take care of distribution problems.

Out here in CA the best pump gas we get is 91 octane, but race gas can be bought at tracks, and from VP.

 

While we're on the subject let me throw this one out there for you guys and you tell me what you think. I drive an Eagle Talon, turbo, all wheel drive. Running straight 93/94 octane I can safely push about 19-20 psi on a daily basis. For a cheap solution to go a bit faster, I use water injection to increase my effective octane. With water injection (WI) I've been able to push 22-23 psi without any issues whatsoever. As of now, 18-19 psi on 93 octane nets me a 12.7 @ 108 in the quarter mile. Since I ran those times I've upped the boost to 21-22 psi and I think it'd be reasonable to expect a 12.4 @ 110 (give or take 0.2 or 2 mph.) Mind you this is all in full street trim, two 12's and an amp in the trunk, full tank of gas, bag of tools, and my laptop to record it all.

While I am a firm believer in water injection being the best possible bang for my buck, I have several friends who use N2O instead. N2O is obviously more expensive and would require a lot more tuning, but just like MikeWarner I have a reprogrammable ECU to help me with that. I don't think WI and N2O would work well together so I'd set it up for one or the other, WI for average street use and N2O for the only two cars in town I'm scared of: a modified Viper ACR :drool: and a 2001 Camaro SS with a 350 shot. :squint: The only way the Craparo will beat me is by sucking on that oversized blue baby bottle.

Fast forward to my question: I might as well fight fire with fire, but I don't need N2O for it's solely for it's combustive properties, I mainly need it for it's cooling abilities. Question is, what size kit should I get and how much to spray? I'm thinking a 25-35 shot, maybe even like a sneaky Pete kit, but that'll run out of juice quick.

Thoughts, comments, questions, ... ?

 

READ: I've only recently started to check out nitrous and I'm not extremely well-versed in it yet.

 

For your turbo application, a dry kit would be best. A 25-30 shot dry will significantly reduce the temperature of your intake charge, and can produce upwards of 50 whp easily just on cooling effects. If you are using a front mount IC, nitrous express makes an Ntercooler, which is a ring with holes in it that sits in the bumper in front of the intercooler. It uses either CO2 or N2O sprayed on the intercooler to cool the intercooler and thus the intake charge.

 

Just how effective is the Ntercooler? I was thinking I could use that tied to a thermostat mounted to the skin of my front mounted intercooler, that way it'd only kick on when my FMIC became heatsoaked.