NOS? How does it work?

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=431300

Seems cool, but how does it work?

Todd

Not to split hairs here, but Nitrous Oxide by itself is NOT flammable. It, like Oxygen, is an "oxidizer". A flammable is a material that itself is fuel for the fire, like gasoline. You could put nitrous into an engine until you were blue in the face and nothing would happen because there is no fuel.

The gasoline provides the fuel. The nitrous provides an oxidizing effect which causes a fast violent acceleration of the ignited fuel.

Nitrous is interesting, and shockingly effective for drag racers and street racers. It is not something you (normally) see used for any other racing purposes. I've also seen very clever NOX cheater systems where the injection lines are hidden under manifolds etc. The best "cheat" I ever heard of was a guy who pressurized his roll cage and charged it with nitrous. Crazy guy, but evidently a really good welder!!!

angela

NOS increates an already highly flammable explosion. In a gaseous form nitro gets sprayed into the combustion chamber increasing the power of the "explosion" and creating more HP. edited from sleepiness

"pressurized his roll cage and charged it with nitrous."

Didn't Porsche do something similar to the tubular frame of one of it's cars (This time for oil, not NOX) in order to increase oil capacity and radiant cooling?

That would work - I don't know the model that did. Harley Davidson did something similar with their Buell motorbike. Creative packaging - love people who think outside the box!

angela

So He turned the cars frame into a big Oil Slump?

If so, Good Concept. The longer and further the oil travels from the engine, the more time it has to cool.

Todd

Many bikes had "oil in frame", I'm thinking in the 30's at least.
Drag bikes pressurize the box swingarm for the airshifter.

Now THAT's clever!
angela

I had a custom bumper made for my Strange Rover. One of the features is pressurized compartment (CO2 and quick-connect air fitting) for re-inflating my tires after lowering tire air-pressure for rock climbing!

Sorry for hi-jack! As for NOS, I would be nervous about melting engine parts or breaking whatever weak link in my powertrain.

Read Smokey Yunick's(sp?) biography "Best Damn Garage in town". In the early days of NASCAR Smokey filled part of his roll cage with gasoline to reduce his pit stops. After receiving numerous complaints, NASCAR confiscated his car after the race and removed his gas tank for inspection. Smokey famously told the inspectors to keep the damn gas tank, he got into the car and drove it away, sans tank!

It's a hell of a book, very irreverant, with lots of women stuff. As the subtitle says, "this ain't no damn romance novel".

NOS has come a long way since those days of blowing up engines and the like. If the ricer crowd can do it in a weekend the kits must be reasonably safe these days.

I put together a kit to do direct port NOS injection for the 911 engine in my car but then reason got a hold of me. For starters...why have all that power? Got no where to use it safely (let alone legally). What if I blew up a 911 engine (BIG BUCKS!). Then the cost of the NOS up here....I'd have to ship the bottles out, get them filled then ship them back. All in all just not worth the trouble.

For some good info try this website...

http://www.diy-nitrous.fsnet.co.uk/

But I am going to go with Propane Fumigation for my Mercedes oil burner! Seems a lot safer, affordable and usable.

Brian

Talk about a hijack----Brian , I see you've found the "burgerman", he's cool. Did you see
his custom wheelchair and other mod'd things? Wow!

Brian,
In one of my passing brain spasms, I actually considered nitrous in a porsche engine. I figured I would use an old mechanical injected engine (minus the injection system). Put carbs on it and plumb the nitrous into the hard lines/heads where the old mechanical injectors originally sat. The system I was rolling around in my head (been a few years) was a micro-switch under the throttle pedal. You arm it seperately and set the micro-switch for a certain throttle position. When you hit the position - badda bing badda BOOOM!!!

But alas, screwing it up and running it lean is $$$$... Plus there is the very real possibility of getting my butt kicked by violent PCA members for my blasphemous act.

Actually, now that I think about it, it is REAL fun to rub some of those guys the wrong way!!!

Now - tell me about the propane injection for diesels. We've got a diesel truck and I feel a brain spasm coming on...

angela

The propane fumigation is supposed to give you better mileage and more power...especially for towing and especially on a turbo charged diesel. There are kits for sale like from Bully Dog or some such place I think and I've seen them for about $500 and up..or less on Ebay. Do a search on Ebay and you'll see quite a few of them.

Do a search on Google and you'll find DIY sites which of course are only as good as the people who contribute to the site. Here's one of the many sites I found...

http://www.mrsharkey.com/lpg.htm

I purchased an inexpensive DIY manual either on-line or off Ebay. Bascially you need to find a chart for orfice sizes...same as when putting together a NOS system. I then checked this chart to a few others off the net to try and get confirmation of the sizes...figured that confirmation from other sources may be a good thing. Its not on the car yet....first I put in a basic control to bleed off pressure from the turbo bypass line to build a bit more power. Came in handy when I towed our boat last summer from Yellowknife to Ontario...about 5,000 kms. That's towing by an 83 Benz with 400,000 kms and 110 hp...not some turbo diesel truck.

Brian

Angela, I had the same idea for the Porsche. Bought a used V8 direct port system (minus solenoids, bottle, foggers, etc) then plugged one line off the V8 manifolds and rerouted the stainless hard lines to match the Porsche intake manifolds.

Bought foggers and nozzles to give a modest 9 HP per cylinder...its relatively easy to project (with charts) how much HP a certain size nozzle of NOS and fuel will give. They're somewhat constant. 9 HP times 6 gives 72 HP...to get that from a Porsche using traditional methods is quite expensive as you know.

Then got modest flow solenoids (no need for high flow with the power I was contemplating), braided lines, the fancy red aircraft style arming switch, blowoff solenoid, etc, etc. Should have worked.

It was really the lack of any place to get the bottles filled and then the lack of any place to use it that made up my decision to scrap it. Sold most of the parts but kept the blowoff solenoid to try and use with the propane fumigation system but I still have to confirm that it would be suitable as propane is supposed to be corosive so the solenoid has to be able to stand up to that. Put the money into a lightweight Fidanza flywheel and the parts to try and fix the 1st gear synchro problem on the old 901 trans.

Brian

Brian, double-check your Propane corrosiveness. The level of corrosivity in propane varies significantly by region. Most of the propane out west here is non-corr. My understanding is "generally" south and east are corrosive. I would like to bump the power on the big Ford (7.3 turbo). Just put a 4" turbo-back exhaust on it, very very nice. Great throttle response etc., everything I hoped for. Before I get too foolish, I'd like to investigate the transmission. The truck has 160,000 miles on the clock. No big deal for the engine, but the auto transmissions in these usually take a dump somewhere around here. I'd rather fix it BEFORE I blow it up by adding more power. What do you think about Gear Vender splitters? Thinking of adding one with an overdrive when I have the transmission redone. Most of the time the vehicle is not towing and I'm driving it to a bike race or camping trip. Wouldn't mind drop a few hundred RPM on the highway.

Now about that nitrous. Hmm.... me thinks you need to make very very good friends with a dentist ;-)

angela

Angela -

A few years ago (OK, 15 years ago) I did the usual V-8 conversion on my 75 FJ-40 LandCruiser. I got most of my conversion stuff from Advanced Adaptors but also a Gear-splitter with overdrive (the FJ had a 4:10 rear end, which accounted for the 100-mile cruising range). Moral of the story, in a truck (even your 7.3 Turbo-diesel with monster torque) you cannot have TOO MANY GEARS! Go for it!

"make friends with a dentist"....that'll be the day! In my books dentists are right down there with....enough said. I'll offend more folks.

I guess I'm just an anti-dentite.

Brian - if you're anti-dentite, then I guess that makes me molar-challenged!