Questions on turbo or nitrous

[john_trickle]

Can I or should I use nitrous with either super or turbo charging?

When going with a turbo, do you need to rip off and sell your nitrous system? Absolutely not! What you most likely will do is substantially reduce the nozzle size, yes reduce it! Nitrous plays a completely different roll in forced air. It is actually now going to act more similar to an intercooler or water injection. As the rapid expansion from liquid to gas happens, it draws heat energy from all surounding areas. This causes greater air density of course keeping away the detonation demons and of course just making some much needed GOOD air! A 10-15 hp shot is all that is needed to realize this benefit. Of course this is intended for racing situations, you would not rely on this as a method to make more power in constant riding situations.

How does forced air affect the life of a motor?

Look above to the FAQ, "Why forced air over nitrous building" for some extra little tidbits. The stretching and compressing effects that I spoke about earlier is where one huge benefit lies. On the upstroke of every intake cycle this blow to the components is softened because of POSITIVE COMBUSTION CHAMBER PRESSURE! Yes, believe it, there is actually a "pillow" (if you can combine that in a sentence w/nuclear) effect happening in the little nuclear reactor. Nitrous has more of a hammering effect. That is why it is not too uncommon to hear of broken stock rods in a Hayabusa motor that was pushing a bit over 200 hp with the juice. On the other hand entry level turbo kits producing 250 hp will run for the life of a stock bike if regular maintnance is performed.

What is water injection and how does it work, really?

There are a couple of incorrect rumors flying around about what water injections does and does not do. First thing it does not do is lower the charge air temperature prior to entering the combustion chamber. The water system is not providing great enough saturation on a molecular level to do this. Water injection DOES cool component temperature of parts such as valves, pistons, cylinder walls, heads and combustion chambers. That still is not the primary aid, just a real good one. Think about the energy that is required to boil water. Now think about the heat energy that is required to convert water into steam while in essence SKIPPING the boiling point! It has a similar effect as nitrous in that when it enters the combustion chamber, heat energy is drawn from all areas to make this conversion happen thus allowing more timing and controlling again the detonation demon. Remember that although gasoline is harder to ignite if you were to add a few glasses of water to a gallon, the same BTU energy is contained in that mixture. The flame travel has only been slowed. Also, the amount of water that is being injected is quite minimal and is atomized into the air mixture. All the more reason to rely on a quality, high tech water injection system rather than a windshield washer pump and brass fittings!

john