I'm not in a financially suitable state to get a water injection, I think. But I'm just trying to learn and understand more. So anyone know how it works, where I can get one, pros, cons, price, and anything else? Thanks in advance to the gearbuffs.

 

If you are talking about injecting water (steam cleaning) to clean the valves and such some say it works pretty well but others don't recommend it. It can do damage if not done properly. I don't know that much about it but you could do a search on steam cleaning to get more information.

If you are talking about Vapor Injection as a performance upgrade that is another matter entirely. This was a trick used years ago (and is still used in some jet turbines) to help prevent detonation. It cools the incoming air and slows down combustion of the air/fuel mixture, if the correct amount of vapor is injected, allowing it to burn more effectively. Its kind of like raising the octane rating of the fuel to very high levels.

 

Yeah sorry I didn't make myself clear. I meant the stuff thats used with engines. But a friend of mine was talking about putting it into his turbo eclipse. He said it vaporizes in the chamber and creates more psi. Is this kinda thing really available for cars, does anyone know anything else? Thanks.

 

Water injection is the injection of water (via a very fine mist) to help cool your engine by lessening the temperature of the incoming air from your airfilter.

These are the people that you want for a Water Injection kit:
AQUAMIST WATER INJECTION SYSTEM
(http://www.aquamist.co.uk/)

 

It would allow a turbo car to run more boost because it reduces detonation. If we were able to adjust our timing it would allow us to advance it more but because the timing is being adjusted continuously by the ECU I doubt there would really be a performance advantage for us.

For the price a nitrous system would give MUCH better gains

 

I belive the thereoy is that when the water evaporates it cools the incoming air. When a liquid changes to a gas it abosorbs heat. Nitrous also gives some of its gains from this effect. As far as I know water injection is only effective with turbo or supercharged engines because when the turbo/suprcharger compresses the air it also heats it. The incoming air on an NA engine is not hot enough to benefit from water injection.

 

... on a 4th gen

http://boostedmaximas.com/jane97se/images/aquamist_cai/

 

What kind of gains would you expect from this? Does this allow you to run higher boost too?

 

Since you heard about this from an Eclipse-turbo owner, as an ex-Eclipse-turbo owner, I have a pretty good idea what you are talking about. Most turbo powered cars have intercooled intake. Cooler intake air will run the turbo at higher PSI. That's what the intercooler if for. To cool down the air even more, they spray water to the intercooler. One of the low-cost solutions some Eclipse owners came up with is to hook up the windshild washer and spary water to the intercooler to further cool down the intake air.

 

You have to have boost to run water injectors.

 

First of all let me say GREAT JOB on the kit. I read your earlier post and was impressed.

Vapor Injection would theoretically allow you to run higher boost but I think the effect of the vapor injection would give gains without having to crank the boost up and risk all the work you have done. The main advantage to it is the reduction in detonation. When the knock sensor detects detonation the ECU will retard timing to prevent it which can offset the advantage of the boost. No detonation = more timing advance = more power.

The VQ, while being one of the best engines ever to be produced for a street car, wouldn't last too long with high boost because of the open-deck design. I would really worry about blown head gaskets or at worst, a cracked block. If deck stiffeners were available I'd say go for it but with a stock block I'd be very careful about using more boost than you are now.

Keep up the good work!

 

Not to flame but this is incorrect. Any engine would gain a little power with water VAPOR injection, not just boosted ones. My father used to have a basic vapor injection system which he built from scatch and worked like a nitrous fogger setup on the customized '49 Mercury he built in the late 50's. And that car had a Ford flat-head V8 which was definitely not boosted.

Do some research on vapor injection and you will see that this is a trick that has been used for a LONG time.

 

Not to flame but this is incorrect. Any engine would gain a little power with water VAPOR injection, not just boosted ones. My father used to have a basic vapor injection system which he built from scatch and worked like a nitrous fogger setup on the customized '49 Mercury he built in the late 50's. And that car had a Ford flat-head V8 which was definitely not boosted.

Do some research on the history of vapor injection and you will see that this is a trick that has been used for a LONG time.

 

Thanks alot for all the info guys. Yeah I had no intentions of getting it, but I'm glad I understand it a lot better now. Thanks again for the thorough explanations. Peace.

 

Ahhhhhh..... so when I ask about your turbo you say I'm impatient and what not.... maybe I shouldn't answer your question. j/k

Check out my dyno graph.
Red and blue lines are with water injection. 9 psi
Olive and turqoise lines are without water injection. 11 psi



As you can see, at 9 psi I make a lot more power and torque in the midrange than with 11 psi. I made 2 more peak whp also. If boost was turned back up to 11, I predict a nice gain up top.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by eliasmavs99
[B]As you can see, at 9 psi I make a lot more power and torque in the midrange than with 11 psi. I made 2 more peak whp also. If boost was turned back up to 11, I predict a nice gain up top.QUOTE]

Hehe! So why didn't you turn the boost back up? You could probably make 300+ HP and similar torque. Scared of the "BOOOM" theory!

later

Nigel

 

By spraying water in the intercooler you are creating a tempoary measure. This is dangerous since you cannot control the amount of yeild of cooling on the intercooler and cant adjust your boost/air/fuel pressure fast enough to compensate for pressure spikes. Running it on a 1/4 might be ok but on a regular track or street it wouldnt work.

Aqua mist injection, is better than spraying on the intercooler because it can help stabilize the intake stream and combustion process uniformly. As a side note, it steam cleans your motor too =)

As for those who think that we can slap a windshild wiper nozzle into the intake, the water has to be a fine mist and has to have more pressure than the incoming air (aqua mist runs at ~50+psi)or you'd have a pressure leak.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by turbo97SE

Quote:

Hehe! So why didn't you turn the boost back up? You could probably make 300+ HP and similar torque. Scared of the "BOOOM" theory!

later

Nigel

Currently running 3" SC pulley (dyno shows 3.125")... will put on a smaller one soon.