remember those stupid water injection deals from back in the day? I once bought a car that had a set-up installed. I pulled it off ASAFP! but just wondering did those thigns work at all...like even a little bit?? I heard of putting alcohol in them..never tried it though..

I knew a few guys that ran them. And yes, they mixed water and alcohol. Stopped most of the pinging from what I remember.

Why has this system disapeared then? They were quite common back in the day weren't they? Now I have never scene one..

Dealership I worked at put them on the old school buses in the 60's. Kept from pinging and kept the carbon down... We also sold the toilet paper oil filter add on filters. Yes,, they both worked.

what car of your had water injection. the chevelle??? 289 pinto?????????

The systems have not disapeared. Yes, they work. They are great for forced induction cars. They help increase HP (like a liquid intercooler). On a N/A engine it could allow you to run more timing or slighlty higher compression, which would help you make more power (in most cases). The thing is you don't want to build an engine that has to "depend" on the system to get by.
Look here for kits: http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?N=700+115+%2D152617&D=%2D152617

Yes, mixing water with the alky is the way to go.

289 Pinto. I took it off post haste. Crazy old nut job man used to bitch that I shouldnt have. I might have left it, but it didnt seem to be functioning...so i never even tested her..

Just like he bitched when I took the underdash computer out of that s-10...after it had a carbed 350 put in it!! He claimed the motor still needed it (even though every wire to it was disconected and gone)

On the injectors, I wonder why more people don't use them?

On the injectors, I wonder why more people don't use them?

As above they're very popular with forced induction. I use one on virtually all my blown/turboed pump gas builds, especially only being able to get 91 octane. There is a 50-60 rwhp difference on my Lightning between pump gas without water/alky injection and with due to the extra boost and timing I could run.

Jody

really? ...when I look through old 70's mags i see loads of cars with them...but now I can walk a show lot and not see even one..

Longarm does boho have one on his (forced)TA?

really? ...when I look through old 70's mags i see loads of cars with them...but now I can walk a show lot and not see even one..

Longarm does boho have one on his (forced)TA?

well, I hang out on a lot of forced induction boards and they're popular. If you don't look for them you'd likely not notice them as most people hide the pump and lines, and the nozzle(s) can go anywhere in the intake tract.

I've used the following:

http://www.snowperformance.net/

http://www.smcenterprises.com/

http://www.alcohol-injection.com/

Jody

Water injection is worth some considerable horse power. It acts as an intercooler on blown engines. I use one by snow performance. I have tested a "home made" version built out of a Ford windshield washer and a nitrous plate on a 11.5:1 engine and it worked pretty good allowing the engine to run on pump gas with no detonation.

would there be a noticeable advantage in running alcohol/water injection in a modern N/A street car? specifically I have been thinking about this for my 2000 Jaguar S-type 4.0 (10.75:1 from the factory) for more power. how would the computer act/react and what if any improvements in power and economy does anyone think I could see out of one?

[QUOTE][/QAs above they're very popular with forced induction. I use one on virtually all my blown/turboed pump gas builds, especially only being able to get 91 octane. There is a 50-60 rwhp difference on my Lightning between pump gas without water/alky injection and with due to the extra boost and timing I could run.
UOTE]

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

If your engine is running well as is adding water injection with no other changes will probably gain you very little or nothing. Without retuning, it would be of minimal value on an existing engine that otherwise runs well. Most of my experience with water injection is during the gas crunch years in the late 70's when octane ratings of pump fuel took a major drop. Water injection allowed high compression 60's engines to retain most if not all of their performance with lower octane fuel. Alternatively, as Jody said, it can allow you to run more boost, timing, and/or compression than otherwise.

Not only do they work, the effect can be astounding as I found out when I made 10 pounds of boost on a 10:1 static compression engine. Without the water injection, it would do a death rattle so never ran it like that. I was skeptical at first that it would help that much. Installed the water injection and it ran great for 2 years without a hitch on a daily driver. I was impressed at how great it worked. filled up the water once a week (alcohol in winter) when I gassed up. Sold the car to some guy, repeatedly told him not to forget.. he forgot and boom went the engine within 2 weeks.

I am totally sold and plan to install one on my current engine, though my low compression engine still has plently of safety margin even at 15 pounds of boost, 38 degrees timing and 93 octane pump gas.

People get confused about what it does.. it does not make HP by itself.. it cools the charge which allows more compression/ timing/ boost/ at a given octane gas which makes more power.

Just don't forget to refill the water!!

windshield washer fluid is suposed to work well at least on hi performance diesel trucks.... plus you can find it at any rest stop

Ditto on WWF!!

I think it has isopropyl alcohol instead of wood/methyl or grain/ethyl alcohol is all.

I think if you look hard enough that you can still by cans of wood/methyl alcohol to use as antifreeze like in the old days..

pdq67

My brother had a 1970 Toyota Corrolla that he drove around San Jose, California in back in the mid -late 70's. It had the 1600cc Toyota engine and the guy he bought it from built up the engine and dropped a Turbo on it. The guys name was Terry Pfaff (started his own company called Pfaff Turbo Systems...dunno if it's still around). Terry also installed water injection on it after my brother, Jeff, bought the car from him and I do remember it making a huge difference even on that little rice burner.
It was a Canary Yellow car with these hand fabbed fender flares and front air dam spoiler. It was wicked fast, and would embarass most muscle cars in a heads up race back then. I dunno what kind of power it made, but he did love his water injection.
Tim

I used a system from Edelbrock on a 400 sbc Camaro "back in the day."
Engine was built with 64cc heads, flat top pistons, and an RV cam. DCR (which I had no idea of then) was VERY high.

This was back when they were phasing out leaded gas. We could buy leaded regular, but only unleaded premium. They were also telling us then that running unleaded in these cars would take out our valves in shrt order. Hot setup at the time was to mix leaded regular and unleaded premium 50/50, and run water injection.

It worked.

A little bit of history: The Army Air Force used water injection on aircraft like the P-47 fighter/bomber in WWII. It worked.