Laughing Gas
This is going to be a new section of Street Cruising. I am going to be getting some information from some Pro-Street racers on what is the good gear and how it all works for you. Now I wont be teaching you how to install stuff, just give you some advice on why you would choose an item over another.
I am going to be starting with Nitrous Oxide Systems. It is cheap horsepower, and the easiest way to get over a second out of your streeter. The first thing I should point out, is that nitrous is NOT legal on the street. You can't have any part of a nitrous system on your car on the road. But if you are like me, and like to go out to the racetrack and have a little play on the weekend, then nitrous is a good way to get the edge over your mates without forking out the big bucks for Superchargers and Turbos and such.
Choosing a system
There are lots of brands and different systems to choose from. The main ones on the market are NOS, Nitrous Express, ZEX, OZRace and Sniper. I would not recommend one over the other. I think they are all as good as each other, with some offering slightly different things to others. There are also different types of systems. There are wet nitrous systems, dry systems, direct port systems and foggers. Each one works differently and for different type cars.
How does it work?
There are 3 ways that nitrous works to boost your engine. Firstly, on compression, the nitrous oxide heats up, and when it does it breaks down and creates extra oxygen. More extra allows more fuel to be burned, making a bigger bang in the cylinder and more power. Secondly, when the nitrous is injected into the manifold it boils and turns from a liquid to a gas. The boiling reduces the temperature of the nitrous to -127 degrees fahrenheit, which drastically reduces intake air temperature. Thirdly, the nitrogen released during the compression stroke acts as a buffer to make for a more controlled combustion process.
The Myths
There are lots of myths about nitrous. I will try and clarify a few.
Is nitrous dangerous to my car? - Only if you are not smart, or if you get greedy. If you have up to 100 shot installed by an expert and correctly tuned, the car should have no problems at all, even if it is stock. The 2 main problems occurred are detonation and leaning out. As stated above, the nitrous creates more oxygen, so therefore you need more fuel to compensate. If you don't have adequate fuel pressure, your car will lean out. You will also need to retard your timing, otherwise you will get pinging.
Do I need forged pistons to run nitrous? Only once you get more serious. I have heard some people say you can run nitrous up to 150 shot without forged pistons. If you are running only up to 100, you definately can run standard pistons.
When is the best time to use it? If you have watched 'The Fast and the Furious' you are probably of the belief you should save your nitrous boost for 100 metres before the finish line. This is wrong, your nitrous boost will serve you best off the start line. From my experience, nitrous loves lower revs. I actually change gears earlier with the spray on than I would naturally aspirated.
Is nitrous oxide flammable? No. Nitrous oxide is an oxidising gas, not a flammable one. When combined with a fuel, it will make it burn more rapidly, but is not flammable by itself.
I hope that helps some of you with your decision to use nitrous. I will show you some of the components of nitrous oxide systems.
The unit I am demonstrating is your basic wet plate system which bolts on under your carburettor. Here is what the plate looks like.
This is a standard plate for a 4 barrel carburetter. The chrome fittings on the front and rear are the housings for your nitrous jets, commonly known as 'the pills'. They decide how much nitrous you will be running. The bigger the jet size, the bigger the nitrous shot.
This is a standard nitrous solenoid. This type of system would have a nitrous solenoid and a fuel solenoid. The fuel solenoid has a hose coming from the fuel pump, and the nitrous solenoid has a hose coming from the nitrous bottle. The purpose of the solenoid is to release the fuel and nitrous into the jets and into the system. The solenoids are the 'gates' that open to let everything in.
Some nitrous systems have a purge solenoid. Because of the cold temperature of nitrous, it can freeze up the lines, giving you less than full boost at the hit of the throttle. The purge solenoid will clear the lines out just before launch, giving you maximum acceleration. The purge is the mist you sometimes see on the startline coming usually from the bottom of the windscreen.
This is a standard nitrous bottle. NOS bottles are usually blue or polished silver, but bottles are available in all colours and styles these days. They also come in different sizes but most are 15 or 25 pound bottles.
The orange band you can see around this bottle is a bottle warmer. You will get better nitrous pressure and therefore better performance with a warm bottle, so a bottle warmer is a great advantage. I have heard of a guy who ran flat 11 second quarter mile times for over a year and could not get into a 10. He installed a bottle warmer and ran 10.70 on his first pass.
Boost controllers are something that only the pros use. They control how much nitrous gets fed in at different stages of acceleration, so you can start with a relatively tame level of boost, and bring it in more as the revs get higher and you get into higher gears.\
