Thread: nitrous oxide

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I'll save the horror stories for another day. I've never run nitrous myself but did a lot of research this summer when I was considering going that route to get into the 10's when Pinks All Out was in town. I do know many who run nitrous with various different systems.

For me, I determined it was not worth the risk or the $$$ I determined it would require to do it right to my satisfaction.

Many run nitrous successfully with systems like you describe... here's what I would consider bare minimum requirements:

only run at wide open throttle above 3500rpm
retard timing 2 degrees for every 100hp shot (250 shot -> retard 5 degrees)
be sure fuel system can keep up... often a good idea to run a separate fuel pump for the nitrous

Next level of precautions:
colder heat range spark plug with short ground electrode to prevent shrouding of spark
RPM window switch that prevents activation below 3500 and shuts off before redline... if you hit a rev limiter on nitrous you WILL have several broken valve springs if not worse
fuel pressure safety switch that shuts off nitrous if fuel pressure drops too low

Next level for consistency in racing:
Bottle heater with pressure thermostat... ideal pressure between 900-1000psi
Progressive controller... add multiple stages and on and on

Some folks run 4 or more stages of nitrous that kick in at different points often based on time delay or gear and RPM... I've seen these cars scream and you can hear each stage kick in from the stands... I've also seen these cars go up in smoke with melted pistons.

For your system, just make sure the fuel system can keep up to the task. With the bottle off, test the fuel solenoid by hitting your switch and make sure the engine bogs. Retard timing as appropriate for your shot. Don't hit it at low RPM and don't hit your rev limit or if no rev limit watch out for red line because it gets there a lot faster. I would run a step colder plug...

As for the Jacob's mastermind, this was the box I was looking at this summer. It's got almost all the functionality I've mentioned here and comes at reasonable price... Edelbrock has one also that I liked the progressive action and has other features but is quite a bit more expensive.

Here are links to both at Summit:

Jacobs

Edelbrock

Funny, Summit only had Jacob's for 4-cyl... I found the V8 version at Jegs

Hope this helps and interested to hear how it turns out... will you be racing this or playing on the street?

-Chris

Edit: also a good idea to run race gas... if you have 2 fuel systems you can run your usual fuel in the main and race gas in the nitrous fuel system.