| NITROUS USES | ||||||
| Apart from traditional applications of providing more oxygen for the engine, there are probably only two other legitimate uses. One is to assist turbo spool up by massively increasing exhaust gas volume and velocity at lower engine rpm. This makes the engine perform as if it is supercharged by a Roots-type blower and a turbocharger working together, such is the low speed power improvement. An option with nitrous assist is to opt for a much larger and more efficient exhaust turbine on the turbo to provide a greater top-end power boost, plus superior cruise fuel economy because of reduced exhaust restriction. Some have also injected the nitrous right into the compressor, to directly impinge on the impeller blades, supposedly providing some extra force to speed up the turbo. However, the theoretical benefits were never realised in practice. The other possible application for N20 is as an intercooler chiller. In horsepower heroes competitions the winner is the fellow, or girl, whose car makes the highest horsepower on a wheel dyno. Such a closed environment is not especially helpful. The air heats up fairly quickly and oxygen content pretty rapidly falls. One way competitors running air-to-air intercoolers get around this, in competitions which permit the practice, is to blast the intercooler with nitrous directly from the bottle. This not only chills the intercooler, but savvy individuals also ensure that the air intake is appropriately located so ensuring that the engine is drawing in air with an oxygen content closer to a normal 23%. (You probably learned in physics classes that air contains 21% oxygen. By volume that figure is correct, but by weight air is 23.3% oxygen.) THE POWER GAINS POSSIBLE TODAY In 1953, in his last book, The High Speed Internal Combustion Engine, Ricardo noted that liquid nitrous oxide 'permitted a large increase in power, at least 40 per cent.' That figure holds true pretty well to this day. Solid, well-built stock engines will accept a nitrous assisted power increase up to about 35% when everything has been done correctly, and fuel and N20 calibration and spark advance are precisely controlled. Competition engines with heavy duty components will live at 40% power boost levels as Ricardo stated. However, in pure drag race engines, which are only required to barely survive one 1/4 mile trip, the power increase can be more like 50-80%. The monster 650cu in Pro Street engines make 1100-1250hp without nitrous. On the first stage of nitrous this rises 400-500hp and when the second stage is added the power rises another 400-500hp! | ||||||
Home 
Tech Articles Nitrous and Turbos
Tech Articles Nitrous and Turbos
Nitrous and Turbos
|
Advanced Search |
|
| Show Cart | |
|
Your Cart is currently empty.
|
