Snow Performance Stage 3 Boost Cooler Water/Methanol Injection – Proving Grounds – Tech

Injecting Cheap And Easy Horsepower Into Your Engine.

December 29, 2010

Description
Turbocharged engines love cold, dense and detonation-free intake charges, but providing those optimal conditions can be a bit of a challenge in the real world – especially when race gas can cost upward of $10 a gallon. Therefore, for most of us, pump gas has to suffice. Problem is, the lower octane levels prevent us from extracting every last ounce of power from our motors, so we go about our business making due with what power we extract from pump gas. There is, however, a much less costly solution to extracting race gas-like numbers from your turbocharged engine, and it comes in the form of methanol injection.

Methanol is rated at about 116 octane, so injecting it into your intake tract will raise the effective octane level and increase detonation resistance in your fuel. (Not to mention the added benefit of cooling your pressurized charge.) Methanol is usually distilled with water (50/50) to reduce flammability (methanol has a flash point of 140 degrees Fahrenheit – when mixed with water, it increases to approximately 650 degrees). It also makes it easier to tune because the air/fuel ratio won’t be affected as much, and it’s much more cost effective – on average, a gallon of meth/water injection would cost you $1.50, yet the mixture still retains the same knock-resistant, high-octane cooling properties that your engine so badly longs for.