• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

Water methanol injection

Wesdunns70t5m

New member
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Location
Jacksonville, NC
So I?ve been doing research for a while now about water meth injection with the plans on getting it installed. I?ve had half a system installed on another project, and decided to swap it over to my 1990 760 turbo wagon. The half installation was my most experience with this kind of thing before, so I wasn?t quite sure what to expect.

Anyway, I opted to install the pump/reservoir/controller in the spare tire area, and everything that goes to the engine compartment got routed under the car along the fuel lines. I had previously installed a walbro fuel pump and had ran wires with a new relay directly to the fuel pump from the battery, so I had a very easily accessible wire already in the spare tire well for the 12v ignition source. I decided to drill and tap the intercooler pipe a couple inches before the throttle body. I also had to route a vacuum line from the intake manifold to the controller in the trunk. I routed this with the fuel lines and injector nozzle line for the system, and fed it through one of the rubber floor drains in the spare area. All in all, it is a good little bit of work and can be intimidating, but don?t worry, it?s all easy work. I?d say the hardest part for me was routing the hoses under the car, and getting beat up by mosquitos while I was soldering.

So with the system all hooked up and ready to go, I hit up autozone for some blue windshield washer fluid, and a bottle of HEET. I got one bottle of each, just so I didn?t have a full reservoir in case of problems. I emptied the whole bottle of each into the reservoir, turned the ignition on, and checked to make sure the pump wasn?t running yet, which is wasn?t. I then adjusted the controller to turn on at about 5 psi, and set the max pressure to about 17 psi. Now, it?s time for the moment of truth.

I fired the car up, and starting putting along until fully warm. Once warmed it was time to crack that whip! My instant reaction was ?wow, the instant torque from the little 13c you feel when you first hit boost, holds a LOT better?. Before when I?d hit boost, it would pull hard for about a second, and than lose globs of torque, now it just keeps pulling.

I have a mbc in my car, but with the stock, probably original turbo, and an older motor with no maintenance history before I bought it last year, and we?ll over 220k miles, I NEVER floor it in my car. It?s normally 1/2-3/4 throttle. With this test drive I followed that driving style and found a great improvement, I decided to give it a little more. I still didn?t have the peddle floored, but we were hovering right above it. I?d hit 16psi, and holy $hit! I didn?t think these 13c turbos we?re capable of what mine just did! Normally I?d only push it to about 12 psi, with spikes to 14 or 15 sometimes. When I hit it she held steady at 16 psi, and was just begging for even more! Now I know that water/meth injection is more or less a bandaid to help make more power, not a power adder itself, so I?m not gonna turn the boost up anymore, at least not until I get my 15g installed.

Moral of the story, why haven?t you done this yet? If anyone out there is considering it, I assure you that install is fairly painless, and the gains are definitely noticeable. The price point on one of these systems brand new are daunting, but even still for the price it is very much worth it. Or do like I did and find a used system, or piece it together yourself from various vendors.

I?ve seen such gains with a very mildly modified car, that this seems like the gift that keeps on giving. I?m sure with a bigger intercooler, turbo, and decently built 3? exhaust system, the gains would be even more noticeable. End of the day, this was an awesome upgrade, and I had fun doing the install, and getting crazy looks from the part store guy when I told him what I was doing. Any and everyone after performance should really consider this! Just please be careful while doing this, frequently check for any leaks and all that good stuff. If anyone has any questions or comments or anything like that, doesn?t hesitate to hit me up.

By the way, I?m not sure if this would be better off for the performance section, but since it wasn?t a question or problem that I had, so I figured here would be a better spot for it, my bad if I?m wrong for that. Happy bricking everyone!
 
Curious. Is your system homemade or is it from a water injection parts supplier.
More details please.
Dave
 
A little of both to be honest. I?d purchased some of a kit off eBay a few years back. That purchase included a devils own reservoir, Snow performance controller, and a pump that label had been torn off by the previous owner. I ended up having a hard enough time finding a hard line to hook everything up, so I ended purchasing a huge spool of it from graingers. I also ended up purchasing a solenoid for the system due to how I was gonna set it up in the original car, but ended up not needing it for this application.
 
Just a quick follow up. I?d checked my gas mileage before and after installing this system, both times with a heavy foot...I saw a 2 mpg increase in fuel economy, which is pretty damn good!

Also today while doing a pull I ran out of fluid, and thought I?d got a small boost leak when it ran out, so definitely not a placebo effect in the power department either
 
Is E85 not available in your area? From what I understand its a better tuning option all around to suppress det and keep higher boost levels.
 
I honestly haven?t even checked if e85 is available. I had the majority of the kit already, and had a weekend where my other half was out of town with her family, so I was bored and went for it.

And yes, no tuning required!!
 
Is E85 not available in your area? From what I understand its a better tuning option all around to suppress det and keep higher boost levels.

Water alcohol injection offers a few benefits over pump e85:
1. More consistent fuel source
2. Better fuel economy
3. Cleaner engine
4. Higher effective octane rating of intake charge
 
That and I have looked into it. It’s about an hour drive to the closest e85 source. I still prepping my for my 19t install, and will be hooking up a wideband to monitor afr’s. I’ve been considering getting everything dialed in, figuring out what size injectors I’d need for e85, and keeping them in the glovebox. That way I can always swap between injectors depending on e85 availability
 
Back
Top