Does anyone have any experiences to share about the pros and cons of using blowers and NOS. I'm told NOS is a cheaper solution, but very risky in terms of blowing up an engine. Conversely, how safe is it to put a blower on a pure stock engine? Are other upgrades recommended when using superchargers or NOS to minimize damage to the engine? Is it worth it compared to other upgrades?
Blown versus Nitro
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I dont have any first hand experience with either...but, ive read some articles and talked to a few people about both.
From what ive heard/read...nitrous has to be injected at WOT or close to it..otherwise damage can result. It requires forged crank, forged pistons, and rods all designed for the total h.p that they will see with the nitrous. In addition, the timing has to be retarded - the amount of timing retard depends on how much nitrous you are going to inject. It is, of course, highly flammable and explosive. Ive seen cars catch on fire and ive heard of engine internals becoming damaged. Nitrous is more suitable for the strip as the higher rpm band is more conducive to nitrous use.
Blowers/Supercharging...is advantegeous for street as well as strip....because it is being used thruout the entire rpm band. Lower compression pistons and a special carb for Blowers, are required.
Doing a 'Search' under this topic in the various Corvette Dg's on the Web...should yield some beneficial info.
Dave
From what ive heard/read...nitrous has to be injected at WOT or close to it..otherwise damage can result. It requires forged crank, forged pistons, and rods all designed for the total h.p that they will see with the nitrous. In addition, the timing has to be retarded - the amount of timing retard depends on how much nitrous you are going to inject. It is, of course, highly flammable and explosive. Ive seen cars catch on fire and ive heard of engine internals becoming damaged. Nitrous is more suitable for the strip as the higher rpm band is more conducive to nitrous use.
Blowers/Supercharging...is advantegeous for street as well as strip....because it is being used thruout the entire rpm band. Lower compression pistons and a special carb for Blowers, are required.
Doing a 'Search' under this topic in the various Corvette Dg's on the Web...should yield some beneficial info.
Dave
Joined
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335 Posts
Blowers and nitrous systems are very similar in the way they produce extra HP.
Both increase the amount of oxygen in the cylinders. Blowers force feed air into the engine and more oxygen means a bigger combustion. I have heard that some supercharges can create lag at the starting line then kick in when the turbine starts spinning.
Nitrous oxide injection is very much like a supercharger or a compression ratio increase in that, during combustion, it can dramatically increase the dynamic cylinder pressure in the engine.
What a lot of people don’t know is that No2 is a non-flammable gas. The tanks can explode if placed in a very high heat source. This is a result of the gas expanding and cracking the tank not because of the No2.
No2 reaches a certain temperature, I believe it is around 500 degrees, and the oxygen and nitrogen separate making an extremely rich oxygen mixture. A cubic foot of nitrous oxide contains around 2 or 3 times as much oxygen as a cubic foot of air. This means more oxygen in the cylinders.
There are wet, dry and direct port nitrous systems on the market today. Check around and see what kind fits your driving style.
I agree with Swavedave that you should have forged crank, forged pistons, and rods and many other upgrades to be safe.
I have seen many people blow head gaskets, fry rings and seals and total engines using blowers and No2.
If you only need the extra HP every once in a while, I would go with a Nitrous system. A 20 pound tank only last a few minutes, so the chances that you will hurt your engine drop because it is used only in bursts and doesn’t last long. But if you run through tanks left and right your engine will be hurting.
Get a professional install. A bad install will kill your engine faster than you can say “cat in the hat”
Hope this helps,
basecorvette
Both increase the amount of oxygen in the cylinders. Blowers force feed air into the engine and more oxygen means a bigger combustion. I have heard that some supercharges can create lag at the starting line then kick in when the turbine starts spinning.
Nitrous oxide injection is very much like a supercharger or a compression ratio increase in that, during combustion, it can dramatically increase the dynamic cylinder pressure in the engine.
What a lot of people don’t know is that No2 is a non-flammable gas. The tanks can explode if placed in a very high heat source. This is a result of the gas expanding and cracking the tank not because of the No2.
No2 reaches a certain temperature, I believe it is around 500 degrees, and the oxygen and nitrogen separate making an extremely rich oxygen mixture. A cubic foot of nitrous oxide contains around 2 or 3 times as much oxygen as a cubic foot of air. This means more oxygen in the cylinders.
There are wet, dry and direct port nitrous systems on the market today. Check around and see what kind fits your driving style.
I agree with Swavedave that you should have forged crank, forged pistons, and rods and many other upgrades to be safe.
I have seen many people blow head gaskets, fry rings and seals and total engines using blowers and No2.
If you only need the extra HP every once in a while, I would go with a Nitrous system. A 20 pound tank only last a few minutes, so the chances that you will hurt your engine drop because it is used only in bursts and doesn’t last long. But if you run through tanks left and right your engine will be hurting.
Get a professional install. A bad install will kill your engine faster than you can say “cat in the hat”
Hope this helps,
basecorvette
Joined
·
53,226 Posts
Here you go, everything you ever wanted to know....
http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1828&highlight=nitrous
http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1828&highlight=nitrous
Everything is a trade off, if you get greedy you will most certainly take life off you motor, A stock LS-1 or LT-1 motor can handle a 150 shot of nitrous all day long with some proper precautions. A non platinum spark pluge gapped at .035-.040 (running 1 heat range colder never hurts either) a good ignition (MSD etc..) it never hurts to pull a bit of timing either but the most important thing is having enough fuel to compensate for the N20, as long a you dont lean out you would be supprised to see what a stock motor can handle. Alot of people are scared of Nitrous just because of the horror stories because of inexperienced people having big problems because they dont know what they are doing.....Put a blower on a car and get careless and you will also have some serious problems, cylinder pressure is cylinder pressure wheather you get it from N20 or a blower the principle is exactly the same. Use your head and either one will give you trouble free performance.
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