Water Injection for Industrial V-Twins

[Protech Racing]

If you invert one of these, maybe you could push some copper tubing into the fins and mount a heater core above the engine and thermosyphon the water around the heads.

 

[TFF]

I believe when the Unlimiteds used nitrous, they would spray in the turns. Short bursts to better the lap average not pure speed.
Of course the classic auto nitrous cheat was drilling holes on the roll cage or frame, building a chamber in the frame for the nitrous. Then trigger it and have it flow through the frame into the engine compartment. Not precise but cheating is racing.

 

[pictsidhe]

A lot of you don't seem to understand the point of this thread.

Air cooled engines have marginal cooling. Any increase in stock can have adverse effects of temperature and reliability. As does EPA mandated leaning out of an engine designed to run very rich as it is cheaper than big fins.

The purpose of this thread is to discuss water injection as a possible mitigation measure for excess heat. I posted a paper early on that used injected water as the ONLY cooling for an engine. So yes, it can be done. This thread is not about power increases by adding water. That is a small side benefit.

 

[Hot Wings]

You've never looked at the head design of these things, have you? I've seen better ports and chambers in 70 year old engines.

Yes, they are pretty "old school" but given the constraints of engines mission and the need to make them inexpensively - they aren't all that bad. (a little fingernail on blackboard shudder when I say that)
We could do a lot better with a purpose designed head - but then the inexpensive part gets diminished.

Look up the new BMW water injection

Look up CATs water diesel. Diesel emulsified in the water.
But this too is kind of getting away from the intent of this thread.

 

[pictsidhe]

I believe when the Unlimiteds used nitrous, they would spray in the turns. Short bursts to better the lap average not pure speed.
Of course the classic auto nitrous cheat was drilling holes on the roll cage or frame, building a chamber in the frame for the nitrous. Then trigger it and have it flow through the frame into the engine compartment. Not precise but cheating is racing.

I saw a good one. Scrutineers took almost a whole season to work out the nitrous was in a moulded bonnet reinforcing rib.

 

[Protech Racing]

If youre going to try to cool the engine by spraying the intake track enough to actually cool the heads, you will have to drastically adjust the mixture and timing to keep the engine running .

 

[Hot Wings]

I don't think any of us are thinking of actually cooling the heads with internal H2O?

We/I are/am just using the heat absorption and expansion of the H2O phase change to cool the peak combustion temp, add a bit of chamber pressure and then carry more of the waste heat out the exhaust. So, not cooling the heads, but reducing the heat that the heads have to absorb and then dissipate.

 

[Protech Racing]

How long does it run now at wot before it overheats?

 

[Mike0101]

I'd be concerned about just running H2O on NA for said purposes... When RH is high, you'll likely just puddle somewhere. Go with water/methanol mix (windshield washer fluid). Yes BTU capacity is lower, but you are also adding fuel with higher octane. Spiking windshield washer fluid with "Heet" gas line antifreeze helps (it's like 99% methanol anyway).

Just my $0.02.

 

[mcrae0104]

A lot of you don't seem to understand the point of this thread.

Just a thought: you might consider ordinary thread drift (suffered by 11 out of 10 topics on this forum) as an explanation before accusing folks of being ignorant of the distinction.

 

[AdrianS]

One thing to remember - adding water injection is adding a potential failure point.
Especially with fine-mist nozzles, any dirt or "hard water" buildup can reduce the flow and thus cooling.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that if water injection is required for take-off / climb power, it's one more thing to monitor.

 

[Topaz]

One thing to remember - adding water injection is adding a potential failure point.
Especially with fine-mist nozzles, any dirt or "hard water" buildup can reduce the flow and thus cooling.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that if water injection is required for take-off / climb power, it's one more thing to monitor.

^ This. Has a need for additional cooling even been shown to be necessary? Fixing a demonstrated problem is one thing, but chasing "worries" is quite another.

 

[Hot Wings]

Has a need for additional cooling even been shown to be necessary?

None that I know of..........which means little. I'm still just at the box of parts stage with my conversion.

I can't speak for Pictsidhe but to me this is more thinking about Generation II or III of these industrial engine conversions.

 

[Protech Racing]

I ran a 5 micron filter in the waterline for both sprayers. The nozzles will clog up. Thats why the .040 holes. Same as my large safety wire .

 

[henryk]

Diesel emulsified in the water.

=30 % of water=OPTIMAL (investigationes of PK, Krakow)