Edelbrock's Edsel ?

[Neill]

My older brother owned a compact Oldsmobile convertible, I think a 1962 model, that came with a turbocharger that blew under a side draft carburetor. It had a small tank he had to refill with every tank of gas. The Olds dealers stocked what they called 'Turbo Rocket Fluid' to use in the tank. It was a methyl alcohol mix. So, even though the mix was not going through the carb, I would be willing to bet the mix had some kind of corrosion inhibitor formulated in. Now, to bring the discussion up to the here and now, I'm wondering if the ethanol gas we use today would present an accelerated problem with carbs. I have never used Sta-bil or other fuel additives, and am not familiar with them , but wonder if that might be a solution, and how the current manufactures of water injection systems are coping with these problems .

 

[Neill]

All kidding aside it does actually clean carbon and gunk off of your valves, chambers, and pistons.

The main benefits are if you spray 50/50 distilled water and pure methanol, the methanol in the spray is additional fuel that's like 110 octane. And the conversion of water into steam carries a ton of heat out of the combustion chamber, let's you run more compression, more timing, more boost. There are a TON of Grand National guys running as fast with water methanol injection on 93 octane gas, as guys who run just race gas, with no problems. Going from like pump gas safe boost level of like 16-17 psi, up to over 25 psi with water injection. I'm going to put a water methanol kit on mine eventually.

Thanks for this valuable information. I don't plan on installing it on my Camino, which has standard compression, but am not throwing it away either. I'm still impressed with it.

 

[Neill]

For some reason I don't like the idea of spraying water through the carburetor. I'm sure it can work but it seems like bad idea to me carburetors really don't like water or methanol it's highly corrosive to brass and aluminum. Wonder if that's why it never caught on?

I know there are still plenty of people who don't understand how water injection works and think it's snake oil BS, so I imagine 25 years ago or more there were even more skeptics.
[/QUOTE

For some reason I don't like the idea of spraying water through the carburetor. I'm sure it can work but it seems like bad idea to me carburetors really don't like water or methanol it's highly corrosive to brass and aluminum. Wonder if that's why it never caught on?

I know there are still plenty of people who don't understand how water injection works and think it's snake oil BS, so I imagine 25 years ago or more there were even more skeptics.

I just read up on Sta-bil. It looks like it would do the trick ,as far as preventing corrosion from alcohol blends ,or ethanol gumming up the works. Also read there is growing interest in using systems like this to drastically cut down N.O.X. in diesels. Ex : 50 % reduction in a diesel truck. So I guess my kit would allow 11.5 compression, if wanted ,with iron heads, no pinging, better gas mileage and clean combustion chambers. I have also found old threads on the net from users that report excellent extended use results with vara-jection, and would buy another today./QUOTE]

 

[Neill]

Steam cleaner?

Yes, it does that too.

 

[Neill]

If your going to run methanol you better be set up for it. Both of mine are on methanol, It's a great power booster and a lot cheaper than race fuel.

You can run windshield wiper fluid in mine.

 

[fleming442]

Water injection was a Band Aid for a poor tune. Methanol injection, on the other hand, can add octane points and cool the intake charge under boost or a shot of nitrous.

 

[Neill]

Water injection was a Band Aid for a poor tune. Methanol injection, on the other hand, can add octane points and cool the intake charge under boost or a shot of nitrous.

I was thinking if you had , like, 10-1 comp., you could just use 35 % alcohol windshield wiper fluid, and not ping. Maybe not even need the alcohol. I have 0 experience with any of this, and it's quite apparent very few do, for some/whatever mysterious reason. Their ARE good reports on these units out there. I 'm glad I own one, but it's a shame I cannot benefit from it with the low comp. 350 in my Camino.

 

[fleming442]

Why not just build it for it's intended purpose? If you are on the ragged edge (my Olds), a can of Torco in the tank does the trick without the concern of a system failure. I'm at 10.58:1, and run on 93 cat pee out of the pump, which can be inconsistent.

 

[Neill]

Why not just build it for it's intended purpose? If you are on the ragged edge (my Olds), a can of Torco in the tank does the trick without the concern of a system failure. I'm at 10.58:1, and run on 93 cat pee out of the pump, which can be inconsistent.

System failure is indeed the bugaboo. If your comp. was not too high, you could just get out and retard the spark, but if it was higher, about the only components that could fail would be the module, tiny pump, or a nozzel clogging. The kit seems to be o.e.m. quality, and as you probably know, Eddy's made /supplied h.p. parts for o.e.m.s. Mopar, anyway. You could, in minutes, replace any of these parts on the road, and a whole other kit, while they last, are cheap right now. There are ways of hooking up a warning light if the fluid gets low. I'm liking your drift about 'intended purpose', because, like I said, my worn down , std. comp. 'Targetmaster '350, or whatever, doesn't need it, so I won't be sidetracted into messing with it , in that needed repairs recently surfaced, like yesterday, that must be addressed before I put it back on the road. 'O' oil pressure @ idle, 20 max when revved. These are warm readings, it's normal on start up but rapidly falls in unison with the rise in water temp reading. The lifters started clattering at idle so I installed an oil guage for the verdict. No knocks, O.K. comp, just the mains are too loose, I think. I need to drop the pan and check the mains, and rods while I'm there. I'm glad you can still buy .001 and .002 undersize inserts for both the rods and mains.