All About Nitrous Oxide

[MBK89]

In vehicle racing (and road cars), nitrous oxide (often referred to as just "nitrous" in this context to differ from the acronym NOS which is the brand Nitrous Oxide Systems) is sometimes injected into the intake manifold (or prior to the intake manifold), some systems directly inject right before the cylinder (direct port injection) to increase power. The gas itself is not flammable, but it delivers more oxygen than atmospheric air by breaking down at elevated temperatures, allowing the engine to burn more fuel and air and resulting in more powerful combustion. Nitrous oxide is stored as a compressed liquid; the evaporation and expansion of liquid nitrous oxide in the intake manifold causes a large drop in intake charge temperature, resulting in a denser charge, further allowing more air/fuel mixture to enter the cylinder. The lower temperature can also reduce detonation.

One of the major problems of using nitrous oxide in a engine is that it can produce enough power to damage or destroy the engine. Very large power increases are possible, and if the mechanical structure of the engine is not properly reinforced, the engine may be severely damaged or destroyed during this kind of operation. It is very important with nitrous oxide augmentation of internal combustion engines to maintain proper operating temperatures and fuel levels to prevent preignition, or detonation.

[alex]

Might be worth mentioning two types of kit available:

Dry- wjich is Nos only, and is limited on how much you can send into the lump before it goes bang.

and Wet- where the gas and a subsequent fuel line mixes the gas and petrol together in a fogger nozzle before getting itself into the combustion chamber. This route can handle a bigger hp increase, but added complexity of sorting the fuel lien and another actator.

If you are interested in doing your own DIY install it (as i was) it can be done from the info here- check the forum its brilliant.

http://www.nitrous.info/nitrous-kits-designer.htm

Bottle can come from old c02 fire extinguisher, jets can be bought cheap (he even has drill sizes for the relevant hp of the jets)

actuators are not that cheap, but you get what you pay for.

used nos kits are available too.

gas isnt that cheap though!