Going to try my hand at water and methanol injection

Was looking at stuff offered by cooling mist and labonte. I want something adjustable in the cab for sure, but I don't know what I want beyond that. Meaning how fancy I want to get......or can afford to get to put it correctly :hehe:

Then there is the K.I.S.S. theory which at times should not be ignored. So yeah I'm just going to look around for a bit. I know labonte is working on a new controller that sounds promising.
Oh ok cool. I just ended up setting it up until i got it how i wanted it and now im leaving it alone untill i get the other nozzle
 
Anybody not using a progressive controller? I want one, but I'm having a hard time deciding which one(plus the stuff I am looking at is pretty spendy.....at least to me). So I was thinking of just running a simple boost switch for now until I can pony up for whatever expensive nonsense controller that gets my eyes all glazed over lol!

Thinking about having it kick on at 30-35 psi.

Well it's in. Did some test runs last night......made me just about sick hearing the sound of my engine sputtering. The pump kept kicking on waaaayyyyy to early. No matter what I did with the adjustment screw. My buddy suggested installing a needle valve in the boost switch line and that seems to be working fairly well. I'm trying to get the boost switch to come on at 35+psi. I'm kinda worried I'm going to strip this chintzy a$$ plastic boost switch with the adjustment screw.

I burnt out my activation led so I am having a hard time telling when the pump kicks on. Will pick up another led tomorrow and do some more test runs. I will say this a progressive controller is looking like a really nice option right about now LOL

It does seem to be working though on one run I slowly raised the boost and at 35 psi I was only at 1100 degree's on the pyro. The past few months I have been eyeing my gauges like a hawk and usually between 35-38 psi I would see my egt's at 1250-1350.

Any pointers for the cheapa$$ that can't quite spring for the progressive controller just yet?

Oh yeah I am running -20 windshield washer fluid which I found after reading the msds sheets is 33% methanol. I think I'll probably just stick with that, unless I can find methanol and distilled water cheaper.
 
I think ud be better off not messing with it untill u get a progressive. with that needle valve how do you know what boost number its going to come on at?
 
I think ud be better off not messing with it untill u get a progressive. with that needle valve how do you know what boost number its going to come on at?

Trial and error (test and tune) LOL Really though it's not much different than adjusting the set screw on the boost switch. I just have one more adjustment to make.

It's working.....sorta. I gained 2 psi of boost, but no noticeable cooling. It's coming on roughly somewhere in between 30 and 40 psi. It seems the faster I ramp up the boost the sooner it comes on. Could be that it is exactly the same every time, but my eyes just can't tell when the needle moves so fast.

I am tempted to just leave it where it is. It's not offering the cooling I was looking for (150-200 degree drop in egt's) but it's running damn good! Racing this saturday and hitting the dyno at the Isspro Northwest Diesel National's. And I just don't want to be screwing around trying to get it tuned in there.

I have 2 big nozzles in the intake horn and the pump is turned all the way up. So my question is do I need more water or do I need to inject earlier to help keep the heat down? From what I've read it looks like guys are saying that if you start the injection too late you won't be able to bring the temps down. The best you will be able to do is arrest them.

Without a progressive controller It seems to put out the fire when I inject earlier. But I haven't done enough testing at lower boost levels.
 
Mine comes on at ~30psi and has never caused a problem. With the coolingmist "250 psi" pump I usually see ~160 to 175psi on my mechanical gauge, so I know it's moving a decent amount of water, although not anything substantial by racing standards.

I have my trans controller kick it on at 30lbs of boost, but you can do the same with a hobbs (as it sounds like you're trying to do).

If the truck is sputtering then you've got WAY too much water or way too low an rpm/airflow rate.

I've been running without a progressive controller for years and it seems fine. I've also run with a progressive controller as well as run staged nozzles and I don't think it's worth the trouble for most people. Just kick em on when you need em and be done with it.

Don't run any methanol, and add a little water-soluble oil to the water and you should be good to go once you get the onset point settled on.

Save the money IMO.
 
Mine comes on at ~30psi and has never caused a problem. With the coolingmist "250 psi" pump I usually see ~160 to 175psi on my mechanical gauge, so I know it's moving a decent amount of water, although not anything substantial by racing standards.

I have my trans controller kick it on at 30lbs of boost, but you can do the same with a hobbs (as it sounds like you're trying to do).

If the truck is sputtering then you've got WAY too much water or way too low an rpm/airflow rate.

I've been running without a progressive controller for years and it seems fine. I've also run with a progressive controller as well as run staged nozzles and I don't think it's worth the trouble for most people. Just kick em on when you need em and be done with it.

Don't run any methanol, and add a little water-soluble oil to the water and you should be good to go once you get the onset point settled on.

Save the money IMO.

Thanks. Glad to hear it works for somebody. All I'm seeing in searching is that everyone is running progressive controllers. When it was sputtering on my first test runs IIRC it was kicking on at 15-20 psi of boost.

So why not run methanol? From what I understand methanol has somewhere around half of the cooling capability of water. If I'm only running 33% methanol then it seems to me I'm only leaving 15% of cooling capability on the table?

Here's one more thing. It's kinda like when you go to the doctor and you say "it hurts when I do this", and his reply is "well don't do that then"! :lolly: When I get up to 35 or so and the system kicks on if I get back out of it right away and then get back in it, it will/can sputter. I'm more concerned with adding some cooling at WOT anyway so I'm not all that concerned. But I am wondering is this not an indication of how much water I'm flowing? I mean with that much water it seems like I should be seeing a substantial amount of cooling?
 
Thanks. Glad to hear it works for somebody. All I'm seeing in searching is that everyone is running progressive controllers. When it was sputtering on my first test runs IIRC it was kicking on at 15-20 psi of boost.

So why not run methanol? From what I understand methanol has somewhere around half of the cooling capability of water. If I'm only running 33% methanol then it seems to me I'm only leaving 15% of cooling capability on the table?

Here's one more thing. It's kinda like when you go to the doctor and you say "it hurts when I do this", and his reply is "well don't do that then"! :lolly: When I get up to 35 or so and the system kicks on if I get back out of it right away and then get back in it, it will/can sputter. I'm more concerned with adding some cooling at WOT anyway so I'm not all that concerned. But I am wondering is this not an indication of how much water I'm flowing? I mean with that much water it seems like I should be seeing a substantial amount of cooling?


Could be, or it could simply be the methanol, combined with the fact that your timing is likely already severely advanced.

If you were moving a lot of water the temps would drop like a rock. I can watch the pyro move backward at part throttle when I crest 30lbs of boost and the water kicks on, yet it never, ever sputters or misses. If I just barely crest the threshold for it to turn on I will feel the engine settle a bit, but it's always smooth.

If it's bucking or missing or anything like that I would remedy that immediately. If you determine that it is too much water and you have multiple nozzles, then just buy one more solenoid and switch and have the second nozzle come on at a later point. In this way you can achieve 99.9% of the effect of a progressive controller for very little cost.

But as I said, for me there was no notable gain to be had by staging them. I removed the solenoid and used it elsewhere.
 
From my experience of trying just water lately... it was really boring... yes it brought temps down but that was it there wasnt a gain in power at all.. and that drop in egt was only if i had it spraying infront of the heat. So i definetly went back to the windshield washer fluid quickly granted its more expensive but since it adds power and reduces heat. But maybe this is because i have mine coming on at 10 and fully on at 35?
 
I think I am going to need a fancy controller that will show flow rates and bring different nozzles on at my set points. Yesterday on the Dyno IIRC I only showed like a 2hp and 20-30 ft lbs. increase after turning the water on (don't feel like going to grab the dyno sheet right now).
 
AIS 6 gallon diesel with 3 nozzles. 2 in the horn and 1 pre-compressor. The 2 nozzles in the horn say 14 IIRC and the one pre compressor is a 7 (much smaller hole). I did a ton of reading about the pre-compressor injection and decided to give it a shot. I should probably give the compressor wheel another look see, but so far it's probably only had .5-1 gallon through it so far......which probably isn't enough to show any bad juju. I picked up 2lbs. of boost though running the pre-compressor nozzle......fact. I hit 48 all the time everywhere I go. When I finally felt that I had the boost switch and the needle valve set properly I turned the valve on to the pre-compressor nozzle and I hit 50 psi repeatedly.
 
Wow 3 nozzles and your still haveing trouble with heat that crazy.. i gained 5psi with two in the horn. 3 nozzles sounds intresting. i might try that sometime
 
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