I am seriously thinking about nitrous on the mav. Probly something like a 100 to a 125 shot. Is there any major thing that I should look for or do when installing/using it? I am new to nitrous and I am trying to educate myself. Any of your help would be greatly appreciated.
In my old fashioned opinion, nitrous is to be used on the drag strip - only. Some states make it illegal for street use. Now having said that. You need a strong engine with a strong bottom-end. You need a good setup to control the inflow of the nitrous. Nitrous is serious business and should be planned out thoroughly and should be done right.
Nitrous is fine if you've taken the appropriate precautions, built your motor for it, and never ever use it on the street. If your motor is stock, don't use much and make sure your ignition system is in great shape, you use good premium fuel, and your timing is a few degrees retarded from normal. Also use colder plugs. Do your homework on this before you jump into it. Nitrous can be used without harm, but you should know what you're doing.
We could write a book on the topic but I'd suggest talking to someone who can show you (on their car) what you need to have and what to look out for. I recently did a post where I talked about a RPM Activated Window Switch, (search), HOBBS switch, and Timing Retard - all in the name of keeping the motor from grenading. You can get by with a dry 75 shot for a relative small amount of dineros, but don't expect your engine to hold up very long. Hang out with someone who's done it right, watch what they do and learn as much as you can from them about it before taking the plunge yourself. Good luck.
get a hold of Steve from NC. He is the rep for MCCI. He runs Nitrous. His sign in is Comet gt 1974. He can definatly help.
Nitrous is an excellent power adder and is just as reliable/safe as a supercharger or turbocharger. The basically accomplish the same thing but nitrous doesn't create huge amounts of heat! Turbochargers are the most efficient power adder but are very costly and have a tough learning curve. Nitrous can be run on the street but probably not a good idea since you'd probably be racing someone and I don't condone street racing!! (not anymore that is) My brother ran nitrous for YEARS on the street and at the dragstrip (90% street/10%strip). He had an 88 mustang with basically a stock motor. He ran a dry manifold kit with no more then a 150 shot. I can remember some weekends when we would go through 3 or more bottles just street racing!! We were young and dumb and didn't go about it the right way, we ended up melting down a BUNCH of plugs and i'm sure that was due to using the stock fuel system. He put the NOS kit on at 60,000 miles and the block/crank finally let go at 120,000 miles, while racing a 69 comaro on the street. The crank broke right at the #1 and #5 rod journal. Not sure if the crank broke or the block let go. We learned alot from that motor!! Nitrous is just as safe as any of the other power adders, as long as you use it safely/wisely and don't get greedy (like me and my brother did)! I'll try to find you some detailed info but i'll just spit out some of the most important things.......You will need a dedicated fuel system for the nitrous enrichment, don't rely on one fuel system to feed the motor and the nitrous! I had no luck with the pressure safety switch (hobbs switch) the darn thing would work sometimes and then not work others and that's not what you want when you are drag racing. Personally, I would not use the hobbs switch but would go with a high quality air/fuel gauge that is wired into your nitrous system to shut it down if the air fuel ratio gets below an acceptable level. Very expensive but the best way to do it. If you're not gonna spray over a 150 shot then I wouldn't even worry about it. You will need a timing retard box so it will retard the timing when the nitrous is activated, otherwise, you'll have to retard the timing manually and the car will run like crap when not on the nitrous. With the retard box, the car will run great on motor or on the nitrous ! When you start playing around with it you will need to "sneak up" on a good setting, start small and work your way up! Don't get in a hurry, be patient and you can have great success! I've been running nitrous consistently for about 4-5 years now and have had great success with it!! When nitrous really becomes tricky is when you exceed the 300 hp mark with it, spraying that much nitrous is truly an art!! I hope some of this rambling helps you get a better idea of nitrous, I don't have the time right now to go into detail but i'll get you some more information on the subject!!!!
to add to whats already been said. general rule of thumb is to take out 2* of timing for every 50 hp shot. hence the retard box. ** Do not short change it......pay now or pay later
I've been running nitrous for about 12 years. Just a 125 hp shot. Use forged pistons if your building a motor. I've ran cast pistons in mine for a lot of years with no problems, just be very conservative. If your just gonna use a pushbutton to activate the flow you need to be spinning at least 2500 rpm and wide open throttle. Timing should retard at least 2 degrees for every 50 hp your adding. Colder plugs are needed if you go over 125 hp or so or use it a lot. You should have a fuel pressure safety switch in case fuel pressure drops, the nitrous shuts off. Like Steve mentioned above, some switches aren't consistant and cause problems, a separate fuel delivery system will let you avoid messing with switches. A purge valve to relieve the pressure when your done using the system (heard of cases where guys had leaky nitrous solenoids that would fill the intake with nitrous and cause an explosion when the engine was started). A remote bottle valve is nice but not necessary. If it gets cold in your area a bottle blanket and heater may be needed, have to keep the bottle pressure around 900 psi. Good head gaskets and bolts or studs. To protect my motor and allow earlier nitrous flow I use a Jacobs Nitrous Mastermind controller. It is a proportional controller that pulses the solenoids according to rpm. You dial in what percentage of flow you want, start rpm, shut-off rpm, how much ignition timing retard, rev limit, air/fuel ratio and it monitors fuel pressure. Jegs and Summit sell them for about $225. That's how I got away with using cast pistons with nitrous for so many years.
Well, first of all, i want to thak you all for the help. If i do do the nitrous, i will have a separate fuel pump for the nitrous and i will be using all of the nessecary purge valves, switches, etc. to try and be as safe as possible. If i do it i am going to do it right. But i do have a spare 5.0 block laying around just in case. lol. i also have a friend who has an outlaw mustang and runs 500 hp dual stage nitrous. if all else fails, ill just ask him. and if i do blow it, it will just be an excuse for me to build the forged 331 or 347 that i have wanted for a while . Once again, thanks for all of the help. this is a great board
