water injection questions

[jfaubion]

>Others may certainly have their theories about the demise of water 
>injection, but my favorite story concerning same is one my father has 
>told off and on for 40 years.  When we lived in Houston, in the early 
>`50s, we had a neighbor who had a new Buick, and worked at Ellington AFB; 
>his thinking went thus:  if water injection is useful for jet engines, 
>why wouldn't it be useful for automobile engines?  Roughly the same 
>principles, right?  He rigged up a separate tank and pump for water 
>injection into the manifold of this new Buick.  And raved about the 
>performance improvements.  Until his wife took the car out, left the 
>switch on (he'd wired it to battery, not ignition), and the engine filled 
>up with water overnight.  Came out the next morning, turned it over, and 
>bent most every rod in the engine.
>
>It could be things like that which have queered people on water 
>injection, although I'll be the first to admit, while laughing at 
>stories such as the above, there's some sense to the principle, 

Actually it was economics. The profit based on the number of systems sold 
did not justify the cost to sell and support them. Of course these systems 
might have sold better if semi-fictional horror stories weren't propagated.

Unfortunately its stories like the one above that cause a lot of these 
system to be discontinued. Someone either jury-rigs a system or misuses a 
system and everyone one passes on the story of how it damaged the engine. 
If they had just spent the money they wasted on time and energy the system 
could have worked fine.

A better example is someone that buys a used nitrous oxide system that has 
been mismatched. If they install it and it torches the engine, they 
complain to everyone that will listen. Conveniently they forget to mention 
that they followed no manual and had no experience with such systems.

(Climbing down from soapbox...)

Sorry touchy subject thanks to lawyers!

John Faubion
jfaubion at cs-smtp.tyndall.af.mil