NOS and gasoline internal combusion... (archive)

Nitrous Oxide is chemically known as N2O. Each molecule of nitrous is made up of 2 Nitrogen and 1 Oxygen atom. When it oxidizes (burns) it chemically separates into the Nitrogen and Oxygen components. It is the extra oxygen that gives the engine more power (supercharging effect). But without the 2 Nitrogen molecules combined with the Oxygen, combustion temps would get way too high and the engine would self destruct. That is the reason why straight O2 (Oxygen gas) is NOT used to give an engine more power. I believe it was the Germans who found this out during World War 1 (?) when they tried giving their airplanes more power via Oxygen injection. Engine meltdown ensued and then they tried nitrous in their warplanes. It worked.

Nitrous also works becasue it cools the intake charge. When the highly pressurizes nitrous gas is released into normal atmospehric levels, it goes through an adibiatic pressure change and the temperature drops dramatically.

There a 2 types of nitrous systems - wet and dry. Dry systems are nitrous only and rely upon the car's fuel system to supply more gas. These are generally lower power systems. The big time nitrous systems are wet, whereas they inject more gas along with the nitrous, but are more complex and even harder to tune.

Nitrous is stored in a bottle (ever heard of "Throttle in a Bottle"?) in a liquid form (very high pressures). It turns to a gaseous state as flow is requested. The bottle has a mechanical valve on it as well as an electronic soleniod. There is also an electronic solenoid located near the engine to regulate flow into the engine. To deliver the nitrous, there is soem kind of nozzle that directs the nitrous into the airstream.

When you have a nitrous system, you first need to open the bottle's mechanical valve, and then turn the system on. Next, you may need to purge the nitrous line and then arm the system. You may either have an automatic switch (say on the accelerator pedal) to activate the nitrous or a hand operated switch. There are also safety decives as RPM cutoff switch so that if revs fall too low, nitrous cannot be activated.

There more, I just don;t have enough time,

Gene
M5 LITE
'97 540i/6 with no nitrous

Follow Ups:

Re: Very informative, thank you Black Magic Warhorse 540 09:33 8/13/2001 (0)

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