Anyone interested in alcohol injection?

I know there is a lot of 1st gen supercharged guys who use alcohol/water injection but I have yet to find any info on people doing it with their 2nd gen supercharged trucks. I’ve seen a few pictures but that’s it.

I am thinking about buying all the parts and doing it myself, then hopefully take it to ovtune to make sure the tune is right.


Anyone else consider doing something like this? If I decide to do this I will try to do a write up so others can join in on the fun.

As far as brainstorming I still can’t decide if I want to tap into the blower above the charge air cooler or just put a jet near the throttle body. When I had the truck dynoed Ovtune told me above that charge air cooler would be the best for cooling, but then I figure you don’t get the added benefit of helping the rotors on the supercharger seal to make more boost (I think? 7th gas injectors talk about this a lot I think)


Before anyone says why not just get a 7th injector.

Because I don’t know of a standalone controller for it and I don’t want to go ucon just for a 7th injector.

 

I looked hard into all this one time. I had big plans to do this and some other stuff, but it never materialized because the ucon release date dragged on for years so i gave up.

 

I know that you can run some kits on their own without any special controller. They came with their own control unit. How it decided to apply the meth was based on your choice and what references you wanted to tie into it. Or at least thats what i rememeber.

If you have the money, it looked like aquamist was the way to go.

 

I've been thinking of going the more DIY route. It's looking like it's going to cost around $250 in materials. The method to spray is going to come from a controller hooked up to my vacuum line, so once it detects X amount of boost it will start spraying the alcohol.
I could buy a pre made kit but I kind of wanted to try doing it myself just to see. If I found a complete kit for the right price I might go that route instead though. I'm having a hard time deciding on spraying through the rotors which I heard can be bad for them, or tapping the top of the super and spraying after the rotors.

I figured with that controller I just have to get an ecu tune adjustment and the ecu doesn't have to worry about controlling the extra injector for the alcohol.

 

I just drink out of the bottle, didnt realize people are injecting these days,

 

I’ve used it with other FI engines. A simple controller and a few different size jets will get you going. Tap into the intake path somewhere after the MAF for the nozzle and use the washer fluid tank as the reservoir. It won’t require a new ECU tune to work.

 

I understand it will work, but did you notice your vehicle running much richer? From what I have read online it richens up the A/F Ratio a bit which isn't the best for power but can still be OK. I'm not too worried about the tuning aspect, I am sure @OVTune will have no problem tuning for it.

 

No real change on the wideband AFR gauge. Data logs showed the intake air temps decreased immensely. The engine had an aluminum intake manifold that would burn you if you touched it after hard runs, after installing the methanol injection it would be cool to the touch. The injection of methanol and water works in two ways; the water evaporates/atomizes during which it removes a large amount of heat from the air charge while the methanol effectively increases the octane level within the cylinder, reducing the chance of detonation. Depending on the ECU’s abilities the cooler, denser air allows more fuel to be introduced and timing to be advanced slightly, both of which increase power output.

 

Interesting. The thing that worries me is the intake air temp sensor is built into the maf, so I don’t know if the ecu will be able to adjust for the air that will be much colder. Unless there is another sensor somewhere. I guess this is something I will just have to take the leap of faith on.

Thank you for sharing some knowledge in here!

 

All the cool kids are doing it these days. Tide pods are so last year

 

Don’t have it on a Tacoma but I do on my corvette so I can speak a little bit to it. I’ve got a devils own kit with a progressive controller. My IAT went from 180 degrees during wot to ambient temps or below. Had the kit for over two years no problems.

 

After talking to a few people I have come to the conclusion the right way to do this is going to be to spray right on top of the charge air cooler inside of the supercharger. Spraying through the rotors isn’t a great idea apparently, even though I know a lot of people do it but I trust what someone who rebuilds superchargers for a living says. Which he basically told me to spray it after the rotors or lose the idea completely.

Kind of sucks because there is no real stealth way to spray after the rotors. I’d probably have to drill the top of the housing which puts it in plain sight.

I guess if I want a more stealth option there is the killer chiller but it is very pricey.

Decisions decisions..

 

One thing to consider is that when you spray before the charger you know that the meth is getting mixed plenty well with all the air. If its after the charger i would be concerned about it sort of following a path down a couple cylinders rather than all 6 evenly.

Also any sort of damage to the supercharger can be mitigated by using the proper mixture. Going pure meth is what typically causes problems.

 

I would at most be running a 50/50 mix, probably end up running 20-30% denatured alcohol and the rest distiled water as I am mostly interested in cooling the air. The extra octane you get is more of an added plus not the intended goal.

The one thing I don’t like about the killer chiller setup is they want you to remove the stock heat exchanger for the supercharger inorder to get the most out of your kc system. So basically you get no cooling at all with the ac off or if a part on your ac system fails.

It does seem safer for the motor to spray pre blower but safer for the blower to spray after rotors.

There has to be a middle ground that makes everything happy, right?

 

I’m thinking a 25%alcohol/75% water mixture before the throttle body is the route I am going to take. Yeah it will still eat the coating on the rotors but it should cool the air enough where it’s not superheating the motor.

 

I used the washer fluid reservoir as the tank being extra stealth. Here some pics... So the second picture is a boost controller. You can adjust it to turn on and spray at what boost you desire. The green LED light would turn on when spraying. So little trial and error to get it to spray right before peak boost. I bet the ovtune could eliminate some of this but thought to share for people having a stock ecu

 

I like

 

One probably could think about which is worse, your supercharger being slightly damaged and/or your supercharger rebuilder whining (or jacking up repair price) when you mail it to him, or having to replace your engine. Chiller killer seems like an all right option as well, but I can't see how that wouldn't be limited in its abilities to cool the intake charge, without having an extra AC compressor the size of a nuclear reactor. A lot of energy is taken out of the intake air by the vaporization of water and alcohol, in that regard it's pretty good value.

I did think about installing the nozzles after the rotors but preferred to do it before since there would be better air cooling and theoretically fewer unevaporated droplets entering the combustion chamber.

 

Good information here. I have finally decided to just spray before the rotors. After rotors is no bueno on our setup, killer chiller is a nice option but it costs way too much for having to run my AC 24/7.

Right now I am trying to work something out with my tuner before he leaves California for good. It would be nice to swap on the 2.7 pulley, sprayer, and possibily 61 Lb injectors and get one final tune.

We shall see what happens. If he can get a day for my truck before he leaves I am going to buy all this shiz and hopefully its all installed in time.