nitrous?

Discussion in 'General Automotive Tech' started by BerniniCacO3, Aug 16, 2010.

  1. BerniniCacO3

    BerniniCacO3 New Member

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    Don't worry, not even THINKING about doing it to my car, which is an aesthetic workhorse and never a racer.

    But one hears about nitrous all the time, so I looked it up, and the question I have is: why N2O? I realize that it splits into N2 and O (or O2?) at high temperatures, delivering in effect pure oxygen... but why not just straight oxygen? I know they have it: your welding rigs and your apparatus for patients who need extra air, are straight oxygen compressed in tanks.

    Thanks ahead of time for the explanation!
     
  2. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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    It makes it cooler in the combustion chamber and expands the oxygen and hydrogen faster, giving a bigger bang to the spark.
     
  3. joe_padavano

    joe_padavano Well-Known Member

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    Sorry, but thats completely incorrect.

    Nitrous oxide is essentially compressed air (N2O actually has more oxygen by weight than air, but the concept is the same). By injecting it into the engine, you are having the same effect as supercharging - the engine is taking in more oxygen (and correspondingly more fuel) than it normally would under atmospheric pressure alone. This lets the engine perform as if it were larger, making more power. Yes, there is SOME cooling effect on the inlet flow, which does make the remaining atmospheric air more dense, but the primary power increase comes from the additional oxygen in the N2O combining with additional fuel that is injected at the same time.

    By the way, even the most basic nitrous kit makes a large difference in performance. On my 1971 442, a simple plate-style nitrous kit dropped quarter mile times from 13.5 to 11.9 with no other changes.
     
  4. joe_padavano

    joe_padavano Well-Known Member

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    Actually, that's been tried many, many times. There was even a top fuel dragster that ran two tanks of compressed oxygen instead of a supercharger. The fundamental problem is the safety of the pure oxygen, which can cause many things that aren't normally flammable to burst into flame. I don't know if you're old enough to remember the Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts in 1967, but they were using a 100% oxygen atmosphere in the capsule at the time and teflon, which normally does not ignite, burst into flame as an example.
     
  5. BerniniCacO3

    BerniniCacO3 New Member

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    Ahhh... OK. I was half wondering if that was the deal (having read that nitrous only disassociates at higher temperatures), but figured no, oxygen only makes things burn faster right...?
    Guess that was the wrong assumption, and it can allow for combustion even at 70F of certain things :)
     
  6. Wagonmaster Russ

    Wagonmaster Russ New Member

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    What Joe said :), the N2O allows more fuel to be burned. It also increases pressures, a small shot 50hp shot is pretty easy to control and a lot of fun at the dragstrip, if you get too crazy you'll need to forge averything and back off on timing.
     
  7. BerniniCacO3

    BerniniCacO3 New Member

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    Yeah, I understood that nitrous let more fuel burn; but I was confused why they used nitrous and not straight oxygen. Safety is a convincing reason, however!
     
  8. Wagonmaster Russ

    Wagonmaster Russ New Member

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    I would think it would be safer than a bottle of Oi in the car, or a line of Oi running thru the engine compartment....
     

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