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Thread: The Methanol Water Injection Thread

  1. #1
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    The Methanol Water Injection Thread

    We don't seem to have a definitive thread out there. I thought I'd share my experience and maybe a few other members can share theirs if they have used it. I have questions, and I'd bet other may have questions, as we're all still searching for cooler intake temps, more power, and less engine boom on our mid engine turbocharged challenged builds.

    What Is Methanol/Alcohol/Water Injection?
    Methanol Injection is used to cool intake temperatures and suppress detonation. A fine mist of Methanol, Alcohol or Water(or a mix) is injected into the air stream mixing in the combustion chamber with gasoline. For the WRX platform, the best injection point is intercooler output area. The most popular fluid is around a 50/50 mix of a Methanol/denatured alcohol or slightly less on the water content. The result is higher octane due to the meth/alky and lower charge temps due to the evaporate cooling effect the water has. Higher octane allows you to run more boost safley and advance timing which can significantly raise horsepower. A tune is almost always needed at the fuel stoichometry(best air/fuel burn ratio) will change slightly, oh and we want to tune for extra power . Fluid can be sourced almost anywhere. -20 to -35 windshield washing fluid has a great amount of methanol in it. I used to run this plus 1 bottle heet(gas line deicer). I believe this mix was around 50/50. The best washer fluid is the cheapest one that has the lowest freeze temperature. The cheaper stuff tends to have less trace amounts of perfumes/dyes and ethylene glycol, which people have suggested, may adhere to engine parts. Mainly methanol injection is used by the boost community as compressors heat up incoming air to high temperatures.

    Whats Needed?
    -Pump
    -tank or bulk head window washer tank fitting
    -application specific nozzle
    -boost sensing switch, usually adjustible
    -alcohol tolerant lines & hardware

    Methanol Injection instructions for a WRX STI-
    http://share.subiefiles.com/subiefil...%20Install.pdf

    My Experience-
    I had a Vortech V5 supercharger installed on a 2004 Hyundai Tiburon GT V6. At the time this was the biggest hp "kit" out there. A couple companies had roots style chargers that were safer on stock internals however the v5 really moved air. I turned to Snow Performance. The price was decent and the kit had a progressive boost sensing switch. I was one of the few that after my own draw-through MAF setup, was able to not blow there motor. Tuning was horrible for that car, mainly piggybacks or you had to splice wires for an aftermarket ECU, which meant no legality in emissions controlled states. For Illinois, it was a no no.

    Unfortunately I don't have logged evidence how much it helped, what temps looked like before and after. All I know was what i had researched and that it kept me safe when others were popping left and right. Has anyone used this on an 818 before and had good results. Logged info on air intake temps would be amazing! Right now I'm looking into being one of the guinea pigs, because well it's sitting around catching dust and sounds promising. While I'm only a week or 2 away from startup, I'm most likely a month or 2 from go kart stage, where I would be able to get some real answers. If I'm able to get intake temps down in our challenged setup and provide some logs, this just might be a good alternative to the proven AWIC setup for people that don't feel like installing and shelling out the money on the system. Advantages or AWIC could potentially be higher octane, lighter weight, cost savings and easier install. Disadvantages could be running out of fluid(there are fail-safes available for this) and pretty much mandatory tune... as far as I can think of.

    I'm curious to hear everyone's opinions and knowledge on this subject. Maybe a few people that have used it before, even if its not a 818 or WRX.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Zodiac's Avatar
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    Had the Aquamist HFS-6 installed on my 05 EVO and never had a problem with it. After the install there was definitely a major power difference. I had it for about 75k-100k miles before I ended up selling the car to get the 818 and the wife an SUV

  3. #3
    Sgt.Gator's Avatar
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    In 2007 I ran a mix of Snow/Labonte/AEM/Devil's Own. It made a huge difference. That's the problem, it makes such a huge difference that when you tune for it you are way out there and if it quits, or even burps, you can blow your engine. It's like tuning for110 race gas and at the most critical boost level you suddenly feed your engine 87 octane.
    The fail safe mechanisms have gotten a lot better since 2007, but most tuners don't want to risk it. If you want high octane either run race gas, E85, or mix in Torco accelerator.
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  4. #4
    Senior Member mikeb75's Avatar
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    Agree, partially, with Sgt.Gator. Speaking with guys at Andrewtech about add-on's we discussed water/meth injection, and their major reservation was if the system goes down (or you run out of boost-juice) you typically have a very lean tune, unless you install a very good failsafe.

    OTOH, I've been considering straight water injection for a while as a complement to the A2A IC, since I'm still looking at ways to get performance without going to A2W. Using misted water post IC to lower intake temps (a la the BMW M4-whatever race spec) might be a good compromise. Still a bit early for me on this approach, I haven't committed yet to this since I'm still trying to get results from the Hard-Top scoop-> boxed IC.
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by mikeb75 View Post
    Agree, partially, with Sgt.Gator. Speaking with guys at Andrewtech about add-on's we discussed water/meth injection, and their major reservation was if the system goes down (or you run out of boost-juice) you typically have a very lean tune, unless you install a very good failsafe.

    OTOH, I've been considering straight water injection for a while as a complement to the A2A IC, since I'm still looking at ways to get performance without going to A2W. Using misted water post IC to lower intake temps (a la the BMW M4-whatever race spec) might be a good compromise. Still a bit early for me on this approach, I haven't committed yet to this since I'm still trying to get results from the Hard-Top scoop-> boxed IC.
    http://www.m-power.com/_open/s/varli...d=3301&lang=en

    Here is a link to the article. Thanks for the reply. That's an interesting way of looking at it. might log what water only does. Does anyone have any idea how much a wrx drops in intake temps on water alone? I seem to have exhausted google.

    As a side note, even without a fail-safe system, I never thought that there was a huge worry about saftey when I used Meth/water injection. I had a bulk head fitting in my window washer tank. I also had a low level sensor popped in. a light would go on when I got low, A light would go on when it sprayed and I could cross check fluid levels with my window wipers spitting fluid. The only way it could mess up is if some how the injector motor went bad but was still completing a circuit to the injection LED I had spliced in.

  6. #6
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    I ran methanol injection from '05 to '07. I had a dual solenoid actuated kit from coolingmist that they only made for a short while. My pump failed once over that two year span. It started getting very noisy at the end. I was able to replace it before I had a lean condition. Then e85 became very abundant and I haven't looked back. It was nice that it took some burden off your fuel system, the complete opposite of going to e85, and that you only injected when you were heavy on the throttle. I could definitely see running straight water to further reduce the intake temperature, even on an e85 car. This would be beneficial for my setup where I'm starting to reach the listed horsepower limit of my AWIC core.

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