DIY Water Injection

nbuscemi · Post by **nbuscemi** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:14 pm

Shortly after building my hot 1600 and reinstalling the turbo I quickly noticed that my Intake Air Temps (IATs) were going to be a problem. Keep in mind this is during North Texas summer (100 degrees +). I racked my brain trying to figure out how / where to mount an intercooler, and even though I had couple of good ideas (top-mount like subarus, side mount like MK4 GTis and such) and even pondered what a front mount intercooler might look like). Long story short, I decided Water-Injection was going to be the way to go.

Now, I know there are plenty of off the shelf Water-Methanol kits out there, Snow Performance being the most attractive, but I couldn't shake the notion that I could make my own.

Here's what I came up with:

This may look like a nitrous bottle, buts it's been repurposed. It holds the distilled water and about 60spi of air pressure. The bottle is long past its inspection date and I have two more in my parts pile that I can actually use for Nitrous Oxide.

Hard to tell in this pic, but the blue AN fitting on the charge pipe is where the nozzle is. Its a patio water mister found at most hardware stores during the summer months. Bootleg, yes. But it creates a fine mist at low pressures.

This is a nitrous solenoid. It opens when the pressure switch provides a ground.

Here is the pressure switch mounted to the compressor housing. It closes (completing the solenoid ground circuit) when boost hits 3+ psi.

Here is a short vid of me driving the car with the water injection working.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQ57aCGsj4

I was able to drop the intake temps 20-30 degrees from running without water injection. Being this setup only cost me a set of nozzles and a few gallons of distilled water (rest of parts I had laying around) I'd say this is a win!

-Nick-

buguy · Post by **buguy** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:27 pm

If it works I'd say that's a win as well!

Schweg · Post by **Schweg** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 5:01 pm

You may want to crank the pressure up a bit and run some methanol.

I see 50-60 degree temp drops even in 110 intake air temps I would drop to 60f with 21 lbs of boost. That’s with an AEM progressive controller and a 3 gallon per hour nozzle.

That set up is legit though!

Also what camera and mount did you use?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Clonebug · Post by **Clonebug** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 8:58 pm

I get 100 Degrees IAT's drop with my Homemade W/I. That is at 20-23 lbs boost. I use two nozzles staged at 4.0 lbs and 9.0 lbs. boost.
I also gain another 30-40 degrees IAT drop with the intercooler.

My IAT's have been at or below ambient with the combo I have now.

If I were you would increase the pressure to about 200 lbs if possible. At 60 lbs you only have a differential of 50 lbs due to the 10 lbs boost you are running.
You should also test the nozzle to see what flow you get at the pressure you are running. At 10 lbs boost you would need about 1.0 gph plus or minus.

buguy · Post by **buguy** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 9:08 pm

Dang! That's a huge temperature drop you guys are getting!

panel · Post by **panel** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 11:27 am

Where are you guys finding the best location for injecting ?

nbuscemi · Post by **nbuscemi** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:14 pm

I plan get a real Water/Methanol kit eventually. This project was just a "cause I could" type of deal.

Best place to inject is between the turbo and the throttle body. If you have a carb draw-through setup, then down stream of the turbo should work.

Schweg · Post by **Schweg** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 6:21 pm

I’m injecting below the throttle plate. Not ideal for heat removal, but... less corrosion.

Also no judgement about the system I found a good deal and jumped. But guys have made there own.

panel · Post by **panel** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 6:47 pm

If you have EFI I guess you have to make sure you don't wreck the IAT sensor since it's an open cage style most likely. So placement is key there then.

xzener · Post by **xzener** » Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:48 am

Well done Nbuscemi,

Question for you guys. With a EFI supercharged setup, where should I install the water/meth nozzle? After the supercharger, but before the IAT sensor right? Also, I have air ride. My tank is a constant 150psi while driving, thinking about making my own kit (the Snow Performance and AEM are so expensive!?) similarly setup to the ops... Although I missed how he setup the water/meth tank. I could pressurize a tank with air pressure from the air ride tank... What PSI are the Snow and AEM systems running?

madmike · Post by **madmike** » Thu Apr 15, 2021 2:17 pm

My Snow pump is 220 psi

GARRICK.CLARK1 · Post by **GARRICK.CLARK1** » Fri Apr 16, 2021 12:24 pm

Ive put 1 nozzle in each dellorto manifold. D01 nozzles from devil's own.

madmike · Post by **madmike** » Sat Apr 17, 2021 4:28 am

opps , just looked it's 150 PSI

GARRICK.CLARK1 · Post by **GARRICK.CLARK1** » Sat Apr 17, 2021 4:38 am

The more psi the better, swat I've been made to believe

Clonebug · Post by **Clonebug** » Sat Apr 17, 2021 5:29 am

My original water pump put out a max of 120 lbs and had no internal bypass so it would cycle between 120 lbs. down to 45 lbs when activated. It was basically a RV water pump with an output of 1.3 gal/min. It gave good results and I had low IAT's up to 20 lbs. boost.
I updated to a 300 psi Devil's own pump with internal bypass a couple years ago and I cannot honestly say I see any difference in performance. I don't think there was enough to justify the 50 plus bucks more it cost vs the first pump.
That said....if you are going to build your own the extra 50 bucks is not going to kill you when you build your system so I say get the DO pump the first time instead of building something twice like I've done many times.

I have found that on a lot of things.......people say you have to have certain things to make power and in a lot of cases it's not true. In the end you just have to build it the way you want and not the way the parrots tell you to.

On that other site there are 15 yr. old kids flapping their lips giving advice and they don't even have a license to drive yet........

For a simple DIY system a DO nozzle, a vacuum capable solenoid, a 4-20 lb. Hobbes switch along with some wiring and 1/4 inch push-loc plumbing will give you a nice W/I system.
I used a Craftsman fuel tank to hold my water/meth....any tank that fits in the space allowed will work.
I recommend using Distilled water and Denatured Alcohol mixed 50/50 and putting a small fuel filter in the line before the pump...especially if the tank is some sort of metal....plastic would be best for corrosion resistance.
Any debris will clog the nozzles so make sure your water mix is clean......plugged nozzles make for cracked pistons......

I use stainless for all the fittings....or brass....same with the solenoid. Anything else will corrode and plug your nozzles.

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