Water injection is a power-boosting thing, not an efficiency thing.
All it does is prevent pre-ignition and/or detonation. As for your
complaints about NIMBY, sounds like you've got a case of it too. You
don't want to conserve because you're insecure driving a smaller
vehicle. Petroleum is not the long term solution. Regardless of where
we drill demand will eventually exceed supply. We gotta start finding
viable alternatives. Now's as good a time as any, and better than
most.


Tom Gardner (nospam) wrote:
What ever happened to "Water Injection" for automotive engines? I remember
25 years ago, I did a crude set-up using a Briggs & Stratton carb and tank
full of water on a GM 350. It ran good and I got over 22 mpg. I Googled
around and see it used for turbo and super charger applications but nothing
for a normally aspirated engine with EFI. It looks like it would freak out
my Ford van's computer. The OEMs should evaluate the benefits of WI from
the factory! My Mazda RX-7 did inject coolant into the Wankle. (cool
motor!) WI increases fuel economy and effectively boosts octane.

The Ford E-350 gets about 13 city, 17 highway... not terrible, but $98
fill-ups hurt! There is a computer hook-up and you can change a bunch of
parameters but you can't dial it to 25 mpg. This seems like the perfect
vehicle for WI but Ford has made it difficult. I don't want to drive the
Honda CRX daily as it's so tiny, I feel like an ant on the highway. Any way
to do this? Why don't we just drill the **** out of Anwr and off-shore of
ALL coasts? Oh yea, the NIMBY mentality and the filthy rich tree-huggers.
I loved TK poo-pooing the wind farm with in sight of his compound.