Robert Swinney wrote:

Justin replied (vaguely):
Water injection is a power-boosting thing, not an efficiency thing.
All it does is prevent pre-ignition and/or detonation.

AFAIK, water injection doesn't "boost power" in any way shape or form. High
performance engines running on high octane fuel *seemingly* get a power
boost in that water cools the intake portion (valves, manifold, etc) of the
engine.

The result of this is a cooler denser mixture. More air and fuel more
power.
Stan

Piston type aircraft engines are rated in brake effective
horsepower, METO (max. except during takeoff). Some of them use water
injection at peak power demand times to obtain max HP. Water injection acts
as a cooling agent, preventing excessive manifold temperatures and seems to
boost power by reducing pre-ignition. It not only *seems* to boost power it
also *seems* to prevent engine melt down. Sodium-filled valves also allow
more effective heat transfer in aircraft and other engines.

Bob Swinney

"Justin" wrote in message
oups.com...
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.