Water injection causing accelerated engine wear?

[ShadowFromHell]

I was talking to a buddy of mine that is a EVO owner the other day about putting a small water injection system on my turbo neon. He told me that he would never put one on his EVO and the EVO crowd has quit using them. The theory of the EVO crowd (and maybe others?) is that the water/steam removes all of the lube from the cylinder walls and causes the motor to wear out much faster. While this does seem sound in theory Im wondering how much it really affects things. Gas is a solvent and should do the same thing if you really get technical. So has anyone ever had a experience or even seen any negative effects of using water injection? Until I get my neon on some sort of stand alone I have no control over timing, so I was wanting to use water injection for a little more protection against detonation.

Thanks

[zin]

No way water is going to do what they claim... BUT, these systems tend to go over-board as it normally doesn't hurt to have "too much" water injected, and when the common practice of using pure alky is added, that could possibly wash down the cylinders, just like over-fueling.

Water and oil tend to reject each other, unless a solvent is added, but even then, it would have to be excessive and used often.

I'm guessing that it's just getting the blame.

Mike

[ShadowFromHell]

That was my thought. At first I bought it but the more I thought about it, it just didnt make sense. Im gonna go with a small nozzle and probably only 30psi of pressure. I dont want to rely on it at all, just want a little extra insurance.

[GLHNSLHT2]

cleans the valves and combustion chambers pretty well if you have a headgasket leak. Wouldn't surprise me if it cleaned the piston walls too while it's in there

[zin]

All things in moderation... HG blowing isn't a moderate situation, but I can imagine if "too much" were to be injected, you could get undesired effects, I just don't see it happening with a reasonable amount.

Pocket book willing, I'll find out first-hand, I have been planing on a project that would require water injection almost all the time... it is still a ways off at this point, and X-mas isn't going to further it any time soon.

Mike

[johnl]

BTW, 100% alcohol is a bad idea - can see the flame, not safe to pump it at high pressure, and better results with 50/50 anyway.

As for accelerated wear . . . yeah the methanol and also the water are both more corrosive than gasoline. So, to counteract that, how about running say 200:1 gas to two stroke oil in your fuel to add some lubrication to the fuel package?

[shadow88]

I've tried alcohol and water injection, tried colder and colder plugs, tried shimming the cylinder head to reduce the chance of detonation, tried running less and less ignition advance. The only thing that actually worked was race gas. Personal opinion on trying to find a way around using race gas....Just buy race gas.


On the topic of accelerated wear? I could see an excess of water in the chamber (large droplets) contaminating the oil, but that's about all I would expect. As Mike said, in moderation, I can't see it hurting anything.

[fishcleaner]

Methanol will corrode aluminum, that white powdery stuff you see on the inside of your throttle body is aluminum oxide, the same stuff they make sandpapper out of.

[zin]

Personal opinion on trying to find a way around using race gas....Just buy race gas.

Ahmen brother! Painful though it may be, if you need it, you need it, and trying to cheap out will just end up costing you more than the gas, and that's not including the heartache the destruction caused by not using the race gas will cause as you fix the damage you could have avoided...


Methanol will corrode aluminum, that white powdery stuff you see on the inside of your throttle body is aluminum oxide, the same stuff they make sandpapper out of.

No doubt! Meth is bad for people and anything that is subject to corrosion! One of the quickest ways to destroy a fuel system (not set-up for alky), is to run methanol through it and then just leave it... white fuzz everywhere, and lots of pitting, etc!

Mike

[johnl]

I found it to be cost effective if you want to drive lots of miles but have big boost always available and not be burning expensive race gas.