Methanol injection with my setup

As some of you know, I'm having a build done at jdm right now. I was thinking of adding methanol injection to keep iat's down. My question is can I add that later without having to retune, or will I have to get the car retuned? My thoughts later were adding a bigger heat exchanger, bigger coolant reservoir and relocating the battery, and higher flow coolant pump. That is probably next winters project. I thought a meth kit would be cheap and keep iat's down for now.

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You will have to get it retuned for the methanol to take advantage of the benefits. It will make the car run rich when its engaged.

^It doesn't make it run rich. It raises the octane level to a level beyond most race fuels.
Your tuner needs to throw timing at your meth tune, so that you're not losing a ton of power when the meth is injected. Good luck.

actaully, it's safer for the motor to not tune it. Otherwise, you can pop the motor if something goes wrong. When you tune for meth, you drop the fuel and make up for it with the meth. Thus running lean. If you system starts to fail (which they can, did to me) when it should be spraying, thus you run lean and problems start. The best way to tune for meth is with it on a dyno, adjust the sending unit. I would also buy everything that keep sit safe. Like with Snow, the safe injection will end up saving ur motor.

^You're right, it is safer not to tune for the meth. Just like it's safer not to tune for 100 octane fuel. The problem, however, is that you sacrifice a lot of power. Some guys are OK with that I guess. I just want the OP to understand what's actually happening when the meth is injected.

Look at meth as a cleaner for the motor. lol

Like Steve said, get the safe injection. I have it on mine and i have a meth flow guage in the dash. It was a must for me cuz if my meth stops flowing, i will blow it up. It was tuned agressively with the meth flowing.

Can you post a link for the safe injection.

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kahmann said:

^It doesn't make it run rich. It raises the octane level to a level beyond most race fuels.
Your tuner needs to throw timing at your meth tune, so that you're not losing a ton of power when the meth is injected. Good luck.

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Methanol is a fuel. When added to the intake stream, the air/fuel usually richens by half a point. The tuner will have to remove fuel from the tune. I run the Snow Performance system. You are correct about the octane. The tuner can add some timing safely when the meth is activated.

Carmen

Help me understand. Assuming my IAT increases at heavy load and the computer ultimetly pulls timing on rising IAT's ,wouldn't I reap some benefits with methanol injection? I assume there is more to gain by having a specific tune for the methanol injection. Sitting in the staging lanes I can never keep my car cool
Rambling thoughts of a Friday night test and tune guy. lol

the benefits of meth/water is that it increases the octane of fuel going into the motor and decreases the intake temps. Thus you can advance your timing, increase boost or just use it as added insurance from heat soak or a bad tank of gas and detination. With a 50/50 mix in my STi I was able to pick up an additional 30+whp/40+wtq with a safe tune. Its also cheap, the station by us was selling it last summer for $1.89 a gallon.

Irishman said:

the benefits of meth/water is that it increases the octane of fuel going into the motor and decreases the intake temps. Thus you can advance your timing, increase boost or just use it as added insurance from heat soak or a bad tank of gas and detination. With a 50/50 mix in my STi I was able to pick up an additional 30+whp/40+wtq with a safe tune. Its also cheap, the station by us was selling it last summer for $1.89 a gallon.

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Where did you get it?


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You can buy meth from any dealer. Snow sells it in a case of 4. But it's the same thing as a 50/50 mix windshield washer fluid you buy at any store. Only thing is once you run whatever brand, STICK with it. I, used the Snow's version (Boost Juice)

Again, I will say though, do not tune for it. You will be a lot safer in the long run. Trust me. You can get the same 30hp

zipperhead said:

Help me understand. Assuming my IAT increases at heavy load and the computer ultimetly pulls timing on rising IAT's ,wouldn't I reap some benefits with methanol injection? I assume there is more to gain by having a specific tune for the methanol injection. Sitting in the staging lanes I can never keep my car cool
Rambling thoughts of a Friday night test and tune guy. lol

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I used with a whipple for awhile. It took a few seconds for any cooling to show up on the iat. It was set up to start spraying at a certain maf voltage and full spray at a higher maf voltage. My point is it only sprays when you are under heavy load so there will be no cooling benefits in the staging lanes.

My experience was that adding meth without tuning specifically for it lost 23 hp. At the time I didn't have an intercooler and thought meth would be a good alternative. I was wrong. It does nothing for normal driving.

Kraftsman said:

Where did you get it?


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Go to the old Knoll gas station in Decatur. They sell it from a pump and then go buy distilled water from Meijer. With my STi a gallon of meth and water would last a couple of months, if you don't get on it all the time. Like someone said it was set up to work off MAF voltage and would be progressive until 100%. During normal driving it is not on so you are not using it.

Irishman said:

Go to the old Knoll gas station in Decatur. They sell it from a pump and then go buy distilled water from Meijer. With my STi a gallon of meth and water would last a couple of months, if you don't get on it all the time. Like someone said it was set up to work off MAF voltage and would be progressive until 100%. During normal driving it is not on so you are not using it.

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Oh ok, hey didn't knoll go out of business or just torco which is now bolt?

Edit: I missed "old" knoll gas station.
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kahmann said:

^It doesn't make it run rich. It raises the octane level to a level beyond most race fuels.
Your tuner needs to throw timing at your meth tune, so that you're not losing a ton of power when the meth is injected. Good luck.

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That would only be true for just pure water injection.
The methanol will make it run richer as it is adding more fuel, even if its a different type of fuel.

I honestly would never do pure meth injection.
Water is a far more effective anti-detonate than meth and isnt corrosive to aluminum. The meth is much more volitale than water, so having it mixed in with the water will will lower IATs.
I would run distiled water with a little bit of meth added (maybe like 10%) to prevent algae from forming (as it can clog your nozzles).

That way you dont have to tune for fuels much. Just have a more aggressive timing map for when youre using the water/meth.

I ran meth injection for 3 years on my turbo '93 Cobra. I personally ran denatured alcohol, and isopropyl (99%) alcohol. I had the best luck with both those. I didn't have a source for methonal so I didn't get a chance to run it. I ran almost 100% because I needed the fuel (600 hp and 42lb injectors) as well as the cooling. I was able to run 21lbs of boost on 91 octane fuel and made 622rwh on a mostly stock '93 Cobra motor. It works extremely well, but like mentioned, the risk of your injection kit failing is real, and bad things will happen if you don't catch it. I had a warning light that let me know when there wasn't pressure in the line. This saved me several times.

Good read! Subscribed for future reference