I was talking to my boss the other day about nitrous and he said that he always considered it cheating as far as adding HP is concerned. What do you all think? I completely changed his mind when I gave him my thoughts on it. I'll save those for later. I just hear this statement all the time and cringe everytime I hear it.

 

It's only cheating if the other guy knows about it. Use a progressive controller and he would never know. Really though, it's only cheating if you're in competition that bans it. On the street, it's perfectly acceptable, as it's available to everyone. I was actually thinking about putting nitrous on the 390 I'm building, after I get a few thousand on it of course. What do you think rat, would about a 250 shot be about right with forged pistons?

 

NO!

Comeing in second is LOSING.

If some rules require specific configuration and you deliberatly hide a forbiden part then you are cheating.

But on the STREET, being a sleeper is fun, real fun.


I have pulled into a hang out at 9:00pm with street tires and reved the muffled engine, rolled down the window, dropped a note challenging anybody to 1/2 mile race at 10:15 pm $500 straight up, out by the airport and peeled out burning the one tire for about 12 feet.

At the airport put on the fat slicks, locked the spool, uncapped the headders, charged the bottle, and upped the front tire preasure to 50psi. Sat with the car out of the light pointed down the county road. By 10:30 looking to buy a beer with someone elses money... plus entrance at the strip also paid for this weekend

Naw that ain't cheating, just real fun

 

I don't think it's cheating, it's smart. I use it on almost every vehicle I own, even my wife's, she loves it (for street use). On her vehicles I run smaller jet, up to 50hp max, but I'll run up to 150 on a v8 for street use. I had an Acura Integra GS-r and it only had an aftermarket air intake, and I ran a 75hp shot. The motor had over 300 shots of nitrous (in a 6 month period) and still ran perfect. Once I swap out the trans on my 97 Explorer to a more sturdy one, I plan on puting a 75hp shot on it.

 

Nitrous is one of those things that everyone has an opinion on. Either you like it or not. But when you boil it down, Nitrous will decrease your engine life no matter how you put it. Sure you can spend thousands of dollars forging your motor to withstand the explosion but that engine will never last longer than it would without nitrous injection. But by all means, if you have the money, the will and the time to do it, then tear it up!

 

Go for the nos I wish I had some.

 

If youre gonna hot rod any vehicle its going to decrease the life of it, so if youve got nos or not, dont expect your hot rod to get much over 80 thousand, if that.

I have this 84 bronco with a beefed up 302 that generates at least 350 horse, and all I do with it is rap it out all the time that I drive it, 30k on the engine, and I think if I keep driving it like I do in about 20k itll be time to change the bearings. Its that simple.

 

Rat, its not cheating. Nitrous is just an excuse for the loser to say its cheating. Yet these same guys think a turbo charger is fine. Juice, blowers, chargers, all the same. I've used juice on many of my rigs to good effect. Never used a supercharger though...always thought blowers were sweet Juice is simple, cheap, and effective, so what the heck.

 

I think NOS is in the same category as steroids--you get out what you put in. If you want to stay healthy and have the satisfaction of knowing the power is built-in, then make it genuine. When the nitrous bottle is empty, it's back to what your car is truly capable of. Personally, I'd rather have the knowledge that my motor will hold it's own any time I want than to make excuses when the NOS bottle is empty.

As for forced induction, I put that in the built-in category as long as the boost isn't beyond the reasonable limit.

To each his own . . . and I just love whippin' others using nitrous with my motor.

 

Well my point to him was that people running a good size shot of nitrous have built their engines for it if they are smart. You can either pay the money to build a real powerful naturally asperated engine or you can spend the money to build a more mild engine that is capable of running nitrous. A 390 should handle a 250 shot if you have it setup right. One slip up on fuel delivery and you are going to be calling a tow truck. I built mine to run a 150HP shot and I plan on doing so. I could have spent the money on the engine and made just as much power but why loose all that streetability? I would never use it on the street as I don't really need it and traction is a problem anyway but I prefer to drive to the dragstrip, bolt on the slicks and drive home.

 

Rat, I don't think N2O is cheating. It does seem that it could be inconvenient keeping the bottle full. And how big of a bottle for that stuff can you get anyway ? I like the power adder idea, but not the fact that yoou need a pressurized bottle to do it. I would like to use a liquid power adder. Heres my daydream.....add a fuel injection setup to a carb'ed engine. When you're out there 99% of the time thats what you'll be driving on. When you want the extra power, turn on the injectors. The fuel for the injectors would have to be in a seporate tank. I was thinking of squirting in C3H7NO2, maybe with ethanol blended into the extra fuel tank. If a computer controlled your injectors, your extra power would be throttle-able, unlike N2O, which seems to usually be setup as an all-or-nothing hit. And on your 390, I would recommend staying at the 150 additional power level. Once you get over 650 lbs-ft of torque in a not-crossbolted block, the main caps don't sit still anymore. DF

 

Nitropropane huh?

The fogger systems are setup kinda like you described above and you can have a gradual delivery. They have all kinds of nitrous setups out there. The plate type systems are the only cheap kind. Never heard of anyone using nitropropane but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Hank Hill would be all for it.

 

Ratsmoker,
IMO, if it's available to all, which nitrous is, then how COULD it be considered cheating? It's not as though a select few have connnections to this hot new hp concept. I say, if it's available, and you want to run it in your ride.... GO FOR IT!!!

Re: street racing advantages, fair or foul? Never underestimate your opponent, big or small. You never know what the other guy's bringing to the party. Examples: There's Honda 4-bangers pushing 700hp, and a 150-lb black belt can woop a lot of butt... Having an edge is part of life! If nitrous is your edge, so be it

Daryl

 

I'm not sure that availability is an element exclusive to cheating. Isn't there a wide variety of banned chemicals available that any Olympic athlete could obtain with a reasonable amount of effort to improve their performance?

This is one of those debates that probably doesn't have a right or wrong answer. I prefer the walk-softly-and-carry-a-big-stick mentality. Nitrous just doesn't belong in that place.

 

Well I would prefer a Naturally asperated (excuse the spelling) engine over a NOS system. A alternative that I would like to see in a catolog for Ford owners would be the new super cool system Ford developed on the 04 lightining Even though it's only about a 50hp boost it makes up because it can recharge it'self. Personally I would like that on my truck. But If I was given a NOS system for free Hell yea I"d take it!!