This might be a crazy idea, but let me throw it out. Recently on a camping trip I was experiencing some pinging. I posted about it and got several good replies.
I just remembered that back in the 80's water injection was a hot item and I bought a kit for my '73 Mach I with a 351C but never installed it. I know you never hear of it any more, but what would happen if I tried to adapt it to a 460 FI engine?
I definitely don't want to do anything to foul up my engine and wouldn't even take the first step without some good positive investigation first. What do you guys think? Any ideas?

Thanks,

 

Hey 62BigBlue! I must be a tad older than you! I heard about water injection in the early 70's....HEE HEE! I think we have enough water in our fuel theses days! But on a serious note... It may have worked somewhat on pre-computer vehicles, and adding a 5-10 gallon tank for distilled water may have been ok back then, but with the vehicles made these days, you can mess something up so easily. As simple an idea then, I'm sure if it worked decent, some engineer would be sitting in Jamaca right now living off the right's to it. I bet the guy who originally came up with the idea, worked at ENRON!! Talk to you later....

 

Many WWII Bombers would never have gotten off the ground had it not been for water injection. Especially when overloaded in the Hot Pacific Theater. Most bombers on the Pacific islands never really took off. The runway just fell out from under them as they ran out of runway. I made a water injection system years ago for my 1976 Honda civic (CVCC) wagon. As I recall the idea came from a "Mother Earth News" magazine article. It was simple and inexpensive to make. Take a mason 1 Quart canning jar and drill two holes 1/4 inch in the lid. Everything else comes from a pet shop. (Aquarium stuff) Take a ten inch piece of the plastic fish tank air tubing and put it down through one hole. At the bottom of the tube put the stone that makes the bubbles in the fish tank. (This should rest on the bottom of the jar and is the "Intake") Take another long line and insert it in the other hole about 1 inch. (This line sucks water vapors off the top) The other end of this line goes into a vacuume source below the carburator. To control the flow you insert a flow control valve anywear in between. Mount the jar to the fender well, Fill the jar with water and you are off. As the vacuum draws air in thru the intake the stone at the bottom boils the water into vapor. The other suction line just sucks up the vapor not actual liquid. This was with I think a 1600 cc engine. You may be able to use larger lines with a big 460. I don't see why the same setup would not work with fuel injection. Basically it simulates driving around in the rain. Cool moist incomming air. Give it a try and let me know how it works. You can watch the water level dissapear rather quickly. And the boiling action in the jar looks high tech to the unsuspecting...

 

LOL, Chris that is a great! The kit I bought came with all the tubing and reservoir to do the job. The first thing I would investigate would be where to mount the injector nozzles. The original instructions had you drill two holes over your primaries. But with the 460 double tube intake system I am not sure where I would mount them
Then too, I want to keep in mind what Jim said. If the technogy was all that great you would have seen further developement and see it available on cars today. Truth is that shortly after I bought the kit, the craze kind of died out and I haven't seen it resurface in 20 years.

 

Just being funny here.... How do you feed the fish?

I'm limited on brain cells these days!
I wish some other smart person, would come up with something that we could all use, any engine, any time, any conditions.
But I guess with hydrogen and electric within our life time is about all we get to look forward to.

Where are we going to be able to plug in our rigs when we get out into the boonies, Moab, Baja, etc...

I guess it's a good thing we've added another State to the Union... IRAQ!

To: Shotgun! My ole' man was in the USAF 27 years and never gave me any decent stories. I don't want to hash up any memories from your experiences, but I do like to read about what I grew up around. I was too old to not understand, and too young to do anything about it. You can e-mail me at anytime if you want to share a story or know of a good book, I should check out... God Bless You Shotgun. And to every other Human that appriciates the lives we lead in this great country. But that's another Forum.... Talk to you old farts later....

 

Methanol!

 

Sorry... Please help me find my brain cells!!! It's probably a lost cause!
Hey, remember when you could fill your tank with regular or Ethyl?

 

I remember the gas wars when you could fill up for less than 20 cents a gallon!

 

I do remember my dad driving across town to save a penny a gallon in those days. He also worried that the cheapest guy in town had above ground tanks so the gas was warmer therefore less gas in a gallon by volume. He was pretty tight.

 

I know a few people who use a water injection system on small turbo charged vehicles (I have a 88 MX6 turbo). The system basicly helps take some of the heat out of the intake air, since water cools better than gasoline. Most of the turbo kits are activated by pressure switches, I guess on a NA motor you could have a WOT switch to turn it on. Here is a link to a page where they outline how to make a water injection system - http://www.turbomirage.com/water.html

 

I remember when the gas pumps only went to $9.99

First car I ever pumped over $9.99 in was a bone dry Cadillac with a 25 gallon tank......Van