1986 Buick Regal Grand National

I bought this car used in 1992 with about 50,000 miles on the odometer.  At the time, the car was completely stock.  I took it to the dragstrip for the first time in 1995, and ran a best 1/4 mile of 14.8 seconds at 94.8 miles per hour.  Not bad for a car without a limited slip differential (I have since installed posi-traction).

I first considered water injection in January 1997 as a means to squeeze more out of my car.  I toyed with the idea of building and selling a kit to GN/Turbo Regal owners, but it never got further than some simple sketches.

So I continued on, making relatively small gains in power here and there.  Finally, a local NEBRA friend cobbled together a water-alcohol kit to use in his Turbo Regal.  The results were impressive to say the least.  At that point I knew I had to use water injection to unlock the power potential of my car.

It took me a while to get it all together, but once the water injection system was installed, it was a matter of tuning the system to achieve maximum performance.  I initially started out with two 1.0 mm nozzles, running pure water.  This was very effective, and I was able to run about 19~20 psi of boost with a high timing race chip designed for 108 octane fuel.  But I needed more, much more!

I was also finding that my six Bosch blue-top 36 lb/hr fuel injectors were being maxed out by the high boost I was trying to run.  I was running pretty lean in third gear over 4000 rpm.  Increasing fuel pressure helped in this regard but would cause an over-rich condition at low-speed high boost conditions, and the car would bog.  Finally, and while Richard doesn't recommend it, I run a 50-50 mix of water and denatured alcohol.  The alcohol gets my air-fuel ratio where I need it to be.

I settled on four 1.0 mm nozzles.  I am able to run between 23 and 25 psi of boost, all while using Sunoco 94 octane fuel (readily available) and I am getting good temperature and knock control.  The only problem now is wondering how long everything will last! Thanks to Steve Hill for his guidance and arm twisting, Richard Lamb for ERL component selection, and Brad at Georges Imports. (Best Aquamist Distributor in the US!).

Here's a final shot.

                          - Denis Kefallinos

                            last updated: October 2000

Thanks to the organizations that helped me get it here!

This 1986 Buick Regal Grand National is owned by Denis Kefallinos of Lexington, Massachusetts USA.  Using ERL Aquamist water injection, this vehicle has run a best 1/4 mile of 12.60 seconds at 111.3 mph.

Shown to the left here are FOUR 1.0 mm Aquamist nozzles (2 on each side)  tapped into the up-pipe that feeds the throttle body.  The Aquamist nozzles are the perfect application here due to their extremely small size.  The up-pipe is made of a very thin mild steel.  Even so, I was able to thread the holes quite easily and the nozzles are very secure.

A 1/8" K-type  thermocouple in the exhaust, just before the entrance to the turbine.  Peak exhaust gas temperatures at 25 psi boost are approximately 1640 degrees F.  TE44 turbo from Limit Engineering.

The 2.5 gallon water/alcohol fuel tank is securely mounted in the trunk .  Gravity feeds the pump, which pushes the fluid through lines that run up the frame rails from the rear to the front.  I also added an accumulator which keeps the fluid pressurized and ready for snap-throttle situations.

To boost the performance of my car, I had started out by following the basic performance recipes from the Turbo Regal Website, developed by Turbo Regal owners over many years.  These recipes are tried and true, but they all relied on using leaded race gas to get the maximum power out of the vehicle.

To help tune the car, DirectScan was indispensible.  Also, I mounted a Fluke dual K-type temperature gauge in the cockpit (found on eBay).

You can never have too many gauges! Actually, a good boost gauge is a must in any turbo car.  This is a dual pod pillar mount made by Lo-tek Engineering.  The red LED is connected to a low-water sensor in the tank.  The two green LEDs are for pump-operation, and solenoid operation.  The addition of an accumulator and check valve distinguishes the two.