Pre-turbo water injection with intercooler.

[bluovalguy]

just for some background, the car is an 88 thunderbird t-coupe (2.3 4cyl)with a t3 turbo, massive intercooler, water injection, running about 20 psi. at 14 psi two cold start injectors tapped in the intake plenum open and spray 20-30pph of water alcohol mix (usually just washer fluid, approx. 50% meth). the engine consumes about 150pph of fuel

i was running for quite awhile without the intercooler, and the effects of the wi were huge. i could go about 5-6 more pounds of boost before detonation started. now with the intercooler its not quite as noticeable. also i was running a much larger turbo awhile back and could get away with similar boost and timing levels without the wi. all that to say im thinking about upping the flow to help the small turbo cope at higher boost levels. im wanting to inject a fine mist at the turbo inlet to keep compressor temps down and help out turbo efficiency since pre-compressor temp drops cause exponetial post-comrpessor temp drops (at least thats what ive heard).

so heres the question... supposing charge temps are 250+ out of the turbo but then get cut down somewhat close to ambient through the intercooler, wouldnt that vaporized water/alcohol condense and puddle up inside the intercooler and on the walls of the piping (especially in colder weather)? at only 10-15 pph would that be a concern? im not so much worried about perfect atomization and even distribution... i just dont want to end up with puddles of potentially flammable liquid sitting in low spots of the intercooler or pipes after some hard runs.

thanks in advance for any experience or ideas on the subject.

[PuntoRex]

I've tried it before I use Aquamist system.

By intruding a small pipe to the inlet just behind filter & AFM, you may easily feed in very much water. An inline needle valve can be used as adjustment. Think of a carburettor.

I gave it up eventually. The boost control usually utilizes the compressor oulet pressure. The water got into & out of the compressor wheel might not vaporized thoroughly. So the water would travel down many other devices on the related paths.

That'd be a bad thing.

If you can figure out a way to avoid that kind of mess, it's worth trying. The cooling & anti-det effect is very good.

Since you have a large intercooler, why not try an external water spray? It's also quite effective.

[Charged Performance]

Originally Posted by bluovalguy

so heres the question... supposing charge temps are 250+ out of the turbo but then get cut down somewhat close to ambient through the intercooler, wouldnt that vaporized water/alcohol condense and puddle up inside the intercooler and on the walls of the piping (especially in colder weather)? at only 10-15 pph would that be a concern? im not so much worried about perfect atomization and even distribution... i just dont want to end up with puddles of potentially flammable liquid sitting in low spots of the intercooler or pipes after some hard runs.

Provided the water was originally in a mist it will not likely collect anywhere while the engine is running. Consider at just 1,000 rpm you are going to be moving around 69,000 litres of air per hour (don't have a pounds conversion handy and it would depend on temp) - when you consider the velocity of that volume of air the little bit of water being injected will not be able to pool or collect anywhere.