Water Injection in turbocharged Volvos

[pyaap]

Hi,

I've come across a post on a website in response to a question posted by a guy who is keen on fitting water injection to his car. One of the replies claims that WI is not suitable on turbocharged Volvos and some other cars. Is there any sense to be made of what this guy making these claims is trying to say?

A link to the website is: http://volvo-t5.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1546
If you can't access the page, here is a copy of the text:

"it is absolutely not worth it for the follwing reason -

volvo designed the inlet manifolds so the air flows into them then up and around into the engine. with this design , as the air flow goes up and around, the water vapour will drop out of the airstream as it is heavier. and as a result you loose any benefits from the water injection such as preventing pinking , and all the water would gather at the bottom of the inlet manifold

a better solution is to use an intercooler spray preferably co2 or n2o as they are much colder than the water anyway. these intercooler kits are available from ?180 +vat so are much cheaper than aquamist.. the only downside being you've got to get gas refills and water is readily available .

dont get me wrong though guys i'm not saying water injection doesnt work , it's just that for the reasons i have stated above it is not suitable for our volvo's . new mini's apparently have the same problem"

[Richard L]

Originally Posted by pyaap

Hi,

I've come across a post on a website in response to a question posted by a guy who is keen on fitting water injection to his car. One of the replies claims that WI is not suitable on turbocharged Volvos and some other cars. Is there any sense to be made of what this guy making these claims is trying to say?

A link to the website is: http://volvo-t5.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1546
If you can't access the page, here is a copy of the text:

"it is absolutely not worth it for the follwing reason -

volvo designed the inlet manifolds so the air flows into them then up and around into the engine. with this design , as the air flow goes up and around, the water vapour will drop out of the airstream as it is heavier. and as a result you loose any benefits from the water injection such as preventing pinking , and all the water would gather at the bottom of the inlet manifold

a better solution is to use an intercooler spray preferably co2 or n2o as they are much colder than the water anyway. these intercooler kits are available from ?180 +vat so are much cheaper than aquamist.. the only downside being you've got to get gas refills and water is readily available .

dont get me wrong though guys i'm not saying water injection doesnt work , it's just that for the reasons i have stated above it is not suitable for our volvo's . new mini's apparently have the same problem"

I have seen this email before, cannot quite make out the what the guy was trying to say. Water in all forms, large droplet, mist, vapour, etc will all go into the engine during boost conditions - 5-10Kg of air travelling at almost supersonic speed will not allow anything to stay around very long including a big bolt (don't try that).

Sorry it just doesn't make sense. Here is a Volvo we sponsored and doing very well with an Aquamist 2d. It was racing in the European Endurance Racing Series Competition this year.

The car's ECU was tuned in Sweden by a Volvo Engineer.

[pyaap]

I too think that the guy who responded is not making accurate claims. More importantly, I don't think he has tried any WI systems to be able to actually comment accurately on them. However, I think its essential that such comments are corrected especially when they are directed at someone who is considering installing a system.

[Richard L]

I am afraid there are quite a few of these people on the internet forum speaking way beyond their knowledge and it doesn't normally make good logical sense to others.

[pyaap]

Well, it seems like there are some people out there who simply don't even think about logic and that unfortunately is largely down to ignorance. But anyway, there are suggestions on that wesbite, that some of the contributors get together and put some money into fabricating a system similar to yours so I think it may be worthwhile keeping an occassional eye on what's going on there; I don't think that what they're up to is right.

[pyaap]

Originally Posted by Richard L

Sorry it just doesn't make sense. Here is a Volvo we sponsored and doing very well with an Aquamist 2d. It was racing in the European Endurance Racing Series Competition this year.

The car's ECU was tuned in Sweden by a Volvo Engineer.

That Kalmar Union S60 won its class in the last Britcar race and was 4th place overall, just behind 3 race-prepped BMW M3s which had close to a 100bhp power advantage over it. Not bad at all.

[Richard L]

Originally Posted by pyaap

Well, it seems like there are some people out there who simply don't even think about logic and that unfortunately is largely down to ignorance. But anyway, there are suggestions on that wesbite, that some of the contributors get together and put some money into fabricating a system similar to yours so I think it may be worthwhile keeping an occassional eye on what's going on there; I don't think that what they're up to is right.

It is fine with me regarding people developing their own system, if you search the phrase"water injection" on the net, there must be at least five companies producing alternative water injection system.

Our system took many years to develop and many minor modifications to date. It has proven to be reasonably reliable and no one can give 100% guarantee. For someone who can produce a system within a few months and ready for general distribution, I would be very surprise that it can be reliable to the point that it will meet the extremely demanding aftermarket users - form experience, it is much easier to develop a system from the professional racing teams.

I am encourged by the gradual acceptance of WI in general and new system developed must be a positive step towards the concept.