Turbo fever (aquamist)

[Jenny Curtis]

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Bernard Littau wrote:

>[snip]
>
>>The Ur-Q has turbo-saver (it
>>looks like a nitrous bottle, but it hooks into a pre-water cooled turbo
>>to keep it from burning up).  Now aquamist claims to provide cooling
>>protection as well as performance gains.  Has anyone used these systems?
>>The HP gains claimed for the 900 seemed unbelievably big, almost double
>>what a tuned 900 like Graham's gets.  Could they really be all that?
>>
>[snip]
>
>I've read the first sentence, above, a few times now.  At first I thought
>the turbo-saver was some kind of pre-turbo cold side water injection.  Now I
>am thinking the "nitrous bottle" is an oil reservoir that slowly delivers
>the oil back through the turbo after the engine is shut down, to help cool
>the turbo.
>
Right, the turbo saver, is meant to prevent your turbo from cooking
after shut-down, which is the number one cause of failure in pre-water
cooled turbos.  It's not a performance mod, at all.  I guess I was
mistaken in thinking that water injection would also have a safety
benefit for older turbos.  It sounds like there is a pretty clear
consensus on the list that it doesn't.

>
>
>A good rule is: Unbelievable claims usually are :-)  Adding a turbo can
>generally double the HP of most engines.  (NA 10V I5 is what?, 135 HP; stock
>MC is 168 HP; tuned MC is 275 HP)  Doubling a tuned turbo, which is what I
>assume was being claimed for the 900, would be difficult to do in a reliable
>manner. (A 550 HP MC??? :-)
>
The 900T tuned gets around 175 HP, the guy was claiming his got 325,
nearly double.  I was very doubtful.

Gary wrote:

3. The cooling effect of the water makes the fuel "look" higher in octane
than it really is as it makes the combustion chamber cooler. It makes lower
octane fuel burn like higher octane fuel as the vaporization of the water
absorbs a huge amount of heat.  Increasing the ratio of alc to h2o beyond
50% will increase the octane, but it adds more heat, which I've concluded I
don't want.  50-50 is I'm told the magic ratio...


He was running his right off the wiper fluid resevoir, and it seemed to
actually work running on window cleaner.  He didn't say whether he'd
upped the alcohol content of his wiper fluid.  I've considered doing
this in Minnesota anyway, since there's nothing worse than having the
stuff freeze on your windshield on a very cold morning.

Jenny
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