Saw this on the 'net. Is it worth getting?


Water-Methanol Injection

Water-Methonal Injection is the process in which a mixture of water and methanol are injected at a high pressure causing a finely atomized mist to be shot into the intake tract on its way to the combustion chamber. The benefits of this type of injection include lower EGT's (exhaust gas temperatures) and increased power.

It's been around since before WWII, and was used liberally in the piston-driven fighters of WWII. It would add a boost of ~200-400 HP for a couple of minutes to engines in those fighters. Generally, it was labelled "Combat Emergency Power".

While EGTs are lowered, the cooling system had to deal with the higher cylinder temps, so in some aircraft, 30-45 seconds was the most they could use continuously.

From other diesel sites, I've gleaned that some folks install them, but in every case I've seen, it was to compete in drags or pulls.

Short answer: IMHO, not worth the money for motorhomes.

Edelbrock and Spearco used to sell them. So did John Geraghty, the engine tech guy for Trailer Life and Motor Home magazines, and a knock-down killer dyno tune expert.

They worked pretty well on carbed gassers. Lots of people with turbos use them now.

We used it regularly on DC6 and Convair 240/340 airliners and military transports for 400 added take off horsepower. It was called ADI, anti detonation injection. Neither the water nor alcohol increased power, but prevented detonation at higher power settings. The alcohol was to prevent freezing.

I don't remember any shortening of engine life, but any power increase has to strain things a little more. The R2800 was rock-solid, however.

The P51 had WEP, war emergency power, which (on later models) broke some flimsy wire on the throttle quadrant. This upped the supercharger boost to save a pilot in a bad situation. On earlier models, WEP was effected by the boost lever after the throttle was wide open. This added almost 1000 hp, depending on altitude. Pilots were cautioned to limit their WEP time to less than 5 minutes, and a log was kept. Total WEP allowed was several hours, after which time, a teardown was mandatory.

I only worked on two P51s but I don't remember any water/alcohol injection. I think the latest models had it, though. I suspect some of the racers have added it, too.

Methanol injection works awesome on the Buick Grand Nationals. We can't run more than about 15 lbs of boost on 94 octane, but alchy allows us to run about 20 to 22 lbs of boost on the street.