Nitrous Oxide systems is the third alternative way of forced induction. In simple terms Oxygen combined with nitrogen (to help dampen it) is injected into the inlet manifold at high pressure to give additional air the engine otherwise would not swallow. This additional air has to be accurately metered with additional fuel at the right air fuel mixture so to create the burn & in turn create the extra power.
Nitrous Oxide in small power increases of say 20 to 80hp on suitable capacity engines can be very reliable & great fun. Nitrous Oxide in large power increases 80hp to 200+hp on small motorcycle engines can be very violent & very hurtful on the engine when things go wrong. It becomes a far more specialized operation when injecting large amount of forced fed gas into small motorcycle engines. The costs of which over a protracted period can exceed that of other forms of forced induction. Nitrous systems to buy into as a performance enhancing beginner is the cheapest route non the less.
There are two principal types of nitrous oxide system that people refer to, they are…
Both of these options have their pros & cons that we are happy to discuss over the phone. On modern fuel injected engines the preference for road & racing applications has been to use dry systems. They offer better fuel accuracy & better safety from ignitable fuel vapour splash back in the air boxes of modern machines.
The air fuel ratio setting of nitrous oxide systems is determined by many factors & you need to get them right or engine failure can result. Things that can affect the air fuel ratio are as follows…..
To enable the adjust-ability of all the above can involve nitrous bottle heaters, fuel pressure regulators & engine managements etc etc. Also progressive nitrous controllers play their part in allowing wheel traction & engine safety from hard power hits.