Nitrous Oxide Part 1 Nitrous oxide, NOS, Spray, N2O, or laughing gas, call it what you will, I call it awesome. It consists of two parts nitrogen to one part oxygen. By injecting it into your engine, it will allow your engine to burn additional fuel which ultimately creates more horsepower, which is what it is ALL about. Originally discovered in the 1700’s, it’s first popularity came years later as an anesthesia for sedating patients, Nitrous wasn’t really used in the combustion engine until in World War II when it was used on airplanes. Nitrous oxide is one of the great altitude equalizers we get to play with. If you have a 400 horsepower engine in your car, and you live in Albuquerque, you really have closer to 300 horsepower. If we use a 100 horsepower shot of nitrous oxide on your engine, we are really only getting the horsepower back that you lost because of our altitude. Plenty of people use nitrous oxide on their engines at sea level. So, in this case, our altitude isn't a bad thing, we can add even more nitrous oxide to our engine. It's all a matter of cylinder pressure, at our altitude cylinder pressures are lower than at sea level. That lower cylinder pressure allows us to introduce larger amounts of nitrous oxide. We can get nitrous systems for just about every application from 3000 horsepower drag cars to everyday driven street cars, diesel trucks, even motorcycles and snowmobiles. Basic nitrous kits usually come with a 10 pound bottle and bottle mounting brackets, all the necessary steel braided lines, electric solenoids, wiring and a full throttle switch. They use two separate 12 volt solenoids that open to release either the fuel or nitrous into your engine through the nitrous plate or nozzle. There are two main types of nitrous systems, dry and wet systems. A wet kit will introduce both nitrous and fuel. A dry shot will only shoot nitrous; typically this is only done on engines that have the ability to add the extra fuel through their fuel injectors. There are four types of wet systems; single nozzle, direct port, plate kits, and plenum bars. All of which are just different ways of discharging the nitrous and fuel into the intake manifold. Dry systems use nozzles to inject the nitrous only into the plenum or intake runners. There are always variations and different methods of delivering the nitrous to the engine. Next time we will dive into more of the actual tuning and use of nitrous oxide. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or concerns, swing by and talk to us about your needs or come on by and get your bottle refilled.

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