The dangers of nitrous?

N

nolanator

@none_more_black
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Good morning everyone. Im very interested in adding a small shot of nitrous and I've been researching the topic specific to these cars for about 3 months now, but people keep saying how "sensitive" our cars are to "changes". I've searched this forum and others as well and can't find too many horror stories.

What makes our cars different than other EFI cars that would make nitrous, even in very small amounts so dangerous?

Does anyone have any success or horror stories?
 
The horror stories don't come or aren't created from using nitrous but they come from everything else not being up to snuff. Fuel, timing, alky, electronics, so on and so forth. The proper way would be to get the car running up to par on pump gas. Then add the alky and tune that. Then after you get all that under control and you are comfortable with your car, then add the small shot to aid in spooling. I can almost guarantee if you search there are plenty of horror stories caused by tune, lack of knowledge, anxious to go faster, and a slew of other things. I have mentioned this in other posts. If you don't take it slow, you will damage the car. That is pretty much a guarantee. These cars are not much different than other EFI/SFI cars but they are very sensitive to many aspects. Tolerances have to be tight, tune has to be clean, and matching your parts plays a major role in putting down the power and numbers. There are plenty of guys with Turbo Buicks with 9 sec parts that struggle to do 11 secs because of the tune and combination of parts. There are guys with unopened factory longblocks that are running mid 10s because of tune and combination of parts. As far as the nitrous goes.... After you get your car running well without it (it may already be running up to par with the proper tune) I see no issues with running the nitrous. You may or may not have to pull timing but that all depends on where you are at before the nitrous. I would pull timing and add fuel at first, log a run, then add fuel and timing as needed to get the full potential out of the nitrous. There are a few guys on here that run it for spool or just for the extra hp. If I recall correctly Gabby Rojas ran nitrous for a while with great success. He may be able to help. I have contemplated running a small shot to help spool my 6776 that is a bit too big for my combo but I still manage to pull 1.5 60's with shitty brakes, 3 psi launch, and a car that almost weighs 4000 pounds (major stereo equipment). The only reason I get those 60s is because of tune and suspension. What I am saying is that you need to pull all of the potential possible out of your car before you start adding to your unknown potential. Tap that potential, then spray everything you want. The horror story won't come because of the nitrous.


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I always appreciate your well put advice. I think people get the wrong impression about nitrous. I was thinking that these cars in particular hate it based on the way people talk about it. Ive put together multiple successful nitrous combos before and definitely know to take it slow and read each plug when making dyno pulls. I start out slow pulling quite a bit of timing and slowly advance until I reach the point I am looking for. I have access to a dyno, professional nitrous tuners (although they are mustang guys lol) and my best friend is an ASE master tech with 30+ years of experience with legititmately fast cars. On top of that, Mr. Duttweiler's shop is 5 minutes away from me if worse comes to worst. At this point, I am still in the datalogging/tuning phase of my car on the motor. The idea of adding nitrous is just an idea at this point, but it is one I would like to be well versed in before jumping into. I'm hoping other members see this post and might post their successful or even unsuccessful combos.
 
I know what you mean about the wrong impression of nitrous. Especially on a turbo car. But I think with your combo tuned properly you will be able to put down good a number. Sprinkle some nitrous after everything is ironed out and the motor will love it and it should live just fine if done correctly. Have fun. I want to see a video soon of that thing running hard.


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Some yrs back, there was a company that made a kit to shoot N2O onto the back side of the compressor wheel. Don't remember the details, but it spooled the turbo like NOW!
Don't know why that wouldn't be something to look at. A dry shot, @ 900psi, and many degrees below, just might do the trik...:smug:
 
How about getting your friends to help you reach the potential of your current combo?
 
Nitrous is a great power added and my gn responded really well to the hit.with that being said it's the toughest on the motor because it's instant cylinder pressure.having a good tune with hard parts can yield tremendous results but you better be prepared for hard parts failure if something goes wrong or fatigues out.
 
One thing that also pops up is boost control. Most cars run a simple wastegate and the nitrous jacks the boost up big time.
So as the boost goes up the fuel requirement also goes up.. meaning the stock MAF setup is very limited as to regulating how much fuel.
So your fighting fuel delivery(computer), fighting boost control, fighting octane, etc.. It adds a lot of unexpected variables.

In the grand scheme of things the Buick motor is junk with a 2 bolt block, cast crank and pistons, displacement, etc. Its not a 4 bolt main, forged internals, etc.

If you invest in a nice aftermarket DFI, run a large external gate, run good gas, and can pay attention.. I don't see an issue. Just that most people dont want to spend the money. The Turbo is what adds the extra drama an NA motor simply wouldn't.. and God knows how many NA motors nitrous has killed.
 
Razor said:
One thing that also pops up is boost control. Most cars run a simple wastegate and the nitrous jacks the boost up big time.
So as the boost goes up the fuel requirement also goes up.. meaning the stock MAF setup is very limited as to regulating how much fuel.
So your fighting fuel delivery(computer), fighting boost control, fighting octane, etc.. It adds a lot of unexpected variables.

In the grand scheme of things the Buick motor is junk with a 2 bolt block, cast crank and pistons, displacement, etc. Its not a 4 bolt main, forged internals, etc.

If you invest in a nice aftermarket DFI, run a large external gate, run good gas, and can pay attention.. I don't see an issue. Just that most people dont want to spend the money. The Turbo is what adds the extra drama an NA motor simply wouldn't.. and God knows how many NA motors nitrous has killed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for weighing in. I wouldn't be running the nitrous through the entire powerband. It would wired off of a Hobbs switch and cut out around 8-10psi.
 
35-75hp with today's technology would not be a problem on a WELL TUNED Buick. However you will be adding BOOST... The SUPRA guys have been spraying NOS for years and STILL ARE.... Bison and Grumpy are two that come to mind on spraying a Buick. Do a SEARCH and PM them.....
 
cwmccray said:
35-75hp with today's technology would not be a problem on a WELL TUNED Buick. However you will be adding BOOST... The SUPRA guys have been spraying NOS for years and STILL ARE.... Bison and Grumpy are two that come to mind on spraying a Buick. Do a SEARCH and PM them.....
Click to expand...

I appreciate your optimism. It's a breath of fresh air. I think that a lot of the advice I've been given have been from people who either are inexperienced with nitrous or assume that I am just throwing nitrous at a broken car. I am however taking the advice of some of the more experienced members and getting the car to run as efficiently as possible on the motor before I add any nitrous. I spoke to about 4 big name companies in the last week and all of them touched on the same points and believed that a 50 shot isn't going to harm a healthy car when used properly.
 
I have used a 90 shot on a Hot Air.... I had to compensate for the 4lbs of boost it added and 140hp shot I got from 90hp shot. I started with a KenneBell NOS chip, Holley Exhaust, KenneBell hot wired pump. I started with a 14.80 and sprayed into 12.90's. I started out with 35 shot, WHOA, then a 75hp made a HELL of a difference. After the 90hp shot, my tranny started to slip in third... My Buddy had NOS on his 87 and he is still faster...11.90, so I took the NOS off of my Hot Air and drove my daily driver conservatively... Most GN owners KNOW anything over 125hp on a GN is asking for it. With Eric creating GREAT Chips at TURBOTWEAK, one could probably spray 150hp or more.... The West Coast MAD Scientist, Donnie Wang is spray a whole lot more, but his system cuts on to spool his turbo and get his car up then shuts off..... NOS is not bad on a GN.. getting GREEDY will have you rebuilding it quickly...
 
Do a search on here for Don Wang. Get a cup of coffee because you will be reading a LOT.

I dont see anything wrong with nitrous as long as you take the advice of those that have chimed in on here about it, I have to agree. Don was running a 231? CI motor with monster heads, VERY long headers and a turbo as big as a basketball. The kicker is he was using Methanol as the fuel and nitrous as a power adder to get off the line with.

I'm all for trying it out but if you have the turbo and torque converter matched correctly, lag is not the problem it used to be with these cars. I can tell you there is a noticeable diffference in response with a 9 to 1 motor and the stock 8 to 1. Pump gas and the alky will take you very far with your combo. It really is in the tune and that requires doing what you already are, test, log, make small changes and repeat.

You can get in the high 9's with what you have but it will take time, patience, tuning and a good 60 foot time to get there.
 
Yea i ran a small shot just for the "in just incase" races lol


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The hobbs switch is a good idea. Back around 1990 a local guy had a NOS kit on his GN. N02 chip from Conley, fuel pump, fenderwell dump, and stock everything else. 22psi race gas, and a 125 shot and it went 7.20 in the 1/8th and 6.90's on a 175 shot. He did have a few backfires, replaced 3 or 4 mafs and intake hoses. I have the up pipe on my car and the solenoids and fogger is hanging up on my shop wall. I did use it a few times with a 75 shot but boost was set to 9psi and spraying bumped it to 12. Just tapping the button makes instaspool. Have to use it with common sense.
 
ITSAV6 said:
The hobbs switch is a good idea. Back around 1990 a local guy had a NOS kit on his GN. N02 chip from Conley, fuel pump, fenderwell dump, and stock everything else. 22psi race gas, and a 125 shot and it went 7.20 in the 1/8th and 6.90's on a 175 shot. He did have a few backfires, replaced 3 or 4 mafs and intake hoses. I have the up pipe on my car and the solenoids and fogger is hanging up on my shop wall. I did use it a few times with a 75 shot but boost was set to 9psi and spraying bumped it to 12. Just tapping the button makes instaspool. Have to use it with common sense.
Click to expand...
Damn that is impressive that he was hitting it with a 175 shot. I wonder how much timing the chip was programmed for or if he had a retard box to pull timing when the nitrous was activated.


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