Download NITROMETHANE OR NITROUS OXIDE

NITROMETHANE OR NITROUS OXIDE
Alyn Vincent
MPH 680
Page 24
It seems that some people are confusing their nitric compounds when it comes to fuel for the internal combustion engine.
My background is in drugs of the legal kind (the most dangerous). In racing, nitrous oxide (or DiNitric Oxide (N20) is
sometimes injected into the intake manifold (or just prior to the intake manifold) to increase power: even though the gas
itself is not flammable, it delivers more oxygen than atmospheric air by breaking down at elevated temperatures, thus
allowing the engine to burn more fuel and air. Additionally, since nitrous oxide is stored as a liquid, the evaporation of
liquid nitrous oxide in the intake manifold causes a large drop in intake charge temperature. This results in a smaller, denser
charge, and can reduce detonation, as well as increase power available to the engine. It must be used with a fuel of some
type, alcohol or a petrol mixture to work its magic. In the olden days (and to a lesser extent today) water injection was used
for a similar reason.
Nitro methane on the other hand is a totally different animal. Gasoline is a hydrocarbon, and the common chemical formula
for gasoline is C8H18. Nitromethane has the formula CH3N02. The big advantage of nitromethane is that you can get a lot
more power from each explosion inside the engine. Pound for pound, nitromethane is less energetic than gasoline, but you
can burn a lot more nitromethane in a cylinder. The net result is more power per stroke. You typically need about 15 pounds
of air to burn 1 pound of gasoline, whereas you need only 1.7 pounds of air to burn 1 pound of nitromethane. This means
that, compared to gasoline, you can pump about 8 times more nitromethane into a cylinder of a given volume and still get
complete combustion.
Since nitromethane is not as dense as gasoline in terms of energy, you do not get an 8-time improvement in terms of power.
It is more like a 2.5-time improvement. Still, you can double or triple your engine's horsepower simply by changing the fuel.
A typical drag-racing engine has a displacement of 8.9 litres!, is supercharged and produces about 6,000 horsepower. It can
burn close to a gallon (4 liters) of nitromethane per second! To put that in perspective, there is something like 2 teaspoons
(10 cc) of nitromethane being poured into each cylinder per intake stroke. An interesting thing about nitromethane is that it
does not burn as quickly as gasoline. In fact, there is not enough time to burn all of the nitromethane between when the
spark plug(s) fire(s) and when the exhaust valve opens. So the engine is pumping still-burning nitromethane into the exhaust
pipe. That's why you see flames shooting out of the exhaust of a drag-racing car.
So, horsepower seekers, what you want for your daily runner is a little bottle of Nitrous Oxide (like some other V twin
owner's use) tucked in behind the saddle & a switch on the handle bar. For 10 - 15 seconds you can have a "turbo boost" that
will get you out of a dangerous situation or impress the heck out of the `Blade rider! It is also a good party piece (I will deny
everything) as it is known as laughing gas to the general public.
So as you see from the above, not everything is as it seems. For instance, Nitro Glycerine (CH2N03CHNO3CH2NO3) is used
to blow things into lots of tiny pieces; but GTN is used to treat heart disease. So What!! Well Nitro Glycerine & GTN are
Glycerol Tri Nitrate! Same animal but a different name.