Water-Methanol Injection for Diesels

[duskylim]

Dear Rusty:

Although one of the reasons that I installed the water-methanol injection system was for the cleaning effect, the cleaning was not as dramatic as I expected.

On the DevilsOwn website you can see before-and-after pictures of a EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) valve that got cleaned by the spray of water-methanol.

The cleaning results were pretty impressive.

The problem is, like you, my engine is NOT a Turbo - therefore it doesn't have the dramatic increase in manifold pressure and air delivery associated with one.

As I have said before, my system has progressive delivery matched to the engine's airflow.

Also I have installed the smallest (D01) nozzle available.

I cannot use a larger nozzle because:

1) the engine simply cannot take such a high delivery without flaming out and shutting down (flooding on a diesel!).

2) the alcohol consumption goes through the roof - the whole 2 liters disappears after 15 to 30 minutes - depending on how you drive.

The small spray makes for a small cleaning effect - unlike with a standard system (pressure-switch controlled) that just turns FULL ON when the trigger pressure is reached - which makes for tremendous washing effect.

Nevertheless the engine always runs better and crisper after turning on the water-methanol so some cleaning definitely does occur.

As to the spray bottle cleaning idea, I do not believe you will be able to match your spray to the engine airflow manually, and if you put in too much water - you could damage your engine (the dreaded hydro-lock).

Another thing that could go wrong is the mixture spray catching fire and BACKFIRING through the intake manifold - with nasty consequences.

Sincerely,

Dusky Lim

[RustyXIII]

Dear Rusty:
The small spray makes for a small cleaning effect - unlike with a standard system (pressure-switch controlled) that just turns FULL ON when the trigger pressure is reached - which makes for tremendous washing effect.

As to the spray bottle cleaning idea, I do not believe you will be able to match your spray to the engine airflow manually, and if you put in too much water - you could damage your engine (the dreaded hydro-lock).

Another thing that could go wrong is the mixture spray catching fire and BACKFIRING through the intake manifold - with nasty consequences.

Sincerely,

Dusky Lim

That's what I was apprehensive about. Too little and I'm just wasting my time, too much and I'll wreck a perfectly good engine. Also, looking at the nozzles of such systems, a hand pump would produce a coarser mist that might also cause problems.

And the backfire, never thought of the backfire. Thank you sir.