2 STAGE NITROUS... ANY SUGGESTIONS?

[GARY J]

To get to the nitty gritty go down to the CAPS SENTENCE.

My current set up consists of a standard NX kit. I installed the kit and met Tom Welsh to tune the car. With the suggested pills for the 150 shot the car made 563rwhp with a pretty rich fuel curve.(baseline=421rwhp) So we switched to the 200 shot to find a richer fuel curve with no added power. In an attempt to lean out the mixture we switched out the n2o pills to the 300 shot with the fuel still at the 200 shot. To my amazement the fuel curve was still way rich and we lost a little power. Not wanting to press my luck I took it back to the 150 shot and that's where it's been for the last year.

Today I spoke to Albert and Toofast (both incredibly helpful guys) and I found out that the 4n feed line from the bottle supplied with the standard kit will only flow about 150hp. For any more you have to upgrade to a 6n line. That explains why I couldn't gain any more power with a larger pill. So I can either upgrade the line for about 100 bucks or buy another kit for about 700 bucks and convert it to a dual stage!

Right now with the 150 shot I can put all of the power to the ground in first gear on p-zero's with 1.7 60's. I have an APEX rev speed meter that has a 12v output at a predesignated speed that I can use to control the engagement of the 2nd stage. I figure I will be able to launch on street tires like I normally do and have the 2nd stage come in around 60mph about the time I shift to 2nd and allow the car to settle. With this set up I hope to get deep into the 6's in the 1/8th on street tires.

MY QUESTION IS HOW SHOULD I MOUNT ALL FOU SOLONOIDS UNDER THE HOOD. I have seen some people mount them on a custom aluminum panel and remember seeing pics posted but a search didn't turn them up. Also I want to run both stages off of the same bottle. I assume you have to use some sort of distribution block for both the N2O at the bottle and the fuel at the shrader valve. Thanks in advance for any insight. Sorry for the long post.

 

[Jack B]

Keep it simple stay with a single stage. Simple is always better. I had the same problem. I was using NOS solenoids, I went to the higher flow solenoid and picked up one size in gas jet. Best rwhp is about 640 and 750 ftlbs. I also bought the 6AN line and will install this winter. What was interesting was the magnitude of the hp increase. The increase in both torque and hp was across the entire curve, not just a single point.

No question a dual stage will give you more hp. Both NOS and NX make a splitter to accomplish the division. The problem with a dual stage is how you bring it in. In my opinion you need a manual trigger for the second stage. Your traction will vary from run-to-run, therefore, only you know when the traction is there. Half the problem in lowering the et is the control of the car and the dual stage complicates that issue. No matter what you do always check air/fuel with the dyno O2 sensor plugged in the forward well.

 

[GARY J]

Jack,
Thanks for the responce. The only problem I see with a single stage is that my car can barely put down 560hp in first now. I'm afraid if I go up to say 650-675rwhp I will render 1st gear useless losing time through 1st gear since I can't spray it and will have to try to make up the difference the second half of the track. The Apex rev speed meter is basically a G-tech that is dash mounted and can be adjusted very easily. I am thinking when I go to the track I can initially have it set to engage the second stage at say 80mph and if it sticks bring it down to 70 mph and if THAT sticks come down to 60mph and so on until I figure out where the point is that the car can put 650 or so rwhp to the ground. It just seems like the most efficient way to do it. I would be putting the most power possible to the ground off of the line and then again at 60mph or so. Can't wait.

 

[varanus]

Gary . . ..what about a progressive timer to ramp up the shot as you go? say a 300 shot but set timer to start at 150 and within a few seconds be at full 300 ( 2nd gear by then) Nos makes a few and one is made to handle a dual shot.
If you run a dual stage, i heard it is better to run a 2nd bottle for the 2nd stage. Easier to diagnose problems and have higher bottle pressure.
Good luck.

 

[Anthony - 98 GTS]

Gary,

I was at Albert's shop here in H-town this week. His set-up is VERY nice with all the solonoids/lines/wires/etc. mounted under the intake. Very clean install - as everthing is hidden with the intake installed. Looked great!!

Anthony

PS. Thanks again for the 546 HRE's hopefully I will be on the road SOON. It has been a LONG process.

 

[GARY J]

The progressive controller sounds cool but I have heard that they are difficult to tune because of the range of power levels being applied. Also a 2 stage would work better on the street because it makes the decision to engage the 2nd stage based on speed. The progressive unit controls the progression as a function of time (I think). What I mean is you set the progressive controller and the next time you go wot it brings in the n20 progressively. Thats great for the track but say I got into a street race at say 60mph the dual stage would automatically "know" I was above the predesignated 50mph therefore it would engage both stages and someone gets their a$$ smoked. With the progressive I'm not sure how that would work. Would it start out at say 10% and work it's way up even though I am running 60mph?

 

[GARY J]

Anthony,
Good to hear from you. Send me some pics when you finish it. Sounds like it's going to be a beast!