Hi all
I just finished installing my new water / methanol injection system, so I thought I'd upload some pics and say a few words about the whole process, maybe I'll inspire others to do the same
Quick note - english is my second language, so I'm sorry if some phrases seem weird or are incorrect.
So, first things first - the WMI kit. There's a few companies that sell WMI kits. I was thinking about buying either an AEM kit, or SnowPerformance (NitrousExpress). In the end I decided to buy the Snow Performance one because it was on sale, but either one would be fine.
Link to the website (I didn't buy it from there though, It was available through a local shop here in Poland)
Installation
First thing to consider was where to put all the components. My first thought was the most obvious one - engine compartment. But it's really tight in there, you could fit the pump, but forget about the tank. You can use washer fluid tank as a WMI tank, but I like seeing where I'm going. So I did the next best thing - boot. It requires running cables and the hose throught the interior, but removing all the panels on the 8L is very easy.
I installed the tank and the pump by drilling a few holes into the side panel in the boot and using a couple plastic rivets and zip ties. I took advantage of the fact that the orientation of the pump doesn't matter and I put it upside down. Thanks to that I can put the tank very low, so that the upper portions of the side panel can still be opened, and if my mounting fails and the tank detaches, it just kinda falls over on its side. If I installed it higher up it could crack if it fell down. It also minimises chances of gravity feeding, but that shouldn't be an issue as there's a return valve that opens at 35psi right next to the "injector".
I ran the feed hose and the positive wire for the pump into the side panel of the boot, under the side panel on the right hand side at the back, and then under the plastic sill trim next to the right front door, finally up behind the plastic trim in the footwell and behind the glovebox, through a factory hole (it has a rubber plug from factory, previously I made a hole in the middle of it when running the cables for my standalone ECU, but now with those additional wires and a hose it wouldn't fit, so I removed the plug completely and secured the wires with electrical tape so they won't cut on the bare metal) I also ran the wire for the little screen that allows you to control the whole system through the same hole.
Then, I stuffed the controller, map sensor and a relay (not part of the kit, more about it in a second) into the... cowl? I never had to name that part in english so I'm not sure if it's correct, basically the area under the plastic trim that's below the windshield, where the ECU is on our cars. Anyway, all that fits nicely between the cabin air filter and the ECU. Might be different on RHD.
Wiring it up was pretty straight forward, but there was one "challenge". The power had to come from a switched 12V circuit that's capable of additional 15A (so whatever already is on that circuit PLUS 15 amps). Instead of looking for something in the engine bay that'd support that, I decided to get that power straight from the battery and connect a relay in between. The signal for the relay comes from a switched 12V that goes into the ECU, but the power itself comes from the battery. Of course I put a 20amp fuse between the relay and the battery (it was supplied with the kit). Then I taped onto it a piece of metal with a hole in it (idk what to call it in english), and I bolted it into a very conveniently placed hole, that I'm assuming is used for the wiper mechanism on a RHD car.
With everything wired up pretty much all that was left was to install the injector. An optimal position is a few inches before the throttle body, but anywhere between the throttle and intercooler is fine too. I didn't want to install it in the rubber hose that goes from the intercooler to the throttle body because it'd probably split under boost (it's the OEM hose, I'll have to upgrade it at some point). What I actually did is I drilled a hole into the intercooler itself, right next to the exit, tapped it for the thread size of the injector, and then... well, installed the injector. All the threads in the system are secured with E6000 thread sealant that's supplied with the kit. It's still technically past the intercooler, but it's not ideal, I might relocate it in the future™. I don't know if it'd be possible with an OE intercooler as it's plastic on the intake and exit, but I have an uprated one that's all metal, and its walls are thick enough to tap it.
And that's about it. By now everything is wired up, the hoses are connected from the tank to the pump, and then from the pump through the interior to the injector. All that's left is to find a place for the little monitor that's used for controlling the system (see pic below), fill up the tank with 50/50 water/methanol and go test the system. Well, at first I had a big loss of boost, from ~1.4bar to about 1bar, but that was only because I forgot to tighten one of the clamps on the intercooler pipe (classic, am I right?). When that was resolved - I went for a proper test drive. As this is a progressive system, I set it to start injecting at 0.6 bar and gradually increase the dosage until it hits 1.1 bar.
My thoughts so far:
-The intake temperatures didn't drop as much as I was hoping - today it was particularly warm (over 35 degrees C) and so after pulling 2nd-3rd-4th I ended up with 72 degrees C, but without the WMI I'd see 72 degrees way sooner. I'll have to wait until the ambient temperature drops, as all the logs I have saved are done with ambient temperature of around 18-23 degrees, but so far it seems as the overall temperatures dropped maybe 5 degrees C.
Overall the temperature seems to be going up slower than it did before, but again - not as much as I had hoped.
-Under the acceleration the sound of the engine seems much smoother (might be placebo, but It really does seem smoother)
-Power didn't really change, but any power gains from using WMI are achieved mainly by advancing the timing and I simply didn't have time to tune it yet. I'll come back to this post after re-tune and a visit at the dyno, but I don't expect more than MAYBE 10hp more as my tune was already pretty aggressive)
-This little tank (I think it's 3qt, so just below 3L) is going to last longer than I thought. After almost a 100km of abusing the car only about 0,5L was used.
Final thoughts
Am I happy with this little project? - Well, I'm happy that I had something to do for 2 days, I love working on cars, and a few months ago I switched jobs from a mechanic to technical sales support at one of the biggest suppliers of brake components. It's mainly a desk job, so I'm happy to do some physical work whenever I can.
But as I already said - the effects on the intake temperatures are pretty underwhelming. With all those threads on the internet where they claim for the intake temperatures to drop 50-150 degrees F, or even run WMI without an interocoler, 5 degrees C is well within margin of error. Again - I'll have to wait for the ambient temperatures to drop to compare it with my previous logs. Maybe the nozzle placement is affecting the efficiency of this system. Or maybe the nozzle itself is too small for my application - although according to the chart they supplied I used the correct one for my boost and horsepower. I'm not sure. Will come back when I have more data.
That's it for today
I just finished installing my new water / methanol injection system, so I thought I'd upload some pics and say a few words about the whole process, maybe I'll inspire others to do the same
Quick note - english is my second language, so I'm sorry if some phrases seem weird or are incorrect.
So, first things first - the WMI kit. There's a few companies that sell WMI kits. I was thinking about buying either an AEM kit, or SnowPerformance (NitrousExpress). In the end I decided to buy the Snow Performance one because it was on sale, but either one would be fine.
Link to the website (I didn't buy it from there though, It was available through a local shop here in Poland)
Installation
First thing to consider was where to put all the components. My first thought was the most obvious one - engine compartment. But it's really tight in there, you could fit the pump, but forget about the tank. You can use washer fluid tank as a WMI tank, but I like seeing where I'm going. So I did the next best thing - boot. It requires running cables and the hose throught the interior, but removing all the panels on the 8L is very easy.
I installed the tank and the pump by drilling a few holes into the side panel in the boot and using a couple plastic rivets and zip ties. I took advantage of the fact that the orientation of the pump doesn't matter and I put it upside down. Thanks to that I can put the tank very low, so that the upper portions of the side panel can still be opened, and if my mounting fails and the tank detaches, it just kinda falls over on its side. If I installed it higher up it could crack if it fell down. It also minimises chances of gravity feeding, but that shouldn't be an issue as there's a return valve that opens at 35psi right next to the "injector".
I ran the feed hose and the positive wire for the pump into the side panel of the boot, under the side panel on the right hand side at the back, and then under the plastic sill trim next to the right front door, finally up behind the plastic trim in the footwell and behind the glovebox, through a factory hole (it has a rubber plug from factory, previously I made a hole in the middle of it when running the cables for my standalone ECU, but now with those additional wires and a hose it wouldn't fit, so I removed the plug completely and secured the wires with electrical tape so they won't cut on the bare metal) I also ran the wire for the little screen that allows you to control the whole system through the same hole.
Then, I stuffed the controller, map sensor and a relay (not part of the kit, more about it in a second) into the... cowl? I never had to name that part in english so I'm not sure if it's correct, basically the area under the plastic trim that's below the windshield, where the ECU is on our cars. Anyway, all that fits nicely between the cabin air filter and the ECU. Might be different on RHD.
Wiring it up was pretty straight forward, but there was one "challenge". The power had to come from a switched 12V circuit that's capable of additional 15A (so whatever already is on that circuit PLUS 15 amps). Instead of looking for something in the engine bay that'd support that, I decided to get that power straight from the battery and connect a relay in between. The signal for the relay comes from a switched 12V that goes into the ECU, but the power itself comes from the battery. Of course I put a 20amp fuse between the relay and the battery (it was supplied with the kit). Then I taped onto it a piece of metal with a hole in it (idk what to call it in english), and I bolted it into a very conveniently placed hole, that I'm assuming is used for the wiper mechanism on a RHD car.
With everything wired up pretty much all that was left was to install the injector. An optimal position is a few inches before the throttle body, but anywhere between the throttle and intercooler is fine too. I didn't want to install it in the rubber hose that goes from the intercooler to the throttle body because it'd probably split under boost (it's the OEM hose, I'll have to upgrade it at some point). What I actually did is I drilled a hole into the intercooler itself, right next to the exit, tapped it for the thread size of the injector, and then... well, installed the injector. All the threads in the system are secured with E6000 thread sealant that's supplied with the kit. It's still technically past the intercooler, but it's not ideal, I might relocate it in the future™. I don't know if it'd be possible with an OE intercooler as it's plastic on the intake and exit, but I have an uprated one that's all metal, and its walls are thick enough to tap it.
And that's about it. By now everything is wired up, the hoses are connected from the tank to the pump, and then from the pump through the interior to the injector. All that's left is to find a place for the little monitor that's used for controlling the system (see pic below), fill up the tank with 50/50 water/methanol and go test the system. Well, at first I had a big loss of boost, from ~1.4bar to about 1bar, but that was only because I forgot to tighten one of the clamps on the intercooler pipe (classic, am I right?). When that was resolved - I went for a proper test drive. As this is a progressive system, I set it to start injecting at 0.6 bar and gradually increase the dosage until it hits 1.1 bar.
My thoughts so far:
-The intake temperatures didn't drop as much as I was hoping - today it was particularly warm (over 35 degrees C) and so after pulling 2nd-3rd-4th I ended up with 72 degrees C, but without the WMI I'd see 72 degrees way sooner. I'll have to wait until the ambient temperature drops, as all the logs I have saved are done with ambient temperature of around 18-23 degrees, but so far it seems as the overall temperatures dropped maybe 5 degrees C.
Overall the temperature seems to be going up slower than it did before, but again - not as much as I had hoped.
-Under the acceleration the sound of the engine seems much smoother (might be placebo, but It really does seem smoother)
-Power didn't really change, but any power gains from using WMI are achieved mainly by advancing the timing and I simply didn't have time to tune it yet. I'll come back to this post after re-tune and a visit at the dyno, but I don't expect more than MAYBE 10hp more as my tune was already pretty aggressive)
-This little tank (I think it's 3qt, so just below 3L) is going to last longer than I thought. After almost a 100km of abusing the car only about 0,5L was used.
Final thoughts
Am I happy with this little project? - Well, I'm happy that I had something to do for 2 days, I love working on cars, and a few months ago I switched jobs from a mechanic to technical sales support at one of the biggest suppliers of brake components. It's mainly a desk job, so I'm happy to do some physical work whenever I can.
But as I already said - the effects on the intake temperatures are pretty underwhelming. With all those threads on the internet where they claim for the intake temperatures to drop 50-150 degrees F, or even run WMI without an interocoler, 5 degrees C is well within margin of error. Again - I'll have to wait for the ambient temperatures to drop to compare it with my previous logs. Maybe the nozzle placement is affecting the efficiency of this system. Or maybe the nozzle itself is too small for my application - although according to the chart they supplied I used the correct one for my boost and horsepower. I'm not sure. Will come back when I have more data.
That's it for today
