cheap air valve design

[lunarhighway]

would this work?

i'm seriously considdering building a water injection kit, based on Ron Novak's design. Yet being the cheapo that i am i don't fancy running of buy an expensite valve for a project that might not work in the end.

yet i figured i might place the controle valve at the air intake of the water container rather than in the vacuum line going to the engine
what i had in mind was this



it's the simplest adjustable valve system i could come up with.

basically i intend to take a big bolt and saw a slot in it.

than i'd attach a nut to the intake of the water reservoir, by screwing in or out the bolt i could regulate the opening. i'm thinking of a fairly large bolt with a thin diagonal slot cut into it, but i might just saw trough it sraight from the top. placing a rubber ring betwean the two components would allow for a perfect closure when needed.

[trebuchet03]

I'd personally put the valve on the side that goes to the engine... As a fail safe. Should your container get an air leak, that valve won't stop anything if it's on the air intake side

When I was experimenting, I used a 1/8" $3 brass needle valve with compression fittings from [pick your favorite home improvement store] <-- just a heads up if you were only finding $20 valves and such.

[ZugyNA]

Been there...tried that. If testing water injection using vacuum...you will have trouble finding a valve that will meter down as far as you want.

Best bet is a model airplane gas valve.

Or a typical hardware store undersink type valve could be used if it is set up like the valves on the FA2000...where a long bar is attached to the handle and it is adjusted using a locking screw.

I tested using a marked jar in the pass seat so I could watch the flow rate visually. Managed to put about a qt thru a 1.5L engine in 50 miles though. Did no harm...cleaned the carbon out real well though.

I was using MMoil as a top lube. <<<<<<<<<<<<

[lunarhighway]

ok thanks for the advice, i'll look for some more suitable valves than.

ZugyNA did you have any good experiences with water injection, other than cleaning the engine?

[ZugyNA]

With a carbed engine I didn't see a mileage gain and lost some power. But I think you need to tweak other things like ignit timing and so forth too. I was just dripping the water into the intake at about a 2% rate (2% of gas used)...not misting it.

I've used the model plane valve to try and inject various liquids from windshield washer fluid to acetone...flow rate is very variable depending on the surface tension and viscosity of the fluid. Finding it hard to get a consistent flow even with the same fluid.