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How streetable is nitrous actually?

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Old Feb 3, 2006 | 01:18 PM
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Question How streetable is nitrous actually?

It seems the more I've been reading on nitrous, the "instant power" takes longer than I originally thought it did. I was under the impression that you just flipped a switch to arm it, hit WOT, it would engage, and that was it.

How long does it actually take with opening up the bottle, getting it warmed up, and so on? Under the situation of just driving along, what is the realistic time between deciding to use it and then it being available to use?
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Old Feb 3, 2006 | 01:48 PM
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Depends on how full your bottle is, but U can just flip a switch and go WOT and its there. Bottle Warmer just gets the pressure up, but if your pressure is Ok then you arm it and go. U can also get a automatic bottle opener or U could just leave it open while U drive if you think your gonna need it.
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Old Feb 3, 2006 | 01:48 PM
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It is pretty much plug and play and very streetable. If you live in a warmer climate and keep the bottle above half full it should be close to being up to temp most of the time or it will atleast come up pretty quick with the heater on. If you go with a dry kit the bottle pressure won't matter as much as it would with a wet kit. You can still make half decent power from about 800-850psi and up with the dry. If you cruise around with 2lbs in the bottle it's obviously going to take for ever to come up to pressure.

Basicly, if your in the car, have the bottle open, and if the pressure is low have the heater on. It really is hit it and go, I'm ready to run at every stop light and it hasn't let me down yet.
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Old Feb 3, 2006 | 02:37 PM
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its on my my daily driven truck- i just leave the heater on since its automated and i have a bottle guage on my steering column and then i just press the bottle opener and arm switch and im ready to roll then when im done just hit the switches and shes done.
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Old Feb 3, 2006 | 03:36 PM
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Glad you asked this question mate.. I was thinking the same thing myself.
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Old Feb 3, 2006 | 05:08 PM
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Once you feel a 100 shot on any reasonable LS1, you will KNOW what instant means.
Having the ability to go from say 350 RWHP to 450 RWHP (plus usually a 150 RWTQ increase) is the ****. Look at a dyno chart from a car with nitrous, it's just cool. The HP/TQ just goes straight up. No build up or delay once WOT.
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 01:19 AM
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If you have pressure...you have instant power.
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 10:24 AM
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Originally Posted by Airwolf
Once you feel a 100 shot on any reasonable LS1, you will KNOW what instant means.
Having the ability to go from say 350 RWHP to 450 RWHP (plus usually a 150 RWTQ increase) is the ****. Look at a dyno chart from a car with nitrous, it's just cool. The HP/TQ just goes straight up. No build up or delay once WOT.
I was not referring to the power when you actually spray, no doubt that is instant, but the actual time it takes between just cruising around to actually arm the system and spray.


If you have pressure...you have instant power.
That is the question....what a realistic time to get pressure?
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 11:22 AM
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Originally Posted by Custom4204
That is the question....what a realistic time to get pressure?
As mentioned above it depends on how full the bottle is, what pressure your starting at, and what heater your running. A full 15lbs bottle starting at say 700psi can come up to pressure (1000+) in as little 15 minutes or less with a good heater. A bottle with just a 2-3lbs at 700psi can take 45+ minutes. However, once a bottle is up to pressure they usually hold it pretty well unless your close to empty. I also run a bottle blanket to help retain the heat. In the summer the lowest PSI I ever see after sitting over night is about 700psi. Parked in the sun during the day it will get up to 1,200-1,300psi so all I have to do is purge off alittle pressure and it's ready to go.
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 11:25 AM
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It takes about 10-15 minutes to get my 10# bottle from 800psi to the 1050psi that I spray at. You can easily spray at 800psi, it's just not going to be AS MUCH. A full bottle will typically hold pressure at about 850, unless it's extremely cold (I would say under 30*, in which it drops down to around 800 with a FULL bottle).

I think "streetable" is DEFINATELY, without a doubt the WRONG word to be using with the question you asked. Nitrous is 100% streetable, and can be/is just as streetable as driving around without nitrous.

Opening the bottle: 3 seconds
Turning the bottle heater on and allowing pressure to get to 950psi (that some companies rec.): 10 minutes or less???
turning on the activation switch: under 1 second???

I start my car, open the bottle and turn on the bottle heater, and by the time my car is "warmed up" the pressure is at 1050. When it's hot out (about 80) I don't even use my bottle heater. "Realistic time" to be able to use nitrous, by the time you get to a main road, or allow your car to "warm up", your nitrous is ready. If you want to just drive around on the street, and REALLY need to use the nitrous, you open the bottle (3 seconds??) and arm the sytem (1 second). All you REALLY need is a couple seconds and you can spray.
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 11:34 AM
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I actually wired mine so that when my car was on, the heater was on. That way I didn't have to think about it. I made it part of my car, so when I needed it, I had it. Who cares if it stays on for hours at a time, it's not like the heater is going to go out or my car was going to blow up.
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 12:05 PM
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the only problem with leaving the heater on is that the bottle has to be open correct? assuming you wire the heater up so it is on when the car turns on, you'd have to leave the bottle open?

my dilemma is that i've HEARD it is bad to leave the bottle open for too long (like all of the time) because it puts too much pressure on the nitrous soleniod, and it will eventually fail because of this. i was thinking of having another valve (probably like an open/closed handle) after the heater so the pressure sits on that valve. leave the bottle open and the heater on like that. when you want to spray open the second valve, purge out the air, and go... i didn't do any of this yet but i'd like to look into it.
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 12:28 PM
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You can leave the bottle closed with the heater on. Just make sure that your pressure transducer and remote gauge is in the bottle valve itself, not after the valve. It is said that it's not good to have pressure on the solenoids all the time. I have personnaly never had a problem with this but I do rebuild my solenoids at the beggining of each season. Just one of those cheap insurance things in my mind I guess. You could put in a manual valve if you'd like. They are only about $80 and it wouldn't be hard to run the feed line so the vavle would be in reach of the drivers seat.
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 01:03 PM
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Thats wierd... i just checked their site, they dont have the heater I bought from them. It was temperature controlled, not pressure-transducer controlled. I like the temp controlled ones personally, works just as good and you can leave the bottle closed.
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 01:08 PM
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Originally Posted by sleeperstyle
i was thinking of having another valve (probably like an open/closed handle) after the heater so the pressure sits on that valve. leave the bottle open and the heater on like that. when you want to spray open the second valve, purge out the air, and go... i didn't do any of this yet but i'd like to look into it.
That sounds great. Like mentioned above, have it wired so when the car is running, so is the heater.

Then take the valve that is now installed in reach of the driver's seat, open the valve, purge, and spray.

Why does it seem like this isn't the norm? It would seem that if you were cruising along and a race came your way, it would be easiest to have it set up like this, instead of having to go in the back, open the bottle, turn the heater on, and then wait while it warms up.
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 02:35 PM
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I agree. Mount those bottles in the rear seat within arms reach. If you meet up with someone on the road they wont be able look into your car. If someone wants to check, let em, and if they dont wanna race because you are spraying, you would have won anyway and you saved yourself some gas.
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 03:40 PM
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just leave the heater on if its automated that way you never have to worry thats what i do if its automated it just shuts off when it gets to your desired pressure
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Old Feb 4, 2006 | 05:27 PM
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Looks like I found exactly what I was looking for:



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Old Feb 5, 2006 | 01:07 AM
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That gauge looks bad ***. The first time i saw it, i wanted to buy a nitrous kit just to be able to install that.
-Joel
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Old Feb 5, 2006 | 01:44 AM
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mounted on the bottle and not after the valve? i only have the burst disk fitting on my bottle, then the valve... maybe some valves have a fitting place on the other side of the burst disk also?

also a nx heater (temp not pressure) can be left on without the bottle open?

tia

i also agree with mounting the bottle in arm's reach (on the hump), hiding it is pointless imho, i want to be able to keep an eye on things.
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