I was talking to my g/f's dad about car stuff and we were talking about people using nitrous in their cars.

He brought up the question... "Air has 20% oxigen @ atmosphere pressure.. how much is in nitrous?" Of corse I had no idea...

Then he askes... "Has anyone tried using just compressed oxigen that you can get at a welding shop, or a medical supply place? Would that give you more ummph than using nitrous without stressing the engine?"


I'm just asking the question because I have no idea what the effects would be and I have never used nitrous.
He's sooo not a car guy so he's just throwing it out there...

Can any experts shed some light on this?

 

Problem with using pure oxygen is the burn rate would be out of control. When you spray nitrous, or N2O, the N2 and O atoms seperate at the cylinder temperatures, and the single Oxygen combines with others to get you the O2. The O2 stays within a few % of what it is atomspherically, which I believe is 22%. Then keeping near the same level of nitrogen as in natrual aspiration allows the combustion to be more controlled, with the nitrogen acting as a buffer.

 

Ahhh.. so the oxigen would burn much to fast and the nitrogen helps keep it under control in essence?

hmmm.. I guess scratch that idea for cheap-o nitrous. lol

 

Yes pure oxygen wouild burn too fast causing massive detonation and engine damage.

 

o.0

Even in much smaller amounts, or would that be pointless because you wouldn't gain anything?

 

Yeah, if you've ever seen the results of oxygen fires in industrial accidents...its pretty nasty. Supplying an overload of O2 makes the smallest fire burn huge, enough to melt any metal in seconds. Thats part of the reason why you supply oxygen with an acetylene torch (in addition to the acetylene fuel source having a much greater BTU output then say, propane or butane).

 

Ahhhhhh... I never thought of it that way. =\

Good thing I didn't tell anyone to rushout and try it