Nitrous Bottles

Looking For the Best Brackets For Your Nitrous Bottles

If you have a nitrous powered kit installed in your car then it is important that it should be installed perfectly. These kits are powered by nitrous bottles that are highly flammable and can explode if left loose fitted, so you just have to ensure that you are making use of right type of bracket to hold it in its place. When selecting one you just have to keep in mind that that bracket is an important component as it is going to hold the nitrous bottles to your car and so fitting is very much important. You should in fact never struggle to fit the nitrous bottles in the brackets every time you have to replace them. This bracket is designed such that it is helpful in holding the bottles in its right position, especially when driving your car in rough terrains.

In case you are just not making use of right size brackets then there are chances that while driving through the rough terrain the might fall off the car and explode. In most cases improper handling of nitrous bottle is literally responsible for most accidents. You can always make use of different types of brackets to get the nitrous bottles adjusted in wide variation of forms. There are also a number of such brackets that are available in the market that might offer you with such convenience that you can try adjusting the bottle in multiple angles. This is one advantage if you are having the nitrous kit installed on your motorcycle. There are also a number of brackets that can be placed at an angle of around twenty degrees from the nose of the bottle. This is good option in case you need to get it installed in motorcycle where the space is too less.

The moment you are looking forward to purchase a bracket for your car or motorcycle it is important to try and select one that is best made for the type of you are making use of. Selecting the right pin type of also very much important and you also have to pay more attention towards the size of the bottle used. When searching the local market you certainly might come across different sizes of bottles. Each one is designed to fit comfortably with different size bracket. You get these nitrous bottles in various sizes that are made for smaller bikes to heavy vehicles. There are also some people who like placing bigger nitrous bottles in their power bikes as they are always looking around for more power. In case you are also not using this power quiet often then it is important that you select a smaller bottle. The smallest one is designed to store around one pond of nitrous.

Energy Secretary Unveils Plan For Hydrogen-Car Systems

Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced the "National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap" at the recent Global Forum on Personal Transportation in Dearborn, MI. This "roadmap" details a plan for putting fuel cells in the nation's cars and trucks and further committing the United States to a hydrogen-based transportation system.

"Creating the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle of the future presents complex technical challenges," he told business leaders. "Overcoming them will take an intensive and equally complex effort -- but it will be worth it because the stakes really are so high."

The Department of Energy and the nation's leading car and oil companies began work one year ago on the "Roadmap," Abraham said. Alan P. Niedzwiecki, President and CEO of Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc., led the development efforts of the segment addressing hydrogen storage.

"We strongly support the Federal Government's move toward a hydrogen economy and believe that the Roadmap will help guide the nation to solve some of the problems that America faces today with energy independence and environmental concerns." Niedzwiecki added, "We are excited about the implications this Roadmap has for hydrogen storage technology development, and demonstration programs for applications that use hydrogen."

Split hoods and split bonnets

Split hoods and split bonnets
As you can imagine, a lot of consternation arose when I mentioned doing a section on split hoods and bonnets. Bre wanted to know how that makes your car go faster, and he's got a point, it does nothing for car performance; but it's a must have for a customized show car. While it may have nothing to do with car performance, it has everything to do with car customization and is ideal for our section on pimped out cars. It also goes to show that with a little imagination mundane looking car parts can be turned into something realy unique!

For those of you who might not know what we're talking about, a split hood is a hood consists of two halves and opens from the middle like French doors. While a conventional hood is hinged either at the back or the front of the hood, a split hood is hinged at the sides, allowing it to open from the middle to each side. It's the latest craze at the car shows but split hoods date back to the 1920's and 1930's when they were stock items on cars such as the 1929 Ford Model A sedan and the 1939 Plymouth P8 DeLuxe. Only those were more practice as they were hinged from the middle and opened from the sides. On this page we'll look at split hoods and fitting a split hood kit but be warned, this is a fairly simple job but requires a fair amount of skill and is intended for show cars and not street cars!

PLANNING

Planning is a crucial part of fitting a split hood. Begin by removing the sound deadening material on the underside of your hood so that you can see the support braces that give the hood its rigidity. The idea is to split the hood without losing rigidity so you may need to weld additional support braces, especially along the split, to regain rigidity.

When it comes to making the split, you've got quite a bit of choices. You can go for a straight cut down the middle, an off center diagonal cut, a curved cut, a zig zag cut, or any other imaginable shape. But the easiest yet still most impressive split hoods are the off center diagonal cut and the 'S' shaped curve cut.

You also need to take into consideration the location of the hood release catch as you still need to close the hood. On anything other than a straight cut the hood release catch must be on the part of the hood that will be your leading edge as the leading edge will rest on the other part of the hood. On a straight cut or a cut that is in the middle of the hood release catch, you will need to replace or move the hood release catch.

SPLIT THE HOOD

Once you've planned your cut, mark it out on the hood with heavy duty masking tape. Then take an angle grinder or jig saw carefully cut through the outer sheet metal on the hood and the support braces below it. The angle grinder is best if you're going for a straight or curved cut, while the jig saw is better for making zig zag cuts and shapes with sharp bends.

Now you need to weld an overlapping seam on the underside of the half of the hood that is not the leading edge. The leading edge will rest on this overlapping seam and hold it down as the leading edge is the part that has the hood release catch. This part may be a little tricky as you need a fairly flat overlapping seam. Therefore you may need to remove some of the support braces near the edge so that the hood can close flush. You may also need to add a support brace along the seam to increase rigidity.

Once that's all done, you'll need to repaint the hood to protect the cut against corrosion and to give it a nice finish. You can also replace the sound deadening material once the hood has been repainted.

REFITTING

Now it's time to refit the hood. You'll need a split hood kit to refit the hood or you can fabricate your own hinges and opening mechanism. Some split hood kits come with articulated opening mechanisms and some come with remote openers, but fabricating your own kit is a viable option. All you need are hinges that will be fixed to the inside of the front wings (i.e., the front fenders) and the spring mechanism and counter balance pistons from a car trunk. The counter balance pistons will allow you to balance the split hood against the spring tension so that you have a smooth hood opening action.

When you fit the hinges remember that the hood must open without causing the hood to foul against the front wing. You also want to have a nice even gap on either side of the hood, as well as along the cut where the two halves meet.

Now when you pop the hood, the spring loaded hood release mechanism and the spring mechanism will allow the split hood to flip up smoothly.That's it then; another successful pimped out car customization from custom-car.us even if it is a bit more complicated than fitting a tilt hood kit, lambo doors and shaved door handles.

Testing and Tuning Nitrous Injection Systems

TESTING NOS SYSTEMS

Once you have your nitrous system installed, you must test the system to ensure adequate nitrous and fuel flow. This will ensure proper performance and reliability.

Start by ensuring that the fuel line is properly attached to the fuel solenoid and turn the fuel pump on. You can do this by turning the ignition key to the ACC position. Check for fuel leaks where you tapped into the stock fuel line and where the fuel line feeds into the fuel solenoid. Cure any fuel leaks, check again for fuel leaks and then disconnect the fuel line from the nitrous injector. Activate the system and check for fuel flow when the system is activated, and that the fuel stops flowing when you deactivate the system. If you don't get fuel flow, check that the fuel solenoid is operating properly — you should hear an audible click when the solenoid is activated; check that you have fuel flow at the fuel filter; and ensure that fuel line is not kinked, twisted or bent. If you do have fuel flow, turn the vehicle's ignition off and properly secure the fuel line to the nitrous injector.

Now open the release valve on the nitrous tank check for frost along the nitrous feed line. The frost will indicate a nitrous leak. If you find any leaks, close the release valve on the nitrous tank and cure the leaks. Open the release valve again and ensure that you've cured all nitrous leaks. Then disconnect the nitrous line from the nitrous injector. Activate the system and check for liquid nitrous flow when the system is activated, and that the nitrous stops flowing when you deactivate the system. If you don't get nitrous flow, check that the nitrous solenoid is operating properly; and ensure that nitrous line is not kinked, twisted or bent. If you do have nitrous flow, you can properly secure the nitrous line to the nitrous injector.

TUNING NOS SYSTEMS

Nitrous tuning is another simple procedure but you should first tune your engine without nitrous as you will be running without nitrous for most of the time. Tuning the nitrous system is quite straight forward — you start with the jet sizes recommended by the manufacturer of your nitrous system and gradually adjust the jet sizes until the air/fuel mixture added by the nitrous system is perfect.

So install the jet sizes recommended by the manufacturer of your nitrous system. This will be conservative and will err on the rich size (i.e., too much fuel), which is the safe side to err on. Run you engine for a while with the nitrous activated and then check each of your spark plugs to determine how the air/fuel mixture is burning. The correct air/fuel mixture will produce a brownish, grayish-tan color on the spark plugs. If the spark plugs have a sooty, black color, your air/fuel mixture is too rich and you should increase the nitrous jet to the next jet size. If the metal part of the spark plugs displays a bluish or rainbow coloration, go to a smaller nitrous jet size immediately. Repeat this test until your spark plugs display the correct color. Never jump up by more than one jet size on the nitrous side and never try to work your way down from a lean mixture — that's just looking for trouble and major engine damage. You can make more power by increasing the fuel jet size and then adjusting the nitrous jet size up until your spark plugs display the correct color again.
WARNING: Back off as soon as you get detonation and reduce the size of your nitrous jet!

You may also need to adjust your ignition timing as nitrous oxide makes the air/fuel mixture burn much faster than normal. Retard the ignition timing by 2° increments (i.e., less advance before TDC) until you feel a noticeable loss of power. Then advance the ignition timing by 2°.

Now that that's done, your nitrous system is installed, tested and tuned; all that's left is for you to enjoy responsibly — always enjoy power responsibly!

NOS Basics and Layout

The basic nitrous oxide injection system, or a NOS kit, is pretty straight forward and easy to grasp. It consists of a nitrous oxide tank, some tubing, a nitrous solenoid, a fuel solenoid and toggle switch, throttle position microswitch, jets, a nitrous fogger, a relay, nylon pipe, and a distribution block.The nitrous tank is used to store Nitrous Oxide in a liquid form. The tank is actually a pressurized canister as Nitrous Oxide must be compressed to remain liquid at room temperature. Remember N2O reaches boiling point (i.e., it becomes gaseous) at -127° F and more Nitrous Oxide can be stored when it is in a liquid form. Approximately 850 psi of pressure is required to keep Nitrous Oxide liquid at room temperature and at sea level but the nitrous tank must be pressure tested and certified to withstand 1,800 psi. If the certification on your NOS tank is older than five years, your nitrous dealer will not refill it and you will have to have the tank pressure tested and recertified. The tank is mounted in the car's trunk and has a siphon tube that is connected to the release valve and extends to the bottom of the tank. The tank must be mounted at a 15° angle to ensure that the maximum amount of Nitrous Oxide can be released from the tank.

High pressure nylon or Teflon inner-lined braided-steel pipe is used to carry the Nitrous Oxide to the engine where it is regulated by the NOS solenoid. The solenoid is an electrically controlled valve which uses a strong electromagnetic field to open a small plunger the blocks the flow of the liquid Nitrous Oxide. A second solenoid is used to supply extra fuel so that the air/fuel mixture remains constant. Both solenoids are controlled by electric switches that activate the electromagnetic field. The NOS system should have at least two switches — a microswitch that is fitted to the accelerator linkage and is only activated at full throttle; and a spring-loaded momentary switch that is activated by the driver. The microswitch on the accelerator linkage ensures that the nitrous system can only be activated at full throttle. Activating the system during part throttle or during a gear change can have very catastrophic consequences. As an added precaution, the oil pressure switch can also be used to ensure that the system can only be activated when the engine is running and there is oil pressure. Starting an engine with NOS in the combustion chamber can also be very catastrophic.

Some more high pressure nylon or Teflon inner-lined braided-steel pipe is used carry the nitrous and fuel (which are still separate at this stage) to the intake manifold where it is released into the engine via two small jets that are located in a special nitrous injector. The jets must be correctly calibrated to release the correct amount of fuel for a given amount of nitrous. In addition, the pressure on the fuel supply side must be adequate and at a constant level to ensure that the air/fuel mixture is correct at all times. This may require the fitting of an electric fuel pump and a fuel regulator.

The quantity of the nitrous flow depends on the size of the jet fitted. A jet is basically a screw with a whole through it. It's used as a restriction tool depending on the size of the link up orifice. Applying a bigger jet is the easiest way to squeeze a bit more power out of your current system. The fuel supply comes from a similar jetting system.