I know it cools the inlet air temp on boosted aplications, thus allowing more timing and denser air resulting in horsepower. But i dont get how it helps. it is mainly water isnt it? How dose it not screw up the engien to run water through it? Please explain.
You literally just stated how it helps. By bringing the temperatures down to prevent detonation (pre-ignition)
Methanol burns like fuel does, so running that though hurts nothing because it burns up.
What you may not realize is that one of the products produced by your engine as exhaust is. Water!
A gasoline engine that has 100% perfect combustion will only have an exhaust output of Carbon dioxide (what you exhale) and Water. The water comes out literally as steam. You can see it well from the exhaust of cars on a cold day.
This is one of the reasons exhausts rust out so much Inside of a running engine however, there isn't enough water going arround to actually cause corrosion. In addition, gasoline and oil are both corrosion preventatives.
so i was under the impression the water where "fire" is, isnot a good mix.
But it seems from your psot that it just runs right through the engine and dosnt "put out" the combustion. So the cooler denser air, the fuel, and the methanol burn up and the rest gose out the exahust? correct? It still just seems weird in my mind the you would put water in a combustion chamber.
Buy the time the water gets to the combustion chamber it's already a vapor. When ijecting it, the water is an extremely fine mist. Evere seen those fans that spray water at amusement parks on hot days? The mist looks just like that, but maybe finer.