Nitrous Help For A Newbie?

[Goon Squad Racing]

I've had my car about a month, and I've been having all kinds of fun with it. The previous owner had installed a nitrous kit, and only used it once or maybe twice. He did it right and used an MSD window switch, thing is I have absolutely no idea how to work it, and I also really don't understand what the switch does. The switch is mounted in the glovebox, and an external plate has switches for the bottle warmer, the purge, and the nitrous itself. Can somebody explain how to work my system? I know my question sounds dumb but I'm just as clueless as you are. Pictures can be provided as necessary. And no I cannot ask the previous owner as he's deployed in Kuwait.

 

[Deleted member 38176]

Please provide pics of all mentioned parts.

Basically, a window switch is a nitrous control system that will only allow the nitrous to spray during a specific RPM range, or RPM "window". Reason being is that nitrous obviously needs to be SUCKED into the engine. If RPM's are too low, there isn't enough velocity to sufficiently suck all the nitrous into the combustion chamber. Spraying too low results in the nitrous pooling in your intake, which is almost a certain backfire that will grenade your intake.

Nitrous flows much better the hotter it gets, thats where the bottle warmer comes in. It heats the N20 to efficiently get it to the motor faster.

A purge is required to get all of the air out of the lines, again this is essential for getting the N20 to the motor quick and efficiently

And finally, a nitrous system isn't armed all the time. Every nitrous bottle has a valve, much like the valve on your gas grill. There are two ways of arming the system......either opening the bottle with your hands (doesnt really work when you encounter surprise races), or having a remote bottle-opener so that you can flick a switch wherever/whenever and the valve is opened

 

[Gearbanger 101]

The point of the bottle warmer isn't so much to improve the nitrous "flow" but to maintain the systems consistency. As the tank empties, bottle pressure drops and the volume of nitrous introduced is reduced with each proceeding "hit:. Heating the nitrous bottle keeps pressure within the desired range, for more repeatable operation.

Gotta start saving up for a remote bottle opener for mine. As Nightfire stated, unless you plan on running around with the bottle open all the time (not recommended), or you've got an opportunity to pull over to open the bottle, you can get caught with your pants down.