I remember hearing you need to upgrade your fuel pump when you use use nitrous.

In chem today we were going over combustion reactions, and I asked why nitrous makes a bigger explosion. She said Nitrogen is a very unstable element and the slighest reaction will set it off. Then I wondered why would you need more fuel if it just makes a bigger explosion.

 

it acts like liquid oxygen in the way we use it for our cars

basicly, added more oxygen = you need to add more fuel also.

 

How do you determine how much more fuel you need?

 

data loggiing. watch your blms. o2 readings. etc
do plug cuts to see how they look etc..

 

isnt the nitrogen molecule itself just a vehicle to carry the oxygen molecule in nitrous oxide systems?
anyways as dewey said theres more oxygen being introduced into the air/fuel mixture.if you run too "lean";ie more air than fuel in the mixture,youre increasing the chance of harmful detonation(preignition).theres more heat present due to the fact that oxygen burns hotter than gasoline,which causes the preignition(ignition which occurs before the spark plug fires).basically what thats doing is pushing the piston down when its trying to go up.this results in a few things,all very bad thrown rods,cracked block,broken crankshaft,yadda yadda yadda:lala: theres also a few more reasons why you must add fuel when using nitrous,but im sure that what i said explains it good enough

 

Well, to answer your question.... My vett had tws heads, zz9 cam, everything to run mid 12's NA. I had a 150 shot nos kit and one day, I jumped on it, with the nitrous turned on. Well, the fuel solenoid decied to fail. BBBOOOOOOOMMMMM. Warped a head, burnned two valves, MY WIFE WAS PISSED! Basically, you need the fuel so you will not go lean. More air/NOS, MORE FUEL. pretty simple.

 

Of the string of relatively dumb things that has permeated this board tonight, this is one of the worst…

If you don't mind, what class was this at what school? I'm a firm believer that smart people have problems being smart if they are not taught correct information and that the majority of our teachers in this country are woefully unequipped to do an adequate job.

To answer your question, in a nutshell, N2O has about 2x the density of oxygen per mass then "air" does. The more oxygen you get into the chamber the more fuel you can burn, and the more heat you can release. In addition to the additional oxygen N2O is also a liquid in the bottle and as it's injected into the intake it goes through a phase change greatly cooling the intake air charge causing it to be much denser then it would be if it's warmer, again, allowing the engine to burn more fuel…

Yes, there are unstable nitrogen compounds (Nitroglycerine, TNT, Ammonium Triodide…) but in the case of N2O, the nitrogen actually acts to buffer the whole process and is a way to carry the extra oxygen in a safe, relatively non reactive 'vehicle,' since you essentially have to get N2O into the heat of the combustion chamber to get the O to split off and be usable for combustion.

Do a search of this site, we've had this discussion before

 

raw nitrogen itself is not dangerous at all. Its an inert gas and has no explosive properties. Most of what you breath everyday is nitrogen anyway.

As was said above, the oxygen is what does the damage.

 

This was a high school chemistry class. So I didn't expected her to know much about it the use in autos.

 

Any reasonable chemistry teacher should have known better...