COOL YOUR JETS
Pickup big power with a methanol-injection kit
from Snow Performance
Text & Photos By: Dr. Jamie Meyer

   Keeping the air that enters your engine or intake charge as cool as possible is a longtime tradition with hot-rodders looking to maximize their horsepower efforts. For decades, racers have been packaging their intake manifolds with ice and running their fuel through cool cans. With a fuel-injected performance car such as the 5.0 Mustang, the same concept applies. Plop a bag of ice on that upper intake plenum, and you will be rewarded with a healthy increase in horsepower due to the denser intake charge. But once supercharges came to the forefront, we were faced with a new dilemma.
   Forced induction does pack the air into the combustion chamber, but by the laws of physics, it also greatly increases the intake charge temperature. This can lead to engine destroying detonation or preignition. As a result, intercooling (and massive intercooler sizes on the racing circuit) has developed rapidly to combat this increase in heat. Recently, creative companies have been investigating the use of injecting chemicals into the intake tract as cooling agents. They have tested not only nitrous oxide, but also other cooling sources such as water and methanol  have been looked at as alternatives to the sometimes bulky intercoolers and the requisite support equipment.
   Leading the way with its line of methanol-injection kits is Matt Snow's Snow Performance in Wood Park, Colorado. Matt has spent several years in the industrial engineering field working with various chemical-intercooling agents. Once he supercharged his personal '93 Cobra, it was only a matter of time before he added a home-built methanol injection kit. Suddenly, Snow Performance was formed, and its success has been tremendous.
   Before we get to Snow's product, let's address the question "Why Methanol?" as taken directly from Snow Performance Web site.

     With that as a primer, we took the kit out of the box! Snow Performance's Boost Cooler kit is based around a high-flow, viton- diaphragm pump that is modified to Matt's specifications to produce 60 psi and flow 2,500 milliliters per minute at the nozzle. Matt built the rest of the kit with an eye toward keeping the cost down while maximizing the end-user's bang-for-the-buck. It represents on of the hottest trends in the 5.0 Mustang hobby-liquid intercooling.
     Our test car for this experiment is owned and assembled by Tim Stockwell from the Akron, Ohio, area. Time is a certified mechanic and longtime fan of the 5.0 Mustang. He has also assembled several of these cars and works on them in his spare time, so he knows his way around the popular 5.0 combinations. The car he had waiting for us when we arrived at his 60x24-foot attached garage (with lift!) was his own personal '92 LX notchback. It was an all original 5.0 car with only 39,000 miles on the clock when he brought it just a few months before our shoot. 

     Despite the short time of ownership, Tim had already significantly increased the performance of the LX (look for a full, in-depth feature on this awesome car in an upcoming issue). As an introduction, the car had the complete 5.0 engine still in place-the stock throttle body, intake, heads, valve covers, and so on had never been off the car. Tim added a Vortech S-Trim kit with a 10-rib, 2.95-inch blower pulley, which was force feeding the little stocker 14 psi. A good fuel system featuring 42-lb/hr injectors, a 4,000-stall converter, short-tube headers, and a drag suspension were the only other serious additions.
     With the engine accessories cleared out of the engine compartment, making for clear photography, it was the perfect car to do our installation. The other reason this was a perfect 5.0 deserving of a methanol kit was that Tim had maxed out this AOD combination to the tune of 11.60s at more than 116 mph, with the stock AOD, the stock 3.27 gears-a low-buck 11-second rocket!

     With low cost in mind, Snow Performance specified its Stage I kit, which retails for only $299. Tim opted for the reverse-flow check valve to keep the boost out of the methanol system of his high-boost application. Once the parts showed up and Tim purchased a 50gallon jug of methanol (about $25), all we needed to do was install the kit and get to the dyno for the torture-uh, testing-session.

     Since Tim worked at an installation facility for the Snow Performance methanol-injection kit, we weren't surprised with the speed at which he had the kit on his car. What amazed us was just how clean the install looked-hats off to Tim for his meticulous work here. He ha figured out how to mount the pump down low in the frame not only to protect it, but also to keep it from cluttering up the engine compartment. Even stumbling over the photographer, Tim had the kit on the car and the activation switch tuned in around two hours.
     Before we get to the dyno testing, let's go over the specifics of this application. First off, Tim had tuned his car to the edge of detonation on 94-octane Sunoco pump gas, which is a common fuel for a street blower car in the Northeast and Midwest. That's what Tim and I couldn't understand Matt's continual comments about the "high-octane" fuel in the car. Once Matt explained that most of the West Coast is saddled with only 91-octane , it made even more sense why methanol injection is becoming the rage. Of course, as you read the results. please keep in mind that the higher-octane gasoline is "masking" some of the effects of this kit if we had tuned the car with 87 octane. Tim was not willing to test this on his stocker, and, frankly, we don't blame him.

     The other thing to keep in mind when pouring over the data is that Tim's little white wonder is an ADO-equipped car with the stock, unbuilt transmission still in place. First, it is amazing to have a mid-11 second car with that transmission and so little else. Second, a slushbox will play games with dyno numbers. By design, the torque converter will slip, or stall, to a given rpm. And, even though this car had a nonlockup converter there is some lost horsepower in just turning the fluid-filled connection between the flywheel and the transmission. As such, the horsepower numbers reported here are going to be dramatically lower than those produced by a manual-transmission car.

     Our test facility was the brand-new Big Shot Dyno in Hudson, Ohio. Owner Keith Wenzel Jr. greeted us with open arms, and the technicians had Tim's car trapped down in no time. We have included a table of all relevant data, reporting the peak numbers in each case. It should be noted that as the timing was added in, Tim initially upped the fuel pressure, as most good tuners would. Once we got used to the Snow Performance methanol injection kit, we started to trust its abilities to fight off detonation. Tim eventually backed the fuel pressure to his base 30 psi. Once the rollers stopped spinning at Big Shot Dyno, we had tuned the timing up to an astonishing 20 degrees initial!

     In the end, the car went from 345.5hp and 433 lb-ft of torque at the wheels to 373 hp and a whopping 510.0 lb-ft. Remember, this car basically has only a Vortech S-Trim supercharger and the Snow Performance methanol-injection kit. The one other thing this combination has for it is a tuner/owner who knows what he's doing. We strongly advise you don't slap on this kit with your blower car and crank your timing to 20 degrees initial. Rather, you should take the step-by-step approach with your given combination that we have outlined here. Also, please note that you aren't going to add 70 lb-ft of torque just by adding in the methanol-you need to tune the car for this new level of dense intake charge to take full advantage of it.
     With one intense day of experience under our belt, we do have some additional notes on the Snow Performance kit. We believe the kit should come with a tap for the nozzle. As it is, you will need to head to the hardware store before you assemble the inlet tube as we have shown. Also, the methanol reservoir is made out of plastic and the holes are patched with a high-tech industrial sealant. It seemed up to the job during our test, but Tim reported some leaking the day after-something to think about when rolling down the road with a Class 3 flammable liquid under the hood. To be complete we have to report that Tim was able to completely repair the leak with household Goop sealant.
     We came away from our initial testing of this product both satisfied and curious. We are certain that the Snow Performance methanol injection kit  delivers on its promise of liquid intercooling for boosted applications, which greatly decreases the chance of detonation. But we couldn't help but wonder what more boost would do to the tune and the added effects of the methanol injection. There will be a follow-up on Tim's car, so watch for that in an upcoming issue.
     We've also enlisted the help of our old friends Vince Ciavetta kits on a serious 5.0 Mustang race car with horsepower in the 1,000 plus range. Stay tuned for that coverage as well. 5.0

Here's the finished installation. Notice the insanely clean work that Tim performed for us with the Snow Performance methanol kit. The other thing you have to notice is that there isn't that much to notice. All one can see, without getting under the car, is the reservoir tank-sneaky.

Within two hours of completing our installation, Tim's 5.0 Mustang was strapped down on the Dynojet at Big Shot Dyno-a nice facility staffed with some Mustang-friendly technicians. Tim's car baselined with peak numbers of 345.5 hp and 433 lb-ft at the wheels. This was with Tim's baseline tune of 10 degrees initial timing with Sunoco 94 octane in the tank. After several dyno pulls, with Tim slowly upping the timing until we stopped at 20 degrees initial, the car cranked out 373 hp and a whopping 510 lb-ft at the rollers. There is no way it is possible to run 14 psi on a stock 5.0 motor on pump gas without the use of a methanol injection kit. The more pulls we made, the more we were impressed with the Snow Performance methanol injection kit. The accompanying data table tells the whole story, but you will be able to test more boost and different methanol injection nozzles with your application.
 

SOURCES:

SNOW PERFORMANCE
Elbring 45, 21217 Seevetal
http://www.snowperformance.de
 

TIM STOCKWELL
www.5litermustang.com

The Snow Performance methanol pump is a specially modified Sure Flow pump that is good for 140psi. This pressure level is said to deliver perfect atomization for the methanol/water mix you'll be pumping into your small block Ford. Tim mounts the pump on the driver side of the car, down on the front frame, using two of the sway bar mounting holes. Note the wiring leading to the pump-nice and clean, just like everything that Tim does.

Here's another close-up shot of what your wiring should look like. Keep it neat and away from any moving parts or road debris.

The Snow Performance methanol supply line is run from the pump, around the firewall, and to the injection nozzle., Be sure to measure twice and cut once. The kit includes just enough supply line, so don't waste it.

Matt holds the Vortech discharge tube while test-car owner Tim Stockwell drills the pipe and then taps it. Make sure you don't "deep tap" the tube, or you'll be doing this procedure twice.

Once that little bit of work is done, install the injection nozzle in the discharge tube. Here's a final shot of what your installation should look like,. Our nozzle is on the bottom side of the discharge tube just in front of the throttle body.

The Snow Performance methanol reservoir was mounted on the driver side of the engine compartment, where the battery was originally located. The line going out of the bottom of the reservoir leads to the pump located down below.

The reverse flow check valve is an optional part for this installation. Snow sells the valve for $29.95. It keeps the boost from pressurizing the methanol system itself, instead of just pressurizing the intake tract. On the check valve, the arrow points toward the flow of the methanol-into the pump in our application.

To test the system, fill the reservoir tank with straight water. Activate the system, check for leaks, and make sure the system holds pressure. Notice the nice, even mist coming from the nozzle. At this point, we were almost ready to head to Big Shot Dyno! 

Here, Matt and Tim are mixing up their "brew". We're using a 50/50 blend of methanol and water (tap water is fine). Here's a tip: Add in a splash of windshield washer fluid for color and easy detection of fluid level. After the installation was complete, Tim set the activation switch at 4psi using the transbrake right in the garage. You will notice a "unique" exhaust smell-it smells like horsepower!