Hey everyone,
Well I have finally finished installing the Spearco Water/Methanol Injection System and have a few tips for everyone as well as an overview of the performance gain.
Let me start by saying that Reggie Wynn is the man and Turbonetics is "king sh!t"
This is not a DIY thread. The directions included are pretty straight forward and require little explanation. I will however take a few minutes to point out some quicker or different steps as well as explaining how to add this injection to your vehicle if you don't have an electric boost gauge.
The first step was finding a spot to place the motor. I found two openings just underneath the headlights once you remove the bumper. The one on the drivers side is best suited since the motor housing fits well and is within the length of the control unit's wiring. I placed it just above the air bag sensor and attached it to the frame with self-starting sheet metal screws. #8 1.5" should be fine.
Before I attached the motor to the car I took my dremel and grinded down a part of the bumper metal just a tad for better clearance for the outlet hose. It's not necessary but I just wanted to be sure there would be no bends or crinks in the hose.
Next was utilizing the existing windshield washer fluid tank for the WIS. First drain the tank. Locate the 3 10mm bolts holding it in place.
Disconnect the existing rubber water hose and wiring clip. Pinch the two plastic hinges on the neck of the tank (look down into the engine bay to see them) and pull the tank out. I drained it and rinsed it quite a few times to ensure cleanliness.
Replace the tank when complete. In order to use the same tank for the WIS you need to cut a piece of the rubber hose originally attached to the tank. The clear plastic hoses provided with the kit are durable and strong enough to withhold the pressure of the system but will not connect to the factory tank outlet. Use the small piece of rubber you cut to connect to the plastic hose. It's the bigger of the two hoses.
After the hose is connected, I ran the remaining hose over the bumper to the motor. I used zip ties to keep it in place.
Back near the tank is where I placed the filter. It's the big black circle piece with the two white plastic nuts (insert joke here). Cut the hose and place one end in through the nut and into the filter. HAND TIGHTEN ONLY
Do the same on the other side.
The smaller hose goes to the nozzle. We'll cover that later.
Next I moved to the controll unit. Real simple. Just figure where you want to have your unit and run the wiring through the grommet in the firewall and out to the pump motor. I placed mine in the little cubby.
Now for the fun stuff...wiring the power, ground and signal. Sounds easy right? Ya, if you have an electric boost gauge it is.
Red-switched 12v power...easy day
Black-ground...easy day
Blue-.5-4.5v signal from MAP sensor...easy day, just splice into your purple wire (Autometer) Electric boost gauge and you are set. If you have a different brand, find out which wire is the signal wire and splice into that one.
NOW, IF YOU DON"T HAVE AN ELECTRIC BOOST GAUGE GET READY!
First, you need to buy a MAP sensor. I bought a 2 Bar MAP sensor from Summit Racing for about $40.
Next you need to contact Autometer and get the wiring harness for the electric boost gauge model # 4377. They hooked me up but you may have to buy it from a local Autometer dealer. Ask nicely...
Third, you need to go to Radio Shack and pick up part # 276-1770. It's a 5 DC Volt regulator.
While you are there pick up a cheap $8 soldering gun and some solder if you don't have one because you have to solder the wires onto the voltage regulator.
Basically what you are building is an electric boost gauge without the gauge face.
Now to wire the things together.
As you are looking at the regulator; legs pointing down and words towards you, the left leg is the 12v in, middle is ground, right leg is 5 volt out. Solder red wire to the 12v in from a switched 12v source with a 10 amp fuse. Solder black to the center leg for ground. Next, solder the grey wire coming from the autometer wiring harness onto the right leg of the voltage regulator. Basically now the voltage regulator will take a switched 12v source and turn it into 5 volts which is what the MAP sensor runs off. Now plug in the wiring harness into the map sensor and connect the 2 other wires in their proper locations. Black is ground and purple goes to the blue wire of the WIS.
Use some shrink tube around the voltage regulator to keep the wires from grounding on something and ruining everything you've done.
The next step is to have the water nozzle placed onto the IC piping. I have seen some people who have drilled an appropriate size hole and JB welded the nozzle into the piping. Not my way of course.
I took the nozzle, supplied tap, and pipe to a local metal worker. He then made a bung for the nozzle from aluminum and TIG welded it to the pipe. $75 job in Cali so a little cheaper elsewhere I assume. I placed the nozzle on the bottom side of the pipe to keep a clean look since they do have to sand off the black chrome to get a proper weld.
But a good welder will keep the marks small and not noticeable once the pipe is returned to the engine bay.
Go back and run the smaller plastic hose from the pump motor to the nozzle. slip it in and you are set.
Now for the performance evaluation:
I set the controller threshold to "4" which starts the water injection at about 3psi.
I then set the gain to "E" which is straight up. I was expecting to see the red "max" led light up once I hit full boost but it didn't.
I am going to tinker with it and see if I can get to max by turning up the gain.
NUMBERS:
Intake Air Temps drop 15-20 degrees on boost and injection going!
AFR drops to about 10.5 - 10.9 as soon as the injection starts. That is a huge improvement from before where my AFR stayed at Stoich (14.7) unless I was at WOT. Now the AFR drops whether i'm at full or partial throttle as long as the WIS is going.
HP-well that's next week on the dyno...
I hope this helps you out. Again, this thread wasn't designed to be a DIY but if you have any questions on the install feel free post them here.
Good luck to you all...
WIS install tips and review for tC
Linear Mode
