Nitrous oxide and the M30: deadly or doable?

[Jay 535i]

Okay, so I've seen those clips on Top Gear. You know the ones. They put nitrous in a 20-year-old Jaguar or a diesel Golf and it slays supercars. (Really, if you haven't seen it, they've got a clapped-out XJ-S and a diesel Mk2 Golf into the low 13s with no other mods except for binning the interior. The two cars outdragged a 996 911 Turbo and an NSX, respectively.)

I want my engine to last a long time, and I know those guys on Top Gear don't care if it lasts five minutes, but is any amount of nitrous safe for an unmodified M30?

I'm not an expert, but I figure that nitrous generates more power by adding more oxygen into the combustion chamber. Same, really, as a turbocharger. So of the M30 can handle small amounts of boost without modification (which it can), then can't it also handle some nitrous?

I don't want to go or kill my car, but even a 50-hp squirt would be a nice thing to have.

Or are there other downsides to using nitrous with the M30? Is installation/setup a major pain?

I want to know the pros and cons. It seems to me that a small shot of nitrous ought to be harmless, but I don't want to bet my engine on it.

[winfred]

the problem is good distribution through the manifold, most cheep nos systems are designed for "wet mainfolds" where they are designed to flow fuel and air evenly to all cylinders and a little more fuel and air (nos = oxidizer) from a single injector works good, the bmw uses a "dry manifold" that wasn't designed to deliver a fuel charge, imho the safest system would be one with a fuel/nos nozzle in every port just like the factory injectors, but that style of system is not cheep, easy to install or for small power increases, now people have run cheepo nos on 535s for years and i suppose a few melted pistons have resulted from pushing the limmits over the years, you just need to research what the safe limmit is for a cheep system and realize it's a dice roll

[Rustam]

the problem is good distribution through the manifold, most cheep nos systems are designed for "wet mainfolds" where they are designed to flow fuel and air evenly to all cylinders and a little more fuel and air (nos = oxidizer) from a single injector works good, the bmw uses a "dry manifold" that wasn't designed to deliver a fuel charge, imho the safest system would be one with a fuel/nos nozzle in every port just like the factory injectors, but that style of system is not cheep, easy to install or for small power increases, now people have run cheepo nos on 535s for years and i suppose a few melted pistons have resulted from pushing the limmits over the years, you just need to research what the safe limmit is for a cheep system and realize it's a dice roll

why bother installing a nozzle into every port if one can simply put one before the throttle plate?

[winfred]

good distribution so that one or more cylinders doesn't go lean and melt, the bmw intake wasn't designed with fuel flowing through it in mind, and you can't add a oxidizer without something to burn so you need fuel too, a single nozzle spraying into the throttle body is not efficiant with all of that complex manifold piping for the mixture to condence on the walls of and dribble into the ports, yes it can make some power much over 40-50 and you are seriously asking for detenation, the $400-500 spent on a nos system (plus what you spend on filling the bottle) could be better put to use on regular mods that are with you all of the time and are less abt to malfunction and hammer your motor

why bother installing a nozzle into every port if one can simply put one before the throttle plate?

[nizmainiac]

have you seen the top gear where they drive that nitroused jag off an air-craft carrier

[Derek A.]

Ironically - the BWW Enthusiasts guide - does an NOS install on an e28 535is. Got some decent numbers out of it.

[winfred]

didn't say it wasn't possible

Ironically - the BWW Enthusiasts guide - does an NOS install on an e28 535is. Got some decent numbers out of it.

[632 Regal]

yea, I'd rather try it out on your car or something first. Might be able to tap some individuals into the intake runners?

didn't say it wasn't possible

[winfred]

shouldn't be too hard to thread some fogger nozzles into your m60 as it has that LT1 looking intake

yea, I'd rather try it out on your car or something first. Might be able to tap some individuals into the intake runners?

[TC535i]

Ironically - the BWW Enthusiasts guide - does an NOS install on an e28 535is. Got some decent numbers out of it.

I know the guy that article was written about, Dan Tackett. Bigtime BMW CCA guy, comes out to the autocrosses all the time in San Diego. Drifts his E46 M3 all around the course with a shiteating grin plastered on his face, great guy to hang out with, and a helluva driver.