<VV> water injection advice needed

Wed Feb 20 22:29:36 EST 2013

Ray, Mark, and Kevin,
    Well, what you need for a water injected,  NON-boosted engine is a way 
of injecting the water with the flow INVERSELY  proportional to the intake 
manifold vacuum.  That means, little or NO water  flow at HIGH vacuum (like 
idle or cruising or decelerating down a hill) and HIGH  water flow at LOW 
vacuum (like heavy acceleration especially at low rpm).   So using the manifold 
vacuum to simply SUCK in the water through an orifice is  BACKWARD from 
what you really need and will not work properly.
    The Snow Performance unit mentioned previously uses  this type of 
vacuum controller you need that injects LESS at high vacuum  and MORE water at 
low vacuum:
    _http://www.snowperformance.net/stage-2-boost-cooler-n-a.html_ 
(http://www.snowperformance.net/stage-2-boost-cooler-n-a.html)   
It also uses a rpm controller to start the injection ABOVE a certain  rpm.  
Just be careful to use smaller nozzles since you will be using 2 of  them 
in PARALLEL with one in each primary carb on the 140.
    Many years ago I was driving a well worn 110 engine  that pinged 
substantially whenever I accelerated.  Not wanting to retard  the spark timing, I 
built my own "cheapie" water injection setup that used a  surplus aircraft 
type 12 volt pump and 2 plastic nozzles that I removed from a  couple of 
soon-to-be discarded kitchen cleaner spray bottles.  I positioned  the nozzles 
to spray downward into the tops of the 2 carbs and used windshield  washer 
fluid as my fluid.  But I had no way of varying the flow -  it  was either on 
or off.  I was the "sophisticated controller" that  "knew" when the car was 
about to accelerate and simply reached forward  to push the button that 
activated the pump.  If I remembered to push the  button the engine accelerated 
quietly.  If I forgot, I heard the noise of a  dozen rattling empty bottles 
behind me to remind me of my error.  I was  planning on adding a vacuum 
switch to activate the pump but the  car developed much more serious problems 
that led to its demise.
    Clark's Corvair Parts used to sell a Carter "Engine  Knock Eliminator" 
that used a knock sensor that screwed into the top of the  Corvair engine 
and "heard" the knock/ping and sent a signal to the control box  that retarded 
the ignition timing to ALL cylinders until the knock went  away.  I think 
it was under the $300 you mentioned but that was many years  ago and I don't 
know if Clark still offers it.  Maybe eBay might be worth a  look.
    The Ray Sedman unit that Mark mentions is called  the "SafeGuard" and 
is much more sophisticated in that it retards ONLY the  cylinder(s) that are 
doing the knocking/pinging.  Also it has an optional  dashboard mounted 
indicator that shows when and just how much retard is being  supplied.  This 
unit would be ideal to use in setting up the water  injection controls so that 
only enough water is injected at any moment to  eliminate practically all 
the knock so that the SafeGuard has only a very  slight amount of retard to 
do.  But it is rather pricey.  You can  check it out at:
    _www.american-pi.com_ (http://www.american-pi.com) 
    Let us know what you decide to do and how it works  out, Ray.
Frank "aquaman" Burkhard
Boonton, NJ

In a message dated 2/18/2013 10:58:58 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
62vair at gmail.com writes:

Ray, I  would suspect the coil over the pertronix. I finally quit using a
flame  thrower and went back to a std 12 volt coil. I noticed no difference
in  performance.

Also, what heat range plug are you running? I would  suggest the coldest
range, that can itself lower cylinder temps by 60  degrees.

Ray Sedman sells a unit like you described on  www.american-pi.com, but its
spendy.

Clarks's did have a water  system, got in a bunch of units, but I think they
went fast. Maybe someone  has a spare around. All it was was a bottle for
the liquid with a orofice  which allowed so much fluid through, pulled in by
manifold pressure  (vacuum).

Mark Durham

On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 8:04 PM, Ramon  Rodriguez III 
<corvairgrymm at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Apparently  Clark's no longer sells a kit for water injection.  I'm pretty
>  sure I looked at one in their catalog a year or two ago but I could be
>  remembering wrong.
>
> Either way I want a nice clean water  injection installation on my 140.  
Can
> anyone either point me to  a good kit or to thorough instructions on what 
to
> buy and how to put  it together myself?
>
> Somewhat related, is their any way to put  a knock eliminator on this 
engine
> for under say $300 or so?  I  know the unit Clark's used to sell has been
> unavailable for some time  and wasn't cheap.  I currently have a Pertronix
> II and  flamethrower coil on this engine but I think the module is acting 
up
>  (an intermittent miss started on the way to Sturbridge).  I  haven't
> verified that is the cause yet but it is my prime  suspect.
>
> I'm willing to spend more on this than I was in the  past, but my budget 
is
> still very limited.
>
> Thank you  for any advice,
>
> Ray Rodriguez III
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