Thought some of you might be interested in this upgrade, so here's a review on my experiences of getting the kit, installing it (well, helping/hindering my friend while he installed it) and some testing/tuning of it. Sorry if I seem to go on quite a bit, but I want to make this review accessible to people who have no knowledge of alcohol injection beforehand.
First, a couple of words about my setup. I'm still running the small 16G in my Evo I, along with 264 Comp Cams, Punishment Racing manifold, HKS 1.2mm head gasket, ARP head studs, turbo-back exhaust with decat, ported O2 housing, iridium plugs and Bitz Dual SBC Spec S boost controller. Prior to installing the cams I was hitting about 1.47bar of boost but since the cams went in I've been limited to about 1.13 bar as going over that was increasing my knock too much and fuelling wasn't really cutting it out. So I thought I'd go for methanol injection to see if I could get some timing back into the car and up the boost some.
I ordered the Devils Own Universal Stage 2 kit. I should note that if you have an Evo then you'll want the 3-bar MAP sensor DSM Stage 2 kit. I mistakenly bought the voltage-controlled universal controller kit thinking that the signal from the MAF would trigger the controller. Didn't realise until it came that the Evo MAF has a Karmann vortex system of Hz to report the airflow and the controller needs a voltage sensor. So I had to order the 3-bar MAP sensor separately. A 3-bar sensor will allow you to control methanol injection for up to 2-bar of boost, which should be enough for most of us running early Evos. Now you can buy a stage 1 kit, which is a bit cheaper. The difference is the controller. The stage 1 kit basically runs like an on/off switch. Either the meth isn't running or it's pumping meth in full blast into your intake. This could be fine for many people but the problem could occur in that, at low boost levels and when it first comes on, it could pump too much meth in there, flooding the cylinders and making the engine bog. With the stage 2 kit you get a progressive controller which allows you to control at what level of boost the meth starts to be sprayed in, and at what level of boost it's at its maximum spraying level. I would say if you have the money then the progressive kit is the better one to have, mainly as it is a bit more configurable.
Shipping was relatively quick from the USA to an APO address (although their online shopping system wasn't working correctly when it came to working out the shipping method to shipping address, and kept trying to charge me the higher price for shipping; had to email through my order eventually). Although I asked for it in my email, I got no confirmation that my order had been received or sent out. I sent numerous emails asking for confirmation (as you know, sending credit card details by email isn't the most secure thing in the world) and it took a while before I got an abrupt message saying that they had received all of my emails asking for confirmation, and that the order had been sent out. You won't have this problem I'm sure if you order through the website.
Along with the kit, I ordered a bulkhead fitting and a 2.5gallon methanol tank for fitting in the boot. The bulkhead fitting is used so that the methanol hose can go through the metal in the boot of your car without any chance of it being cut or strained. Some people choose to use the existing windscreen washer tank in the engine bay, in which case you don't need the bulkhead fitting or the tank. I would say that in retrospect I wouldn't buy the tank again. Since purchasing it and it arriving I have found I could have something very similar and up to the job for about $10-15 from a hardware shop here in Japan. But you live & you learn. It wouldn't have been so bad had the tank come with fittings to easily be fitted to the boot of a car, but we ended up having to fashion a bracket for it which wasn't ideal. The tanks don't come with any holes in them so you have to drill your own depending on where you want the hose to the pump to come from. I suggest somewhere at the back (on the rear side of the car, and very close to the bottom). When you accelerate the meth will be pushed back in the tank and as it runs out the lower the opening on the tank, the better. With regards to the Evos, there is just about enough hose to go from the passenger side of the back of the boot down, along the same route as the fuel line at the bottom of the car and up to the intake. We had about 12-18" spare at the end so don't make any mistakes with your cutting!
Installation was relatively straightforward. The instructions are fairly simple to follow (see here) but just have a few confusing aspects to them. Using the instructions alone it is difficult to determine which way the nozzle should be put into the fitting. A few diagrams in the instructions would make things much clearer IMO. I had a 1.2mm metal plate welded onto my stock intake pipe (the one which the BOV connects to) as close to the intake manifold as I could (about 10" away with the stock hose connection) to add a little support for when I connected the nozzle. The kit comes with 2 nozzles: an M3 and an M7. The M7 nozzle should be OK for most applications, although those going to the high 300s and into the 400s of whp could probably do with an M10. If you ask them at Devils Own they may be able to give you 2 different sized nozzles according to what you want. The intake pipe had to be removed for nozzle installation as it had to be drilled and then we tapped a hole for it too. The nozzle installation is relatively easy, but be sure to make sure you don't get the nozzle in backwards, otherwise the meth will be like it's coming out of a hosepipe rather than a fine mist. See this picture for more information. The nozzles have a 90 degree fitting/holder which I quite liked as it meant they could be directed any way depending on the space and where the hose is coming from. So the nozzle gets installed in the pipe, and then the hose ran under the car to the tank in the boot, and then the pump needed to be fitted up.
The pump was a Shurflo one which seems to be the recognized standard in meth pumps and they are certified to run 100% methanol (more about that later). The pump, in contrast with the meth tank, came with brackets and so 4 holes at the side of the spare wheel well and it was bolted in and secured. We powered the tank by running a line through to the battery which has been relocated there, and adding a relay and 20A inline fuse in there for good measure. Before you put the intake back on and fit up the controller, it is a good idea to check the pump works. Just complete the circuit from the pump to the battery while someone else watches the intake pipe to make sure a fine mist is coming out and that there are no leaks in the system. Obviously, you need to put water/meth in the tank first! The Devils Own kit uses a Posilock system which means you just push the hoses into the fittings for them to lock. A great system, but you need to be sure that the hose going into the fitting is not at an angle otherwise you might get a leak in there (as I did initially at the bulkhead fitting).
Onto the progressive controller, which is a great little thing. Little being the operative word, and I was certainly expecting something bigger from looking at the picture of it on the Devils Own site. But it works great and could be secured somewhere on the dash/centre console, or as mine is, put easily in the glovebox. On the controller will be 2 dials, which control when the meth comes and and when it is at its maximum level. When the controller comes on it will start at 15% of capacity, working up to 100% when the MAP sensor signal is reporting the voltage set on the right-hand dial. This is relatively easy to wire up with 2 wires going through to the MAP sensor (which we mounted in the engine bay) which are power and a signal wire, a ground wire, a wire which needs to go to the back of the car to the pump, and a wire going to the ignition. It could feasibly be wired up without the ECU being removed, although we took it out in our case to make access to the rats nest of wires a little simpler. The power wire came with an inline fuse to add some extra safety in there too.
Once that was wired up, we were ready to head out and do some testing and tuning, to see how the controller and system holds up in practice. Note that you will need some way to adjust fuelling on your car in order to use a methanol installation. I have an Ostrich real-time emulator which worked quite nicely. Firstly, depending on what controller you get, it will display either a boost pressure or a voltage. To convert voltage to boost pressure you can use the following chart, depending on your MAP sensor (2 or 3 bar). The Devils Own documentation advises starting meth at about 0.2-0.3psi and running it up to 3/4 of your maximum boost level. We decided to be a bit more conservative about using meth (as it's about $45-50 here in Japan to fill up with a 50/50 mix of meth and water) and so had it kicking in at 3.2V/0.9bar/13psi and ramping up to 100% power at 3.5V/1.1bar/17psi. The spraying curve may seem pretty steep but that seemed to work quite well for us to start with.
Before we go onto tuning results, a word should be said on the meth mix used. Devils Own and a lot of the DSM sites recommend a 100% methanol content where possible, although a couple of other alcohol injection suppliers suggest a 50/50 mix. The main reason for the 50/50mix is safety if the meth is in the engine bay. I'm no scientist so bear with me here. Methanol has a very low flashpoint and burns with an invisible flame. With the high engine temps you can get in the engine bay, there is a small chance you could have a fire start in the engine bay and you wouldn't realise it until it was too late. With the methanol in the trunk, ambient temperatures are much lower and so a 100% mix could be used. I chose to use a 50/50 mix of methanol and water due to the economics of it. Methanol is a controlled substance here in Japan and costs an absolute fortune to get 95% stuff. A stronger meth content would give you higher octane and more benefits.
Right - onto business. First run we turned the boost down to about 1bar/15psi to make sure the meth was coming on. Now here the instructions are not clear. They say the green pump light will come on dim but that isn't really true as it's more of a flicker. Also it doesn't state it in the instructions but the Full/diagnostic LED will light up constantly when the pump is operating at full capacity. First thing that happened when the meth kicked in was that the AFR went very rich. So we leaned it out a little and did a few more runs before adding a couple of degrees back of timing into my map; the degrees I took out to reduce knock in my last tune. Knock was absolutely zero so we started to up the boost. Got boost up to 1.38 bar and a degree more of timing in and was pretty pleased with the results. The Rev/Speed meter was showing gains of around 20ps and up to 371ps total. We tried upping the boost a little above that but I'm probably reaching the limits of my intercooler. A new intercooler and I'll see if I can make 1.45-1.5bar of boost, which is probably the threshold of the turbo to be honest. We could have further increased power gains by leaning it up even more (we were only in the 11s but plenty of DSM people have been meth tuning into the 12s and getting more power). A conservative tune was a nice way to start though and I was getting at most a couple of counts of knock. Performance increases showed up doing some 1/4 mile runs which showed an increase in trap speed of 2kph (up to 181kph) and decrease in times of 0.2s. Would have probably been even more if I hadn't been completely inept at driving that night too.
So all in all a very nice piece of kit and well worth the money. If you're looking for power gains and octane increases for your car you could do a lot worse than go for methanol injection. And the Devils Own kit comes with a thumbs up. Plenty of helpful people on their messageboard to help you too if you have any problems. If you've any questions or comments about my setup then let me know
First, a couple of words about my setup. I'm still running the small 16G in my Evo I, along with 264 Comp Cams, Punishment Racing manifold, HKS 1.2mm head gasket, ARP head studs, turbo-back exhaust with decat, ported O2 housing, iridium plugs and Bitz Dual SBC Spec S boost controller. Prior to installing the cams I was hitting about 1.47bar of boost but since the cams went in I've been limited to about 1.13 bar as going over that was increasing my knock too much and fuelling wasn't really cutting it out. So I thought I'd go for methanol injection to see if I could get some timing back into the car and up the boost some.
I ordered the Devils Own Universal Stage 2 kit. I should note that if you have an Evo then you'll want the 3-bar MAP sensor DSM Stage 2 kit. I mistakenly bought the voltage-controlled universal controller kit thinking that the signal from the MAF would trigger the controller. Didn't realise until it came that the Evo MAF has a Karmann vortex system of Hz to report the airflow and the controller needs a voltage sensor. So I had to order the 3-bar MAP sensor separately. A 3-bar sensor will allow you to control methanol injection for up to 2-bar of boost, which should be enough for most of us running early Evos. Now you can buy a stage 1 kit, which is a bit cheaper. The difference is the controller. The stage 1 kit basically runs like an on/off switch. Either the meth isn't running or it's pumping meth in full blast into your intake. This could be fine for many people but the problem could occur in that, at low boost levels and when it first comes on, it could pump too much meth in there, flooding the cylinders and making the engine bog. With the stage 2 kit you get a progressive controller which allows you to control at what level of boost the meth starts to be sprayed in, and at what level of boost it's at its maximum spraying level. I would say if you have the money then the progressive kit is the better one to have, mainly as it is a bit more configurable.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Shipping was relatively quick from the USA to an APO address (although their online shopping system wasn't working correctly when it came to working out the shipping method to shipping address, and kept trying to charge me the higher price for shipping; had to email through my order eventually). Although I asked for it in my email, I got no confirmation that my order had been received or sent out. I sent numerous emails asking for confirmation (as you know, sending credit card details by email isn't the most secure thing in the world) and it took a while before I got an abrupt message saying that they had received all of my emails asking for confirmation, and that the order had been sent out. You won't have this problem I'm sure if you order through the website.
Along with the kit, I ordered a bulkhead fitting and a 2.5gallon methanol tank for fitting in the boot. The bulkhead fitting is used so that the methanol hose can go through the metal in the boot of your car without any chance of it being cut or strained. Some people choose to use the existing windscreen washer tank in the engine bay, in which case you don't need the bulkhead fitting or the tank. I would say that in retrospect I wouldn't buy the tank again. Since purchasing it and it arriving I have found I could have something very similar and up to the job for about $10-15 from a hardware shop here in Japan. But you live & you learn. It wouldn't have been so bad had the tank come with fittings to easily be fitted to the boot of a car, but we ended up having to fashion a bracket for it which wasn't ideal. The tanks don't come with any holes in them so you have to drill your own depending on where you want the hose to the pump to come from. I suggest somewhere at the back (on the rear side of the car, and very close to the bottom). When you accelerate the meth will be pushed back in the tank and as it runs out the lower the opening on the tank, the better. With regards to the Evos, there is just about enough hose to go from the passenger side of the back of the boot down, along the same route as the fuel line at the bottom of the car and up to the intake. We had about 12-18" spare at the end so don't make any mistakes with your cutting!
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Installation was relatively straightforward. The instructions are fairly simple to follow (see here) but just have a few confusing aspects to them. Using the instructions alone it is difficult to determine which way the nozzle should be put into the fitting. A few diagrams in the instructions would make things much clearer IMO. I had a 1.2mm metal plate welded onto my stock intake pipe (the one which the BOV connects to) as close to the intake manifold as I could (about 10" away with the stock hose connection) to add a little support for when I connected the nozzle. The kit comes with 2 nozzles: an M3 and an M7. The M7 nozzle should be OK for most applications, although those going to the high 300s and into the 400s of whp could probably do with an M10. If you ask them at Devils Own they may be able to give you 2 different sized nozzles according to what you want. The intake pipe had to be removed for nozzle installation as it had to be drilled and then we tapped a hole for it too. The nozzle installation is relatively easy, but be sure to make sure you don't get the nozzle in backwards, otherwise the meth will be like it's coming out of a hosepipe rather than a fine mist. See this picture for more information. The nozzles have a 90 degree fitting/holder which I quite liked as it meant they could be directed any way depending on the space and where the hose is coming from. So the nozzle gets installed in the pipe, and then the hose ran under the car to the tank in the boot, and then the pump needed to be fitted up.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
The pump was a Shurflo one which seems to be the recognized standard in meth pumps and they are certified to run 100% methanol (more about that later). The pump, in contrast with the meth tank, came with brackets and so 4 holes at the side of the spare wheel well and it was bolted in and secured. We powered the tank by running a line through to the battery which has been relocated there, and adding a relay and 20A inline fuse in there for good measure. Before you put the intake back on and fit up the controller, it is a good idea to check the pump works. Just complete the circuit from the pump to the battery while someone else watches the intake pipe to make sure a fine mist is coming out and that there are no leaks in the system. Obviously, you need to put water/meth in the tank first! The Devils Own kit uses a Posilock system which means you just push the hoses into the fittings for them to lock. A great system, but you need to be sure that the hose going into the fitting is not at an angle otherwise you might get a leak in there (as I did initially at the bulkhead fitting).
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Onto the progressive controller, which is a great little thing. Little being the operative word, and I was certainly expecting something bigger from looking at the picture of it on the Devils Own site. But it works great and could be secured somewhere on the dash/centre console, or as mine is, put easily in the glovebox. On the controller will be 2 dials, which control when the meth comes and and when it is at its maximum level. When the controller comes on it will start at 15% of capacity, working up to 100% when the MAP sensor signal is reporting the voltage set on the right-hand dial. This is relatively easy to wire up with 2 wires going through to the MAP sensor (which we mounted in the engine bay) which are power and a signal wire, a ground wire, a wire which needs to go to the back of the car to the pump, and a wire going to the ignition. It could feasibly be wired up without the ECU being removed, although we took it out in our case to make access to the rats nest of wires a little simpler. The power wire came with an inline fuse to add some extra safety in there too.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Once that was wired up, we were ready to head out and do some testing and tuning, to see how the controller and system holds up in practice. Note that you will need some way to adjust fuelling on your car in order to use a methanol installation. I have an Ostrich real-time emulator which worked quite nicely. Firstly, depending on what controller you get, it will display either a boost pressure or a voltage. To convert voltage to boost pressure you can use the following chart, depending on your MAP sensor (2 or 3 bar). The Devils Own documentation advises starting meth at about 0.2-0.3psi and running it up to 3/4 of your maximum boost level. We decided to be a bit more conservative about using meth (as it's about $45-50 here in Japan to fill up with a 50/50 mix of meth and water) and so had it kicking in at 3.2V/0.9bar/13psi and ramping up to 100% power at 3.5V/1.1bar/17psi. The spraying curve may seem pretty steep but that seemed to work quite well for us to start with.
Before we go onto tuning results, a word should be said on the meth mix used. Devils Own and a lot of the DSM sites recommend a 100% methanol content where possible, although a couple of other alcohol injection suppliers suggest a 50/50 mix. The main reason for the 50/50mix is safety if the meth is in the engine bay. I'm no scientist so bear with me here. Methanol has a very low flashpoint and burns with an invisible flame. With the high engine temps you can get in the engine bay, there is a small chance you could have a fire start in the engine bay and you wouldn't realise it until it was too late. With the methanol in the trunk, ambient temperatures are much lower and so a 100% mix could be used. I chose to use a 50/50 mix of methanol and water due to the economics of it. Methanol is a controlled substance here in Japan and costs an absolute fortune to get 95% stuff. A stronger meth content would give you higher octane and more benefits.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Right - onto business. First run we turned the boost down to about 1bar/15psi to make sure the meth was coming on. Now here the instructions are not clear. They say the green pump light will come on dim but that isn't really true as it's more of a flicker. Also it doesn't state it in the instructions but the Full/diagnostic LED will light up constantly when the pump is operating at full capacity. First thing that happened when the meth kicked in was that the AFR went very rich. So we leaned it out a little and did a few more runs before adding a couple of degrees back of timing into my map; the degrees I took out to reduce knock in my last tune. Knock was absolutely zero so we started to up the boost. Got boost up to 1.38 bar and a degree more of timing in and was pretty pleased with the results. The Rev/Speed meter was showing gains of around 20ps and up to 371ps total. We tried upping the boost a little above that but I'm probably reaching the limits of my intercooler. A new intercooler and I'll see if I can make 1.45-1.5bar of boost, which is probably the threshold of the turbo to be honest. We could have further increased power gains by leaning it up even more (we were only in the 11s but plenty of DSM people have been meth tuning into the 12s and getting more power). A conservative tune was a nice way to start though and I was getting at most a couple of counts of knock. Performance increases showed up doing some 1/4 mile runs which showed an increase in trap speed of 2kph (up to 181kph) and decrease in times of 0.2s. Would have probably been even more if I hadn't been completely inept at driving that night too.
So all in all a very nice piece of kit and well worth the money. If you're looking for power gains and octane increases for your car you could do a lot worse than go for methanol injection. And the Devils Own kit comes with a thumbs up. Plenty of helpful people on their messageboard to help you too if you have any problems. If you've any questions or comments about my setup then let me know
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