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ECMlink Resolved: Meth Injection or Head Studs

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Mham2k

15+ Year Contributor
306
57
Feb 8, 2008
Dallas, Texas
I just installed a DIY meth injection kit on my car and new head studs.
Running 50% Water and 50% Denatured Alcohol (50/50 Meth/Ethanol)

I have a solenoid that triggers on and off with the pump so the car won't siphon the mix.

Problem
- At idle while the kit is turned off if i rev the car to 3000+ it fouls all my plugs and i get a misfire in Cylinder 4. When i drive it and attempt to go above 3000 RPM's the same thing happens.

I assume i have some of the 50/50 mix still in my intake or intercooler that its getting sucked in and making the car go rich.

Or maybe....
Could it be something else with the head stud install.
I installed them one at a time and torqued each to 30, then went around in the pattern to 45, then to 65, then to 80.

Thinking its probably extra 50/50 mix, I just ordered new plugs and wires in hopes that I can burn it all up driving around if that is the case.

Any thoughts?
 
I may be misunderstanding you...

So you're injecting a mix with water into your cylinders as an alternative to fuel? You say the mix is 50/50 water and alcohol.

Not as an alternative to fuel, meth injection is mainly there to cool the intake charge (water) and raise the octane of pump gas (alcohol).
 
Not as an alternative to fuel meth injection is mainly there to cool the intake charge (water) and raise the octane of pump gas (alcohol).
Ok. But I was just wondering if you were injecting the water into your cylinders. Because that's bad... :tease:
 
How big of nozzle are you running and it sounds like it doesn't have a one way check valve in it.
Do you use a progressive boost source controller? Or is it on or off, period? I used to use a AEM Meth injection kit on my car until I discovered E85 at which time it was no longer needed but my setup had a progressive controller, one way valve in the nozzle and I could change orifice sizes. It sounds like it is sucking the mix in when it shouldn't be. Should really only come on under WOT conditions.
As an added bonus, the 50/50 mix will keep your piston tops nice and steam cleaned so you won't have any carbon. In the late 70's I was using a windshield washer pump and a nozzle from a random car window washer, bolted to the air cleaner stud of my Holley 750 and had a lot of people ask what in the world that was. I wasn't even using windshield washer fluid in it (which has methanol in it in case you didn't know). It was straight water and only came on at WOT with a micro switch and it helped me advance timing by not getting knock. Was it perfect, HELL NO. Did it work, yes, yes it did!
Back then, we didn't know what meth injection was except on top fuelers ROFL.
 
How big of nozzle are you running and it sounds like it doesn't have a one way check valve in it.
Do you use a progressive boost source controller? Or is it on or off, period? I used to use a AEM Meth injection kit on my car until I discovered E85 at which time it was no longer needed but my setup had a progressive controller, one way valve in the nozzle and I could change orifice sizes. It sounds like it is sucking the mix in when it shouldn't be. Should really only come on under WOT conditions.
As an added bonus, the 50/50 mix will keep your piston tops nice and steam cleaned so you won't have any carbon. In the late 70's I was using a windshield washer pump and a nozzle from a random car window washer, bolted to the air cleaner stud of my Holley 750 and had a lot of people ask what in the world that was. I wasn't even using windshield washer fluid in it (which has methanol in it in case you didn't know). It was straight water and only came on at WOT with a micro switch and it helped me advance timing by not getting knock. Was it perfect, HELL NO. Did it work, yes, yes it did!
Back then, we didn't know what meth injection was except on top fuelers ROFL.

My nozzle does not have a check valve in it, it takes around 2 seconds for the spray to turn off, before i added the inline check valve and solenoid it took around 4 seconds.

I'm controlling it with ecmlink turned on at a certain load level, the problem is i havent even gotten to set any of that is yet.
I tested it while it was in my pipe at idle and my issues started, now that it's off I still have the same problems... I know it isn't siphoning because I have a solenoid in line, it physically can't siphon.
 
Simply remove the nozzle and plug it as a test and see what happens, since that will eliminate one variable.
 
Simply remove the nozzle and plug it as a test and see what happens, since that will eliminate one variable.

I took the nozzle off the car and same thing happens... That's what makes me think I have some juice sitting in my intercooler or Intake that I need to burn off.

Think that's possible? Trying not to take the whole car apart to figure it out.
 
Man I don't see how it would just sit in the IC or intake. It is thin and evaporates over a short time unlike oil. Did you mount the nozzle close to or at the throttle body? With it completely removed, it has to be something else. I hate to take stuff apart, but this almost needs the TB elbow taken off and a flashlight shined into the intake to check it with the naked eye or run a bore scope in there to see what is going on.
 
Man I don't see how it would just sit in the IC or intake. It is thin and evaporates over a short time unlike oil. Did you mount the nozzle close to or at the throttle body? With it completely removed, it has to be something else. I hate to take stuff apart, but this almost needs the TB elbow taken off and a flashlight shined into the intake to check it with the naked eye or run a bore scope in there to see what is going on.

The nozzle is about a foot from the throttle body elbow. Good point, I will run my scope through the piping to see what I can find. Didn't think about that.
 
Sometimes it just takes another person to help jog the memory!
Keep us posted, I am wondering what is going on too. My setup never ever did anything like that. Your placement of the nozzle is a little far away from the TB but boost should move it out if there were any pooling, at least I would think, since it is just water and methanol, not like oil.
 
Sometimes it just takes another person to help jog the memory!
Keep us posted, I am wondering what is going on too. My setup never ever did anything like that. Your placement of the nozzle is a little far away from the TB but boost should move it out if there were any pooling, at least I would think, since it is just water and methanol, not like oil.
Thanks, will let you know.
 
Make sure your nozzle is actually atomizing the liquid as it sprays. I had a nozzle fail in a way that left it spraying like a fire hose. Absolute joke.

I was lucky to catch it the way I did before it caused a real mess.

Crack the coupler on the lower IC pipe to make sure its not filled with water/meth.

Good move adding the solenoid inline. Make sure you mount it as close to the nozzle as you reasonably can...... for the best control.
 
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Make sure your nozzle is actually atomizing the liquid as it sprays. I had a nozzle fail in a way that left it spraying like a fire hose. Absolute joke.

I was lucky to catch it the way I did before it caused a real mess.

Crack the coupler on the lower IC pipe to make sure its not filled with water/meth.

Good move adding the solenoid inline. Make sure you mount it as close to the nozzle as you reasonably can...... for the best control.

Thanks, funny part is the testing is what got me into this mess. I tested spraying the thing at idle. :)

It's definitely atomizing pretty well.
 
Well if its spraying as it should,

- make sure the charge pipes & intake manifold are clear,
-make sure the engine is clear ( I cranked mine with plugs out, be careful doing this),
-go over everything you touched when you swapped the head studs
-take it for a rip with nozzle port plugged, no nozzle hooked up to charge pipe, drive as to clear it out

hope fully its good. If not, could just be a brand new freak issue that has nothing to do with anything you just touched.......which would be par for the coarse for me.
 
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Well if its spraying as it should,

- make sure the charge pipes & intake manifold are clear,
-make sure the engine is clear ( I cranked mine with plugs out, be careful doing this),
-go over everything you touched when you swapped the head studs
-take it for a rip with nozzle port plugged, no nozzle hooked up to charge pipe, drive as to clear it out

hope fully its good. If not, could just be a brand new freak issue that has nothing to do with anything you just touched.......which would be par for the coarse for me.

Yeah me to, appreciate all of the ideas. I will report back once my new plugs and wires come in.
 
Love that comment....

Soooo, i did a compression test and found i'm good there. This proves i didn't screw up the head stud install.

On thing I forgot to mention earlier is that i am getting a cylinder 4 misfire code... When i rev the motor up it misfires and doesn't fix it self. When i let it sit for a night its fine or if i pull the plugs out and put them back in its fine.

I swapped the 4th and 3rd plug wire, same misfire on Cylinder 4 happened.

I did the following electrical stuff as well when installing the meth kit...

1.) I think I have some kinda of spark or injector issue. If new plugs and wires don't fix it I will check the injectors, if that doesn't fix it, will check the coil, ect.

2.) When i did all this I simulated the idle switch from the TPS and used the IdleSwitch as a pressure switch input that turns on AUX maps. Wonder if this could be causing an issue.

3.) I also wired up the FPS from the ECU to trigger the methanol pump from from Link. Wonder if this could be causing an issue...
 
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Still doesn't work

1.) New NGK Plugs Gapped 25
2.) New Talyors 10.4mm wires
3.) Compression in all 4 cylinders is good
4.) Meth nozzle is unhooked
5.) All cylinders have spark
6.) Injector still is steady

When I step in the gas more than 4500 rpm I get a cylinder 4 misfire... I dont get it...

The only other things I can think of are the wires in used as inputs to ecmlink... I used the idle switch and fps. Could any of that cause this problem?
 
Have you tried doing a leak down test on cylinder 4? Have you swapped injectors with cylinder 4?
 
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