Читать книгу How to Install and Tune Nitrous Oxide Systems - Bob McClurg - Страница 12

The overwhelming acceptance of N₂O also owes a great deal of its success as a viable yet affordable power adder to enthusiast publications like Hot Rod, Car Craft, Popular Hot Rodding, Super Chevy, Muscle Mustang & Fast Fords, Super Stock & Drag Illustrated, Cars, etc. Once discovered, magazine editors all across the country were singing N₂O’s praises.

For example, Hot Rod magazine was one of the first enthusiast magazines to publish an in-depth article on N₂O in July of 1981. Automotive techno-writer David Vizard penned the article “Built to Stay Tough, Nitrous Small-Block Chevy Has Bottom End Punch and High-Speed Power.”

Basing his engine build on a totally streetable, 350-ci four-bolt-main Chevrolet small-block, the main objective was to build an engine that averaged 25 mpg highway, and propel a 3,800-pound car down the quarter mile in the mid-11-second range. Vizard’s 10.5:1 compression small-block 350 test engine featured a set of .030-inch-overbore Sealed Power pistons, a set of Motor Machine-prepared 350 Chevrolet connecting rods, a .010 re-sized Chevrolet 350 crank, Federal Mogul engine bearings, a Competition Cams 268-H grind hydraulic cam, and a Chevy 350 truck timing chain. It also received a set of G&G Porting 186-casting Chevrolet cylinder heads featuring a high-flow/high-velocity intake port with 2.02-inch intake valves and 1.60-inch exhaust valves. A set of Sealed Power lifters, 1.6:1-ratio Comp Cams rocker arms, and 1.5-inch NASCAR-type Comp springs were also part of the combination. Induction was handled by an Edelbrock Victor Jr. 4-barrel manifold and a 730-cfm Internal Combustion Engines–prepared Holley 650 carburetor. It had a Melling oil pump and Cyclone headers; in other words, all over-the-counter internal components.

In Petersen Publishing Company’s July 1981 issue of Hot Rod magazine (today a Source Interlink publication), technical writer David Vizard conducted a three-way nitrous street engine shootout using an Internal Combustion Engines (I.C.E.) carbureted plate nitrous kit, an NOS carbureted plate kit, and a 10,000 RPM Speed Equipment–carbureted nitrous-plate-kit-equipped 350 small-block Chevrolet V-8 engine. Vizard also experimented with various-size carburetors, air cleaner stacks, and types of headers. NOS was the overall winner, producing 491 hp at 5,120 rpm and 562 ft-lbs of torque at 4,100 rpm on 92-octane pump gas. The high interest level created by this, the very first nitrous-oxide-kit shootout article published, popularized N2O, and its proponents quickly nicknamed the inert gas “Throttle in a Bottle!”

Nitrous Oxide Systems, Inc. (NOS), co-founded in the late 1970s by Mike Thermos and Dale Vaznaian popularized nitrous oxide for the street through an aggressive R&D program, which covers all makes and models of carbureted cars. That research eventually led to the first electronic fuel injection (EFI) kits for the modern-era small-block Ford EFI and Chevrolet TPI engines.

It is very interesting that Vizard tested not one, but a total of three different N₂O systems: a Nitrous Oxide Systems 1-inch 4-barrel carburetor plate kit, an Internal Combustion Engines (I.C.E.) Spray-Bar 1-inch spacer plate 4-barrel carburetor kit, and a 10,000 RPM 1-inch-spacer Stage II 4-barrel carburetor plate kit, tested using a Superflow 800 computerized chassis dyno.

After a series of dyno pulls testing different rocker arm ratios, air filters, and exhaust headers, Vizard and company were able to realize 376 hp and 404 ft-lbs on the engine alone (naturally aspirated).

With 92-octane fuel in the tank and 34 to 36 degrees of total timing advance, the Nitrous Oxide Systems kit proved to be the winner, producing 491 hp at 5,150 rpm and 562 ft-lbs at 4,100 rpm.

Still not through, Vizard and company substituted 102-octane So-Cal Orange race gas, re-set the timing at 39 to 40 degrees, and un-corked the headers in their test Camaro Z-28. Then they recorded 414 hp at 5,500 rpm and 412 ft-lbs on the engine, and 529 hp at 5,500 rpm with 570 ft-lbs at 4,000 rpm on the squeeze!

“That [Hot Rod] article was the first magazine article we ever did,” says former NOS CEO Mike Thermos, “and it really put us on the map! I remember we built our first kit—a Holley 4-barrel, small-block Chevrolet application, using stuff out of hardware stores and hobby shops. However, once we got everything sourced out, things started going really well for us. Then the magazines got involved with our company, and that took us to the next level. We began advertising and that’s when Nitrous Oxide Systems’ business really took off!”

The key to Nitrous Oxide Systems’ success is likely that the company has never rested on its laurels. The company has consistently refined its kits in an attempt to offer the best equipment on the market at an affordable price. NOS was one of the first aftermarket companies to develop N₂O street kits for EFI applications, beginning with the 5.0/5.8L Ford EFI small-blocks, and TPI-, LT1-, and LS-Series 350 small-block Chevrolet powerplants.

“Nitrous certainly has a home on the street,” says Thermos. “That is where it was founded, and it offers a viable performance advantage over costly and sometimes illegal engine modifications. Of course, these days, modern electronics are certainly making things more and more involved, and the industry has to keep up with those trends or fall behind!”

Acquired in 1999 by Holley Performance Products, Inc., Nitrous Oxide Systems continues to be a recognized leader in the nitrous oxide industry, along with companies like Applied Nitrous Technologies, Compucar Nitrous Oxide Systems, Edelbrock Nitrous Systems, Induction Solutions, NANO Nitrogen Assisted Nitrous Oxide, Nitrous Express, Inc., Nitrous Outlet, Nitrous Supply (Thermos’ newest venture), Wilson Pro Flow Nitrous, ZEX Nitrous Products, and numerous others. The result is a thriving and competitive nitrous oxide industry.