Art's Alcohol Injection 11 Second Recipe
Art Paltz Art.Paltz@R2K.COM
Disclaimer
"This information represents what worked for the author(s) with their combinations. It may not work for you. Be aware that anytime you increase the performance of your car you run the risk of damage. Be smart about modifications: take them one at a time and keep a close eye on vital tuning indicators such as knock counts, O2 volts and RPM. This Recipe assumes you are using adequate octane fuel for best performance wiht ALCOHOL injection. -editor"
Introduction
Since I don't race my car a lot (or didn't) I've always had a passion for having the power on the street when I needed it. What hooked me was getting into races when I was younger with cars that were supposedly so fast yet I was able to beat them on the street. Having the same performance on the street as you have at the track seems to have only 2 options. The first being obvious, running on the street with race fuel in the car (the expensive way). The other was alcohol injection (the voodoo juice). Not wanting to get into a whole discussion about alcohol injection (leave that for other articles) the 2 basic benefits of alcohol injection are cooling and octane. Most people agree that you need some amount of water in the alcohol. There are many different types of alcohol to use as well as different proportions of alcohol/water. You need a little water to cool things off in the intake charge as well as fight off detonation. Alcohol has the benefit of effectively raising the octane of the fuel entering the motor as well as giving it a little punch. Everyone has a different opinion as to the amount that alcohol raises the octane of pump gas. If you think about it, most numbers are probably correct depending on the amount of alcohol in proportion to the volume of gasoline. More alcohol in proportion to gas, the higher the octane. If you only dribble a little alcohol in, you won't raise the octane too much. Most agree that Alcohol injection raises the effective octane rating to between 100 and 108 octane when atomizing properly.
The Recipe
My set up is totally bone stock internally (long block). As you can tell from other posts I have made I take offense when people call their motors bone stock when they have made internal modifications. If it didn't come that way from GM, then it isn't stock! Only thing that is not stock internally in my motor is the valve springs (100# LT-1 springs) and rear main seal (had that one replaced twice). Everything else is a complete bolt on.
Fueling
Like all TR's, fuel is extremely important to keeping the head gaskets where they belong! One of the first things I always suggest to TR people is to replace the stock fuel pump (or replace it if you don't know what's in there) as well as hot wiring the pump. Better to have plenty of volume and have to turn down the fuel pressure than not have enough.

This is money well spent, everyone agrees that the TR's should have had a much more powerful fuel pump, preventative maintenance in my opinion. If you're planning to tune a TR, especially with alcohol, you need to have control over the fuel flow. The next item in my build up is an adjustable fuel pressure regulator. I use a stock appearing one but the billet ones give better control.

The last piece of the fueling are the injectors. I'm using Blue Tops but I'd suggest getting larger ones if you are planning to run in the 11's. Although it's obviously possible, why run the risk of running short. Prices on both the new and used market have drastically dropped on bigger injectors and plenty of people can burn good chips for them. If I were going to do it again or upgrade I'd use a set of 009's or 50# injectors.
Forced Induction
To force enough air into the system I chose to use a Precision Turbo TA-52. Roughly comparable to the older TA-61 but with a lighter and larger turbine wheel (exhaust side).

In addition to having an upgraded exhaust turbine, this turbo also has one of Precisions "Quick Spool" PTE housings. It's significantly larger than the Garrett stock housing. From what I understand from Harry, the compressor wheel (intake side) is the same as the TA-61. This turbo really spools well with a loose converter. I also made a home made cold air kit relocating a 4" inlet K&N 9" cone filter to in front of the radiator support. Even when the motor's hot, you'll ensure the coolest air possible.
Cooling Things Off
To cool things off I'm using an Action Fabrication "intercooler and a half" with a big inlet pipe. This is probably the oldest type of upgraded intercooler. It's stealthy and stock appearing. There are many other newer intercoolers out there. ATR makes a 19 row and CAS makes the V-4. Both are certainly much more efficient than mine. Mine is certainly good enough for 11's. What ever intercooler you go with, front mount or stock location, make sure is has gradual bends and a big inlet.
Getting the Hot Stuff Out
For the "hot side" of the turbo I'm using a Terry Houston 3" stainless steel down pipe. I was previously using a milled elbow and 3" DP but the THDP has a much more efficient bend to allow exhaust gasses to exit the turbo. I like the newer "Jersey Dump Pipe" design. This allows the exhaust to just flow downward when exiting the turbo. Not having to make extra bends to exit like the typical down pipe location allows even less back pressure. I'm also running though a 3" CAT and ATR 2.5" duals. I went with the mill steel pit bull mufflers. I like these cause they are a little louder than the SS version. In my opinion, you won't find a better exhaust system, the welds are just beautiful!
Transmission
I had a shift kit installed by Level 10 Transmission. Although I think m shifts are extremely tight after the installation, I think a good old B&M Trans Pak would do just fine. Every transmission should have a shift kit installed, I consider this preventive maintenance.

In addition to a shift kit, everyone should also have a transmission cooler. Both of these items will greatly increase the life of your transmission. Heat kills as much as a sloppy shift. To convert the power from the motor to the transmission I decided to use a Precision Industries 9.5" 3000 stall lock-up converter. Although for a track car, a non-lockup converter like an Art Carr is probably better as it's smaller and lighter weight, I chose a lockup converter because I mostly drive the car on the street.

Suspension
To help put it all to the ground, I tried a bunch of things. I firs replaced the stock tires with a set of BFG drag radials. I didn't put the big ones on but chose to only use the P235's. With all the suspension modifications I've currently pulled a best 1.66 short time off a 5 psi launch with no tire spin and very good track conditions.

The next item I purchased to help with traction was air bags. I also boxed the upper and lower control arms and replaced the stock bushings with poly urethane bushings. After all these modifications I was still only able to pull best short times of 1.88.

The one item that helped me the most was the installation of an ATR rear sway bar. This sway bar is huge, bigger than the stock front one! It measures 1 3/8 inches. I noticed a difference the minute I drove the car on the street. To me, worth it's weight in gold (about 45 pounds worth). After installing, my short times dropped to very consistent 1.71 short times on a marginal track. With a good track, I can dip into the mid to high 1.6's. In addition to helping with traction, the ATR rear sway bar helped the cars handling. My car has T-Tops so does not have a lot of stiffness to begin with.

Alcohol Injection
There are many alcohol systems available out there. Each has it's ow merits. I chose to go with a Jay Carter kit I got through OGS Distributing. It's very simple, well made and can be used with all types of alcohol, including very corrosive methanol. I'm also using a Jay Carter 100 Octane chip. Although many use street chips with alcohol, I found that I just couldn't get the MPH out of the car with the street chip. I also got slower spooling with a 93 octane chip.

I don't have an EGT gauge so most of my conclusions are by seat of the pants. My theory as to why the 100 chip seems to work better is because the exhaust gets hotter quicker before the alcohol turns on. In addition, the added timing allows the engine to have more punch both down low and at the top end.

My theory was that when the alcohol turns on initially it really cools the exhaust temperature. Having the temp hotter sooner allows the exhaust temp to be a little hotter after the alcohol starts flowing. I had noticed a little bit of a bog when the alcohol started flowing with the street chip.

With the JC system I'm using a .030 NOS jet. I have the alcohol trigger point set for 18 psi of boost. On the street you need to be very careful with a higher timing chip and high trigger point. 17 psi of boost with a 100 chip and pump gas is way too much. When on the street I'm very conscious of the boost level. I'm at either below 12 psi of boost (100 chip does not seem to knock) or above 18 psi so the alcohol is flowing.

Instrumentation
I don't like a lot of gauges. Only things I have is a VDO boost and tachometer mounted on a pillar post gauge pod. I also use an audible knock gauge mounted under the dash. Too many gauges means you can't look at them all at the same time and still watch where you are going.

I tune with both TurboLink and Direct Scan. TurboLink is nice when I'm more interested in tracking boost while I use DS at the track. I think EGT is extremely important with alcohol. I'm planning to get one myself. By seat of the pants tuning, I've learned that exhaust temperature is extremely important. Without alcohol, adding too much fuel only has a small but noticeable effect. Having too much alcohol has a drastic effect on spooling! You really need to know when and how the alcohol is effecting your exhaust temperature. Too soon it cools the exhaust and your 1/8 mile times will suffer, too late and you get great 1/8 mile time but you'll be sweeping up the motor by the quarter....

Summary
That's about it. It takes a lot of patients and trial and error. If you go slow you'll be able to record enough data and make small changes to see how the car reacts. You need a lot of seat time to tune any alcohol system. Like any other modification, every car reacts differently. No recipe works for all cars just like no one alcohol system works for everyone. I think most alcohol systems will work, you just need to go slowly and take your time and record lots of data!

Modifications
Quad Air XP In-tank Fuel Pump
Casper's hotwire kit
BGC Stock appearing Fuel Pressure Regulator
Blue Top Injectors
Precision Turbo TA-52
Home Made Cold Air Kit (relocate cone filter in front of Radiator support)
Action Fabrication 15 Row Intercooler with big neck
Terry Houston 3" Down Pipe with "Jersey Dump", through 3" Catalytic Converter
ATR 2.5" Duals
Level 10 Shift Kit
B&M Transmission Cooler
Precision Industries 9.5" 3000 Stall lock-up Converter
BFG 235 Drag Radials on Stock Steel Rims
Jay Carter 100 Octane chip
Jay Carter Alcohol Injection Kit (bought through OGS Distributing .030 NOS jet pumping 91% isopropyl alcoho
ATR Rear Sway Bar
Boxed upper and lower control arms with poly bushings
2 Air bags
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