[TR] Water Injection Info --GM had in 62!

[Michael Porter]

Doug Mathews wrote:
> I thought this topic jogged  a spot in my memory..GM had water 
> injection in 1962.  Below is a description I found on the web.
>
>   


Back in the `50s, when I lived in Houston, a neighbor with a new Pontiac 
determined that, because water/alcohol injection was used on bombers to 
boost thrust on take-off, it would work well in cars, too.  He installed 
an electric pump, a tank in the trunk, and a spray nozzle in the 
manifold, and was very pleased with himself and the results.


That is, until his wife took the car one day, turned the switch on and 
left it on.  Unfortunately, the fellow had wired the pump to battery 
power, and the pump had drained the supply tank and filled the engine 
sufficiently to bend five of the eight rods upon trying to start it the 
next morning.


A little water is fine.  A lot is not.  Early `80s Toyota pick-ups had 
the air intake inlet mounted in the extreme upper left of the grille, 
and the more ambitious owners who wanted to emulate television 
advertising and blast through streams would cause a big slug of water to 
enter the engine, usually bending a minimum of three of the four rods.  
We usually got three or four of such in the shop each year.  Our 
diagnosis on the work order usually included the word, "submarine."


Cheers.

-- 


Michael Porter
Roswell, NM


Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance....