1978
Nitrous Oxide Engine
Say you are an engineer looking for a way to increase the performance of an existing engine without adding much weight. One way to do it is to increase the amount of oxygen in the cylinder. A turbocharger or supercharger is one way to do this, but these are complicated devices that are heavy, and they require engine power to do their thing.
Since air is 80 percent nitrogen and only 20 percent oxygen, one way to increase engine power without increasing engine size would be to increase the concentration of oxygen. With more oxygen in the cylinder, the engine can burn more fuel and increase its power. One way to increase the oxygen concentration is with a high-pressure oxygen tank, like you might find on a welding rig. The problem with these tanks is that they are extremely heavy and they do not hold that much oxygen.
Is there another option? Nitrous oxide systems are one engineered alternative. Nitrous oxide is N2O, so it contains more oxygen than atmospheric air. Even better,
N2O compresses into a liquid, allowing dense storage. One liter of liquid N2O expands by 400 times when it becomes a gas. And even better, as the N2O liquid turns to gas, it does so at -88°C (-126°F). This chills the intake air flowing into the engine, which makes it denser and therefore adds even more oxygen to the cylinder.
The effect is impressive. An engine can improve its horsepower rating by 20 percent or more with a very simple hardware setup. Basically you simply spray the N2O into the intake manifold in a controlled way to get the benefits, and increase the amount of fuel accordingly.
For these reasons, N2O systems, produced by a company of the same name since 1978, are common at race tracks to boost performance. For the same reasons, N2O systems are illegal for street cars. And on the track there is some need for care in the application of N2O. Too much of a good thing can cause an engine to explode if it is not strong enough to handle the effects of the N2O.
SEE ALSO Supercharger and Turbocharger (1885), Internal Combustion Engine (1908).
Drag race engine with blower and nitrous oxide injection.