[ApollDest]

So the greatest argument I've heard against power adders, from the relatively inexpensive wet shot of n20 to superchargers or turbos is that all of them are extremely harsh on your block, so much so that a stock engine would blow itself to bits with that much power (basically heresay from guys around work). As noted in a recent thread (Life on the bottle...) the author is running a stock engine with no modifications apart from the n20.

Now this leaves a lot of room for ambiguity, like the age of the block in both time and miles, et cetera (or maybe I didn't pay attention very well).

At any rate, given that the car is my daily driver and the only racing I intend to do is if some cocky little CRX with an exhaust revs on me (meaning the n20 would see very rare use, but the same principle as a condom really: rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it) how practical (as "practical" as racing mods get that is) is an n20 system on an engine with 160k without going so far as to prep it with the works (ie forged components)? In other words, would it be the death stroke on a roughly eight year-old engine?

(On a side note I became way too friendly with parentheses in this post.)

[kscoyote]

Originally Posted by ApollDest

So the greatest argument I've heard against power adders, from the relatively inexpensive wet shot of n20 to superchargers or turbos is that all of them are extremely harsh on your block, so much so that a stock engine would blow itself to bits with that much power (basically heresay from guys around work). As noted in a recent thread (Life on the bottle...) the author is running a stock engine with no modifications apart from the n20.

Now this leaves a lot of room for ambiguity, like the age of the block in both time and miles, et cetera (or maybe I didn't pay attention very well).

At any rate, given that the car is my daily driver and the only racing I intend to do is if some cocky little CRX with an exhaust revs on me (meaning the n20 would see very rare use, but the same principle as a condom really: rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it) how practical (as "practical" as racing mods get that is) is an n20 system on an engine with 160k without going so far as to prep it with the works (ie forged components)? In other words, would it be the death stroke on a roughly eight year-old engine?

(On a side note I became way too friendly with parentheses in this post.)

The 01+ block is pretty bulletproof until you start hitting the high reaches of capacity.

It's an Iron block, & if you're going all out (450+ hp) there are solutions available. It's not the block that fails, it's the rotating assembly in most cases.

N2O can get you into trouble, if you start messing with it & get detonation, but folks are hitting 600+ hp on the stock block with TWIN power adders. N2O AND Superchargers.

You should do a compression check on your engine, given the number of miles.

What's going to kill you is detonation caused by engien deposits.

[raz54]

I fully agree, detonation is the biggest engine killer when playing with juice.
If you study up on it so you know how to safely use it and make sure you have no carbon deposits and you have good compression and oil pressure a little spry won't hurt your motor. You need colder spark plugs and a way to retard the motor 2 degrees for every 50 hp of spray plus a WOT switch and I would use an RPM window switch too so you can't accidently turn it on at to low of an RPM. These are already retarded some right from the factory so if you went with a 50 hp shot you should be safe already as long as you have colder plugs and use higher octain gas. I would also suggest going with a 'dry' system as they are much safer than a wet one. With a dry system you only have one solinoid to fail and if it does nothing will happen.

[ApollDest]

Forgive my ignorance (might as well become my signature), but how can I check the compression? And further, how can I remove these deposits if I find them?

What the hell. Why not come out and say it? What's a nice little checklist to work through if I want to ready the engine for nitrous?

And you said the '01+ block. Mine's a 2000.

[kscoyote]

Originally Posted by ApollDest

Forgive my ignorance (might as well become my signature), but how can I check the compression? And further, how can I remove these deposits if I find them?

What the hell. Why not come out and say it? What's a nice little checklist to work through if I want to ready the engine for nitrous?

And you said the '01+ block. Mine's a 2000.

Compresson testing can be done at pretty much any shop.

to check for deposits, I know of no other way, except taking off the heads and looking for them.

But if you take off the heads, you may as well throw new ones on or rebuild the heads while they're off the car.

I reckon, nowadays, with the minicams they have, I'm sure somebody's invented a scope like surgeons use. theoretically you could send one in through the spark plug holes . ..

[GT-EATER]

The 2000 block is ok , not as good as the 01-04 but its not bad . If you are just going to spray a 75 wet shot as long as you have a good and I mean GOOD tune you will be alright . You will need 2 stages colder plugs and a focus 310 pump.