Im waiting for some parts before installing the supercharger system on my 99 miata.
After research, ive decided against an intercooler.
This is a standard Jackson racing m45 kit.
Now im thinking about water/meth injection via a Hobbes switch and diy injection kit. Im concerned about detonation and intake temps being here in north Carolina where it hits a hundred degrees with 110% humidity.
Am i overthinking this? Its a daily.
The concerns about temps with forced induction are reasonable. The question it is do you trust the engineering and development that went into the Jackson Racing kit?
You need something to control the air temperature. If the kit came with an inter cooler I recommend using it. If it doesn't and you'd rather use inlet fogging, look for an engineered solution. A DIY setup could range anywhere between "not adequate" to "hydro locked".
You should watch the most recent episode of Engine Masters on Motor Trend on Demand. They turbocharge an LS and just for kicks try with and without an intercooler. The results were dramatic and adding an intercooler resulted in more power at lower boost levels and much safer intake air temps. Maybe some sort of water to air intercooler could be done?
The problems with an intercooler on this setup is that it creates idle problems, throttle response issues, and blocks air to the radiator and ac condenser. There are ways around some of it with enough ti.e and money. Im just not willing to make tge compromises that an intercooler requires here.
Type q: good though process!!! The answer is yes, i trust theengineering.
I've heard good things about water/meth injection. I plan on using to cool the charge for a m122 blower. I don't see a reason that with that size of blower and not trying to make crazy high boost you couldn't get away with water/meth. a benefit of doing injection with a supercharger is you can spray it before the blower and it will also help cool the rotors as well.
The problem with water/meth injection is that you tend to run out of it at inopportune moments, whereas you'd (hopefully) not run out of air for an air/air intercooler.
Another option instead of an air/air intercooler with the resulting longer path between the hot side blower and the intake would be to use a charge cooler that's replacing part of the pipe between the blower and the intake. Does require additional plumbing though and isn't necessarily a cheap option.
Having tinkered with Jackson Racing M45's on a couple Focus Zetec's, I would say you definitely need a cooling system. We used the Water/Meth injection on the race car because it would "heat soak" about 15 min into a 20 min track session. Biggest problem was using a big enough tank. It was controled by a WOT switch from a nitrous setup.
On the street car we used an in-line air/water intercooler(charge cooler). It was as Tim mentioned in-line with the blower and intake. Very much a homebrew setup with lots of creative plumbing, It worked great on the street but could still be overloaded on the track.
Working with those was why I waited and put a PowerWorks kit on my Focus. The PowerWorks kit used a plate type air/water intercooler under the M62 which worked very well. Don't know enough about the Miata intake system to know if that type would work.
I have a supercharged intercooled ‘96 Miata and while it does idle somewhere around 1000, it idles steadily and forever. And throttle response is instantaneously gratifying. I’d reconsider intercooling.
In reply to Duke :
Really? I trust this place far more than the rest of the internet. What have you done to get there? Ive seen stuff about dual throttle bodies, etc.
Can you give me a run down please?
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