Liquid Nitrogen In Engines

[CaM!]

i was just having a chat about f1's and racing and thought would it be possible to use liquid nitrogen to cool a engine with it having some sort of restrictive coating in the engine or some sort. So that it doesnt cool the metal enough to shatter.

cam

[sh@un]

little bit of common sense required here

liquid LPG injection systems are available these days- as the LPG is port injected, it changes from a liquid to a vapour, and the change of state of the liquid to a low pressure gas results in a drop in temperature. this also sucks heat out of the combined intake charge in the inlet manifold (latent heat of evaporation). it turns into gas instantly

same would happen with liquid nitrogen. but it wouldn't benefit power, because nitrogen isn't combustible and would merely take up space that could be occupied by oxygen

the reason NOS gives a power increase is because its N20, and during combustion the oxygen molecules are stripped off the compound to massively aid the combustion of the incoming fuel/air charge

[CaM!]

sorry if the original post has come across wrong, but i was asking if it could be used to cool the engine not used as a fuel. When i mentioned f1's its purely because they dont have radiators and was thinking if this could be a substitute in any vehicle

[Ashy Larry]

I think you will Find F1 Cars have radiators

[sh@un]

who told you F1 cars don't have radiators?

as Mikey Mike said- they do (1 in each sidepod), and they cost ~$50k each

methanol drag cars don't usually have radiators, because the fuel burns very cold, and the cars are only usually running for a short amount of time (not long enough for heat soak to become a problem)

[PM-R33]

When i mentioned f1's its purely because they dont have radiators and was thinking if this could be a substitute in any vehicle

Lol who the hell told you that?

[08yannch]

well lets say they some how managed to fill all the cooling channels with liquid nitrogen, as the engine would heat up a extreme amount of pressure would be exerted to the internals of the engine by the liquid nitrogen trying to become a gas = catastrophic failure = very bad.

the only way it could be implemented is by spraying it in a liquid form in front of the radiators and as it becomes a gas will cool the radiators.

and then there are the safety issues for having that much liquid nitrogen on the track, freezing drivers and the anesthetic effect of nitrogen and the chance of a explosion due to the liquid nitrogen heating up

and then the engineering complications. how are you going 2 pump it what will keep the spray tips from freezing, un even cooling will cause the radiator to crack what if a pipe caring liquid nitrogen broke there would need to be a emergency shut of capable of operating in extreme cold, how to store enough liquid nitrogen and how to keep the insulated vessel crash proof

and the added weight would slow the car down making any cooling benefits negligible

[the_jack]

i saw a setup in i think it was an off tits turbo vs commodore a few years ago that had a massive esky in the boot filled with liquid nitrogen and the coolant was passed through a heat exchange in the box to cool it down

[Pr0j3kt_Supra]

^ maybe ur thinkin abt those dry ice intercooler barrels?.... dry ice = Frozen CO2

[syfon]

I'm sure this has been thought of before.

Try this - when you think of something that really might work, think again, because someone has thought of it before you.

[Pr0j3kt_Supra]

true syfon.... but its always good to think outside the box thats what innovation is all abt.... no innovations---> no inventions----> no further advances in technology

[bubba]

Just be careful not to blow the welds off your intake k?

[R DIRTY 3]

F1's cooling system doesnt not work if the car is not moving about 60kph.

Hope you wont be driving in peak hour traffic haha

[jarrod83]

If you had liquid nitrogen in your engine and it was still a liquid.. im pretty sure your oil would be frozen, since it has a freezing point somewhere around 0 °C , and the liquid nitrogens boiling boint is something like -195 °C, probably would freeze your fuel aswell

I've been looking at water/methanol injection to keep my intake and internal engine temps down

[markus_]

Just be careful not to blow the welds off your intake k?

lol good ol f&f

[PHATR32]

to make it extra safe, id put some thread lock on the bolts that hold the floor pan in place....

[inthisglass]

I hear heliums good fun