Power is generated in the engine by the combustion of the fuel and air mixture injected to the combustion chamber. What generally burns in the chamber is the oxygen part of air. By injecting more of it in the engine, bigger explosions take place and as a result, more power is produced. The problem with the forced introduction of fuel and air, however, is the increased heat that develops from it, which can damage or melt the catalytic converter and also overcome the efficiency of the turbo-charger. A popular option that can readily be equipped with turbo-charged systems comes in the form of nitrous oxide. Nitrous Oxide is made up of 37% Oxygen, which can produce an additional 50-150HP in a burst, but eliminate the problem of producing black smoke. This also indicates that fuel is completely burned so engine efficiency increases as well. Also, because Nitrous Oxide is packed in a high-pressure container, when it is released into the system by a small nozzle, it also reduces the intake temperature allowing more oxygen to enter the chamber before ignition.
The installation of Nitrous Purge to a turbo-charged car goes as follows: the 15lb bottle is secured to the base, usually at the back compartment of the vehicle. The outlet of the bottle is connected to a pressure gauge (which is responsible for monitoring the pressure inside the tank so you’ll know when it needs to be replaced). The other end of the gauge is connected to a high-pressure stainless steel braided line. This line passes through a hole in the base and on the other side (inside the engine compartment), it is connected to a solenoid valve, then to the intercooler pipe where the nitrous oxide is released. All the lines are connected by means of a Teflon paste for sealing off leakages.
The controller of the solenoid valve is connected to an arming switch, which is installed at the dashboard of the vehicle. This makes it easy, to ready the tank whenever you need that extra boost. In addition to this, a throttle-activated switch is also installed under the accelerator pedal. Only then, will nitrous oxide be released into the system and produce the extra power.
Nitrous kits also come with a set of different sized nozzles called jets used to fine tune the volume of nitrous oxide fed into the system during firing. Experience nitrous users recommend to use the smallest nozzle first to overfuel the engine. This produces a lot of black smoke, and then gradually increases the nozzle size to increase the injection of nitrous oxide into the engine. The purpose of this exercise is to monitor the changes in production of black smoke, and of course find the right nozzle that will allow fuel to be burnt completely. Using larger nozzles will not harm the system, however, when too much nitrous oxide is introduced to the system, the efficiency of the turbo-charger is also decreased due to overcooling of the intake stream of air.