Opinions: Is nitrous safer than a turbo/sc?

[paulviriyapan]

Guys,

With the recent rash of posts about blown engines, I am seriously put off by the thought of doing a turbo or supercharger on the NSX. Gerard's engine failure on the Comptech was sort of the icing on the cake for me. After all, the Comptech seemed to have the reputation as the safest and most reliable supercharger out there (though not necessarily the most powerful). Just looking at those pics gave me the heebie jeebies. Not to mention posts about the problems had with the BBSC unit. It just seems that no matter what unit you get, you really cannot be 100%, no matter what you do, and no matter what your engine management system is. (And just to let you guys know, I too have had to do a rebuild after severe catastrophic engine failure though I was NA at the time).

It just seems to me that during all this time I have been looking through this forum, I cannot recall seeing any posts about nitrous blowing an engine. I have second hand knowledge regarding a Prime member who ran 150 shot in his car and THOUGHT he had blown it, but when the engine was being rebuilt all that was found was that the tip of the spark plug had blown off inside the cylinder. Other than that, I haven't heard about any other failures associated with nitrous. Yes, I know if you overdo anything there's gonna be a disaster, but none of the superchargers that have blown were running crazy high boost.

My primary concern is the safety of the superchargers out there. The idea of running constant boost just doesn't sit well with me. At least with the turbo, you don't necessarily run the boost all the time. With the supercharger, and the potential failure of any of the component parts (injectors, timing) which would lead to a catastrophic domino effect, it just seems that you are playing with fire, even if you don't push the car that hard.

Anyways, I do not mean to start a flame war as to whose product sucks more or attack so-and-so for doing such and such. I just want to start a dialogue out here.

 

[blackcat]

NA

SOS has a several NA kits... I am contemplating a couple of their options right now... Check it out...

 

[MarkB]

I have no experience with NO₂, but have had a 6# CTSC for ~40K miles with no adverse effects. I frequently track my car, so it sees redline quite often. I don't know, first hand, about NO₂ or the possible problems it might create; however, I think the CTSC with proper maintenance should be a safe bet.

 

[Zishan]

The thing I personally like about nitrous is that it is not continuously working. When off, it puts no extra effort on the engine.

 

[Lud]

I do not see much to indicate Gerard's problem was caused by the supercharger, in fact Gerard explicitly states that he doesn't think the SC caused to the failure. Where do you get that it was caused by the supercharger?

A properly tuned and tested forced induction system is quite safe. Properly tuned and tested being the key. Improperly tuned and you can blow it up in a hurry even at low boost.

The same is true for nitrous. A properly designed and tested nitrous system is quite safe. With a small shot, such as the popular 70HP, it's not rocket science. If you want a safe 100+ shot it becomes more involved. But again it's all about doing it right. If you do it wrong you can blow things up in a hurry.

I do not get your point about cascade failure risks with a supercharger that do not exist with nitrous. If you have an injector flake out while you are spraying nitrous, you are done. I know of several people who have killed their motor by using nitrous incorrectly. There are also a lot fewer people running nitrous on an NSX than forced induction, so you hear less about it all around, both good and bad.

Nothing is 100%. Even if properly designed some small percent of supercharged, turbo charged or nitrous systems will have a problem. But as you have experienced, some percent of naturally aspirated engines will also have problems. The question is how much more risk is there with a good FI or nitrous setup. The answer IMO is not much unless it is done wrong or you get greedy. Of course due diligence on the reliability of a given system (or a given tuner's track record if you are getting a custom one-off setup) is something you cannot overlook.

Anyway, having owned an NSX with nitrous and now one with a supercharger, I will say that they are totally different. I do not think nitrous is a reasonable substitute for FI or vice versa.

I also think you (and many others) misundertand how these systems work. They do not all constantly boost your engine the entire time you are driving. In the case of the Comptech SC, the Whipple blowers have an air bypass feature when not under load (heavy throttle). Manifold vacuum activated bypasses are common supercharger design for at least the last 20+ years.

Anyway that's just my opinion.

 

[paladin]

another main point is what you are looking to do with your car?
If you just wanted a straight line drag car you may be atypical of nsx owners, as the car really shines in the twisties.

Something else to ponder, is that nowadays there are many cars that come factory equipped with FI (Mustang Cobra, P-cars, the new import lancers and wrx, GT40), so when done properly the technology is safe. as Lud said many of these failures aren't cause by the S/C themselves, but many other factors