Adding water meth for towing
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Look around at the aftermarket stuff regarding adding water-methanol. There's a safe way to do it and a risky way. I considered it on my 2010 F350 SD but backed out. I had enough problems with the 6.4L motor, I didn't want to add any more.
The newer diesels are pretty well dialed in as they are. At least wait until warranty is gone before you start messing with it. FYI, you can smell that stuff in the fuel so there's no hiding the fact that you're using it.
The newer diesels are pretty well dialed in as they are. At least wait until warranty is gone before you start messing with it. FYI, you can smell that stuff in the fuel so there's no hiding the fact that you're using it.
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How can you smell the water/methanol mix that is injected into the intake tract in the fuel?
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You won't need to, the mod would be obvious.
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My take on it is that if it's a Transit and is still in warranty the risk exceeds the reward.
I think its important to remember that water is extremely difficult to compress, is a poor lubricant and a great oxidizer.
If something goes wrong and you dump a bunch of that into your motor you may experience hydro lock, washed cylinders, blown head gaskets, stretched head bolts, etc.
The up side is that if it's done right you can see a sizeable performance increase as long as it stays together.
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What I was attempting to convey was that it would be an obvious modification. If the vehicle is under warranty, you can say goodbye to that as it relates to the drivetrain components involved.
What is very important to remember it that water is a nearly non-compressible liquid. It's job in this case is to raise compression. If it's a 7.3 you can definitely get away with it. If it's a 6.0 or 6.4 you should, at a minimum, replace the head bolts with studs. If it's a 4.5 or 3.2, I'd leave it alone. If the motor has less than 50,000 miles on it then I would hesitate since it's probably not fully broken in. Broken in meaning, everything that's gonna break probably has by the time you hit 50,000.
My F350 SD 6.4L Twin Turbo Diesel was in the shop about every 5,000 mi during the first 50,000. After all was said and done the cab had been off twice. At 51,000 miles I added a legal tuner and 40" tires, (It was already lifted 8"). At 56,000 miles the transmission begin to whine. I had the extended warranty but it would not cover the transmission because I had the 40" tires (max is 33") and the tuner. Fortunately, the service and sales departments at my dealer don't talk because I drove it to the the front and traded it in on my F150. The sales guy was thrilled to have it.
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Biff10, it is nice to see someone else interested in aftermarket performance products as well. Water injection is a great way to add more towing power, especially in a diesel, but there are a few things that I have found that might make water injection counter productive for the 3.2s.
Water injection does a great job reducing exhaust temperatures, but it also slows down "quenches" the combustion process. Normally this would be a good thing, especially for high compression diesels, but 3.2l is a very low compression diesel (15.8:1) to reduce NOx levels. The injection system and ECU programming was also designed to run with biodiesel (lower cetane fuel) and lower NOx emissions, which is why there are multiple injection events per combustion cycle. To get more specific, the 3rd injection event is designed to slow down and keep the combustion event at certain temperature levels. All of these new modern diesel attributes tend to make water/meth injection counter productive.
I have already tested my Transit to see how it handles a slower/cooler burn, similar to what water injection does, by adding a larger amount of cetane booster (20oz Schaeffers treatment). It did make the engine quieter, especially when accelerating, but the DPF filled up faster and there was a gradual reduction in power from the ECU adjusting to the different emission output.
This doesn't mean water/meth injection is out of the question, it just requires an ECU modification, new programming that is geared towards water/meth injection, and an understanding that there will be no more powertrain warranty. This is something that I might consider as well once my warranty starts coming to an end, until then, I am just sticking to my tuning box.
Water injection does a great job reducing exhaust temperatures, but it also slows down "quenches" the combustion process. Normally this would be a good thing, especially for high compression diesels, but 3.2l is a very low compression diesel (15.8:1) to reduce NOx levels. The injection system and ECU programming was also designed to run with biodiesel (lower cetane fuel) and lower NOx emissions, which is why there are multiple injection events per combustion cycle. To get more specific, the 3rd injection event is designed to slow down and keep the combustion event at certain temperature levels. All of these new modern diesel attributes tend to make water/meth injection counter productive.
I have already tested my Transit to see how it handles a slower/cooler burn, similar to what water injection does, by adding a larger amount of cetane booster (20oz Schaeffers treatment). It did make the engine quieter, especially when accelerating, but the DPF filled up faster and there was a gradual reduction in power from the ECU adjusting to the different emission output.
This doesn't mean water/meth injection is out of the question, it just requires an ECU modification, new programming that is geared towards water/meth injection, and an understanding that there will be no more powertrain warranty. This is something that I might consider as well once my warranty starts coming to an end, until then, I am just sticking to my tuning box.
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I'm curious about the statement of lower cetane with biodiesel- everything I've read says it is higher cetane than standard US petro diesel.
Most petro diesel fuel in the US is supposedly around 40 with bioD ranging from 46-60 depending on the source stock.
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Cetane rating for "bio-diesel blend" in most states is between 40-45, while regular (non-biodiesel) usually retains its 48 Cetane rating. As such, in most states, Cetane ratings and bio-diesel percentages doesn't seem to be regulated well and can be totally random station per station. I have personally noticed a 1.5mpg decrease from filling up at certain fuel stations.
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Around here in SC/NC almost all the pumps show 40 cetane if they show anything at all....40 coincidentally is the minimum spec for cetane per ASTM D975.
I've never seen a pump posted above 45 and that was at the rare stations that advertised "premium" diesel fuel.
I really think the regulations should make them state exactly what it is, just like for gasoline.
I don't mind running up to 2% bio in my older truck not built for bio and I don't mind even up to 20% in the Transit IF the price is proportional to the reduced mileage.
I've never seen a pump posted above 45 and that was at the rare stations that advertised "premium" diesel fuel.
I really think the regulations should make them state exactly what it is, just like for gasoline.
I don't mind running up to 2% bio in my older truck not built for bio and I don't mind even up to 20% in the Transit IF the price is proportional to the reduced mileage.
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