Adding water meth for towing

4272 Views 11 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Budsky, Nov 5, 2016

Biff10

Discussion Starter · Oct 28, 2016

I tow a lot with my 3.2 any reason I shouldn't add w-meth?

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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.

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sschefer

· #5 · Oct 29, 2016

Budsky said:
How can you smell the water/methanol mix that is injected into the intake tract in the fuel?

You won't need to, the mod would be obvious.

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sschefer

· #7 · Oct 29, 2016

Budsky said:
Point is it cannot be detected in the fuel- never are they mixed except during the injection of the fuel in the cylinder- there is no backflow to get the water/methanol mix back into the fuel system.

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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sschefer

· #8 · Oct 30, 2016 (Edited)

Budsky said:
How can you smell the water/methanol mix that is injected into the intake tract in the fuel?

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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