Glorious yet infamous, potent yet volatile, its polarizing reputation is not unjustly earned. As both the easiest way to go fast and the easiest way to blow up, nitrous is arguably the most misunderstood speed part of all time. The principle upon which it speeds up combustion is quite simple, yet things can get very complicated as greed takes precedence over reason. To get the lowdown, we took a trip down to Texas Nitrous Technology in Tyler, Texas, and had a chat with R&D Director David Hansen. TNT has been one of the industry leaders in hard-core nitrous systems for the better part of a decade, offering some of the highest-quality components and most comprehensive kits on the market. As such, its systems have been proven on the dyno and at the track time and time again. During our visit, we grilled TNT with questions that inevitably pop up when nitrous use goes from leisurely to unruly, and got the skinny on how to set up a direct-port system.
Line Angle
As with fuel systems, 90-degree bends should be avoided if possible. However, using a tubing bender significantly reduces the possibility of error. "A lot of kits use brass and other odd materials in their lines, which makes it easier to bend them by hand," explains David. "If you don't use a tubing bender, it's easy to bend the lines more than 90-degrees, which creases off actual flow and causes major problems." Bends should be as gradual as possible, and if using a tubing bender, even a little over 90 degrees is fine.
Spark Plugs
Colder plugs are mandatory for safe nitrous operation, but there is a slight trade-off when running naturally aspirated. Since they pull more heat out of the combustion chambers, colder plugs definitely take away horsepower when running on the motor. The effect is more pronounced with aluminum motors, because heat in the chamber is very important for building cylinder pressure. "It's not a dramatic decrease, maybe 10-15 hp on a typical V-8, but the advantage is you can more than make up for it on the nitrous without worrying about detonation," says David.