There's nothing wrong with getting out of your car, opening the trunk, and turning the knob to open your nitrous bottle before making a run, but why be obvious? Edelbrock's Remote Arming Valve Kit (left) and Zex's Remote Bottle Valve Opener both allow you to open the bottle valve without leaving the driver seat.
Although a bare-bones nitrous system will get the job done, a number of accessories help provide optimum performance, consistency, and even safety. Zex puts them all together in its Racer's Tuning Kit.
*A bottle heater keeps the nitrous inside at a consistent pressure, which in turn helps maintain a consistent N2O-to-fuel ratio. A gauge is included to monitor pressure.
*A purge valve ensures best performance by freeing the system of any trapped air so it delivers nothing but liquid nitrous to the plate or nozzles.
*If you're gonna go racing, you'll have to have a blowdown tube that vents to the outside of your vehicle if the bottle becomes overheated and the safety disk ruptures.
Bottle heaters are essential to maintaining bottle pressure, as we mentioned, but they're not much on looks. Zex's new Plug-in Bottle Heater plugs into a cigarette lighter or power point, so you can flash the bottle at the show, then hook up the heater when it's time to race.
Bottles Up
* The bottle should be mounted at a 15-degree angle with the valve at the higher end. On almost all bottles, this means the logo will be facing up and the bottle nut facing down. This also properly positions the nitrous pickup tube.
* A good bottle will use a high-flow bottle valve as opposed to a medical-grade valve.
* A nice set of quick-release bottle brackets, like the NOS pieces pictured, make bottle changes a lot easier.
* How long will a bottle last? It depends on bottle capacity and the shot size. According to Zex, a 10-pound bottle will last about 10 quarter-mile runs spraying a 75hp shot; up it 125 hp and you'll get about 6 runs.
* The best way to measure how much nitrous you have left is to weigh the bottle. A 10-pound bottle weighs about 25 pounds when full of juice-each bottle will have specific figures on the label.
* Best performance is achieved with a bottle that's at least half full.
* When using a bottle heater, pressure should be kept in the 900-1,000 psi range unless your manufacturer specifies otherwise.