Bosch water injection boosts MPG and cut emissions

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: hybridcars.com
German automotive supplier Bosch says it’s the first and only supplier to offer water injection to reduce vehicle fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

Bosch’s new WaterBoost system is geared to drivers accelerating quickly or driving on highways, where the additional injected water reduces fuel consumption up to 13 percent. The higher compression ratio in the engine also leads to a carbon reduction of up to four percent in WLTC (Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedures), Bosch said in a press release.

Midsize cars will see the best WaterBoost fuel economy performance, with the system ideal for three- and four-cylinder downsized engines typical in new car models, the company said. The new water injection system can also make cars more powerful, especially by providing more kick to turbocharged engines, according to Bosch.


Quote:
The BMW M4 GTS, a high-performance luxury coupe capable of hitting 493 horsepower, is the first production vehicle to use a water injection system. Bosch said it’s supplying water injection parts for the car. That offers the turbocharged six-cylinder engine improved performance and consumption even at full load.

Bosch WaterBoost uses a port injection system that only requires a small amount of water to be kept onboard. It uses a separate water tank filled with distilled water that will need to be refilled about every 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles).

With 99 cents a gallon at Walmart, cost of refill distilled water every 1500 miles is nothing.

http://www.hybridcars.com/bosch-water-in...rbon-emissions/

 

[RhondaHonda]

Interesting. I wonder how they keep the water from freezing in cold climates?

 

[OldEuroCarLover]

Probably Bosch WaterBoost Platinum Additive. (Ethanol or methanol). Or, better yet, they'll spec the additive and charge a fee for the various car companies to sell their own WaterBoost additive. We're going to see yellow HEET bottles with BMW labels soon. $15 each.

It's not new tech. SAAB used water injection in the 99 around 1980, I think. I believe they used methanol as the anti-freeze.

 

[Shannow]

Not calling Bosch liars (just getting that out front, as I'm accused by Jimmy of that all the time).

It's the water acting as an octane enhancer that allows the higher compression to improve efficiency which reduces fuel consumption when the octane isn't required...

And...

The Oldsmobile used water injection in a production car back in 1962, making this hardly the first production vehicle.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: OldEuroCarLover
Probably Bosch WaterBoost Platinum Additive. (Ethanol or methanol). Or, better yet, they'll spec the additive and charge a fee for the various car companies to sell their own WaterBoost additive. We're going to see yellow HEET bottles with BMW labels soon. $15 each.

It's not new tech. SAAB used water injection in the 99 around 1980, I think. I believe they used methanol as the anti-freeze.

That just says what crime to the world GM did when they took over SAAB.

 

[DeafBrad]

Even before the cars mentioned piston engined fighter planes used water injection as well.

 

[redbone3]

Corvair and Olds F-85 used similar systems on their turbo offerings in the'60's. Numerous piston aircraft used it, too. In the'60's I was a Fuel Specialist in the USAF and we had an ADI truck to fill up the injection tanks on old cargo piston aircraft (C54?).

 

[Rolla07]

Am I the only one thinking..one more thing for bad car owners to forget..like their oil changes..

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Am I the only one thinking..one more thing for bad car owners to forget..like their oil changes..


That was a problem with the GM system from some of the old mags I read.

Rather than just a tank of water and some alcohol, Olds sold their "Rocket Fuel" as a proprietary item, and some considerable expense...people "forgot" to use it, and much like the "my premium car runs fine on regular" people these days, it did OK most of the time.

 

[OldEuroCarLover]

Originally Posted By: DeafBrad
Even before the cars mentioned piston engined fighter planes used water injection as well.


There are a lot of examples of water injection, going far back. I just mentioned the SAAB because I think it was the first widely sold, water injected, turbo charged car.

Originally Posted By: edyvw
That just says what crime to the world GM did when they took over SAAB.


Not only did they take over SAAB and screw up every single thing they could, they ran them into the ground and took away their ability to innovate. Every small to mid-size luxury car uses a 1.8 to 2.5 liter turbo motor now, thanks to SAABs R&D and willingness to take a risk. Most of the car market today is based on what SAAB did.

Clarkson was 100% right when he said that GM is a pension and healthcare company that sees car manufacturing as a loss making nuisance.

A typical moron at a planning meeting at GM: "Let's badge engineer the Chevy Trail Blazer and call it a SAAB 9-7! People will love it!"

And even though it was a pretty good car, what team of idiots decided to make a Subaru Impreza into a SAAB?

Best of all: "Let's recommend a 10k oil change on a turbo car with semi-synthetic in a weight that doesn't even allow proper oil pressure! Maybe we can screw up the PCV system and make the oil pickup screen out of the tiniest mesh the world has ever seen! All great ideas!"

The rest is history:

http://www.eeuroparts.com/blog/1661/saab-sludge-years/

http://www.saabspokane.com/downloads/NINES 279 16-17.pdf

Though I am proud to say that I got my SAAB to almost 350k miles. The motor and trans were still fine in the end, too.

 

[KingCake]

Water injection has been around forever. Many WWII planes had water injection systems.

 

[KingCake]

Originally Posted By: RhondaHonda
Interesting. I wonder how they keep the water from freezing in cold climates?


same as your windshield fluid, spike it with a little methanol

 

[DoubleWasp]

Water/meth injection works. I converted almost all of our trucks to it. Best part is how clean everything is when you take it apart.

The Buick Grand National almost got a system but lost it at the last minute. The circuit for it even made it to production, but hardware never did.

 

[Revving2Redline]

I think anything and everything related to water injection can probably found in Jay Leno's garage. I seem to remember he had some automobiles that ran on that very thing. Only ones i remember was an 80s prototype bmw and a saab 900. Or was it methanol? Im getting old and cant remember sometimes lol

 

[Robenstein]

Originally Posted By: KingCake
Water injection has been around forever. Many WWII planes had water injection systems.


Yep, the Messerschmidt BF109 is probably the most well known case. Used a roughly 50/50 mix of methanol and water along with an anti corrosive (to combat the corrosive nature of the methanol). Allowed the long in the tooth 109 to either retreat from the newer and faster allied fighters or to intercept bombers more quickly.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR


Quote:
The BMW M4 GTS, a high-performance luxury coupe capable of hitting 493 horsepower, is the first production vehicle to use a water injection system. .



This is tosh.

1962

 

[SteveSRT8]

I have run Edelbrock's water injection setup on street cars since the late 70's. It is GREAT for controlling combustion temps and pre-ignition issues. Worked especially good on old style heads.

We used 50-50 water/alcohol. Many issues with clogging and other small things to keep it running, but it worked well. I could add tons of advance to the timing and still not knock...

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
I have run Edelbrock's water injection setup on street cars since the late 70's. It is GREAT for controlling combustion temps and pre-ignition issues. Worked especially good on old style heads.

We used 50-50 water/alcohol. Many issues with clogging and other small things to keep it running, but it worked well. I could add tons of advance to the timing and still not knock...


Back in the day, I was (for want of a better word) technical advisor on a low buck Hillman Hunter Hill Climb sports sedan, big turbo, big boost, single 1-3/4" S.U. carb 1725cc 4 potter.

We came up with a boost sensitive water injection system by porting boost to a pressurised tank, which then fed water into the turbo intake through a basketball needle...worked great...high speed enrichment, pull the choke on, and the SU carb would drop the jet that the needle sat in and get the lambda back somewhere reasonable.

(the guy later adapted a Haltech to it himself, which I was pretty impressed with)

 

[Ducked]

Autospeed article, here:

http://autospeed.com/cms/A_110212/article.html

"In 1997 testing, Saab used water injection on a 2.3-litre Ecopower turbo engine to allow an air/fuel ratio of 14.7:1 (stoichiometric) to be maintained at full load. This approach was taken rather than the more usual technique of enriching mixtures at high load.

This water-for-fuel replacement strategy dropped HC emissions by 47 per cent, increased NOx by 142 per cent, and decreased CO by 92 percent. Further testing using twinned parallel cat converters brought the NOx output down below that achieved when using fuel enrichment rather than water. The Saab testing also indicated a stunning 25-30 per cent fuel saving at full load! Water consumption varied from 0 litres/minute at about 5000 rpm to 0.5 litres/minute at 5500 rpm."

Seems they used water to run a stochiometric F/A mix throught the load range. I'm unclear whether that water consumption rate is impractically high for a road car, but I'd guess high loads are rare so it might be OK.

Lots of interesting articles (including some DIY) on the Autospeed site, and not much obvious bovine faeces. They seem very positive about water injection, but IIRC, on thier own DIY project car they didn't demonstrate significant fuel economy gains.

 

[beanoil]

http://www.dieseltechmag.com/2010/04/11-things-you-need-to
Old idea, Bosch may have new technology to handle it. Usually injected post turbo in diesels, it does keep EGT in check.