Nitrous Oxide

[The Stig]

Okay guys so here is my question.

I understand that the main power gains from nos would come from the braking of N2 and O2 atoms and the exothermic reaction caused by the breaking of N2O into N2 and O2

But my question is this is N2O a standalone inflammable gas like H2 ?

I know this is going to sound lame but this question has been troubling me ever since i watched the fast and the furious movies where the cars actually explode cause of NOS.

So is it possible to ignite N2O without another combustible material or is it that the movie producers have no clue about what they are doing ?

[anjulau78]

source : wiki

Internal combustion engine :

In vehicle racing, nitrous oxide (often referred to as just "nitrous") allows the engine to burn more fuel and air, resulting in a more powerful combustion. The gas itself is not flammable at a low pressure/temperature, but it delivers more oxygen than atmospheric air by breaking down at elevated temperatures. Therefore, it is often mixed with another fuel that is more easy to deflagrate.

[The Stig]

source : wiki

Internal combustion engine :

In vehicle racing, nitrous oxide (often referred to as just "nitrous") allows the engine to burn more fuel and air, resulting in a more powerful combustion. The gas itself is not flammable at a low pressure/temperature, but it delivers more oxygen than atmospheric air by breaking down at elevated temperatures. Therefore, it is often mixed with another fuel that is more easy to deflagrate.

So in conclusion the whole blowing up thing with NOS wont happen in the real world ?

[riddle]

is N2O a standalone inflammable gas like H2 ? NO,like anjula said the O2 breakage of N20 is very much high than the breakage of normal air!so the fuel gets burnt more efficiently and the engine delivers more power.

btw there are 2 main explosion scenes Fast and the furious?which one have you in mind?

1st-in the first movie brians eclipse explodes because it already caught fire due to the shooting!in that case its okey exploding because the fire causes the breakage and since it delivers high concentrated O2,the explosion would is acceptable to be in a large scale,more 02+ burning fuel= more explosion!(explosion of the fuel alone would be enough)remember the experiments we did at school dunking a glass into a candle?no 02 no flame!same principle!

2nd-the fourth movie is pure bullshit!

[The Stig]

is N2O a standalone inflammable gas like H2 ? NO,like anjula said the O2 breakage of N20 is very much high than the breakage of normal air!so the fuel gets burnt more efficiently and the engine delivers more power.

btw there are 2 main explosion scenes Fast and the furious?which one have you in mind?

1st-in the first movie brians eclipse explodes because it already caught fire due to the shooting!in that case its okey exploding because the fire causes the breakage and since it delivers high concentrated O2,the explosion would is acceptable to be in a large scale,more 02+ burning fuel= more explosion!(explosion of the fuel alone would be enough)remember the experiments we did at school dunking a glass into a candle?no 02 no flame!same principle!

2nd-the fourth movie is pure bullshit!

No i was referring to the fourth movie.So i was right it is full of crap

[da coolest]

I believe that the decomposition of N2O would be producing extra oxygen so it will support a burning process. And I thought thats the main purpose if injecting N2O to engines. rather than that, its not a flammable gas itself as far as i know.

[MeanGreenZ28]

So in conclusion the whole blowing up thing with NOS wont happen in the real world ?

you can dump as much fuel in there but you can't dump infinite air to burn it. Nitrous has more "O2" per area than atmosphere so dump nitrous in there and it'll burn baby burn!!! <<--- nitrous doesn't burn, it provides the O2 for the fuel to burn

but you could have a backfire ... many many vids on youtube for Nitrous backfire, happens all the time in drag racing. High compression engines with crazy cam durations with lots of reversion and some bad timing with the nitrous and fuel solenoids (and a bit of bad luck) and BOOM! One of the reasons why there's nitrous progressors, timers and stages, too much too soon and BOOM!

What's reversion? Basic definition is "going back to where it came from" ...I'm assuming you know basic valvetrain theory here...and I shall try to explain to my best knowledge...

When you want an aggressive cam profile, the only way to get more air in the chamber is to keep the valve open longer and the only way to keep the intake valve open longer is to start opening earlier and closing later. So this means the intake valve starts opening earlier and usually while the piston is still traveling up and pushing the exhaust gases out. This is fine when the engine is running at higher RPM's 'cos the scavenging effect of the exhaust port pulls the used exhaust out; and also thereby pulls fresh air in to the chamber. At lower RPM's though, that's not the case. The valve opens early enough that the piston actually acts like a pump (like it's supposed to) on the intake side and pushes some of that exhaust back into the intake manifold thereby creating "reversion"; and also the crazy/sexy sounding idle "lope" in engines ... when that exhaust is still burning/extremely hot, you get a nice little cause for concern if you have a fresh mixture of fuel and nitrous waiting in the intake manifold.

the other way of exploding is to just have too much combustion pressure and the mechanicals not being able to handle it.

Edited April 23, 2011 by MeanGreenZ28

[The Stig]

you can dump as much fuel in there but you can't dump infinite air to burn it. Nitrous has more "O2" per area than atmosphere so dump nitrous in there and it'll burn baby burn!!! <<--- nitrous doesn't burn, it provides the O2 for the fuel to burn

but you could have a backfire ... many many vids on youtube for Nitrous backfire, happens all the time in drag racing. High compression engines with crazy cam durations with lots of reversion and some bad timing with the nitrous and fuel solenoids (and a bit of bad luck) and BOOM! One of the reasons why there's nitrous progressors, timers and stages, too much too soon and BOOM!

What's reversion? Basic definition is "going back to where it came from" ...I'm assuming you know basic valvetrain theory here...and I shall try to explain to my best knowledge...

When you want an aggressive cam profile, the only way to get more air in the chamber is to keep the valve open longer and the only way to keep the intake valve open longer is to start opening earlier and closing later. So this means the intake valve starts opening earlier and usually while the piston is still traveling up and pushing the exhaust gases out. This is fine when the engine is running at higher RPM's 'cos the scavenging effect of the exhaust port pulls the used exhaust out; and also thereby pulls fresh air in to the chamber. At lower RPM's though, that's not the case. The valve opens early enough that the piston actually acts like a pump (like it's supposed to) on the intake side and pushes some of that exhaust back into the intake manifold thereby creating "reversion"; and also the crazy/sexy sounding idle "lope" in engines ... when that exhaust is still burning/extremely hot, you get a nice little cause for concern if you have a fresh mixture of fuel and nitrous waiting in the intake manifold.

the other way of exploding is to just have too much combustion pressure and the mechanicals not being able to handle it.

Bro i think you have got my question confused

Im not asking anything related to VVT or back fire

Okay let me explain the situation to you, i know for a fact that what N2O does is separate into 70% N2 and 30% O2 inside the engine while aiding the volumetric effect (the whole exothermic reaction thing)

but my initial question isnt related to engines at all, thats why i put it in the lounge

What really confuses me is the fact that Dominics car in fast and the furious 4 blows up because he turns on the lighter, which intern means that the car blew up because of the nos leak.

For an example if you set fire to a tube with Hydrogen it ignites and maybe even blows up.

But if you set fire to a tube with N2O nothing like that happens cause N2O isnt a combustible gas.

So what was really confusing for me was how this would happen, i guess its just another fact the stupid movie directors got wrong