Snow Performance Water/Methanol Injection

I have finished installing the Snow Performance SC-210-T stage 2.5 kit. I purchased the '-T' variant which doesn't include the tank. I wanted to create my own custom length AN-4 hoses, so I didn't use the included High Temp Nylon Tubing or the tank low level switch. I also purchased the SNO-40060-BRD Solenoid Upgrade, but I made my own mounting bracket for it since the one included is basically useless. The kit I got came with the black bezel VC-50 controller, which instead of having a hose going to the supercharger to measure boost, it has an electric sensor that connects to it.


I installed the VC-50 Controller in a 2 gauge A pillar pod I purchased from Gaugepods.com. The Pod works and looks good, but I wasn't really happy with the quality. I guess for the price it looks and fits well enough, but it was quite a pain to get the 2 screws located and drilled so it fit right.
You can see in the picture that I also added an oil pressure gauge. At first that doesn't stand out as the obvious choice. Most people have added an air/fuel gauge. My reasoning for doing this is I am using my Android phone with the Torque Pro App for the air/fuel gauge (being I have a 2001 Tacoma and it's OBDII has a wide band O2 sensor). I have 3 screens that have all of the gauges I need, except for the oil pressure. Toyota doesn't have that as part of their PIDs.


I mounted the pump behind the front bumper, I did have to trim a little from the bumper bracket, but otherwise it fit perfectly.


This picture is from underneath showing the AN-4 hose going from the windshield washer tank to the pump inlet.


From the pump the hose goes to the solenoid.


From the solenoid the hose runs into the engine compartment through the headlight bucket.


The hose then crosses over behind the air cleaner box on it's way to the air intake tube.


The nozzle is mounted to the back side of the intake tube using the SNO-40110 Nozzle Mount Adapter.


In this picture you can see the boost sensor that comes from the VC-50 Controller. I drilled and tapped an 1/8" NPT hole in the supercharger to be able to screw in the sensor.

If anyone wants more information that I didn't cover here, I'll be happy to supply it if I can.

 

Nice write up.

I'm using the vc-50 as well and I'm wondering how you made the bezel of the gauge black? I tried taking mine apart to paint it but I didn't out of fear that I would break it.

 

Thanks, mine came black. I guess talking with them the black ones have the boost sender and the silver ones have the hose connection. They didn't say, but since I didn't get an option, I think they may be only shipping the black one. To me the build quality looks a little better than the silver one.

 

I used the vc-30 gauge,
This gauge shows boost, bar that shows spraying, spray points beginning and ending,
Purging cycle,

 

Since I installed a Snow Performance Methanol Injection System, I decided to replace the cap on my windshield washer tank to remove reference to it being a place to put wiper fluid. So I came up with this and printed it on my 3D printer.

 

Nice write up. Your mounting location is the same as mine. It's tight in there but it fits. The 2 gauge pillar pod screws are a pain in the ass for sure.

 

Nice setup,
Are you not running a temperature gauge on the hot side of the supercharger to see what results you are getting from the methanol or to adjust the nozzle size if you need more cooling?

 

The add on gauges I have.

Physical:
Snow VC-50
Oil Pressure (not available from OBDII)

OBDII from Torque App:
Wideband Air/Fuel
Water Temp
Trans Temp
MAF
Volts
Timing
Engine Load
Intake Temp
Throttle Position
Fuel Status, shows open or closed loop.
Instant MPG

 

The supercharger air after it’s compressed going into the intake is a completely different temperature then (torque app) the intake temperature measured at the MAF. THe compressed air after the supercharger can be 100 degrees hotter at full boost.
If you want the actual supercharger temp You need a temperature gauge to read that temperature on the hot side of the supercharger and you will know the real intake
temperature. FYI.
This info is really good to have because you can adjust your nozzle size or mixture to fight the heat created by the supercharger I particular in the summer when heat soaked issues come on when in boost and summer heat.
Here is an example of a summer hot day when temperatures was around 100 degrees outside,
Intake temperature was 114 degrees and supercharger temp at idle was 141 degrees.

 

Where is your temp sender located?
If you add more methanol than the A/F numbers tell you to because of temperature, won't that richen your fuel mixture?
Not everyone has a Haltech to program system with.

 

Before the haltech I played around with mixtures and nozzle sizes,
You will never get a perfect AFR with methanol but you can get certain parts close.
Before the haltech I was running 25 percent methanol and a 5 nozzle,

The temp sensor I have is located in the supercharger on the output side going into the intake

 

A number 5 must have been there old numbering system. Below is the new one.
Right now I am using a 2.5 nozzle with 50/50 mix, no other upgrades just 91 octane fuel. Spray comes on at 3 boost and full at 5.
I'd like to see a picture of the temp sensor if you could.

 

One sensor in the intake tube and one on the output side of the supercharger going into the engine

 

I never found the actual temperatures to be that important, more of a ‘this is what difference it made’. You can determine how much you want to spray based on the timing that the ecu is running, and you can view that on the stock ecu. Eventually you will get diminishing returns I would think.

 

With the temp gauge you see real time temperature differences with different nozzles or a different mixtures if one wants to play around with it.
Without a gauge you have no idea what your supercharger temperatures are and they are not consistent with the MAF temperatures,
But maybe some people don’t wouldn’t care

 

I am full up on gauges, only so much information that you can use while driving before sensory overload.
I am not racing, I am going to be towing a small travel trailer (15ft, GVWR 3866lbs), to me oil pressure, trans temperature, water temperature and wideband A/F will give me a lot of information on how the drivetrain is performing. Hoping the Supercharger will give me some additional power going up grades and the Methanol will keep the A/F in the acceptable range.

 

What do you use for the mix in your windshield washer tank? Is it used to wash the windshield as well as injection? I have a friend adding methanol water injection to an Audi TT RS twin turbo amd he likes your idea of using the washer fluid reservoir.

 

I make my mixture 30 percent methanol and distilled water,
Wiper fluid is 30 percent too depending on the temperature rating, But wiper fluid is river water that's filtered so it has plenty of hard water minerals that eventually will plug the nozzle

 

Any guess what temp the 30/70 freezes at? What air temps do you see where you are?

 

Right now I am using the Snow Performance Boost Juice which is supposed to be 50/50 Water/Methanol. I don't know if that is by weight or by volume. I do use it for washer fluid too, but I don't need to use that too much. The washer tank is not my idea.