Urbana IL, USA___ 217 469 7663 ..M-F 9 - 5 CST
Urbana IL, USA 217 469 7663 ..M-F 9 - 5 CST
All Text and images on this website are copyrighted by David Koehler 2000 and beyond
All sales are final. Items and services provided by Koehler Injection are intended for off road use only.
No responsibility whatsoever will be accepted by Koehler Injection for any damage, injury or loss resulting from their use.
No responsibility whatsoever will be accepted by Koehler Injection for any damage, injury or loss resulting from their use.
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Nozzle Systems
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Digital Bottle Scale
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PROgressive Controller
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Nitrous Master Products
Div. of Koehler Injection
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What is it? A nitrous controller is often called a progressive box. A progressive box is an electronic gadget with a miniature computer. It allows you to limit the flow rate of nitrous and fuel available to the nitrous system and consequently the useable horsepower available to the tires.
The word progressive is supposed to mean that if you had jets in your nitrous system that could potentially produce 300 HP, you could set the controller to pulse for a period of time, limiting the HP and then ramping back up to full flow HP in the time span you dictate. This description is not entirely accurate, however.
It’s kind of misleading to think that your HP is cut in half, for instance. Nothing has really changed as far as the potential HP level is concerned, which is dictated by your jets and pressures. What is really happening is that the solenoid is opening and closing enough times per second to limit the amount of time that the maximum flow rate is available to the jets. We call this opening and closing “pulsing.”
Think of it this way. If you are in front of a spinning revolving door is it open or closed to you? Obviously only part of you can get through unless you are super human quick, so it is closed for a moment. Open it a little slower and you can sneak by if you are quick enough. The same principle is how nitrous controllers operate. A nitrous controller slows down the maximum flow rate by turning the flow on and off in short bursts over a period of time.
The word progressive is supposed to mean that if you had jets in your nitrous system that could potentially produce 300 HP, you could set the controller to pulse for a period of time, limiting the HP and then ramping back up to full flow HP in the time span you dictate. This description is not entirely accurate, however.
It’s kind of misleading to think that your HP is cut in half, for instance. Nothing has really changed as far as the potential HP level is concerned, which is dictated by your jets and pressures. What is really happening is that the solenoid is opening and closing enough times per second to limit the amount of time that the maximum flow rate is available to the jets. We call this opening and closing “pulsing.”
Think of it this way. If you are in front of a spinning revolving door is it open or closed to you? Obviously only part of you can get through unless you are super human quick, so it is closed for a moment. Open it a little slower and you can sneak by if you are quick enough. The same principle is how nitrous controllers operate. A nitrous controller slows down the maximum flow rate by turning the flow on and off in short bursts over a period of time.
A nitrous controller is desired to soften the incredible torque spike that occurs with each stage of nitrous activation. You may have an engine with more torque than the car or track can handle or you have a tire limited class car (or both) with no wheelie bars and it has a tendency to spin the tires. If you use a controller and reduce the amount of nitrous available to the engine just long enough to get the car moving forward then ramp in the full charge you will improve your ET, guaranteed.
Some folks try to do the power reduction with ignition retards (reducing total timing) combined with delaying the nitrous activation but this can bite you by producing bumper dragging wheel stands. While this works in some cases it is hard to take enough timing out and not have the pinion try to climb the ring gear and wheel stand the car. When you pull the timing back too far from the engine's ideal point and the nitrous is not activated, the engine really runs sour. While this wheelstand may get your car featured in DRO, you won’t win the race.
If you use the nitrous controller instead of ignition to accomplish this you can leave the timing where it needs to be with the nitrous on and avoid extreme wheel stands and losing. Usually it only requires 0.5 to 5 tenths of nitrous progressive duration to make the chassis work as it was intended and stick the car to the track.
Some folks try to do the power reduction with ignition retards (reducing total timing) combined with delaying the nitrous activation but this can bite you by producing bumper dragging wheel stands. While this works in some cases it is hard to take enough timing out and not have the pinion try to climb the ring gear and wheel stand the car. When you pull the timing back too far from the engine's ideal point and the nitrous is not activated, the engine really runs sour. While this wheelstand may get your car featured in DRO, you won’t win the race.
If you use the nitrous controller instead of ignition to accomplish this you can leave the timing where it needs to be with the nitrous on and avoid extreme wheel stands and losing. Usually it only requires 0.5 to 5 tenths of nitrous progressive duration to make the chassis work as it was intended and stick the car to the track.
Review of
Racing Instrumentation's
Racing Instrumentation's
Nitrous Progressive
Controller
Controller
By David Koehler
copyright 10-07-05
copyright 10-07-05
Why and when you need to use a nitrous progressive controller
I am fortunate to be able to R&D some cool products that come through the shop from various manufacturers for independent testing. R&D means that I test and look for ways to improve the product, ask as many end user questions as possible, and try to kill the product at the same time. From time to time, with the client’s permission, show you products that work well and how they work. I will also be adding some articles on just about anything
that I feel might be useful and worthy.
that I feel might be useful and worthy.
Nitrous progressive controller
