Triad Alcohol Injection

Here are some pics of my installation of a Triad Alcohol Injection kit. I purchased it used, and there are no brand name markings on it, so I am not sure if it is actually a Triad kit. There were also no real instructions with it, but I managed to figure it out with a bit of trial and error.

Kit

Here are some pictures of the kit before installation. The kit included a control box, a power distribution box, a pump, a solenoid, and a nozzle. A reservoir tank was not included, so I decided to use my washer fluid tank since the washer fluid pump did not work any more.





Control Box



I chose to mount the control box in the center console, mostly because of the large size of it. Additionally, this allows easy access to it for testing and adjustments.



The control box has a power wire, a ground wire, a coax wire to the power distribution box, and a boost pressure hose. There are lights to indicate when power is supplied to the pump and to the solenoid, test buttons to manually check the operation of the pump and solenoid, and adjustment screws to set when the pump turns on and when the solenoid opens. The system is designed to turn on the pump just before the solenoid opens so that the line is pressurized and ready when the alcohol is injected. This is done with two Hobbs switches which are located inside of the control box.
I connected the power wire into a switch mounted just below the stereo to allow the system to be easily turned on and off.



I connected the boost pressure hose into the boost hose to my boost controller and boost gauge. I routed the coax wire through the firewall in the driver footwell area.

Power Distribution Box

The power distribution box has a power wire, a female coax terminal, wires to the pump, and a wires to the solenoid. It is meant to be located under the hood. I initially connected the power wire directly to the battery, but found that the system would not function correctly with one wire having full time power and one having switched battery power, so I then connected the power wire to the same switch as the control box. I connected the coax wire from the control box into the female coax terminal on the power distribution box. The wires to the pump and solenoid were already connected when I received it, so I left them connected. I initially located the box near the pump, however because of the problems described below, I had to relocate it to between the firewall and the battery.



Reservoir Tank

First I removed the windshield washer fluid pump from the reservoir. Then I took the reservoir to a farm and hardware store and experimentally tried different fittings to get one that would fit the most tightly into the opening. Once I found one that was reasonably close, I purchased some plastic adhesive that was safe for methanol(Fas-Weld plastic repair epoxy putty), and used it to hold the fitting into place. I connected the hose to the fitting, and then secured the fitting with the epoxy putty. After it dried, I filled the tank with water to ensure that there were no leaks.





Pump



I had delayed installing this kit mostly because of the large size of the pump and the fact that I couldn't find a good location for it. After several trial attempts at placing the pump in different locations, I finally found that it would fit well below the fuse box, as seen in the pictures below.





Nozzle

The nozzle included did not specify what flow rate it is designed for, but there is an "MW3" stamped on it, which leads me to believe that it is 3 GPH, which is fairly low according to most systems that I have seen. After reading about alcohol injection, the general concensus was that the nozzle should be directly at the throttle body as much as possible, and be as close as possible. So I located the nozzle just after the boost source nipple on the y-pipe, as seen in the pictures below. I drilled a 13/32" hole, and the 1/8" NPT threads for the nozzle just barely fit through the hole. The y-pipe was not thick enough so that the nozzle could be held in place just by tightening the threads, so I used a couple of washers on the outside of the y-pipe in order to make a tight seal. It's not the most elegant looking solution, but it seems to be effective.




Solenoid



The solenoid is used to keep the line primed so that the methanol is available immediately when needed, so I connected the solenoid to the nozzle on the y-pipe. I did have to use a 90 degree elbow because of the tight clearance, but there is no significant holdup in a fitting of that size.



Test Buttons

Before I connected everything together, I tested the operation of the system by filling the reservoir with water, and using the test buttons on the control box. When I pushed one of the buttons, both the pump and the solenoid lights came on, and the pump and the solenoid both turned on. This indicated that the wires for the pump and solenoid were connected together somewhere, which should not have been the case. I opened up the control box and the power distribution box, and attempted to identify the problem. After a bit of checking with a multi-meter, I determined that the inner and outer wires of the coax wire from the control box to the power distribution box were shorted together. I looked over the length of the wire carefully and found that the was one place on the wire that looked slightly melted on the outside. I cut this section out of the wire, and spliced it back together. After doing that, I reassembled it, tested the operation again, and found that the buttons worked correctly. Because I had to remove a section of the coax wire to the power distribution box, I no longer had enough wire to reach the power distribution box which was located under the fuse box, and so I relocated it to the area between the battery and the firewall.

Set-up

After the system was assembled and functioning correctly, I needed to set the pressure when the pump turned on, and when the solenoid opened. I wanted the alcohol to be injected starting around 12 psi, and so I decided to have the pump turn on at around 9 psi. So I regulated the pressure on my air compressor down very low, and connected it to the hoses leading into the interior, including to the control box and my DSBC. I adjusted the regulator on the air compressor, and used the peak-hold feature on the DSBC to get the pressure set to 9 psi. I then adjusted the Hobbs switch for the pump so that it just came on at 9 psi. I then repeated the same thing by setting the regulator at 12 psi and adjusting the Hobbs switch for the solenoid so that it just came on at 12 psi.

Finally I disconnected the hose out of the pump and pumped out all of the water. I reconnected everything, and filled the system with Krystal Kleer windshield washer fluid. According to the information that I have found, it is 38% methanol, and was $1.50 for a gallon from Pep Boys. I have just started to do tuning, but so far it seems as though I am able to increase the boost about 3-4 psig before getting knock.
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