Water or no water

[BrendellaJet]

What is the deal with water through the headers. Mine seems to run the best with no water. What is the law in regards to this. Is it okay to idle with tthe water off so it doesnt end up in the motor?

[Heatseeker]

As far as I know, the water is only run through the headers to help keeping them from blueing. I could be wrong...
There should be no water at idle. This can cause reversion, a bad thing! You should have a tee valve somewhere in your plumbing, that has a spring loaded check ball to prevent water at idle and allowing water around 2000 rpm. If you don't have one, get one. Or you could try a programmable valve like Banderlog sells at www.banderlog.com. (http://www.banderlog.com.) The guys that are running these swear by them.
[ August 27, 2002, 01:55 PM: Message edited by: Heatseeker ]

[comin' unscrewed]

Water injection serves (at least) two purposes.
1. To cool the headers. Prevents blue chrome and back in the seventies it was claimed to be a safety thing too. (Of course we all know water injected headers still get hot enough to remove skin in a nanosecond and I have the scars to prove it!)
2. Water injection provides some muffling effect.
The draw back is that those exhaust gases are still buring, expanding and accelerating all the way through the header. The greater the velosity attained, the more scavenging effect you get in the combustion chamber. When you inject cold water 3-4 inches from the exhaust port you curtail the effect. That's why many guys (myself included) put in an easily reachable shut off valve to "dry out the headers" when making high speed passes.

[DickDanger]

It depends on how much $$$ you have as well. If you can afford to buy new headers every couple of years, or you dont care if they look like $hit from blueing, then run 'em dry. I always run mine wet, and consequently, they look brand new out of the box, although they were purchased new in '94. I have heard that you lose a couple hundred RPM thru running wet. Also, wet stacks DO get hot, but not nearly as hot as running them dry. Hope that you are thoroughly confused now...lol. -DD Out