NITROUS OXIDE ( nos / n2o ) advice forum

Should it get hot?

Trying to sort out some small issues after finally putting the kit back on and the bottle heater is the last of them.

Even a 25 shop with the 'charger makes one hell of a difference!

If wiring on ANY circuit ever gets hot, it is drawing too many amps for the size of wiring. I would upgrade the diameter of the wiring if it was me.

Ideally, the fuse in the circuit would be rated to at least 20% higher than what the circuit draws and the wiring would be rated to at least 20% higher than the fuse.

X2

Hmm, that's a concern then. It's the wiring that's integral to the bottle heater so does that mean a new heater is required? It's only that one wire that appears to be getting hot, the rest seems fine.

It's the one coiled up here connected to the heater mat itself:

http://www.noswizard.com/nitrous-contro ... eater.html

I didn't hold it long enough to see if it burned but it wasn't comfortable to hold. The heater hadn't got overly warm by that point but was heating up slowly.

It's all fused. There's a fusebox in the boot that's been wired from the battery up the front which is only switched on using an ignition live. The bottle heater then takes it's power through this using a relay as per the wiring diagram.

I had some trouble with an earth for the wideband O2 controller a while back, I wonder if that's caused some damage to it. Been back out to it and there is a smell when turned on and the connector looks as if it has suffered some damage

Fuse is 30amp as per the instructions.

To be fair I have had it for quite a few years and it wasn't new when I bought the kit so it's possible something has caught in when in the boot and caused some damage.

To add another thought into the mix...

Lets assume for a moment that there is nothing wrong with the heater and that the wire is too small and/or the connector has high resistance. This would cause heat and further slow down the flow. It could severely alter the heater's efficiency.

For example, IF a bottle heater took say 20 amps at 12 volts that would be equal to 240 watts of energy. Now IF you had enough resistance in the circuit to create say a 6 volt voltage drop this would in theory reduce the total amperage in the circuit to only 10 amps which would drop the heater's wattage all the way down to only 60 watts!



You would also in theory be creating 60 watts of energy in the poor connection or wire which would make it hot and this would also reduce the amount of energy in the rest of the circuit and not create heat there.

X2

Heater wiring does get hot (it conducts back from the heater element through the wires, as well as due to the high current it is carrying) but the issue is really whether or not your wiring is getting hotter than normal and whether or not your heater is working as effectively as it should be. Ideally you need to compare it to a new heater to determine whether those are correct or not.

The only other alternative is to start by replacing ALL the connectors and if that doesn't improve things replace as much of the wiring as possible.
If that doesn't result in the heater performing correctly without any connectors etc. getting excessively hot and melting, then the heater insulation must be failing and you'll need a new heater.

Thanks all for your replies and help

It would appear that it is damaged



It has served me well but I think it may be time to replace.

It certainly looks that way and we only have 2 left in stock and when they've gone it could be 4 weeks before we get the next batch, so if you want to get some good results soon, you'd better make the order ASAP.

Will give you a call today Trev as there are a couple of other bits I would like to be able to add my second bottle to the system for a trip to the Nurburgring shortly

New heater fitted and it now gets lovely and hot almost instantly whereas the wires around it don't

Fitted the gauge upfront too so just waiting to see if the pressure drops to show any leaks and then I'll take it for a spin and start dialling in the jets

Awesome news!

Ya know I've never seen a pic of your car/ setup. I'm very curious to see some.

I'll have to dig some out, I don't actually have many of it as a whole. It seems to be more pics of the engine in pieces, supercharger in half, that kind of thing lol. I also can't find any of the nitrous install so will have to grab some of that too!

I did pop along to a meet over the weekend and someone snapped this one of it, I fitted the front splitter that afternoon so it's out of date already



The supercharger is the bane of my life but sooo much fun when it is working!



To give you an idea of the space I'm working with







But for a car that makes 143bhp and 128ft/lbs standard I think she's doing ok