fisho64 wrote:cant say ive ever heard that petrol works better with water in it??
As has been said, precleaners just save on filter changes, as most diesels will be operating in dusty conditions at some stage and a prefilter (labrinth style) catches alot of dust etc before your expensive filter. But if you only drive in the city dropping the kids at school you dont need it!!
(just kiddin!!)
It's called water injection - tiny bit of water mist in the cylinder cools the flame front, and you get a smoother revving engine, and can actually run higher advanced ignition timing / leaner mixtures as it's less susceptable to detonation.
It's an old art, and often only useful on older engine, or probably not even useful at all. My dad has mucked around with it in the past and reckons the engine does run smoother. It makes sense to a certain degree.
As a side topic, you can actually decoke/decarbonise your engine by having the engine at wide open throttle, and poor water down the carby - it will choke the revs a bit, but the hydrolic compression (ie, water won't compress) knocks the carbon loose and it comes out the exhaust. Sorta like steam cleaning your internals.
I've heard of people using brake fluid to do this as well, but honestly there is nothing wrong with water. The only downside to this is if your engine is so old/worn, that the only reason it still has compression is the coked/carbonised cylinder walls, in which case you'll need to rebuild your bottom end
Actually on another side note, I've heard of people using diesel oils in a petrol engine for a short period of time (500km or something), just enough for it to wash out in the insides - diesel oils contain much higher levels of detergents, and it apparantly gives the internals a good clean out.
If it aint broken, don't fix it
