Water Injection for Production Cars!

[bobkatkat]

Looks like BMW will have a production car that comes with OEM water injection. They have it in the 2015 M4 Pace cars used in the MotoGP series. Most likely to go into one of the up coming M Cars. Wonder how long it will take for the other manufacturers to follow suit.

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Water Injection for Production Cars!

BMW is also testing in not as performance oriented cars:

BMW has unveiled a prototype of a 1-Series equipped with a water injected turbo petrol unit during the BMW Group Innovation Days 2015.

The prototype is powered by a 1.5-liter turbo petrol 3-cylinder engine with 218 PS. BMW says the water is injected “as a fine spray into the intake manifold plenum chamber where it evaporates, extracting energy from its surroundings and reducing combustion temperatures in the engine by around 25° C”. The reduced combustion temperatures lead to lower emissions and up to 10% higher power figures.

The Bavarian company explains the cooling effect provided by water injection reduces temperatures sufficiently to avoid any need to inject additional fuel when operating at or near full throttle. It’s interesting to note that the water injection system in the BMW M4 MotoGP Safety Car draws water from a five-liter tank in the boot, while the direct water injection system in the prototype 1-Series never requires topping up in everyday use. The water supply for water injection cooling is kept topped up by the continuous recovery of condensed water from the air conditioning system.

[MechEngg]

Re: Water Injection for Production Cars!

Interesting idea, until you realize that in Canada you only use A/C for 2 months of the year lol.
It would seem a bit short sighted of the manufacturers to expect the general public who have been driving for many years to suddenly add one more routine addition into their car, especially on the daily/weekly level. People have a had enough time doing an oil change every 3 months, how do you expect them to keep a tank topped up and keep that tank from freezing with the addition of methanol/similar?

[bobkatkat]

Re: Water Injection for Production Cars!

It is interesting that it is being considered for for production cars. I can see a performance car enthusiast accepting an additional routine. I wonder what the acceptance rate of a DEF routine for some of the modern diesels is? I really can't see a condensation recovery system producing enough water in any climate other that areas like Miami. Also storing a tank of just water in climates that see freezing temperatures. DEF systems have heating circuits to deal with freezing. Any water injection would have to have some sort of alcohol mix.

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Water Injection for Production Cars!

Mercedes-Benz has ruled out the possibility of launching a production car with a water injection system due to technical difficulties.

While BMW is just about ready to roll out the M4 GTS with a water injection system, arch rival Mercedes-Benz through the voice of board member Thomas Weber says they are not planning something similar in the foreseeable future. He motivated his answer by mentioning the benefits provided by this technology are not on par with the necessary investments.

The Daimler-owned marque will continue to keep an eye on water injection, but admits that right now it's too difficult to implement the technology into a production car. Weber told Motoring "the biggest problem is where the water comes from. So far what we found is that we can cool it (cylinder temperatures) down with combustion but from the efficiency point of view, it’s not the optimal way to do that."

In the meantime, Weber's counterpart at BMW, Klaus Fröhlich, mentions the water injection system will bring a boost in the engine's output and it will also lower emissions at the same time. The technology has so far been installed in the 2015-spec M4 Coupe MotoGP safety car and also in a prototype of the 1-Series with a 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine developing 218 PS (160 kW).

The first production BMW to use the tech will be the M4 GTS (name not confirmed) which will have a modified TwinPower Turbo 3.0-liter engine delivering close to 500 PS (368 kW) which is substantially more than the regular M4's 431 PS (317 kW) output.