Increased Engine Power?

I don't know about the late water/meth kits but the kits in the 60s barely made a noticeable increase. My uncle sold them and I tried one on my 390 ford. He died with a shed full of those things... they weren't worth the money. A blower kit would be great! Craig

I talked to my friend yesterday about his methanol system which is on a 1998 Dutch Star DP. He is a retired auto mechanic. He bought the one from Banks which is a 50-50 system he only uses it for hill climbing, claims it added 75 HP and works great. Said he would install it on a gas MH also. He said he paid about $800. As far as a mpg saving's with headers and having the increased MPG pay for the system I would not count on that. Most everyone that I hear about say they get a good increase in performance but no MPG improvement. Sounds like your looking for the most you can get from that eng, but if you look at it from a HP/$ comparison you can install the header system for $4000 at pick up 49 hp or the methanol system for $1000 and pick up 75 hp. Numbers are in gross terms, you can get the exact figures and make an informed decision.

Gjac,

Thanks for the reply. I was hoping someone would respond regarding the Banks Water/Meth system. It sounds like it really helped your buddy.

I have owned two gas coaches where I installed the complete Banks header systems and it makes a huge difference in power and it does help fuel economy with a caveat. Since you have more power on the same amount of throttle, IF you always run half throttle and did 60mph on a flat highway, you would see noticeable difference in MPG. HOWEVER, most of us when we have more power, particularly in an already slow and very heavy vehicle, use that power. Particularly on steep grades. With the Banks header systems, you could climb the grades much faster but often you still had the pedal to the metal but were usually in a gear or two higher and going 50 to 60 instead of 20 to 30 thus using the same fuel. At least that was what I did. I would love passing a DP on a steep grade which was easy unless it was a higher end DP that had the 400hp or above engine or someone like your buddy who made his own performance mods.

The cost of a Banks complete header-exhaust system which now includes a ram air system plus a electronic adjustable programmer is about $2600 direct from Banks. You still have the install. Their brochure says this gives you 70hp. However, they also sell the same package, without the headers and their tests show it added 51 hp? They use rear wheel power from a dyno test which is always much less than engine hp. It seems strange that the headers themselves only account for 19hp. Without the headers, the 51hp and a decent amount of added torque system is $1300 and a much easier install. So, I am thinking I am going to add that plus the water/meth injection. The electronics that go with the meth systems keep the mixture within the range safely needed and immediately shuts down the system if the computer senses anything going wrong. If I see myself using this coach often, I can always add the headers and assume I would have increased power by about a third.