Is Nitrous Considered Naturally Aspirated?
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This is his arguement: "Having nitrous doesn't make a naturally aspirated car not naturally aspirated. Forced induction does. Nitrous adds oxygen to the combustion chamber it doesn't raise the pressure of the air entering the engine. The air pressure entering the engine is still using the given atmospheric pressure, no more, no less."
This was my response which I found someone else had posted on a forum: ""Naturally Aspirated" means no enhancements to the induction system. The engine draws ambient air using nothing but the good old vacuum the designer chose to grace it with. The key here is that the manifold never gets into positive pressure ranges.
"Forced Induction" means pressurized air is fed to the engine using an external compressor, typically either supercharged or turbocharged, but I suppose it could include compressed air sources. The key here is that the manifold operates at positive pressures.
Nitrous Oxide is really a "combustion enhancer". It doesn't raise the pressure in the manifold above ambient. N2O replaces normal air, which is only about 20% Oxygen, with a gas that has about 35% Oxygen. In addition, since it comes out of the bottle *wicked cold*, it's quite a bit denser than typical ambient air (I think about 50% denser). The result gives you a substantial amount of additional Oxygen in the charge air, but because it's not delivered to the cylinders in pressurized form it doesn't qualify as forced induction.
Lets look at the word for a second. naturally aspirated. it implies that the power the engine makes is "aspirated" "naturally". nitrous isnt a natural thing in the engine building world. i consider nitrous to be like steriods, they are in NO way natural but they do make some crazy power..."
"Forced Induction" means pressurized air is fed to the engine using an external compressor, typically either supercharged or turbocharged, but I suppose it could include compressed air sources. The key here is that the manifold operates at positive pressures.
Nitrous Oxide is really a "combustion enhancer". It doesn't raise the pressure in the manifold above ambient. N2O replaces normal air, which is only about 20% Oxygen, with a gas that has about 35% Oxygen. In addition, since it comes out of the bottle *wicked cold*, it's quite a bit denser than typical ambient air (I think about 50% denser). The result gives you a substantial amount of additional Oxygen in the charge air, but because it's not delivered to the cylinders in pressurized form it doesn't qualify as forced induction.
Lets look at the word for a second. naturally aspirated. it implies that the power the engine makes is "aspirated" "naturally". nitrous isnt a natural thing in the engine building world. i consider nitrous to be like steriods, they are in NO way natural but they do make some crazy power..."
Tell that genius it is not about air pressure that adds the power it is airmass, more specifically oxygen content of the aircharge, so even him using that term is incorrect. That guys has zero clue.
Nitrous is a power adder and while spraying it the engine sure as hell isn't aspirating in a natural manner (aka "breathing" normal).
I think you should link him to this thread so he can see the consensus of others too.
I can understand his point in the technical aspect. Asipirated is the delivery of air to the combustion chamber. Natually is where the vac draws the air in. Nitrous just changes the oxygen level in said air. Just like how you can also change the levels of oxygen being drawn in by changing temp or altitude.
As far as common automotive or racing terminology, nitrous isn't considered NA.
As far as common automotive or racing terminology, nitrous isn't considered NA.
From what I have studied, there are 3 advantages to nitrous. Obviously the additional oxygen delivered, then you have the cooling effect of the gas changing state from liquid to gas. Obviously with a change of state the gas gets extremely cold, making a denser charge of air. And lastly, while very small there is a small amount of supercharging taking place. It may not even get out of vacuum to make positive manifold pressure, but injecting 1200psi expanding gas into a fixed area is going to increase the pressure of that fixed area.
Is nitrous considered naturally aspirated? Nope. We could beat this dead horse but at the end of the day Nitrous is gay.
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