Why did water inject go away?

What were the problems with water injection that led to it's demise? I figure that fuels just got good enough that it wasn't needed for no more extra power than it made.

I would like to Kmnow Also ,,, My Guess would be too Many Cracked Pistons , valves and Heads ,, but Man There is more POWER THAT WAY

Water injection is alive and quite well................used primarily for performance enthusiasts built by aftermarket suppliers BUT still an option to improve performance and efficiency of your daily driver.............

http://www.coolingmist.com/pagedisplay.aspx?feature_key=gasvehicles

john deere stoped it because of corrosion. it like most things where great back in the day but it just became outdated.

I do not know the answer to your question. However last week I drove my S10 4.3 quart from near peoria to crawfordsville in in rain all the way and got 2 miles more per gallon than normal. I have noticed this before

On driving in the rain and wet the theory used to be that the additional moisture in the comb chamber made the explosion "smoother"--the ignition front moved a little slower thru the comb chamber but burned more of the fuel charge more evenly...

A lot of the early tractors were made to run on tractor fuel, a very heavy fuel which was somewhere between diesel and kerosene. It was what was left over after cracking the gasoline. The tractors were started on gasoline and when they reached operating temperature, (around 190-200 degrees) they were switched over to the tractor fuel. This heavy fuel would pre-ignite and cause the engine to knock and all kinds of bad things would happen. In order to combat this, the manufacturers implemented a water injection system. You kept turning the water up until the pre-ignition quit. In the John Deere's, the water came from the cooling system, so no antifreeze and you had to be sure and keep the cooling system full. The old Oil Pulls had a separate water tank partly because they were oil cooled. As I understand, when the Oil Pulls got up to operating temp and were worked hard that they would use more water than they would fuel. Many of you have probably gotten the email about the car that runs on water. Nothing new, they were doing this at the turn of the last century.

As gasoline became more plentiful and cheaper, most tractors were gas only and the need for the water injector was no longer needed.

Water injection or water/alchohol injection were used in high compression engines as a detonation suppressant. I imagine the reason it went away isbecause few people remembered to fill the tank and if you didn't and attempted to run at high powers, the detonantion damaged the engine. You also had to add the alchohol to keep it from freezing. Piston engien aircraft used it and some of the early jet engines used it for hot day Take Off operation also but for a different reason It kept the turbine inlet temperatures down.

They just mix it in with the gas you buy at the station since all the ethanol blend helps it mix in.

Actually water injection kept the combustion chamber and power turbine temps low enough the metal didn't soften.

My father had a very late model 18-36 Oliver Hart Parr. It also used water from the cooling system. He would carry 2 five gallon cans of water to the field with him when plowing. The water line to the engine had a small hole between the valve and the engine and a small amount of water would squirt out of that. For some reason, the hole was necessary, but Dad always grumbled that the lost water just made him carry more to the field! He never liked the 18-36 as well as a Hart Parr he had purchased in about 1918--I think he called it a 15-30, but I'm not sure.

Commonly used on pulling tractors like the super stock diesels.
I was on a 30-60 Rumely Oil Pull about a month ago and it had it.

I can tell you the turbine never will soften. They will come apart well before then!

Hey! I hail from the Crawfordsville area but live in Nashville, TN now. Still have relatives there though.
That observation was part of what made me put the question out.

I installed a water injector on my ford torino v8 in the 70's. I flipped a switch on the dash to turn on the electric pump which pumped water through a spray nozzel into the intake manifold. Engine temperature would drop about 10 deg F and power increased noticeably. In 20 miles I would use maybe 1/4 - 1/2 a gallon.

Higgins,

I forgot to add, I've found info. on the 'net of several do-it-yourselfers that have installed water-injection on their vehicles that have claimed significant gains in economy.........however, these vehicles have been modified with raised compression values and modified timing curves in order to take full advantage of the water injection.............

Thanks, I got to looking around on the net too and found some of this - more than I could read! I hadn't even thought about the ethanol connection but that basically does a similar thing just way less water.