One of the easiest ways to make big power is with nitrous oxide. While there are kits on the market today that provide hundreds of horsepower over stock, we've also noticed that many of the "big boys" are building their own custom nitrous systems. If the idea of 400, 500, or even 600 more horsepower at the push of a button tickles your fancy, read on. We're going to tell you all you need to know to make your own crazy nitrous system.
We can't imagine what kind of top end charge Gary Riles' truck must have; from 90 mph to 120 mph the truck is making over 1,000 horsepower.
SYSTEM SPECS:
Custom System #1
Gary Riles, J&H Performance
Truck: '97 Dodge Ram 2500
System: Modified NX Three Stage System with custom programming
Non-Nitrous: 730 hp
Nitrous Assisted: 1,133 hp
Nitrous Gain: 402 hp
Gary Riles started out with a two-stage kit from Nitrous Express, but then added a third stage, making it his own custom system. Riles then found he could use the progressive controller to program all three stages to ramp up to full power. One of the keys to making a big nitrous system work is bringing on the amount of nitrous gradually, which is also easier on the engine. When Riles made his 1,133-horsepower pull at the Las Vegas event last year, we couldn't even tell when the stages hit; we just saw the truck jump on the dyno and the smoke clear up. There was no popping, sputtering, or banging-just a clean dyno run.
Big nitrous can also cause big explosions. Here, Riles is seen with what was left of his intercooler boot after a violent backfire through the intake.
One interesting thing that Riles pointed out to us was that he uses a different type of control strategy depending on his application. Since a dyno run might only last a few seconds, he uses an RPM-based controller. While on the dragstrip, he uses a time-based controller. This allows him to run one small stage of nitrous in order to get out of the hole, and let the other two stages make him run hard on the second half of the track. With a 124mph trap speed, we can't argue.