The power of nitrous-oxide injection. Great for race cars, right? But for diesel pickups? Come on!
Our '99 F-250 Ford Super Duty pickup sports a 7.3L Power Stroke diesel engine with 167,000 miles of hard hauling use, but in terms of diesel life, it's just getting started. This truck is completely stock with no modifications.
It may not be mainstream yet, but nitrous oxide is a great way to provide a performance boost for your street-driven or racing diesel truck. Tired of turbo lag and looking for a quick kick in the pants on demand? Nitrous-oxide injection can get you there. The ZEX diesel nitrous system is a complete kit that includes everything needed to safely and easily add 35-200 additional horsepower. The kit includes a 10-pound bottle, bottle brackets, nitrous solenoid, and all required hoses and wiring. Best of all, it takes about two hours to install and won't hurt your engine. Yep, even you can't do it wrong.
The test vehicle for our ZEX nitrous system installation was a '99 Ford F-250 equipped with a Power Stoke 7.3L engine. Stock in every meaning of the term, this truck had no modifications, but it also had one key ingredient: a willing owner who trusted us to make his truck faster.
There are plenty of myths surrounding nitrous oxide injection-lots of scary stories about what it can do to the insides of your engine. The plain truth is that nitrous oxide is simply a combustion enhancer, bearing no relationship to "nitro," that volatile fuel used in extreme drag racing environments. When nitrous oxide is added to the combustion process with the correct amount of fuel, it dramatically increases the horsepower output. Diesel engines are the perfect platform for nitrous injection. Since most diesel engines run a rich fuel mixture (denoted by the signature black smoke they can emit from the tailpipe), nitrous oxide helps burn this excess diesel fuel in the combustion chamber, extracting additional horsepower. As opposed to other horsepower enhancers like propane, nitrous oxide actually cools the exhaust-gas temperatures generated by the engine, which is the critical factor limiting the power output of diesels.
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After considering the area behind the seat as a potential mounting position, we decided to bolt the nitrous bottle in the truck bed. After putting a slit in the bed's drain plug, we fed the braided steel line through the plug and under the truck. | 
The signature-purple, 10-pound ZEX nitrous bottle is part of the ZEX diesel nitrous system and includes all of the mounting hardware and brackets. Note that it mounts on an angle to help properly siphon nitrous from the bottle. |
The braided steel tank line was run between the truck's cab and bed and under the running board. Make certain you avoid any hot exhaust parts or suspension parts that could move within their normal swing angle and potentially damage the line. | | |