Juice Suitcase Shaves Nearly Two Seconds Off E.T.!
A little something to even the playing field
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A wet nitrous kit mixes nitrous and enrichment fuel via an injector nozzle mounted in front of the throttle body. The mixture is then drawn into the engine through the TB and intake manifold. 
A dry nitrous system injects only nitrous while simultaneously increasing the fuel rail pressure to feed enrichment fuel through the engine’s injectors. A wet kit is good for both normally aspirated and forced induction applications and is easier to tune. A dry kit is a good choice for normally aspirated combinations that have a fuel return system, therefore it is not recommended for an engine with forced induction. |
ex Master Matt Patrick told us straight out: It isn’t a universal dab. This kit is dedicated and is most complete, specifically designed for stock Vortec 4.8, 5.3 and 6.0L engines found in 1999-present Silverado/Sierra trucks. We asked our racer-in-residence Justin Brayman to lasso a victim. A few minutes later he called back and said the deal was done. “Meet me and John Morrell at RMP Automotive [John’s shop] Friday night and we’ll get it done,” he said. John’s ’06 Silverado had a Flowmaster muffler and a K&N air filter element as its only deviations from stock.
Though both these guys are experienced in this sort of installation, they wound up calling the Zex tech line for guidance about a small but very important thing, so don’t feel diminished if you have to do the same. Don’t be surprised when you get a terse reply, either. All such conversions present different problems to different people as directly related to the experience of the installer. However, you can put on every part of this kit without disabling the truck, so if you have a problem you can drive it to someone who knows how to fix it.
Our package contained the basic nitrous kit ($679.94), a pressure gauge ($49.81), and two steps colder than OE spark plugs ($56.58). So for a tad less than $800 you can expect an increase of 125 horsepower. A bona fide bolt-on bargain no matter how you slice it.
To prep for the asphalt carnage, tank up on 92-93octane and put the colder plugs in. The tune-up steps are as follows: 75hp--40nitrous jet, 24fuel jet, 0-degree ignition retard; 100hp, 46nitrous jet, 28fuel jet, 2-degrees retard; 125hp--54nitrous jet, 32 fuel jet, 4-
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We’d first envisioned a chassis dyno comparison, but thought that almost everyone will do this in their garage and not be able to access rollers for any sort of empirical data. Rather, you would employ the “dragstrip dyno” to reveal the outcome. John and Justin drove John’s Silverado (equipped with a Flowmaster muffler and K&N filter) to the Wednesday night test-and-tune at Sunshine Dragstrip, a clean, modern 1/8th-mile facility in Clearwater, Florida.
Sunshine’s (Todd) Baroni helped a lot in the staging lanes, waving John through so he could make passes whenever he was ready. On the stock, hard, tires and with a 3.42:1 gear, John ran 11.0 on the motor. With the 75 hit, the truck peeled off a 9.78. On the 100 pill, he went a 9.40. With these stages, he didn’t experience wheelspin, but on the 125 hit, the tires smoked pretty good at the 60-foot mark. Even with the smoke and a little bit of rattle, he ran a 9.28 and was a very happy boy.
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| We chose to put the nozzle on a flat section of the air intake duct and removed it for the simple drilling operation. Mandated placement is between the MAF and the throttle body. | John holds. Justin drills. A 9/16-inch hole accommodates the threaded plastic threaded fitting that accepts the nitrous nozzle. | Push the receptacle through the side of the air duct, apply a few drops of thread locker, and screw on the corresponding plastic nut to hold it tight. |