I want to put a Methanol Kit on my car. At this point I'm leaning towards getting an Aquamist HFS-3 (HFS-4 is out of my price range). Jeff at Howerton has been very helpful and states that the HFS-3 will work great on my car. I have a couple questions, mostly for my peace of mind, before I pull the trigger and purchase.

I was also looking at Snow Performance's stage 3 kit. Does anyone have this set up? If so, what are the operational pros and cons? Here are the pros and cons I see for both:

Pros:

Aquamist HFS-3:
-Howerton seems highly recommended by anyone who has purchased and dealt with them.
-Known quality.
-Highly Adjustible
-Runs off of car's ECU

Snow Performance:
-They're local to me (their shop is maybe 45mins away)
-A lot of other car owners use them (Subaru, Mitsu, etc)
-Runs off of boost and EFI (can be turned off easily)
-I can get a stage 3 kit cheaper than the HFS-3.

Cons:

Aquamist HFS-3:
-I think most people spend the $$ and go with an HFS-4 so product experience and knowledge among potential users may be limited.
-I have heard of fail safe issues with Aquamist.
-Integrating the kit with the ECU worries me (I may be naively apprehensive about this).
-If I have issues, they aren't local.

Snow Performance:
-I haven't heard of any R56 owners using the product so I fear the typical first-time-user issues that may arise.
-It doesn't seem to be as user friendly or as adjustible as Aquamist.
-I don't know if it's better to have the unit run off of Boost/EFI or the ECU.

Sorry for the long post, but if someone could shed some light and maybe personal experience that would be greatly appreciated.

 

I have the HFS 3 and would highly recommend it. I would sping for the trunk tank as well it is nice having a seperate tank just for the meth.

 

Have you had any of the dreaded fail safe issues like some of the HFS-4 users have had? What size nozzles would you recommend? Have you had any issues with heat, as I have heard of people cooking their engines due to methanol?

Thanks for the insight!

 

I still have the fail safe disabled. Never took the tim to set it up. The only problem I have has was the relay went bad after about 8 months. Replaced it and all is gtg. I think it was my fault for spilling a little while topic off the tank. I have had no heat issues at all and have seen a healthy increase in top end power.

 

That is the exact info I was hoping to find! I hardly know anything about methanol besides that it creates more power, better gas mileage, and can keep the valves clean. I get a little aprehensive about things when I have to spend $700+install, because I'm always worried about spending money for new problems. Thank you again for your help and insight!

-James

 

No problem. Glad I could help. If you have any questions along the way feel free to shoot me a PM.

-Brian

 

I have an HFS-4, can't speak for Snow(although a local speed shop has them for their vehicles).

Setup: Simple but time consuming, just like most mods I guess ;p
Use: Fail safe is a total b1tch. I'm not sure if it'll even truly work. Mine kept boost cutting whenever I set it up. No matter what was done, and I had Richard(owner of Aquamist in UK) on the phone with me for hours. He believes it might be a circuit board issue and wanted me to ship it back to him for testing. I'm gonna probably do that later this year when it gets cold again(gonna have fun with the meth tuned while I can ;p). I think the R56/55 ECU is overall very finicky. It doesn't like being messed with and that seems the concensus among many installers. The risk of not having fail safe is pretty huge though so really consider this as a con. Alternatively, just tune your vehicle without meth and let the ECU trim it accordinly. My MINI was recently RMW-tuned and with the meth on but not meth-tuned(so ECU was self adjusting for meth), it was pulling around 246 whp. Specific meth-tuned file showed 255 whp. Is 9 whp worth the risk of blowing your engine? Not sure it is.
Other issues: I still have some jumpy idle issue but a one-way check valve is supposedly the answer. So there's definitely potential to have problems and you need to be ok with rolling with the punches, so to speak. Alternatively, get a pro like Colin or Jan to install it for you and not have any worries :P
Support: World class, top notch, can't speak any highly for Jeff at Howerton Engineering and Richard at Aquamist UK. Both were replying to me over two weekends and Richard was on the phone till 2 am(his time) troubleshooting with me. Heck, I was the pansy that quit on him cause it was starting to creep to below 20 in the garage at 7 pm :P

 

All great info! Thanks IZZYG! Just curious, but about how much power did you gain from the install (without tuning for it)? I will heed your recommendation and not tune for meth and just let it work on it's own.

 

I honestly couldn't tell. I believe a few people posted that the R56 adjusted timing with meth on without a tune but I'm doubtful it added power. I did notice after installing the meth that acceleration and top end power felt smoother to engage(hard to explain the actual feeling) but no gain in actual power.

I had a wimpy stock fJCW as well. Baseline run was 190 whp(and I had a bunch of bolt on mods already PLUS meth going). It was also a lean stock map(I averaged 33 mpg) so that didn't help ;p

 

Oh and don't get me wrong. Definitely tune it for meth but ask for a separate file. That way you can toggle back and forth

 

The aquamist 3 is awesome. Methanol wont really give you power out of the box. You need to tune for it. As for the the failsafe mine isn't hooked up. I like turning the gauge off during long drives at night when not tuned for meth and the gauge off it still limits boost to 5 lbs. The install is easy.

 

Go with the Aquamist. And go with the HFS-4 -- great system, particularly coupled with the Howerton Engineering tank for the R56.