What were they doing with the gas? (Spoilers)

[RedHotRyder]

I'm not a car guy at all. When they were spitting the gas into the blowers, what was that all about? How does that help them go faster?

I actually thought that was the most bat-shit crazy scene in the film. It was one of those wild moments where I just felt, I really don't know what's happening here, but it must be very important to them! (Kinda like the time a saw a giant line of people outside Tower Records waiting for a Slipknot record signing.)

I believe they were squirting/spitting alcohol or methanol into the blower hat. Those big Roots style blowers like on the War Rig start heating up the intake air quite a bit. Under sustained high boost situations, like running at high RPM for long time periods, it will cause the air to heat up so much that it starts losing more power than the blower creates. By spraying alcohol into the intake it cools everything down, raises the octane and therefore makes more power. They make kits that will bolt on your engine to do just this only they use windshield washer fluid (does the same thing).

[otherunicorn]

A fair portion of whatever sort of fuel they were spitting in was leaving the engine unburnt, spurting out the exhaust pipes/stacks as orange flames.

[Nightwalker]

I had to laugh when I saw this scene. Very well thought of.

When you press the accelerator down, the carburettor or fuel injection system will add extra fuel to the amount already going in for the amount of air that is taken in by the engine. This is to enrich the mixture to create the acceleration boost.
The point is they where already driving flat out. They couldn't press the accelerator further down. So, to create an extra boost, they enriched the mixture manually spraying it into the air intake.

[TheWarriorMax]

I loved that scene because it conveyed so much about the relationship between these people and their cars and the gas that powers them. They were taking this highly toxic substance into their bodies and then using it to breathe new life into their vehicles. The scene made a powerful statement about how organically woven into the fabric of that world the cars were.

You went deep and took it to another level .

I'm not sure I "see" the same thing as you, but thanks for sharing that anyway.

[Furiosa]

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[Nightwalker]

It wasn't gas it was Nitrous Oxide. Either Furiosa or Nux said something about putting "Nitro" in the engine just before that.

And remember earlier in the film Furiosa described the rig as "2000 horsepower Nitro powered war machine".

What they where spraying into the air intakes is absolutely not Nitrous oxide. That is a highly compressed gas. not a liquid.
That is what they do with the taps opening on those compressed gas bottles.
What they where spraying into the air intake is either guzzoline or nitromethane.

[Artemis Flow]

Definately not NO2 , the only nitro you see used in the film is in Nux's car , the bottle is built into the dash

[Furiosa]

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[MWFV8]

Regardless, squirting No2 into an engine on it's own doesn't increase power. No2 is an oxygen source and needs extra fuel to match.

Nitromethane makes more sense. However, as I said before, the engine would have to be tuned to the higher octane fuel for it to have any advantage. Higher octane fuel is actually less explosive than lower octane fuel, it allows the engine to run more advanced timing or higher compression with a lower risk of pre-detonation.

Regarding the foot to the throttle limit thing, that could be fixed with a quick adjustment of the throttle cable.

The whole thing is contrived for the sake of dramatic effect.

[RedHotRyder]

"Nitro" is the short way of saying nitromethane. "Nitrous" is the short way of saying nitrous oxide.

I've seen the movie twice now and I don't believe they said anything about nitro before the scene. Furioso just says "they're trying to get in front of us" and nux grabs a can of something and says "I'm just going to nudge her a little". The scene was just done for dramatic effect. You can't add nitromethane to a gas powered engine because the fuels don't mix. if the engine is running on nitromethane than spraying in more nitro the way they did wouldn't do anything.

If it's a gas powered engine than adding methanol or alcohol would help as it would cool the intake charge.