2009 Pontiac G8 GT Water-Methanol Injection Kit Install

Methanol, much like nitrous oxide, is a substance surrounded with misinformation and mystery. To some enthusiasts, it is the holy grail of intercooling, while others see it as a marketing trick, a gimmick that offers little gains with a large headache.

You could say I was part of the latter camp. So, like any good skeptic we decided to round up a system, a proper test vehicle, some knowledgeable installers, and a dyno to see what would really happen. Our test vehicle needed to be something blown, which ran on an octane-limited gas (like pump gas) and could be fairly susceptible to heat soak.

Luckily for us, the guys over at Precision Motorsports of Florida volunteered a perfect 2009 Pontiac G8 GT, which belongs to James Dauphin and features a TVS1900 MagnaCharger and the supporting exhaust bolt-ons. Precision told us that this car made around 450 rwhp and could use a little help with cooling and octane. With a test vehicle secured, we called up Snow Performance and ordered its newest Stage-3 Boost Cooler system, which ships complete with a digital two-dimensional controller and proven methanol pump. A couple of days later our system showed up and we were ready to head over to Precision Motorsports to install and test the kit. Even if you don't have a G8, we found a couple of neat tricks that would be useful on any late-model GM, so follow along with our install. We also saw that big gains are possible with just a little amount of time and money invested. It is safe to say I have changed my mind on water-methanol injection systems. The safety, power, and ease-of-use is hard to beat and it is worth considering on any street-driven, boosted application.