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.
 Our test subject is a low-mileage...  Our test subject is a low-mileage 2009 Pontiac G8 GT. Equipped with a TVS1900 MagnaCharger, Kooks long-tube headers and a MagnaFlow exhaust, this G8 makes good power but could use the cooling and octane benefits of a water-methanol injection system. |  We gave Snow Performance a...  We gave Snow Performance a phone call and ordered its Stage-3 Boost Cooler system (PN 20100). This Snow Performance digital controller acts as the brains of the operation, which not only controls the pump, but also provides the driver with some good data, like Injector Duty Cycle, Boost and Injection Percentages. |  With the controller as our...  With the controller as our brain, the heart of our system is the Snow Performance water-methanol pump. Snow tells us that this pump is adjustable, but for our application it seemed to be set-up just fine from the factory. |
 Our kit shipped with two different...  Our kit shipped with two different injection nozzles (seen on the left) and two different style bulkheads. If you need additional nozzle sizes, Snow has you covered, although for our application the small 375 ml/min nozzle (PN 40375) worked great. |  The trickiest part of our...  The trickiest part of our install was finding a place to mount the supplied 3-quart reservoir. With the MagnaCharger and related air/water intercooler pieces installed, we didn't have much room to work with. |  In our quest for more room,...  In our quest for more room, Scott Seifreit and Larry Neville of Precision Motorsports decided to remove the front bumper, in hopes of finding a suitable home for both the reservoir and pump. |