Hydrogen Booster Installed ...

[JanGeo]

That Mythbusters car would not respond to any type of combustion improvement because it is a gas sucking monster engine and the losses are so great that any improvement would not be noticable. The fact that it backfired indicates that the valves were not sealing so you know it was not running properly. I used to start my Rambler on propane out of a torch 1lbs bottle using the torch valve without the orifice directly injecting it into the intake manifold and it ran just fine in freezing weather when the gas would not carburate in the SU carb I had.

I would run the Gas generator for a while at 30 amps to break in the electrodes before diluting the solution. You may want to inflate a balloon with the output - should fill up in a few minutes or less and float like crazy - just be careful when you light it off as you also have the oxygen in there so it should make a bit of noise and a nice blue flame for a fraction of a second. Don't operate in a small air tight room in case of a small explosion it could blow out windows.

[cfg83]

JanGeo -

Thanks. My overall rule is that it is *only* on when there is an engine to consume the hydrogen (no engine-off coasting if this gizmo is running). It will never be in a sealed room, only ever attached to the car.

The balloon is a very good idea because "floating" will be evidence of production.

CarloSW2

[skewbe]

Originally Posted by JanGeo

That Mythbusters car would not respond to any type of combustion improvement because it is a gas sucking monster engine and the losses are so great that any improvement would not be noticable.

if anything, a larger car should amplify the effects. More combustion area for the hydrogen catalyst fairies to do their work. ( how's that for derisive )

Originally Posted by JanGeo

The fact that it backfired indicates that the valves were not sealing so you know it was not running properly.

Uh, no. The unmetered hydrogen resulted in a brief lean burn situation, where the fuel was still burning when the intake valve opened.


and Acetone? I hate to be the one to tell you this...

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by JanGeo

That Mythbusters car would not respond to any type of combustion improvement because it is a gas sucking monster engine and the losses are so great that any improvement would not be noticable.

Wait... shouldn't the opposite be true?

[JanGeo]

Nope the big engine HAS a big efficient combustion chamber - it just has TOO MANY of them and thus requires too much of the energy to turn the monster over and keep is spinning. Large displacement engines are more efficient combustion wise - Take my 2 cylinder BMW 1000 CC in two 500 CC cylinders and tuned for performance and it still gets 60mpg. It's the little engine with the high cylinder wall surface to volume ratio that needs help due to inprecise fuel metering on such a small amount of air coming into each cylinder. Add the fact that it was an american made engine and I rest my case.
Anyone that thinks that acetone doesn't work hasn't tried it in an engine that it helps - yeah there are some that it will not help mileage but it works in mine so I use it all the time.

[skewbe]

These folks have done their homework regarding acetone
http://neubranderinc.com/blog/catego...ology/acetone/

An accurate measure of effect has to be done under very controlled conditions. The mythbusters have done the best job of testing these that I've seen yet. Do you know of anyone else who has actually dyno'd two cars (an american carbureted car AND a fuel injected import) and measured how long they could maintain a given speed with no additives, and with the standard permutations of additives, and come up with a different result?

I didn't think so.

Now say thank you to the nice folks at mythbusters for clearing this myth up

[JanGeo]

So why is it giving me the unheard of mileage in my Scion xB? Other xB owners are getting low 30's on the highway and I get low 30's going up hills on the highway - 45mpg on typical trips and as high as 50mpg. They fail to test it under the condition where it helps the most - light throttle use!

[MetroMPG]

With all due respect, you haven't made any attempt to isolate its effects from the other things you've done to the car, or your driving style. So you can't reasonably claim that it's giving you "unheard of mileage". That's just bad science (or a poor understanding of it).

[skewbe]

Hey Jan, you are reporting great numbers as compared to other scion drivers so you are definately doing something right, or your odometer is off, or...

Please take a look at some testing philosophies. The object is to eliminate as many variables as possible, especially observer bias.

[JanGeo]

If I don't use it the mileage goes down. Odometer is off but the readings are corrected to the gps calibrated scangauge. Look at my gas log. Not much driving style changes can be made - I drive the same roads the same speeds - coast down the same hills etc. that I have driven for over 20 years. The only variation is the number of red lights I might hit on any particular run and even then I had a 45mpg run.