pumping hydrogen into RL?

[blazing85]

Ive been reading a lot about this ...Assuming you are one of the people that tried this experiment.
In theory pumping hydrogen gas into the air intake fetch you more MPGs? Will it do damage to the engine in any way?

[Rower4VT]

(Assuming you're talking about these "HHO" generators and hydrogen generators you hook up to your car and supposedly they give you better mileage. Otherwise, yes you can add hydrogen to the intake from a hydrogen tank, but it's not cost effective. The below refers to my initial assumption that you're talk about the HHO/hydrogen generators being marketed.)

It's a scam. There is absolutely no "science" behind the idea. If you have a chemistry/physics background and do the math on how much water you would need to get the gains they talk about, you'd be putting a 5 gallon bucket in to your car, not the little mason jar they sell. Never mind the fact that it takes near the same amount of energy to produce the H2 and O2 as you get out of it burning. The "neon light" to everyone is that these generators do not produce "HHO" as they call them, they produce H2 and O2. H (hydrogen) and O (oxygen) like to bond with one another respectively into H2 and O2. Research how much H2 you get from a gallon of water, and then research how many miles a hydrogen powered car gets out of that much hydrogen, and you'll quickly see that even as an "additive" to the combustion process there's no way you'd get the gains these "scam artist" claim.

Do the math, or ask an engineer, chemist, or physics major to do the math for you and prove to you there's no way it'll work.

It's a scam preying on those "scared" of high gas prices, and do not have technical education to know better.

Did I mention it's a scam.

[blazing85]

On Wiki it said one gallon of water can fetch you about 1 pound of hydrogen gas- which i believe is a lot?

1 pound of H gas can fetch you around ?

Thanks for the info.

[Rower4VT]

You can get just less than a pound of hydrogen out of a gallon of water. A rough estimate on how far a car can go on a pound of water is 30 miles...this is on the optimistic end of the range; i.e., a car designed to run on hydrogen. So let's say you can get 30 more miles out of a gallon of water, which means you could get 7.5 miles out of a quart of water, and I believe most HHO generators hold a quart of water, at most. The problem is that you can't use the whole quart of water because the electrodes need to stay covered to work efficiently. So then let's assume you can (optimistically) use a 1/4 of that quart, or one cup, of water before replenishing the water. A cup of water gets you just less than 2 miles. So if you have a 20 mile round-trip commute to work and back, and your car averages 30 mpg, then the HHO generator will increase your mileage by less than 10% if that whole available cup of water is used.

Two issues (1) the HHO generator uses electricity to work and according to 99.99% of scientist you get about as much energy out of hydrogen as it takes to produce it; and (2) almost everyone of my "assumptions" along the way of my calculations was very OPTIMISTIC. Given all this info, do you really think this will work?

Like I said before, do the math, study the science, and you will quickly realize it's a scam.

Originally Posted by blazing85

On Wiki it said one gallon of water can fetch you about 1 pound of hydrogen gas- which i believe is a lot?

1 pound of H gas can fetch you around ?

Thanks for the info.

[blazing85]

You seem like a very smart person. Why do i need to do the math and the research when you have already done it for me, lol, thanks. Btw I always thought that the HHO thing was a scam and you confirmed my suspicions, I guess there really is no such thing as a free lunch except for welfare, medicaid and WIC.

Thanks a million.

[blazing85]

Oh btw, one more question if i may. Ive read somewhere that heating up gasoline to the point where it is almost as hot as water would further increase combustion. If this is true than in theory it will increase gas mileage up to 3 mpg.

I know for the most part that the gasoline is either warm or cold when it reaches the fuel injectors. I saw a ad recently advertising this contraption that hooks up the fuel line and the radiator hose. Supposedly the heat from the radiator heats the the fuel line which in turn heats the fuel going through the fuel line. What do you think about this? IS this another scam?

Thanks

-Curious dude

[Rower4VT]

There are some "hyper-milers" that attest to the same theory. If you heat the gas up it will vaporize better and thereby burn more easily (ignite more easily). This is something many people did back in the day of carburetors because the jets would only vaporize the gas so much...fuel pressure was on the range of 5-10 psi I believe. With a modern/new/clean fuel injector and the stock 35-45 psi that fuel pumps put out, vaporization is not as much of an issue. However, if the fuel injectors are old or worn, heating the fuel may help a little. You can do it yourself by getting some bendable copper tubing and wrapping a length around the line that flows into the radiator, and wrapping a similar length around the fuel rail and/or fuel line, then link the two with some rubber tubing and a small 12v pump between the two....use anti-freeze, not water in it. It's a cheap mod (if you do it yourself) and it might work. Gassavers.org has a million little tricks. On my last fill-up I calculated mileage that was 62% above the EPA "combined" mileage for my car (probably kinda a fluke...but I do normally return 30+% above EPA rating). You'll find many others at that site doing the same. I'm not doing any of the more extreme measures though; like flares over the wheels, and shutting off the engine every time you coast to a stop. Some of these guys are getting 90+ mpg on a Prius and 60+ on old Saturns.