On Jun 11, 2008, at 3:21 PM, Levi Pearson wrote:
Andrew Jorgensen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
That being said it's conceivable that the addition of some kind of
non-gasoline fuel (maybe even HHO) might improve the completeness
of the
combustion of the gasoline or otherwise increase the efficiency of
the
engine by some means. Perhaps the water vapor created helps to
cool the
engine or something.
I also remain highly skeptical of these things, but the explanation
I've heard goes something like this. Gasoline combustion engines are
hugely inefficient by nature. This Brown's Gas stuff doesn't just
supply energy from its own combustion, but acts as some sort of
catalyst for a much more complete combustion of gasoline.
While this sounds feasible on the face of it, the fact that these
things have existed for years and haven't been adopted by car
companies, combined with the unsophisticated explanations, lack of
rigorous studies, and fluffy advertisement, suggest to me that this is
pure quackery at work.
If you still think this is likely to work, I've got an electric
supercharger to sell you, and a vortex generator for your intake as
well.
--Levi
The other halfway feasible explanation I've heard goes something like
this:
When your engine is running, the alternator is *always* supplying
electricity to your battery - even if your battery is full and does
not require any additional charge. These kits dip into this current
(again, that is always there even if you don't use it) to provide
power to do the HHO conversion. Skeptics say this will make the
alternator work harder, thus require more gasoline to be burned, thus
erasing any effect (and, in fact hurting more than helping) that may
have been produced by burning the HHA. Proponents say "hogwash".
I think the laws of the universe are with the skeptics, personally.
Since the HHO burns with the gasoline, while your engine does not
change its tuning (ie, the same amount of gasoline is provided by the
carb/fuel injector as normal) more power is provided by the engine -
this results in an increase in torque and horsepower.
The assertion is that with this increase, you will not push the gas
pedal down quite so far as you usually do to achieve the same driving
habits, so you wind up saving fuel and getting better mileage.
Now, I'm still skeptical, but I like to tinker. I'm considering
giving this a try if for no other reason than to a) have a fun project
to work on for a few days and b) find out for myself if I can detect
any measurable increase in performance/power/mpg.
Plus, I drive a car that is basically worthless to begin with, so it
won't matter much if I break it. :) (the joys of always paying cash in
full for a car)
-- Kimball
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