Does anyone remember the ideas during the 1980 to 90’s that used water to extend fuel efficiency?

Question

The 20 mpg car gets 52 mpg by spraying water into the carburetor with rotating atomizer under the carburetor. There were quite a number of articles. Then it just sort of disappeared like so many other things like this. I followed up on it back then and found

There were problems of excessive heat causing damage to the engine. Only to be solved by very expensive engine upgrade. Also The car on a cold day caused a cloud of fog to form in back of it. from the water vapor. This ment that the water would need to be recovered to prevent the fog problem. But the 260% increase in mpg was real. It might be time to look at this again. I bet the pattent is now expired.

Answer 1

No I don't remember but it sounds like the theory was (I have no idea if this is sound science or not) that the head the the burning gasoline would create steam and create a more powerfull explosion in the cylinder.  It seems to me however that you would end up lowering the temperature, reducing knocking but increasing the amount of unburnt fuel in the exhasut, and possibly displacing oxygen with water.  Interesting to think about anyway

Answer 2

this is completely false.

water absorbs btu's when changing from liquid to steam (970 btu's per pound, which is approx 1 pint)

it doesn't burn. otherwise we wouldn't use it to fight fires.

the more btu's your fuel (gasoline in this case) releases, the more work is accomplished (increased MPG).

SO WATER INJECTION ACTUALLY REMOVES BTU'S FROM THE REACTION AND REDUCES MPG!

water injection is used to cool the cylinder to prevent pre-ignition and/or detonation by absorbing btu's that would otherwise cause the fuel to burn, or explode, uncontrolled (which is anytime it's not lit by the spark plug).

alcohol or water alcohol mixtures replace some of the lost btu's because the alcohol does burn and absorbs more btu's than straight gas.

the trade off is alcohol doesn't contain as many btu's per gallon as compared to gasoline.

the cylinder can only hold so much air/fuel.

if alcohol is in there, that means there is less room for gasoline.

that means less mpg. but it might be necessary (especially in older non computer controlled cars) to combat knock.

knocking WILL destroy an engine

Answer 3

Actually your information is completely false.

I remember the device. It was a fraud merely designed to make money for the promoter.

This device never could achieve those increases in gas mileage.

Theoretically with properly designed equipment you might be able to achieve an extra one or two miles per gallon of gasoline.

But you could not achieve even that with the device as it was designed.

It was just a cheap device that was never designed to work.

It was merely designed to make some quick money for some fast buck artists.

Answer 4

One word SCAM.

Answer 5

Listen 'bro for I've tried this before. I remember in the 80's  I had a container in the engine compartment and I had to mix 1 part water to one part ethanol. The hose connected from the carburator to the intake manifold is bypassed and connected to the top of the container where a tube is immersed to the bottom. Another hose to complete the bypass connects from the intake manifold to  the second tube at the top. Only this time it is not immersed. When the intake starts sucking air, it will create a bubbling effect and thereby vapor is produced and eventually mix with the fuel from the carburator. This saves gas, cleans the engine, and increases the horsepower. I wonder if it works for fuel injected engines too? Now you got me curious............

Answer 6

I remember a water injection system made by Shelby Spearco that attached just inside the air cleaner and when the engine reached a certain load it would spray a fine mist of water into the carb throat.

It never did much if anything for mileage but it did reduce knock and carbon deposits.