Has anyone converted their car to use water along with gas?

Question

Have you heard about it and would you use it? I would think that it would mess up your car.

Answer 1

I haven't, but a co-worker has.  

To address the other engineer's answer about his thermodynamics courses:  it's not a thermodynamics miracle, just a boost in efficiency.  Surely by now you've learned how inefficient the four-cycle engine really is...

The addition of hydrogen allows the gasoline (or diesel) to burn many times more rapidly in the combustion chamber.  In a normal engine, combustion starts with max compression and sends the piston back the other direction, while the fuel-air mix is still burning.  Only some of the energy of the burn was used to actually push the piston, the rest just created heat.  With a little hydrogen in the mix, the burn is nearly instantaneous, and a much larger amount of energy is converted to mechanical force.  This is verified by measuring the exhaust gas temperature, which runs 50-75 degrees F cooler.  

All the claims of "no free lunch" are absolutely true - you can't make enough hydrogen by electrolysis to power the engine and the electrolysis too.  But, you can make just a little hydrogen and drastically improve the efficiency of the internal combustion engine.

BTW - my friend's 5.4L Expedition now gets 23mpg highway vs. only 18-19 before the conversion.  Not Prius-beating, but well worth the money invested.

Answer 2

No doubt, with high gasoline prices, 'devices' like what you speak of look very VERY attractive.... BEWARE:

I believe you are talking about the 'burn water in your car' scam that sells you a kit to break water into Oxygen (O2) and Hydrogen. You cannot use electrolysis to create enough

hydrogen to run an automobile engine the same way you can on gasoline.

Simply put, the energy required to split water into Hydrogen and Oxygen is more than the energy you can get by burning the results. In other words, its a net energy loss.

An engine that both makes its own fuel out of water and then burns that fuel, converting it back into water, is basically making energy out of nothing. IOW, it is a perpetual motion machine and such machines are impossible. Think it through.

These scams exist for one purpose: To get your money...when you see claims like this:

"Following the instructions of Water4Gas system, you can build a simple apparatus. This device can use electricity derived from your car's battery and break water into a Browns gas. This gas, also called HHO or Hydroxy, can generate enough energy to power the engine.

Browns gas is 3 times more powerful than gasoline!

By using the Water4Gas technology you will be able to save thousands of dollars on gas per year.."

you had better be VERY wary.

You simply cannot 'generate enough hydrogen gas' from simple water electroylsis to 'power your car's engine'. It's a hoax and rip off. And it may void ANY warranty on your vehicle. At best it is a waste of your hard earned money. At worst, it's a REAL waste of your hard-earned money.

Many scams exist to get your money:

One of the current devices is the 'vortex't thing that supposedly 'creates' a whirlwind in your intake system to mix the air and fuel. SCAM! By the time the air hits the intake mainfold just prior to entering the cylinders, any 'vortex' imparted by this ripoff device is long gone and non-existant.

If you want to save gas, then keep your car tuned up, keep the air filter clean, use synthetic oil, keep your tires inflated to correct pressures, remove excess weight from the car, combine your trips, walk or bike when you can, plan your trips so they won't occur at the worst times of day to drive during congested rush hours, ease off the gas pedal and drive the speed limit, avoid jackrabbit starts, coast to a stop,  shut off your engine if you anticipate idling more than a couple of minutes, get a more fuel effecient vehicle, or use ethanol when you can.

Remember a couple of things:

If it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

"There's a sucker born every minute."  -- P.T. Barnum

You can't have a system that returns an equal or greater energy then is available from the source, That's the second law of thermodynamics, you will have energy losses every time you convert any energy from one state to another.

Answer 3

Beware of all this sort of stuff.

1 - hydrogen is extremely explosive. Setting up a device which produces it is therefore a job for an expert. A botched amatuer job could turn the car into a bomb.

2 - any modification like this, especially one producing an explosive gas, will invalidate the cars' insurance cover unless the insurers have been informed and have agreed cover - possibly at an increased premium.

Answer 4

Well if you want to do $5000 in damage to your car, then knock yourself out.

Answer 5

Yes, I have and several friends, co-workers and family members.

I spent weeks trying out different HHO gens (all from ebay) and each one works so much differently. The ones in PVC pipes usually output a decent amount of gas (depending directly upon what electrolyzer you use in the water) but their crude design does not allow you to see what's going on inside and you cannot tell if your mix is doing good or not.

Then there are the wire designs, which put out okay - but not the best.

I finally built one using the best qualities of different models all put together, and I output around 1.5-1.75 litres/minute - which is really good for the size of the generator and for the electrolyte I am using.

There are many factors involved in whether an HHO generator will work well or not. The major factors are:

1. what are the electrodes made of, how well will they conduct electricity and how quickly will they corrode?

2. What electrolyte mixture are you using in the water (electrolyte is required to make the water conduct electricity to split the hydrogen and oxygen)

3. how much oxygen are you involving in the gas out to the engine?

4. How many o2 sensors does your vehicle have and how will they react to the extra oxygen they will detect? (sometimes the o2 sensors will detect more oxygen and increase your fuel ratio to compensate for it - I personally have not had this problem, but have heard others record it)

Speaking from my personal experience with the generator I now use and build, I have literally TRIPLED my gas mileage.

At first, with a cheaply-built generator - I only got a 23% increase on MPG. But now with my new design, I have tripled my gas mileage.

So yes, it does work if you have the right Generator and if you know a little about the process.

BTW.... There will always be these guys who say "I asked my mechanic" and of course almost all mechanics are going to say, NO .. don't do it.  Most of these guys have never tested out this science what-so-ever and are giving a common reply for someone of limited resources. They don't want their customers going ahead and suceeding in something that they themselves have either never heard of or are afraid to try themselves.  

Wake up folks, this is a new era of technology. All great science is at first objected by the narrow-minded.

Answer 6

If you're talking about hydrogen fuel cells...then they don't work along with gas and aren't available commercially.  Otherwise you might be talking about watering down your gasoline...which is bad for your engine.

Answer 7

These are just scams that come out every time the price of gas goes up.  

They do not work.  Thay can ruin your engine.

Do use them, don't fall into this scam.

Answer 8

I have heard about it and our local news team did a report and talked to a mechanic who said NOT to do it!  It will wreck your engine.

Answer 9

no i haven't and i won't.

Answer 10

Depends.  If you're trying to make free energy by dissociating water into hydrogen and oxygen with the car's own electrical system, you're fooling yourself: it takes more energy to break up water than you can get back by burning the hydrogen in the oxygen, and adding either hydrogen or oxygen to the fuel mix doesn't improve the efficiency of the burn process.  

There is, however, an old trick known as water-injection.  It would drip a tiny bit of water into the air intake whenever you were trying to go fast, and the presence of the water in the mix changed a few things in the combustion process.  It didn't save fuel, but it did make the car go a good deal faster, which is why race-car drivers used it in the 1940's and I think even later.  You can probably buy a water-injection kit at a speed shop if it interests you.  

They actually used a water-injection setup on big aircraft: the B-52 jet bomber has one, and I think big piston-engined aircraft did water injection as well.  

My guess is that you're thinking of those bogus hydrogen-production setups, though, and while they produce hydrogen and oxygen, they don't save you any gasoline.

Answer 11

no,but I'm building water injection for my diesel.In a diesel it can boost mileage up to 50%.I will use windsheild washer fluid.A gallon should last a week.When hard acellration it sprays a mist to cool intake gases.Water injection with gasoline engines allow use of low octane fuel,without lossing mpgs or power.

Answer 12

Hydrogen is not a true energy source. It is rather a way to store energy. You need energy to produce hydrogen and energy costs money.

Keep away from the smooth talkers. If you have some money to spare, keep your car in good condition and learn the energy saving tips. Did you know that you lose a lot of energy if you use wrong tire pressures?

Answer 13

Simply from a physics standpoint it is not worth trying to split water into h and o it takes a lot of energy to break apart molecules. The only place this is feasible is on submarines where this technology has been around for decades now. Subs have been using this technology so that they can stay underwater for excessively long periods of time without the crew dying of suffocation and without havening to have extra storage of oxygen. Subs take salt water in split the atoms apart then re-combine the h and o for nice clean drinking water and use some of the oxygen for breathing air.

For use inside a car though... well it seems like it would do nothing other then run your battery flat in no time flat due to power consumption after all this is done right now only on nuklear subs.

Answer 14

Yes it is called a supplement HHO system. You can make it yourself for about $40. PVC pipe, stainless steel, electricity. and water It will boost your MPG by 20-50%. There are alot of people trying to sell kits, dont buy them, just make it yourself. Google HHO, There are tons of free plans. And dont think im lying just look it up.