So I was talking with this old man that has been in business for himself for many years and he was telling me about an idea of his. A small pvc canister with some stainless plates and water inside of it. When hooked to an electrical source he uses this to make hydrogen that is injected into your intake in very small amounts to improve gas mileage. It costs about 800.00 installed but is proven on some diesel engines to gain up to 10mpg. It took my dads 2008 twin turbo power stroke from 12 to 19 in the city and 15 to 24.5 on the highway. This also works on gasoline engines as he installed one on his wifes car. Anyone looking for some gains and isnt worried about spending a little money should look into this system. I will get some contact info for anyone interested. Also I am told that hydrogen burns cleaner than gasoline or dieselso this is supposedly very good for your vehicle. You obviously still have to fill up withgas or diesel but if it wouldmake my tanks last that much longer I think its totally worth it.

 

There are several flaws to this system. Your best bet would be to do the research and make one yourself. There are tons of website with detailed info on the theory and construction of such devices. You will buy the kit for $800, maybe gain a few MPGs, and it will take at least a year, maybe 2 to get that money back out of the system, and by then it will need rebuilt I am sure. I have started collecting the parts to do it myself, but have not had the time to start. I have a Geo that I might use as a guinnea pig before I mess with my truck. Here are some things you need to keep in mind:

1. Propper materials, using sh*tty metal for the electrodes will mean you will have to rebuild the thing every month or so. You also need some kind of acid or base to ge tthe desired effect of the "electrolisis". I recomend a base as the probes will last longer in a base than an acid. I can't remember the name of the stuff most people recommend but you have to get it at a chemical supply place. I am thinking COPPER.
2. The units designed for car will never work with a truck, especially a deisel. That litte canister, even filled with electrodes will never provide enough hydrogen to make a noticable dent in your MPGs. You need a much bigger canister, bigger electrodes, slightly higher current in order to produce more hydrogen, and therefore better MPGS. I am using a 1.5 gallon plastic jug.
3. You need to get the electrical design just right. AND THIS IS MY WEAK SPOT. You need to regulate the current from 12V to between 2V-5V. If you dont you will be replacing electrodes every month or two as 12V will burn them up quicker. You also need some way to either alternate the voltage or turn it off. The best method would be regualting the voltage VIA the throttle. Example: The more you hit the gas the more current, therefore the more hydrogen being produced. Doing it this way also puts less strain on you electrical system while at lower RPMs. The less parasitic drain the better. I haven't figured this stuff out yet.

 

You sound like you have done alot of research on this... the one that my dad had installed on his truck is about the size of a 24oz beer can and it has made some pretty significant gains on that particular truck. The guy who made that particular product is no dummy though, He actually is the guy who invented the fuel water seperator that Ford uses on their diesels today. He sold that idea (which he patented)to them for like 1.5 million or something like that. Anyway, Im gonna see how this one works out on my dads truck for a while before putting one on mine but it seems like a pretty good product so far!

 

Yeah some trucks vary though. Like the guy with the escort who got 60 mpg. A guy posted no noticeable gains on his TBI chevy truck with the same set up. And if you think about it, it just makes sense needing more hydrogen for more cubic inches of engine.

But besides that, I would still look into building your own. It is time consuming but fairly easy to pull off. Like I stated before, getting the current just right and maybe the delivery of hydrogen just right would be the only difficult steps.

 

I have seen an on-going thread on another forum about this... just to add another aspect of difficulty, apparently you have to also space the O2 sensors off the exhaust 1-2" so it won't pick up the increased levels of oxygen in the exhaust. If it senses high levels of O2, you will actually see a decrease in mileage because it will run rich.
Also another difficulty is containing the hydrogen. It flows directly through plastic. It doesn't immediately escape, but it can be loosely compared to helium escaping from a balloon. You'll lose a lot of hydrogen, but retain a lot of Oxygen.

Its unclear whether the extra oxygen or the hydrogen actually does the majority of the mileage improvement.

 

...thats why guys use the throttle setup so hydrogen is produced as needed. But luckily, since the hydrogen is lighter than oxygen, you will pull the hydrogen off from the container first. I agree that some hydrogen will escape, (another reason I say to make the container bigger and therefore the output of hydrogen). One method people used is the placement of the hoses in order to pick up more hydrogen than oxygen. The idea is, when using posts and not coils, you can have a post on each side spread apart and the negative side emits one type of gas, and the positive another (can't remember which was which). Anyway, they sort of sectioned off the one side a little (a wall about half way down the middle of the container, and had the hose which pulled air from the container on the hydrogen side. I see that being a problem only when the container was very low on water and there is a ton of oxygen left in the container. It would be both volitile and hard on MPG when the engine pulled it in.

Hey guys......why don't we all work on this thing? Liek trial an error and see what happens? I think we could really do some good here.

 

I can't sinkhundreds ofbucks.. lol. I know a guy that is building a HHO unit and when the forum is out of the maintenance period, I'll get a link.

 

Yeah, Ive researched and looked at tons of ideas on this. The guy Ive been talking to about it built one about the size of a car battery and relocated the battery in his daughters car to the trunk and put it in the spot of the battery and he said there was to much hydrogen flow and it caused the gas mileage to significantly(sp) decrease. As far as the smaller unit it worked well. So far so good on the one my dad has, makes good gains and no maint. has needed to be done on it to keep it up and going. I will deff look into making one myself becase my dad is very interested and would most likely fund the research, planning, and development. Im actually going to talk to him about that soon!

 

I want to **** around with this stuff too but I am not spending tons of dough. Already have vacuum lines, fuel tubing, vacuum "T"s, wire and 1 gallon heavy duty container. Still need a resistor of some kind, copper tubing, the chemicals and I am looking for some sort of TP switch that I can use for the throttle.

 

Mythbuster's tried it. It is BUSTED.