Ian urquhart

I wonder if any one has tried, or looked into the feasibility of, putting an HHO generator for producing hydrogen that is used to supplement the gas.
I have a 1968 Olds 98 with the 455 and it is a gas hog.
The HHO generator looks like it will give better gas mileage and is easy to install.
Some say it does not work , but others claim it will and have test data to prove it.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Ian

joe_padavano

Yeah.

Of any of these mileage improving gimmicks really worked, they would be original equipment on new cars. Automakers are spending hundreds of millions of R&D dollars to meet government imposed CAFE requirements. These gimmicks (including magnets, tornado air vortex generators, etc, etc) are conspicuously absent from new cars. You do the math.

Octania

Hah, pay no attention to Joe P.

How do you think top fuel dragsters do the 1/4 mile in 3-4 seconds?

Duh...
little 4-cyl engine
fuel line magnets - lots of them
vortex under each carb venturi
HHO generators

And a turbo feeding the blower!

joe_padavano

Chris, it's even easier than that. NHRA simple defines the quarter mile as being 1000 ft long:

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/racing...ory?id=3484086

MDchanic

I can sell you a block of special metal from the planet Krypton - If you toss it in your gas tank, it will cleanse you fuel, give it more power, give you better mileage, clean up your emissions, and even regrow your hair if you drive with the A/C vents on High and blowing at your head !

- Eric

jaunty75

The energy to produce the hydrogen in the hydrogen "generator" has to come from somewhere. From what I've heard, a car battery is often used, and it is hooked up to electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen. So whatever mileage gain you might get from adding hydrogen to the fuel mixture is offset by the energy cost in producing the hydrogen as that car battery will eventually weaken and need to be recharged.

In short, there is no free lunch.

Octania

Correct per the laws of physics. To break the H-O bonds [not H/O or Hurst/Olds!] requires energy. Combining the H and O into water releases energy. So, unless you get Hydrogen for free... you have to pay to make it. By the nature of the universe we live in, you don't get more out than you put in; there is always some loss.

On a related note- fuel line magnets-

Every time I put a magnet against steel I notice that by far most of the magnetic field goes right into and stays in the steel. Therefore, unless you have your fuel line magnet secured to a Non-Ferrous line, the magnetic field has little chance of ever reaching the fuel, let alone affecting it. Furthermore, if it was that easy to increase efficiency, then one could just use a bit of electricity to "polarize the fuel molecules".

Notice that in such advertising, they ALWAYS use the phrase "up to" to describe the gains. Gain "up to" 10% or 5 mpg... Notice also that, strictly speaking, they are only guaranteeing that your gains will NOT be MORE THAN that figure. Your gains may be less, or zero, or even NEGATIVE [a loss]... and still have been accurately described. Now, who's going to complain if somehow they accidentally got WAY MORE than the advertised gain?

Marketing.

I think we ought to disallow the phrase "up to" in ads and claims of effectiveness, and require "at least" instead. That'd put a stop to that sort of nonsense.

DeltaPace77

As mentioned, producing hydrogen gas requires energy. Recall an old movie with Recardo Montoban, where was driving kids in an old school bus with a hydrogen generator to power it. Thing was on top, burning whatever they could find.

jaunty75

It's actually Ricardo Montalban, for anyone trying to do a google search and coming up short!

RandyS

Or Google 'Fine Corinthian Leather'..........LOL

jaunty75

I've been searching the internet high and low and can't find any reference to a movie or TV series in which Ricardo Montalban played a character driving a hydrogen-powered school bus. Do you have any more info on this?

Run to Rund

Perpetual motion machines have been cleverly marketed since about a week after machines were invented. Unfortunately, the first and second laws of thermodynamics still hold, and none of them have worked. HHO indeed! how much pseudo science do you believe? Did you really fail chemistry in high school, lol?

jaunty75

Good article here dating from 2008.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars...ileage/4276846

MDchanic

That pretty much says it all.

But, looked at literally, it sadly says it all.
If we paid as much attention to science education in this country as some other countries do (Ahemrussia...Errchina...Harrumphindia), we'd have a lot less of this nonsense.

- Eric

DeltaPace77

Actually, a quick search shows it to be a made for TV movie called The Longest Hundred Miles. Was just a little kid seeing it at my grandfathers house, and had no idea what was on top of the bus. My grandfather did though. The movie may have sucked, but liked it as a little kid. As for the Corinthian leather comment, recall seeing Recardo Montalban in an interview, and just something he made up, as sounded pretty cool.

MDchanic

Actually, a quick search shows that "The Longest Hundred Miles" was a WWII flick, made in 1967 and shown in movie theaters.



It was about a priest taking a busload of orphans to safety during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.

The contraption on top of the bus would have been a wood-gas generator, a device that was popular during WWII in places where regular fuels were in short supply.

These devices generate a combustible gas mixture containing hydrogen, methane, and other gasses, as well as large amounts of non-combustible carbon monoxide and nitrogen, by heating wood or charcoal, and blowing air over it. The gas comes out at a concentration that will run an internal combustion engine reasonably well when piped into the air intake of the carburetor as-is.



They are not magical hydrogen generators, but instead take shovel-loads of wood, heat them over hours, and make it possible for a vehicle to barely get out of its own way under dire wartime circumstances.

- Eric