Air Date: May 10, 2006
Under the right conditions, farm chemicals can cause a pair of trousers to spontaneously combust if they are spilt on it and subjected to normal wear and abuse.
confirmed
The Build Team tried to ignite cotton denim pant swatches soaked in fertilizer, gun cotton solution, black powder, and the herbicide sodium chlorate using an open flame, radiant heat source, friction, and impact, but only the herbicide could ignite with sufficient energy under the above conditions (except for friction), and it was particularly reactive to impact. In a full-scale experiment using Buster, paramedics on-hand stated that Buster would most likely survive from the blast with only some burns.
(This myth comes from New Zealand in the early 1930s, where an epidemic of the myth had rampaged, injuring and even killing farmers. The culprit was a then-unknown chemical substance that farmers began using in large quantities at the time.)
You can "stick it to The Man" and get cheap uber-fuel efficiency with carburetor magnets.
busted
No change to fuel efficiency.
You can "stick it to The Man" and get cheap uber-fuel efficiency with acetone mixed with the gasoline.
busted
The acetone was less fuel efficient.
You can "stick it to The Man" and get cheap uber-fuel efficiency with "miracle carburetor."
busted
Far less fuel efficient.
You can "stick it to The Man" and get cheap uber-fuel efficiency with a hydrogen fuel cell.
busted
The cell didn’t work with the car, and while the car did start unmodified when pure hydrogen was introduced, the hydrogen was also violently ignited soon afterwards, making it an unlikely - and expensive - alternative.
You can "stick it to The Man" and get cheap uber-fuel efficiency with used cooking oil, rather than regular fuel.
partly confirmed
Although there’s no word on damage to the engine from using used cooking oil, a diesel-fueled car did run on it. However, the MythBusters speculate that once this alternative fuel achieves a significant interest level among the public, used cooking oil will be hoarded as a salable commodity. The used cooking oil also did not quite fit the requirement of improved fuel efficiency, as it yielded approximately 10% less distance for an equivalent amount of diesel.
Newer: Episode 54: "Crimes and Myth-Demeanors 1: Great Hollywood Heists"
Older: Episode 52: "Mind Control"
Have you done a study on cars running on water (hydrogen).
June 24, 2007 at 1:16 AMI really wanted hydrog powered cars ;D
we have to change b4 the environment does D:
July 11, 2007 at 11:41 PMactually the science of this stuff has been done many times before. it is plausible to get the right diesel engine to run on water, vegetable oil, and synthetic diesel produced from trash.
July 16, 2007 at 4:54 PMCars can run on water through process called electrolysis. You can break water up into its components, hydrogen and oxygen. You can then run your car on the hydrogen produced.
September 6, 2007 at 8:55 AMwhile the big conglomerates have control over our economy (lobbyists)..the agriculture industry is puttin pressure on our elected officials (what a joke)..for renewalable fuels. Meanwhile..maintain tire pressure..filters..oil..etc..and most of all…VOTE..and get involved..IT WORKS!!
September 12, 2007 at 2:29 AMI want MORE info about the operation of a deisel engine on cooking oil. I think everyone is in disbelief that it is possible, or won’t hurt the engine in the long run. Where might I find more info?
September 20, 2007 at 8:49 AMOverhere in Europe it’s quite common to run your diesel powered car on vegetable oil. It will run unmodified with a 50/50 mix, or with modification on 100% vegetable oil/cooking oil. The modification required a preheating unit to be installed to make the cooking oil more liquid on cold days. I run a Peugeot 205 diesel on a 50/50 mix of diesel and sunflower oil from the local supermarket (which is cheaper per litre than diesel fuel).
September 24, 2007 at 1:36 PMI’m ready to believe that acetone could work and needs to be revisited. I certainly could do with some more research, but from what i can tell, 90% of the internet community is convinced that the correct amount of acetone increases effeciency. Correct ratios are the most important thing in chemistry.
This leads me to two conclusions, either they are all trying to scam us (from which they have nothing to gain, acetone is cheap and avalible everywhere), or it is illegal and this is the reasons that we haven’t heard anything about it in the newspaper or on television (i wonder if they’d do a serious sixty minutes on mileage myths).
P.S. and using water for fuel is not entirely an uneducated concept. With an external fuel source, whater vaporizes and increases in entropy, as we all know from steam engines. There was a Time article about a man who built a diesel engine to incorporate some water in the compustion, which he claims increases the efficiency of his motor by basically diluting the fuel. More liquid is consumed, but less of it is diesel.
November 15, 2007 at 2:51 PMIn regards to the exploding pants.
December 31, 2007 at 8:16 PMBack in the 30′we carried wooden matches in our pockets. more then once most of us found our pockets on fire due to the friction of them striking each other. Try it.
I think the mythbusters should retry the water fuel but using browns gas HHO and a high yield of the gas. I think that something that produces the gas in large amounts would give you much higher fuel savings but also the car needs to run much leaner as well. And with fuel injection systems the oxygen sensor tells the engine it’s burning to clean when HHO is added and dumps more fuel into it. Really I think you need to try this again, or are you being payed off by “the man” to make it not work? Think about it.
January 14, 2008 at 10:45 AMThank you Aaron for saying that “the man” could be involved here. I think that could very well be the reason. Also why hasn’t anyone mentioned combining the HHO if nessary with BUTANOL insted of gasoline? Please look it up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biobutanol Ethanol is a joke compared to this stuff.
February 6, 2008 at 11:22 AMAs well as angle labs MYT engine that our tax money through N.A.S.A. helped to get to the stage it was at in 2006 the newest info I can find about it is that old.(please read the forum page to help with your decision.) Please help in finding out more about this engine. Think about all the above things combined some how and the big oil companies working with the auto industry are done for. If this dosn’t convince you that “the man” is involved then something is wrong with you. Most of us suspected it but I believe this is proof, everyone who ever gets caught doing wrong usually gets too greedy and makes a mistake.
I’m of the opinion that all of the tested gas savers work (bar the magnets, I know nothing about them), but you have to look at how they work to apply them properly.
Acetone: A ratio of 1:3000 to 1:5000 is recomended. Thats 2-3ml per litre of petrol.
Hydrogen: Having not seen the episode, I can’t be sure of what they did, but hydrogen cannot be used (efficiently) as the main fuel for an engine. The energy gained from burning can’t be compared to the energy consumed in creating it. What it is good at is being a supplemental fuel. It does this because it burns far faster than gasoline. It enables all the fuel to burn faster, reducing the need for spark lead (ignition advance). As a bonus, because it all burns faster, anything that can burn is usually burnt before leaving the engine, so more energy is released from the fuel, and you end up with less unburnt fuel coming out the tailpipe (that’s what the HC is on your emmissions sheet, lower is better).
As for supercarbs? There are two types; cracking and vaporising.
Cracking carbs reform the fuel into something lighter and more gaseous (ie one kg of petrol becomes 1kg of methane), and they typically have large gains. They almost exclusively use high heat and large metal surfaces to achieve this. They have problems with deposits forming after a short while, significantly reducing the ability to reform the fuel. Whether these deposits are from “The Man” or simple chemistry is much debated.
The vaporising carbs do just that, use heat, mechanical, or torturous/obscured inlet paths to vaporise the fuel completely. Characterised by low heat levels (if heated at all), they have lower, more consitant gains than the cracking carbies (but still in the 20-30% range oer EFI, and far more than that over conventional carburettors).
If you have more questions I’ll try and answer them. e-mail ‘benof1987 [at] hotmail [dot] com’. Obviously (or at least I hope) replace the [word] with it’s character.
cya
February 10, 2008 at 6:55 AMBen
I have a 1985 Isuzu Trooper Diesel that I have only run about 10 gallons of actual diesel fuel through the motor , just to tune the motor after I got it running . Lately I’ve been using new veggie oil to run the motor as it only cost m,e about 1.33 per gallon (7.99 a case of 6 gallon ) .I have run this set up for over 2 years now. the book says fuel effiency is about 26 mpg. for this vehicle, I get 32mpg but the turbo unit is not stock . the reason the car was parked and sold to me because of the bad turbo charger . so I have no idea whether or not the apparent increase in mileage is due to the turbo upgrade or the use of veggie oil or maybe bad stats in the book?
February 20, 2008 at 1:27 AMI don’t understand how claims can be made that the electrolysis process is inefficient and that the use of water as a fuel source is not a good one? There are multiple organizations around the globe dedicated to the pursuit of this goal and many many many successes.
February 21, 2008 at 11:39 AMI think the water4gas site could be onto something. I served in the Navy for 16 years and was on four submarines. My job, one of many, was to run the onboard electrolytic oxygen generator (Treadwell corporation model number: 6L16) which used 16 cells hooked up in the same matter as described on their website. Our difference was we used potassium hydroxide as the catalyst and ran up to 1050 amps (thats not a typo)to take distilled water, split it up into 250 standard cubic feet of hydrogen per hour and 125 standard cubic feet of oxygen per hour. We would discharge the hydrogen overboard back into the sea and store the O2 in storage banks for later use. Their rig in my opinion could actually do what they say it does.
February 27, 2008 at 1:02 AMI find the discussions of energy from water interesting. What really bugs me is I remember from Expo ‘86 in Vancouver BC, in the German Pavilion, right at the entrance, was a Mercedes Benz that ran on water. It was a working car. I have no idea how efficient it was but it was there. Whatever happened to it??
February 27, 2008 at 11:51 AMBTW, running a vehicle on anything other than what the oil companies say you can… Who runs the world? People who own the oil are billionaires many times over, if it was as easy as topping up from the tap (faucet) who do you think would lose their substantial income?
March 9, 2008 at 2:59 PMIt has been suggested that at current usage, oil will dry up in 50 years, I’d stake my next paycheck on the oil companies having quite a few alternatives ready to roll out when that day comes - and I’ll bet the alternatives will cost us - and if we can use water, I’ll bet it has to have a secret ingredient added at the forecourt - an ingredient which the oil companies can charge us dearly for.
I really don’t want to believe in this cars running on water thing. But according to my research this technology was patented by different people starting from 1970s. There are also news items from CNN, FOX, NBC etc about this and they say “it has passed all safety tests so far”. I almost want to try this out, one of these days I might, I don’t know. And the way I understood, it’s not hydrogen, that they produce, they produce something called HHO/oxyhydrogen and that’s what’s used to compliment gasoline. Don’t ask me why HHO is different from H2O. This site goes on to show the science behind the technology which is the power of oxyhydrogen.
March 22, 2008 at 11:26 PMRegarding the Hydrogen Test. I saw what looked like an electrolyzer in this episode, but heard no mention of an electrolite ie…baking soda. Also, saw no aparent action in the ‘hydrogen’ device.
I am still wondering if the water4gas device is simply a water vapor injector..via manifold vacuum with added (yet unmeasured) help from the H and O gaseous mixture. Engine seems to run more smoothly even without the electric turned on, making me wonder which portion of the increased performance really comes from the electrolisis…
I think everyone has probably experienced increased engine performance, in the morning, when the air is cold out, and contains higher levels of water…
Just Sayin’
April 15, 2008 at 7:25 PMI have just started my search in to HHO’s Truth or BS. I will say this, we were able to take some copper wire, tap water and salt. Distilled water and baking soda are the recommended electrolite which we didn’t have on hand. Wrapped the copper around a piece of cpvc, placed in the water, and connected to a 12v car battery. Instantly bubbles where prduced from the copper wires. One side releases oxygen, the other hydrogen. Being that this is the first test to “see” if its worth spending the time, we took a plastic sandwich bag to collect some of the gas. Because of the setup, it wasn’t very efficient, but we where a;be to harness about 1 sq inch of air roughly. We then placed a flame to the bag and it “Popped” with a nice little bang of flame. So this proved to me that there was enough H released to actually see. Now we are going to build a generator and fine tune the conductive surface and the electrolite solution to get maximum HHO release vs AMP draw.
April 21, 2008 at 1:56 PMGreat stuff Dave Austin, looking forward to trying it myself.
May 4, 2008 at 3:07 PMI find this topic very interesting because of the changing times, who controls a majority of the world oil AND the fact that I drive approx. 130 miles ONE WAY to work daily. I have a 2002 F150 and would enjoy this “water4gas” technology. Very interesting.
May 16, 2008 at 10:25 PMOne more thing, can some one answer why gas is so high?
I asked a few people this, and they said there was a shortage on the market, WRONG. Not true. There is no shortage. The beautiful people in the stock market trading futures made the oil prices this high.
How come over seas most small vehicles are diesel powered? But in America they arent? I have a Mercedes 4 wheel drive SUV that has a tow capability of 7000 pounds, gets to 60 in 6.5 seconds, seats 5 adults, and I get 26 MPG in CITY!! Its a very small 2.0 diesel engine that beats my F150 V8 stop light to stop light, and when my Ford tops out at 98 MPH, my Mercedes will fly past it like it was sitting still.
Now Toyota and Chevy just released this year, SUV Hybrids for thou$sands more than the regular models that get the same gas mileage as my Diesel. ??
Volkswagon sold diesel cars here in the 80’s and 90’s that got a LOT better gas mileage than the current models do, had more power, lasted longer! (They still do in other countries) Why not here in the US??
Saudi Arabia said they could not increase oil production, as they were already producing the same amount that the buyers are buying. There is no shortage. If there was a shortage, they would increase production, but at this time, there is no shortage or even a hint of a shortage.
People in America and UK have caused this oil price! When you own it, you scare people into thinking there is a shortage, and the price goes up and you make more money!
If you want to see oil prices fall, then people have to quit selling futures! As long as we are willing to buy it at that price, the price will keep going up, making them more money!
I would love to see Myth Busters work on the browns gas (That I have seen work!) in a car and publich it on national TV. I dont think they will, as mentioned before, sponsers wont sponser a show that costs them money and if they were able to prove it worked (Which many thousands of people already know it does and use it) then that would lower use, which would lower profits for the big people. And we all know we cant have that.
maybe they can do a special on what was different in the late 80’s and early 90’s when Many import cars were getting better gas mileage than the “new improved” models are today? How about an example, remember the Honda CRX? Any one remember the gas mileage when it was new? Almost as good as the current hybrid!!!! And it would smoke the tires! Why dont people question things like this? This is just one example, there are many, many more like it.
Then for Myth Busters to do the best Myth of all time, that the Govt and Big corporations cause our issues like this to make them selves more money at our expense. Can we get that myth busted : )
Yea, I know no future in that, but love your show anyway!
May 16, 2008 at 10:29 PMThe main reason that it’s harder to make cars in America with good fuel economy like the VWs of the past is safety standards. We continue to design vehicles that can sustain a greater and greater crash impact and ignore the real problem: the drivers themselves. So what you get is vehicles that are safer in a crash, yet are hundreds and hundreds of pounds heavier because of all the extra weight of side impact beams and huge bumpers to make it safer if you hit a pedestrian (notice how new cars have GIGANTIC bumpers?) The cars they drive in Europe wouldn’t meet the American crash test standards: they’re too light and can’t handle the impact of a 7000-pound SUV well enough. I once had a Geo Metro with a 1.0L 3-cylinder engine that got pretty darn good gas mileage (around 45 MPG) and it was a 3-speed automatic if memory serves me correctly. Auto technology and a good old 5-speed manual transmission enables me to get nearly the same MPG out of a 1.9L SOHC Saturn S-series engine in a significantly bigger car, but the reason that the inefficient Metro got such good mileage was this: the car was like a rolling soda can and the engine was a very low displacement for a car. There was not a lot in the way of “reinforcement” in that Metro. (It got dented once, and I took the fender off AND FIXED THE DENT BY BENDING IT AROUND THE TOP OF MY LEG WITH MY ARMS.)
May 20, 2008 at 8:42 AMIt is one model for sub-atomic physics, as apposed to an extension of our pre-defined model (electrons/protons/neutrons). Bull baffles brains, O’ studious one. your mind has been propagated. Let’s try a little lateral thinking. One cannot break the first law of thermal dynamics. true. but there are loop holes. ie. fisson. ie. fusion. the way we go about the latter sucks (deuterium/tritium/lithium 6/lithium 7 {7 used in breeders cause it releases tritium as a by product}). free neutrons = free (available) energy. How does one make neutrons? expose a proton, and let it fly into an electron. nuclei stay put normally. they are positive and push each other away.
Thus they normally stay put. the electrons surrounding maintain the integrity of the nucleolus. the neutrons within, coupled with the constant repulsion of other nuclei keep the electrons in place. so what happens when we send a stray proton wandering about? It hits an electron, and becomes a neutron. How do we get stray protons? we split water via high-voltage (low current, short electrode gap), pulsed
“electrolysis”. This fractures water into H1, which doesn’t occur naturally on this planet, and O1, ditto. partially. the rest of the gas is H2 and O2. HHO/Brown’s/Klein’s gas is not a compound. It is a mixture of gases. H1, O1, H2, O2. when we heat H1 (by burning its neighbours), it expands. when it expands, its electron goes further from its nucleus.
an H1 nucleous is just a proton. this leaves the proton exposed to the electron blanket that flows between all nuclei. bang. Micro-fusion. And that’s why Brown’s gas mixture can weld aluminium to brick. It produces energy from mass. it’s not free energy, it’s just from a different bank account. I’m not qualified to say this of course, but if there where a degree in common sense, it would be the only one I’d need. I don’t have any big words to back me up either, but I do have 2 quotations, both by Galileo Galilei.
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
June 1, 2008 at 11:31 AM“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.”
The water4gas thing works on another basis..
June 3, 2008 at 4:52 AMWater4gas being the system in which you still use fossil fuel, and you boost your power by using surplus energy gathered by the alternator to do ordinary electrolysis, and feeding the H2/O2 mixture into the the fuel/air line. Your car will still use its normal petrol ignition. It will be exactly the same in the cold as it is now. You’ll just get more power on the road with less pressure on the accelerator. Hybrid cars recycle alternator energy into their batteries. This is relatively the same logic.
Except hybrids store the energy, and use it later,
June 3, 2008 at 4:58 AMAnd the water4gas system boosts economy, giving you more HP for less fossil fuel.
Josh, that’s not Brown’s gas, you’re producing 2H2 and O2. Standard electrolysis. Yes, this is what water4gas does to increase mpg. “Brown’s gas” or 2H2 + O2 + 2H1 + O1 is way more special. Lowest current, highest voltage, pulse it in pulsed pulses and you fracture water, getting some H1. H1 is why Brown’s gas does what it does. Build the PWM, run the battery through it. get your cathode and anode as close as possible to each other to minimize current draw.
June 3, 2008 at 6:50 AM“The cell didn’t work with the car, and while the car did start “unmodified” when pure hydrogen was introduced, “the hydrogen was also violently ignited soon afterwards, making it an unlikely - and expensive - alternative”
Of course it will ignite violently!!!!! Gas will to, if you did it the way that you put pure hydrogen to it. HA, if it didn’t then it wouldn’t be any good, hydrogen would be useless. Use some common sense guys, come on.
You wouldnt pour gas into the carburetor while the engine is running then pour it over onto the engine now would you? Hydrogen is a “gas” which you can’t see, duh. Don’t make it out to be some horrible gas that will blow everybody up. Wow guys! I think you need to reword this.
June 10, 2008 at 12:42 PMWater4gas may not have exactly the best design out there; I do believe that this is feasible to do. ixlr8, People have not been all that interested in this until gas prices have hit $4.00 a gallon, so really why would someone pay to market this product when there has not been any demand? Creating a hydrogen generator is not for everyone, because it may be too cumbersome for them to pop the hood, and put distilled water and potassium hydroxide into a tank. People like ixlr8 and Dave, are just too damn lazy to find out for themselves if it works. I was very leery about spending the money to see if this gas can really be created. Especially since it was not at AutoZone or “Pep boys” but I tried a little experiment with it. They did not give any explanation of why it wouldn’t work, or even mention the fact that they have tried it.
June 12, 2008 at 8:51 AMTake two razor blades, one will be the positive current and the other would be the negative. Put electrical tape or double sided tape between the two and make sure that they are not touching, but have a small distance between them. Put some water and baking soda in a cup. Try to get a small bubble to form (somewhat difficult) at the top of the water and light it up. I had a pop sound which was definitely an explosive gas. In other words, it was not just an air bubble popping. There is also tons of stuff on YouTube, which I don’t trust them all.
If you can get that from two small razor blades then surely you can get more flammable gas to form with 16 Stainless steel plates, distilled water, and potassium hydroxide. Tap water has impurities in it which will turn the water brown; this is the reason for distilled water.
I have yet to see someone that says it does not work, but has tried it. I even went to ebay and randomly ask people that have bought the item from another ebayer. There answer was, “I have a Dodge Ram 1500 4.7 liter, and went from 14 mpg to 22 mpg, but he used aluminum foil to fool the oxygen sensor.
There are several other factors that you need to consider then just installing the generator. You will need an EFIE (Electronic Fuel Injection Enhancer) to fool your computer into letting the extra gas be used to burn the vapor. The oxygen sensor will think that it is burning to lean and throw more gas into the mixture. It is also better to install a PWM (Pulse Width Modulator) to keep from your generator from getting to hot and turning the water into steam. The PWM will also aid in the product on HHO.
No, I have not made a working version of this system yet, but I am willing to get off my lazy ass and at least try it. I am waiting on some items that I need to create the generator. I have been researching it for the past 2 weeks, and have yet to hear that someone had tried it and made a serious attempt, and it didn’t work for them.
Mythbusters, your experiment did not have an electrolyte…? Plus, I have not found that design on the net anywhere. I had tons more bubbles from two razor blades and a cup of tap water. In your experiment, you were trying to run the car completely off hydrogen with the generator. Why not run another episode with a different design, because you made that one look big and bulky, far bigger then it needed to be. This type of generator will not produce enough hydrogen to run a car completely off hydrogen, but if you make a hybrid (“gas” & “HHO Vapor”) then it should increases the mpg.
This is not pure hydrogen but if it assists the gas engine in combustion, and increases the mpg. Then I am willing to give it a shot. I will keep you updated if I get to work.
I am going on a cruize with a friend who has installed this system in a 2004 VW Jetta GLI. We are filling up, and driving for 2 hours straight, stopping and resting, then driving another 2 hours back. After that 4 combined hours of driving, we will top off the tank, and subsequently match the odometer reading with the starting ODO. Reading. That will tell us exactly how many MPG he’s got. This car is rated by the EPA at 21 city, 30mpg Highway. The entirety of the test will be performed on the highway as to produce the most accurate results. Im expecting anywhere between 30-40mpg being a “safety zone” of comfort, meaning, If he’s babying the throttle, or driving really conservatively and trying to hypermile, maybe that could be a margin of error. Anything over 40mpg, and I PERSONALLY will be making a device like this.
June 18, 2008 at 3:58 AMI know at least one person who is building drag race motorcycles using quite old Ducati V2 engines, and he was using (but IIRC was forbidden to do it because of the rules) a water injection system to boost performance.
The injected water did a) cool the engine and b) convert the heat the inefficient engine produces into expanding steam, thereby recovering a part of the otherwise lost thermal energy.
A short google search also showed other sites offering water-injection for drag-racing cars. I would therefore think the whole “HHO or Brown´s gas” stuff is just a way to get the water into the engines burning chambers, without complicated injection methods. As water4gas also offers what they call a “Vaporizer” or using the device in winter as that, I think that is what they are doing. There is no hydrogen magic going on here, but using that effect of evaporating water to convert the engines heat into pressure.
I also remember that water/diesel mixtures were used to reduce NOX emissions and increase mileage in buses here in Germany, but I don´t know whether it was more than a test.
In short: Has probably to do nothing with the production and burning of Hydrogen for power, but recovering part of thermal energy and converting it back into pressure used to drive the pistons. Is for some reason not used in unmodified cars which probably has some reason…
June 18, 2008 at 11:29 AMThis is what we are talking about: (Basic)
Hydrogen can be generated from water by `splitting’ it from oxygen. The most well-known process is electrolysis, but other mechanisms exist as well, such as catalyst in the presence of heat (e.g. solar), or superimposing radio frequencies.
The generator will separate the water into its gaseous state by electrolysis. H20 = HHO when separated, meaning 2 parts hydrogen 1 part oxygen.
This “Vapor” (HHO) is then feed into the air intake and then combusted with the gas mixture; thus increasing gas mileage.
June 18, 2008 at 1:52 PMThis is simply the same effect that you get from a hybrid electric vehicle. You are using the engine to produce enough electricity to charge the batteries. Except now you are using the electricity for the process in electrolysis. Hybrid HHO vehicle
June 18, 2008 at 2:41 PMMythbusters – Please revisit this myth. In the exploding pants episode you tried to run the car on hydrogen alone but not as a supplement to gasoline. The reason the engine backfired was probably because you did not bring the timing to about 0 TDC, this is necessary due to the fact that hydrogen burns at an order of magnitude more rapidly than gasoline. I recommend not trying to run totally on hydrogen anyway. Instead, I suggest generating hydrogen using the engines wasted heat/exhaust to generate it then take this hydrogen and add to the engines intake along with the normal gasoline injection system. It should improve combustion of the gasoline increasing overall efficiency. My approach is novel in that I am not suggesting a perpetual motion device like these guys that insist on using the existing electrical system. Draining ANY energy from the existing electrical system to try and make more energy is just plain ignorant thinking. My concept simply recovers already wasted energy. There are multiple ways to accomplish this. I mentioned one possible way in an earlier post but lets see where this goes…
June 18, 2008 at 3:24 PMWell i am thinking it is safe to say that the hydrogen fuel cells do work. honda announced that they are putting a car with this technology into production, and i am also going to be trying it out myself.
June 21, 2008 at 3:15 AMGentlemen, I am glad that we are having these discussion; it shows that there are alot of thinkers out there. I have successfully built an hydrogen generator for my 92 Suzuki Sidekick three weeks ago. The first version I used 22 3×5 SS plates; 11 positive and 11 negative, the spacing was 1/16 between plates. I first used no baking soda,, it did produce some fizzing but not as much as when I added the mixture of 5 teaspoon of baking soda to 1 gallon mix. The plates were set inside a square 7×7 electrical waterproof enclosure made out of plastic. When hooking up the battery, the load was greater than 30 amps. I know this because I was using a stewart warner inline amp gauge and it pegged the meter, i also confirmed the amperage by adding a 30 amp fues which blew. Never the less it was tested on the bench and it bubbled violently.
I then placed two studs on the lid to be used for + and - lugs and a hose barb to route the gas. This lid was fastened to the enclosure after the plates were wired to the bottom of the lid. A hose was connected to the hose barb and power was applied to the lugs,, the end of the hose was placed in a bucket to see the bubles come out. To prove that this gas was flammable/explosive, I filled a medical glove like a balloon and cinched the bottom with vise grip wrench. The glove was placed on the grass and with a long pole with lighter attached I ignited the glove. The glove exploded violently like a 30-06 rifle blast, no signs of flames were visible when exploding the three glove tests.
This hydrogen generator was installed in the carburator inlet at first; in this scenario i went from 21 MPG to 23 MPG.
The second test, I placed the hose to the intake manifold; I went to 26.5 MPG.
Both these test I had the water mix at 1 teaspoon of soda to 1 gallon of regular tap water, driving to and from work which is 53 miles and an average speed of 56 MPH, filling each day and doing the math.
It was evedent that the box would get extremely hot and under the vacuum scenario it would cave a bit in itself.
A third test was conducted with the mixture to 5 teaspoon added to 1 Gl of water, during the ride to work the plastic around one of the lug melted due to the heat and the air started to come into the box; I had to pull to the side of the road and place the vacuum system back to normal for that ride. I do not suggest anyone using a square plastic enclosure for this type of project.
I recently built a cylindrical casing made out of PVC, which has held up to the vacuum and temperature.
I have spent much preplanning for this project; one of my concerns was the alternator disussion mentioned above. I can say for fact that the HHO generator does put a load on the alternator, BUT the load is rewarded by the extra MPG that i’m getting. I did not purchase any plans, I am not sponsoring any company selling an HHO kit. I am just someone like many of you that are hurting everytime we have to fill our tanks with fuel.
When the gallon of gas was less, we didn’t care about any of these projects; I would use my boat every weekend, I would tow my RV with my Honda Ridgline, we would go on drives to to get out of the house. Now that the price of gas is so high, we consolidate our trips to maximize our driving, I stopped using the boat and do more bank fishing,, stop using the RV trailer and scaled down to a teardrop trailer.
I really think that we need to start making a lifestyle change in order to make ends meet; I commend our European friends for not falling into bigger is better mentallity that we have in the US. The status of having a Hummer or a big SUV has put us in this situation,, let me stop typing since I don’t want to vere off from the topic at hand.
I just wanted to let everyone know that HHO generators do work,, and ask everyone to keep an open mind. Please keep well and I hope everone has the opportunity to just do more than talk about it.
June 23, 2008 at 10:33 AMHey guys!!
2001 Dodge Dakota 4.7 liter V8
Guess what, it works! I got 19.7 mpg coming into work this morning, and i took back roads and came through town, and had to stop at 2 stop lights, and chase down my girlfriend because she forgot her cell phone this morning. I dont even have a o2 sensor enhancer, or anything done to the engine! I am thinking that i could get better if i get the o2 sensor enhancer (EFIE)
It took some time to build but it is worth it so far!
June 30, 2008 at 7:39 AMIf the HHO generator really worked? I would think a company like GM, with the stock price at a 53 year low, jump on converting every car and SUV to increase mileage and sales.
July 10, 2008 at 1:47 AMTony,
You are talking about a Company (GM) that did this to their EV1’s.
Rally on Feb. 26. Former EV1 drivers continued to offer to purchase their cars for cash for years.
This is a check for $1,700,000 representing the $24,000 residual value
for each of the 77 remaining EV1 6-year old used cars.
GM refused to sell, and continued crushing and destroying the last of the EV1. Which was an estimated cost of $600 per car to crush. Why would they spend money to crush them all? And not sell them to make up some of the money lost?
Why does an oil company control the worldwide patent rights for the EV batteries?
July 10, 2008 at 1:12 PMWhat a scam! They tested most of these IN COMBINATION WITH GASOLINE. However, they tested hydrogen alone, and direct fed into the carb. (wrong and dangerous)
I am running HHO (generated under my hood) IN ADDITION TO GASOLINE, and I’m seeing significant fuel savings!
Are they so dumb, they don’t know how to do it right, or are they misleading people intentionally?
July 15, 2008 at 1:59 PMIdaho here. Mythbusters needs to re-open and get a-hold of “SMACK.” Smack is an animated character and explains thoroughly his design and plans for a Hydrogen booster. Also, The safety measurements MUST be mentioned. Theres form in the function and never enough for safety! The cell you build can be run and PULSE MODULATED (google this) with a device called a VMU available from hydroxycorp.com. I hope this information was useful. BUILD YOURSELF SOME HHO Generators and ROCK out with some free HOBOSOUND.com music.
July 24, 2008 at 12:56 AM-Idaho