Modified Smack Booster finally installed....

I goofed on the custom enclosure for the Smack, not taking into consideration that the top had to be bolted down and the plastic shop asked if I wanted a flange around the top of the container to accomplish this and I said yes without thinking. Due to the flange adding 5/8 inch to both sides, it would not fit in front of the rad on the van no matter what I tried.

The only place to fit anything is where my original savefuel device was installed. The Smack SS plate assembly (after some modifications) bearly fit inside a 4 inch PVC pipe and the total height I could fit was 8 inches, so a special container had to be made as seen in the photo 8 inches high by 5 inch diameter at the top and 4 inch diameter at the bottom.

In the photo you see the output of the Smack going to the bottom of the bubbler (hidden out of sight) and the output from the top of the 1 inch diameter bubbler goes directly to the air intake just after the MAF sensor. By the way, I could not find a check valve so I made one by cutting a 5/8 inch circle out of Shower Pan rubber (same stuff I used for the gasket on the custom container I could not use) and just dropped it in the 1 inch bubbler tube with a piece of clear tubing to hold it down to the pipe bushing I used for the bottom end of the bobbler. Works fine,has not let the water get out of the bubbler, back to the electrolyzer as it cools down.

In the photo you will notice a terminal strip that I used to connect the MAF Enhanser to the MAF sensor. I removed it when I discovered the sensor had a frequency output instead of a voltage output. During the time I tried to use it I got very erratic numbers on my Scangauge and it screwed up many of the readings from the Scangauge. Now everthing is fairly stable.

Below is a video clip showing the bubbler action, which is fast and furious compared to the video clips of the W4Gas. I had measured nearly 2 litres per minute from the Smack (which had larger SS plates than the switch cover one) however, due to the larger size I had to cut down on the spacing from the original one I made and am now getting about 1.3 litres per minute from this installation. You will notice that the action is such that some water is being pushed out of the bubbler into the air intake. I corrected that by pouring out some of the water in the bubbler and it appears OK now.

Went out today for a drive to see how this thing works. I had put in 1 teaspoon of Gillett's lye,
98 % Sodium Hydroxide ( available at Home Hardware and many similar stores) and noted that cold it was drawing 10 amps, supposed to draw 16 when cold and 20 when hot. Was going to add a bit more as suggested by the instructions. but decided to leave it as is. To my surprise at 20 miles out, it was drawing nearly 30 amps. I stopped and checked to see if things were getting hot but the Smack was fairly warm so continued for another 10 miles where I stopped , poured out some of the electrolyte and added distilled water. That dropped the draw to 20 amps, but on the return trip it climbed to 25 amps. When back home I poured out more and added more distilled water to bring the amperage down to about 18 amps. Will see what happens when I get out on the road again.

Checked the mileage after we did a fillup and got 32.24 MPG an increase of 33.22 % from my base line of 24.20 MPG before HOD experiments. I have done nothing to any of the sensors for this test, so will run just the Smack Booster to see if the mileage improves or starts to drop. I have ordered the EFIE ? for the O2 sensor and will install it when it arrives in 4 to 6 weeks.

What is a Bubbler?

Many people who are making the Water4Gas electrolyser are confused as to what a Bubbler really is and that is because the W4G unit is both a Vaporizer and an Electrolyzer and can be used as either one.

When used as an Electrolyzer, the jar is filled with distilled water and electrolyte added, the so called bubbler control should be shut off completely (screwed right in) and 12 volts applied to the terminals. Now you should see gas forming in the jar and if you put the end of the tubing into a jar of water you will see bubbles forming at the end of the tubing, if you have no leaks in the W4G cell. This is proof that your electrolyzer is working and putting out hydrogen.

Now if you put this Cell under the hood of your vehicle, how do you know for sure that hydrogen is being forced out the tube into the air intake of your vehicle? You don't ! This where you need a bubbler to visually see the bubbles going out of your electrolyzer. A bubbler is a piece of clear tubing partially filled (3/4 is fine) with water (tap water will do) with the outlet of the electrolyzer going to the bottom of this tube and from the top of this Bubbler is the tubing that goes into your air intake. The main purpose of this Bubbler is to scrub any impurities out of the hydrogen gas and act as Flash Back prevention device if the hydrogen ignited accidentally due to backfiring of the engine, etc. The theory is that the burning hydrogen will be stopped at the bubbler and prevent the electrolyzer from exploding. Hopefully I have explained clearly as to what a Bubbler really is in the creating of hydrogen on demand.
The above video shows the Electrolyzer output tubing going to the bottom of the Bubbler, where the hydrogen gas is forced into the water of the Bubbler and then out the top of the Bubbler into the jar of water at the left where you can see the gas bubbling from the end of the tubing. This bubbler is for illustration purposes only as it is only 1/2 inch in diameter..... should make a bubbler out of at least 1 inch diameter tubing.

When used as a Vaporizer the jar should be filled with water only, no electrolyte and the 12 volt power disconnected either by a switch or removing the electrolyzer fuse. Start the engine and open the so called Bubbler control a few turns to see if bubbles are forming at the bottom of the cell. If you can not get bubbles to form, you do not have sufficient vacuum and will have to move the output tubing from the Air intake to the intake manifold or to any place where there is sufficient vacuum to make the bubbles appear, such as at the PCV valve. Once you have bubbles appearing, then you can adjust the bubbler control for the amount of water vapor you wish to inject into you engine.

As for myself, I made a Vaporizer with only an output, and the bubbler control with tubing to the bottom of the jar, in the cap. This is adjusted for a continuous stream of bubbles, not too much wild bubbling going on. It is connected to the PCV by teeing into the line and my Electrolyzer is connected to the air intake after the MAF sensor.

Meltdown ! at 20 amps....

On April 6/08 I was surprised when I filled up and checked my mileage to find I had only got 14.66 MPG I had noticed that the amperage had crept up a bit from previous outings.

On April 7/08 I was driving along nearing home when I noticed the amperage to the W4G cell had climbed to just over 20 amps, do not know how long this had been occurring, but on reaching the parking lot and opening the hood, I was surprised to see the electrolyte in the cell boiling very hard (sort of what I would call a rolling boil) and steaming like crazy. I had to wait for nearly half an hour before I could disconnect everything and remove the jar. The picture on the left shows what was left of my SS wire wrapped around the 1/4 inch thick plexi-glass tower. The wires had all come loose from where they had been "gooped" and the tower itself had been twisted nearly 90 degrees from one end to the other.

This all happened after I substituted lye for the baking soda I had used previously. My amperage remained quite stable using the baking soda and had not experienced any runaway as happened here.

Since then I have not used the W4G cell in the vehicle, only using a vaporizer and the MAF Enhanser and getting over 27 MPG.

I have run 4 bench experiments since using 1 teaspoon of lye, 3/4 teaspoon of lye and 1/2 teaspoon of lye with distilled water and one test with tap water in the W4G cell and the amperage starts quite low but in each case after about 1 hour it gets into the runaway situation with the amperage climbing rapidly. I will be trying a resistor in series with the cell to limit the amount of current that it can draw.

April 10th - Did not have any resistors around so used a GE3057 bulb in series with one filament connected.... 13.8 volts applied, drew 5 1/4 amps and the voltage across the cell was 9 volts. The amperage did not vary during the hour test. The electrolyte got quite warm but not hot.

Next I twisted the two filament leads together and connected it in series with the cell... This time it drew only 1 amp and the voltage across the cell was 3.66 volts. After an hour the amperage remained the same.

Next I tested two W4G cells in series with 13.8 volts applied, current was 3 amps with voltage across one cell at 5.92 Volts and the other at 5.12 Volts. Current remained at 3 amps for the duration of the hour long test. Electrolyte got warm but not hot.

Have not got my custom enclosure for my Smack Booster yet from the plastics shop, am anxious to try it out.

Hydrogen Bubbles (no vacuum needed)

The above video shows the results of putting distilled water in the W4G electrolyzer, adding 1/2 teaspoon of lye, applying 13.8 volts and the amperage drawn was 6 amps. As you can see there are a lot of bubbles coming from the end of the hose in the other jar.

Many think that vacuum is required to create HHO, not so as can be seen from the above video.