Waiting for EFIE....

While waiting for the Electronic Fuel Injection Enhanser (EFIE) to arrive, I have been doing a bit of reading and lots of surfing.

Yesterday I built a prototype of a system that I had read about on the Internet. Apparently when using this system you do not need to make any modifications or add any of the various devices to fool the vehicle's computer when the Oxygen sensors says there is too much O2 in the exhaust. This is rather amazing as all of the various Hydrogen Boosters I know of require an EFIE, or MAP Enhanser, MAF Enhanser, etc, etc to work properly.

What got my attention first was the small size of the electrolyser only 10 inches high by 2 1/4 inches in diameter. In addition to the electrolyser the system comes with a Reservoir/Cooler/Bubbler unit of approximately same dimensions and a separate Water Vapour Recovery unit which appears to be about 6 inches high by 1 inch in diameter.

In the photo, the electrolyser is at the bottom left, top right is the combination reservoir/bubbler/cooler (minus the cooler) unit and at the top left we have the water vapour recovery unit.

The output of the electrolyser goes into the bottom left of the reservoir/bubbler. As you will see later in the video clip, the hydrogen bubbles travel through the tubing which is filled with electrolyte. As the electrolyte warms up, thermal syphoning takes over moving the hot liquid up into the reservoir, and the cooled liquid from the reservoir travels down to the bottom of the electrolyser keeping it from overheating.

While the above is happening, the hydrogen bubbles travel up in the reservoir and are pushed out from the top to the Water Vapour Recovery tube and out of the top of the WVR to air intake of the engine. Any moisture descends to the bottom of the WVR tube as a liquid and down the tubing to join the liquid flowing to the bottom of the electrolyser.

I mounted it all on a board and found that it needed at least 5 inches of vertical separation to operate properly.I first tried it with the output of the electrolyser directly opposite of the input to the reservoir...... it made bubbles but the proper flow was not happening.

By the way my electrolyser is only 7 1/4 inches tall by 2 inches in diameter, the reservoir is 9 inches tall by 2 inches in diameter and the WVR is 5 inches tall by 3/4 inches in diameter.


This photo shows the arrangement of electrodes in the electrolyser. There are 5 lengths of 5/16th SS threaded rod about 6 inches in length with the center one slightly longer than the rest. The 4 outside rods are connected to the negative and the center one is connected to the positive.

I added 1/2 teaspoon of lye to the 2 1/4 cups of distilled water that the system held and let it run for 5 hours during which time the amperage remained between 4 and 5. To my surprise the electrolyser only got warm to the touch. I did not measure the output of the unit, although at 4 amps it appeared to be putting out a substantial amount of bubbles.

I am tempted to install this prototype unit in my van and see if I get a gain in mileage without the computer cutting it back again. That would be terrific and solve the problems everyone is having trying to maintain the gains they first got after installing their various hydrogen boosters.

Thinking about it now, design wise I would make the electrolyser with a removable end cap so that servicing the unit would be easy...... with the one I made up, I can not get into it unless I saw it open and then the thing would be useless.... could salvage the electrodes if they remained in good condition.

The cooling unit used on the one I studied , I think was a Peltier Junction/3-12 VDC Electronic Heat Pump. They are available on the Internet for $24 to $36 so that would not be a bad investment to keep the electrolyte from overheating.

Click on the Play arrow below to see a brief video clip of this setup working. If you look closely you will be able to see the bubbles travelling through the electrolyte in the tubing from the output of electrolyser to the bottom of the reservoir/bubbler/cooler. You will note a fairly active bubbling in the glass jar.

For some reason I had problems getting this video clip uploaded. It took ages for such a short one. Normally they are uploaded in less than 30 seconds.

This video clip shows the setup on my balcony in the apartment building....... You can see the hydrogen bubbles moving through the electrolyte to the reservoir and of course from the water vapour recovery unit down to the jar in the fore ground.

Sure miss my workshop I had up north for making all these things.... I use a spare bedroom ( computer room, ham radio room, etc) for working on this stuff and it is a pain in the butt, however, I am having fun and I guess that is the main thing.

By the way, I got my EFIE and tomorrow (May 23rd) it will be installed. Looking forward to seeing what happens now to my inconsistent mileage situation......Also built a device to control the voltage to the Map sensor, which will allow me to either advance or retard the timing.

Think I am Going Mental.......

The strangest things are going on with my attempts to increase the mileage on this Chevy Venture. This is getting real confusing.......

April 26th I installed the modified Smack booster in the Venture. On a run of 42 miles I got 18.8 MPG running the Smack. Checked the unit out everything seemed to be in order. Went out for another run of 39 miles and got 32 MPG this time, still running the Smack. Filling tank to overflowing each time from the same pump, etc. Why the difference? I don't have a clue.....

On May 3rd did a run of 44 miles running the Smack and got a dismal 15.54 MPG! .... Weird!

May 4th did a run of 260 miles Without the Smack Running to check an see what my Baseline mileage would be now. I decided to do the run without anything added just to find why I am getting such inconsistent results using the hydrogen boost. It had been 24.2 MPG last February on a highway runs. Would you believe I got 31 MPG on this run?

The book for the Chevy Venture says for City driving using Canadian or Imperial Gallons it will get 20 MPG and for Highway driving it should get 30 MPG. I am wondering if the cold weather was responsible for the 24.2 MPG back in February ?

May 5th, on the way back, I turned on the Smack and checked it out to see it was producing hydrogen, etc. On this run of 279 miles I got 29.55 MPG. Looks like the hydrogen did not do a thing and the O2 sensors did not detect the oxygen and the computer did not cut back back on the mileage. Why?????

So what is going on here? I have 155,495 KMs on the Venture and I assumed that the mileage would not be anywhere close to what the book says, but it is right up there! Is it possible that the stuff I have played around with so far ( the hydrogen and the Vaporizer) has actually got rid of gunk and other junk like carbon, in the engine and it now is back near optimum performance????

By the way, I ordered the EFIE, (too lazy to build one) but there is a 6 week delivery time on it so I will have to be patient. My plan now is to install the EFIE and adjust it to lean out the fuel which should give me more mileage in itself, then develop a base line using that with no Hydrogen Boost. Once I got that baseline , I will turn on the Smack Booster and see what happens...... My thinking at the moment is that there won't be any increase at all........ and if that is the case, we are all doing something wrong with the hydrogen boost and W4Gas.

Been doing lots of reading and I don't see many people bragging about their success with W4Gas installations. Going back over the manual it appears that Ossie did not get any decent results until he added all the extras to his vehicle. ..... the EFIE and the MAP, Maf ehansers plus the PCV deal and perhaps even the Acetone and other stuff.