Vehicle & Technical > Range Rover

Running a V8 on Hydrogen?

<< < (2/4) > >>

Jonny Boaterboy:

--- Quote from: Rossko on October 15, 2008, 02:51:01 ---
--- Quote from: thermidorthelobster on October 13, 2008, 22:34:00 ---I'm not sure what difference the baking soda would make, but I'd have thought you'd have needed a lot of soda to yield much difference in your hydrogen electrolysis when you're talking V8 quantities of hydrogen.
--- End quote ---

The soda is needed to make the water conduct ; it'll only electrolyse if you pass current through it and you can't pass much current through pure or tap water.  Proponents of 'free gas from water' are pretty coy about the costs of this necessary additive (although it must be cheap, surely) and the cost of replacing the stainless electrodes which corrode (maybe not so cheap).

Like you say, these gizmos are only intended to trickle a small additive amount of hydrogen/oxygen mix to the engine.  On straightforward laws of thermodynamics, you can't get more energy out of burning the H/O mix than you put in with electricity from the alternator.  There remains a theoretical possibility that the presence of H/O mix somehow magically improves the thermal efficiency of the normal petrol burn more than the (at least) 50% losses involved in generating the electric, but frankly I don't believe that all  :)

No, I haven't tried it.  Nor have I tried a wind generator on top of an electric car so it fuels itself for free ...

cheers, Ross K

--- End quote ---

Ross I hear where your coming from but let me run this by you: at present I'm getting 17MPG if I fit the hydro system I could be getting 25MPG Yes I am putting more load on the altinater but I'm still getting more MPG, the water and soda don't cost much and need replenishing every 1000 miles or so so surely that means I quids in?

That does depend on how much of an improvement it makes on the MPG but with the outlay being around $250 is it worth a go?

I am a little worried about what carracarra13 said They claim it lowers the temp. of the engine and cleans it out....... but common sense tells me this might be a sales pitch!

Disco Matt:
I personally wouldn't spend that much money on it. I am very dubious about how much difference it makes, it must be borne in mind that many "fuel saver" devices appear to work because drivers subconsciously drive more efficiently after fitting them.

I know someone who fitted the "jam jar" type to a Jeep Cherokee, he didn't have any problems with it but MPG improvement was very marginal - his view seemed to be that it was fun to fiddle with and it had made a slight improvement so was worth the effort. But I don't think a 12v electrical system could produce enough hydrogen to make a real difference to an engine this size.

I can't entirely rubbish it, as I know someone who had some improvement from one. But I wouldn't spend $250 on it.

Eeyore:
Gotta agree with the above. It's kinda snake oil. Yes hydrogen can be used to improve fuel efficiency, but not by cracking your own under the bonnet - it just doesn't math out.

As I'll often point out, virtually all claims made by people selling this kinda stuff are unverified. Driving style can make up 30% difference in fuel consumption, and many rolling road results can be blagged too.

Personally, I'd use the $250 for buying more petrol.  ;)

thermidorthelobster:

--- Quote ---Ross I hear where your coming from but let me run this by you: at present I'm getting 17MPG if I fit the hydro system I could be getting 25MPG

--- End quote ---

If you write me a cheque for $250, I'll make a sacrifice to the pagan gods, and you COULD magically get 35mpg out of your V8.  But if I'm honest, you won't.

There's a huge difference between could and will get 25mpg.  If you will, then it's worth it.  You *could* get 25mpg by doing a whole lot of things, but you almost certainly won't.

There is one certainty though;  anybody who's just spent $250 on their truck is very likely to find some magical difference where none exists, so they don't feel they've been conned.  This is pretty much the basis of stage hynosis.

Range Rover Blues:
Burning fule in your engine is very very inefficient, by adding catalysts to the fuel you can change the way if burns, the way it attomises etc etc.

People add acetone to fuel, it makes a difference doesn't it?  and those clever japanese have an in-cylinder catlytic lining in their GDI engines.  This stuff does work, the trick is sifting out the snake oil and finding the ones that work for your engine.

So be careful rubbishing them all out of hand, there is clear evidence that adding LPG to a TDi will increase MPG by a large margin.  In this case it's a fuel catalyst, rich in HYDROGEN.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page