Anyone Tried Intercharger?

[gto78]

For the ridiculous price of $300 I won't be trying it, but I really want to hear from someone who has tried it.

The Intercharger is one of those devices that supposedly captures the toxic fumes that are being sucked into the intake/coming out of the PCV valve. It allegedly reacts with those toxic fumes and makes them clean the intake system, and allegedly makes them ignitable.

So of course they use tons of testimonials with ginourmous claims of mileage increases and emissions cut in half etc. The real problem (besides costing $300) is the fact that they don't tell us what material it's made of and how it works. They use mostly testimonials and pictures of it installed, but no real world explanation of why it works.

I found one link on one of their many "installer" websites and they went into extreme scientific detail- so much detail using such technical wording that it made no sense at all. It was jiberish.

I'm trying to find real world results from an EPA sponsored test site or from real people who forked out $300 to try it. Unfortunately I haven't found anyone yet.

Every once in a while I find a forum with one person who claims they were skeptical and decided to try it- and WOW they were surprised at what amazing gains they got. Later on they always admit that they are now somehow related to the R&D of the product "but not trying to sell it...".

[Daox]

Sounds like a fancy catch can to me. Run some coolant through it to help vaporize the blownby gas (which should happen eventually anyway). I doubt you'd see any benefits in mileage unless your engine was horribly worn.

[ConnClark]

Sounds like total snake oil to me. When mixed with fresh air most of the gasses from the PCV burn just fine.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by gto78

The Intercharger is one of those devices that supposedly captures the toxic fumes that are being sucked into the intake/coming out of the PCV valve.

What's the PCV valve, and what's a CDR valve ?

So of course they use tons of testimonials with ginourmous claims of mileage increases and emissions cut in half etc.

If it sounds too good to be true, it all too often is


Let's see, a catalysed chemical reaction with hydrocarbons that isn't an oxidation (which would produce heat).
Could be a catalysed dehydrogenation - splitting off hydrogen - which then gets burned off in the ICE.

Lets see how this fits into what they claim on their website :

This reaction is endothermic (requires external heat input to keep going) - check !

It's a catalysed reaction - check ! - by metals (Platinum) -check ! - used in the petrochemical industry - check !

"Modifications to saturated (i.e. fully hydrogenated) hydrocarbon molecules" ; well, that's basicly what dehydrogenation does - check !

Slight power increase from burning the hydrogen being split off - check !

You wouldn't find (as much of) the original hydrocarbons anymore, as they'd have been modified, then burned - check !


Catalytic Dehydrogenation - Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing


At least in theory, it could work.

[SVOboy]

I agree. Sounds like a catch can. I wouldn't bother.