The Blade - Increase Fuel Economy by 30%?

[Red]

Sounds like all it does is plug up your exhaust. Once plugged your cat heats up faster which is where you probably see any FE gains.

[chrislk1986]

why not just insulate your exhaust with some of that pink stuff for 20 bucks? I'm sure that would be just as effective, and you could make your underbelly a little smoother while your at it.

I'm sure the blade is somewhat expensive, since people will buy it at any cost to save a buck.

[diesel_john]

CorollaMaster,
this is BS, please, if it sounds to good to be true, it is to good to be true.
Your are very correct in questioning this type of nonsense. diesel

[sickpuppy318]

"Conclusion: Although the Blade provides immediate benefit to the car’s emissions and gas mileage, the benefit increases significantly after driving the car a minimum of 50 miles with the device attached."

In other words, don't worry if you don't notice anything, that's what's supposed to happen.

[cfg83]

CorollaMaster -

I have read discussions on this gizmo before. The consensus was that it was bogus for MPG (it promised too much).

It definitely looks nice and blingy. From an emissions POV, it seems to do *something* :

http://www.bladeyourride.com/whatitdoes.html

Question: In the above it shows a picture of "28.7 grams of captured PM (Particulate Matter) after 8,500 miles". 28.7 grams doesn't sound much to me. What do you think? How much PM comes out of a normal car over X miles?

CarloSW2

[Red]

Go with the old rule, 1 gram = 1 paper clip, so after 8k that car as spat out ~29 paper clips worth of soot. Its possible

[cfg83]

reformed -

Originally Posted by reformed

This might help you out a little

Skeptical of "blade" exaust tip FE / emissions claims

Thanks for the link. That was the conversation I remember.

CarloSW2

[CorollaMaster]

Awesome. Thanks for the link guys. That other thread was pretty informative. I think if I do anything like this, I'll buy their filter and make my own tailpipe addon. IF I do, I'll post the results!

-ecoRolla

[AXMonster]

Here's my interpretation on 'The Blade'

Its a thick fabric that the exhaust gas passes through.
It causes increased backpressure.
The increased backpressure causes more exhaust reversion during overlap and therefore more 'natural EGR' for want of a better phrase.
The increased 'natural EGR' increases cylinder temperatures and therefore decreases catalyst lightoff time.
The increased 'natural EGR' means that for the same power outputs, the throttle position has to be greater to achieve the same intake airflow (i,e, to get the same amount of air & fuel in there).

You can get the same effect by fitting a couple of socks over your tailpipe or squashing the end down a bit!

Oh, and it collects carbon out of the exhaust that would normally justg drop out of the tailpipe in chunks Wow, big deal..... hardly saving the earth.

I'm calling snake oil LOL

[chrislk1986]

I just plain took my muffler off and all the soot collects where the muffler was. I've got a 2ft piece of exhaust with the mounting part. I drilled holes in the end and stuffed some steel wool in there and made it so the steel wool did not shoot out the back.

The results from that (which definitely had more backpressure than the stock muffler) were less than noticeable. In fact, i actually got my worst mpg.

With the muffler off I am getting the best mileage in my history of driving. Possibly due to the 30-35 lbs of weight dropped, but also I can fine tune the throttle while driving much better.