Quote:
Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr
Makes me wonder if it would be worth to recover the residual humidity extracted by the A/C from the cabin and use it for water injection to the engine. A former Civic owner told me he noticed an improvement of the fuel-efficiency when there was a higher humidity in the air.
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I came up with that idea years ago.
Some say it works well, others say that with engine blow by, the water molecules get stuck in the oil and becomes like a gel, rather than fluid oil.
Then, some others say that the engine will be hot enough to just steam out the water, which I believe will happen at highway speeds.
The bigger issue is that AC drain hose contains bacteria, algae and fungus. Overall it's so little that it will just burn up and form carbon, that gets blown out of the tailpipe at higher speeds.
However, occasionally there are fungus parts that will come loose from the hoses, and may actually be too large to burn up, and can potentially cause engine damage. So a filter, like a gasoline filter, is needed.
Not much is known to how frequently that filter needs replacement.
Also, this won't work on turbo engines, as the turbo blades get worn out cutting drops and even water vapor!
If you can inject the water right before the intake manifold, behind the intercooler, it might actually work quite well on turbo cars.
Aside from cooling effect, adding water in your air intake adds very little to the performance. Even in USA, Chevron is known to have crappy gas (too much Ethanol), which contains a lot of water. You can often see when a car has Chevron gas, by looking at the tailpipe when he departs from a stop.
Some have what looks like 'waterfalls' coming out of their pipes!