Skeptical of "blade" exaust tip FE / emissions claims
 

This Earth Day fest, I picked up some literature from a vendor dealing in a product called the 'Blade'.
It is an exaust tip that somehow magically reduces your emissions and improves your FE by 3 - 5 MPG.
I was skeptical, and still am. Looking at the product ( www.bladeyourride.com ) it looks as if it is just a chrome exaust tip with some fiberglass cloth inside of it and a mesh to cap off the end.

If anything, i think that you would se a REDUCTION of 3 - 5 MPG due to the backpressure issues caused by the screen at the tip.
( To my great surprise ... I was wrong . )

As far as reducing pollution, it may actually collect a small ( tiny ) amount.

I am considering just making one to test it. I'll save over $ 100.00.


The website is really professional looking and has links to the supposed testers and media reviews. Following the links, I was surprised to see that there may be some truth to their claims.:eek:

Tested by a U.T. labratory, it showed a small increase in FE but with current gas prices, the unit would take over three years to pay for its' $ 150 price tag.
The TV news story that covered this test just shower the gas saving side of the story without mention of any emissions test results ( no duh right ? )

I would still like to see an official emissions test.
I could care less about the FE improvements that you get from the thing. What I want to see is concrete proof of any emissions reduction.


I'm skeptical of this Blade thing, but at the same time, I have hopes for it.
What excites me is the potential reduction in emissions.
I am not driving my car anymore ( walk, bike, or bus around town ) so if any of you folks actually buy one of these, please do let us know if the thing works.
The company is right here in Austin, so perhaps I can get in touch with them and see why they charge so much for the thing.
At the Earth Day fest, I overheard a mention of carbon fiber being used as the cloth material. Perhaps they could charge less if they made the material out of fiberglass instead.

( And perhaps I'm showing how little that I know of the melting point of fiberglass and the emissions caused by its incineration. )

I don't know, looks like a "pixie dust" solution to me. Compresses the pulses? I think adjusting the bulk modulus of the fernortner rod would be more effective. Later I'll take the data and see if there is sufficient evidence to, as the statisticians say, "reject the null hypothesis."

Red flags should be going off.
How can something that you add to your exhaust increase your fuel economy if it does not create a vacuum somehow. This definately looks like a restriction. The only way I could see it helping your MPG was if you took your Cat & muffler off and replaced it with this.

Hello neighbor:turtle: Pflugervillian here.

Talk to the vendor again tell him about the site and that you want to test it. Who knows maybe he give you one to test for the website.

When they say 34% increase that's just sounds way off. I could see 1-5% but 34% ,that just seems out there.

This sounds like that JCWhitney "Turbolator" device that essentially did the same thing: had a butterfly valve in the exhaust to regulate backpressure or something.

No one tested it out, but I recall someone had a soda can on their exhaust tip. Not sure how that went -- I think it blew off.

Let's try this -- stick a potato in the tailpipe on startup and see what happens :D

Is there any method to the madness, Scientifically? Are adjustable restrictors effective?

RH77

Been there, tested that... at least in principle. Less exhaust backpressure is almost always better, with the exception of very specific circumstances, i.e. modifying the sound pressure wave tuning of the exhaust to optimize efficiency at a specific RPM. This is assuming the vehicle has equal-length headers too... and the tuner has an understanding of Helmholtz resonators.

Typically though adding backpressure effectively "throttles" the exhaust. Why not just throttle the intake, like we always do???

BTW, on a variable-vane turbocharged diesel, the vanes act as an exhaust restriction at higher vane angles. On my diesel I can pick up almost 10% highway economy by opening the VVT right up for cruising over and above the factory settings. The factory settings are there to intentionally create some backpressure for the EGR as well as making the turbo spool much quicker.

As for this "fuel economy" device - smoke and mirrors....

Just like the turbonator... if this product actually fulfilled its claims, wouldn't they rather market it to automobile companies for mass production on models. I think the automakers would be rather happy to get a product for ~$100 (adjusted for mass production price) to get their vehicles an extra 3-5 MPG which would sit well with the consumers in this economy and fuel crisis. In addition to this, the makers of this product would also be glad to sell their product to larger companies so they could put it on every model the auto companies sell and make a fortune/save the environment (whichever the makers of blade exhaust tip had in mind).

I would love for something like this to work and someone to come on this forum and prove me wrong with solid evidence that the product even worked to improve FE by 5% and reduced emissions by any at all, but until then I believe this product goes in the same category as: http://motors.shop.ebay.com/items/ga...8QQ_pcatsZ6000

Supposedly it does.

And supposedly it really did help the fuel economy in the tests - but only by a small amount.

I'm going to call the professor that ran the test at the university and find out more on it.

I'm interested ... but not enough to pay such a stupid price for it .

Somehow, I feel that this is just a case of people trying to make a buck off the eco trend.

Let us know if you get any feedback from the prof. This thingy makes me want to give a shot at a perforated, spring loaded flapper.

Howdy neighbors - bastrop/austin here