Waterboost - special, er, no HHO...

[Arragonis]

Car Mechanics is a UK based magazine that covers, er, car mechanics. Its aimed partly at the trade and partly at the kind of person who wants to service at home. I read it as a knowledgeless fiddler to be honest.

In 2009 they decided to feature the WaterBoost system. If you read the website it announces more or less straight away that it is a "Hydrogen Fuel System" - basically HHO - IMHO.

Now they have featured it again. At the end of two years in a Vauxhall Omega 2.5 TD they have noted a slight improvement in emissions - from 2.92ppm to 1.76ppm which they put down to the WaterBoost system "steam cleaning" carbon from the cylinder heads.

For the all important MPG ? Well in terms of carefully controlled A-B-A testing, forget it. They include a graph of MPG.



(Apologies for quality I don't have a scanner).

Their conclusion is that there is no difference in MPG. I'm kind of seeing a decline in MPG for the period of the test myself (Mar-Sep 2010).

Anyway, I shall email the editor - I may mention EM.

(Background, the Omega 2.5 TD has the BMW I6 IDI Turbo diesel engine from the BMW 325TD without the intercooller of the TDS)

[Arragonis]

PS Omega Estate looks like this



You may recognise it as a not very successful small Cadillac...

[gone-ot]

...simple water-vapor (bubbler) systems typically 'lean-out' the A/F-mixture, depending upon *how* the water-vapor is introduced into the engine...by manifold vacuum or by injection.

...diesel people will agree that water-vapor can & does (good!) help remove carbon deposits from within the cylinders...but (bad!) it also tends to eat/attack steel components with vicious pitting of exposed surfaces.

[niky]

A bubbler? Useless. Better to have a water/methanol injection system, as that both steam cleans AND gives you extra cooling thanks to the phase change of water.

Even on non-turbo applications, a water/meth injector can give you a slight power boost, to boot.

Tuned properly with the use of water/meth, an engine can successfully run leaner and with better fuel efficiency than without, but there's always the danger of running out of fluid. I've thought about running a different fuel map using water injection, then having it set to return to default once the water runs out.

[gone-ot]

...water-vapor and water/methanol are rather different sides of a similar coin. Yes, they both use water, but water-vapor doesn't "add" any BTU's or oxygen to the combustion process as water/methanol does. So, they're not the same process in the final analyses.

...a water-vapor bubbler basically is a controlled vacuum "leak" that's introducing high-humidity AIR into the manifold, which obviously makes the engine run LEAN, which (if it doesn't burn any valves) often does yield better gas milage...but at a price if things get TOO lean, ie: burned valves!

...water/methanol "injection" provides BOTH additional "fuel" (BTU's as well as additional OXYGEN--50% mass fraction!) via the methanol (CH3OH). And, water/ethanol would provide 30% less oxygen (35% mass fraction).

...the OP is a device proporting to breakdown water back into its hydrogen and oxygen constituants for "re-combustion" inside the cylinders. 20-amperes current is close to 1/2-horsepower!

[niky]

Ah... so the bubbler introduces outside air as well as water?

Water/meth injection can either use a water/meth mix or run on pure water. With pure water, you still get power and detonation-suppression benefits, even without the extra octane boost of methanol. I guess when you say "injection", you're referring to the cheaper kits with lower pressure injectors and nozzles... (like the cheapo kit I have... ).

[busypaws]

For old-tele, I have a cup bottle of water on the dash with a drip-irrigation hose that drips water on the engine side of air filter. I use it in may and june when temps are over 90 and humidity is less then 20%. It keeps the engine from knocking. Poor mans swamp cooler for the air intake. Can't claim fuel economy improvement but it keeps me from running 92-93 octane those two months to keep from knocking.

[gone-ot]

...buzypaws, remember when people used to hang canvas water bags in front of their radiator grills when driving across the desert? Using the "evaporative cooling" effects of the water evaporating out/through the canvas bag. Don't EVER try drinking any water from the canvas bag unless you KNOW you're gonna die otherwise, cause it tastes like dog squat for sure.

[user removed]

Just take a cheap paint gun and compressor and blast some water (highly atomized) into your air intake after the air filter. We used to do that to the 81-83 280Z engines when they went to higher compression. There was and area of about 33% of the surface of the piston and cylinder head that had only 1MM clearance. The carbon buildup would start causing a hard knocking when the carbon reached the 1MM dimension. The blast of water atomized through the paint gun solved the problem in about 30 minutes without any further dis assembly or damage.

regards
Mech