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Written by D.R. Young
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How to improve gas Mileage with a hydrogen generator
THE PROBLEM:
There is a very fast method of “proving” that an HHO (Oxyhydrogen Gas) generator does not increase gas mileage. Connect an HHO generator to your car's engine and turn it on. There are two things you will observe for most cars with computer controlled fuel injection (which is most cars on the road today). Your horsepower will increase and your gas mileage will worsen. Your first reaction is that it doesn’t work and you’ve wasted your money.
If this is as far as you have delved into the field, it is a reasonable reaction. Because if all you do is the above, you will get no other result. Anyone selling you just an HHO generator to increase your gas mileage is telling you a half truth and it will appear to be an outright lie.
THE DATA:
So how do you increase your gas mileage? You must reduce the amount of gas being pumped into your engine. How do you do that? There are two common ways to do this. Both have to do with the Oxygen Sensor(s) of your car. (We’ll call it an O2 sensor in this article)
The O2 Sensor has two goals: 1. Help the engine run efficiently, but more importantly 2. maintains a low level of emissions. The current EPA laws give a standard that must be met to market a car. The 14.7 to 1 ratio is richer then needed for good performance. The unburned fuel is used in the catalytic converter to maintain a fire which burns the remaining emissions. When the engine runs with the optimum mixture, there is not enough fuel to maintain combustion in reaction with the catalytic converter. There's the trade off the manufacturers have to live with.
When a small amount of HHO is introduced into the fuel mixture, the HHO, burning at a faster rate than gasoline, causes the gasoline to burn completely and more efficiently. This reaction seems to results in more oxygen in the exhaust and is picked up by the O2 Sensor. The computer increases the fuel injection to compensate for what is sees as a "lean mixture" and so your gas mileage drops.
How do you get the computer to adjust to this new, clean fuel?
THE SOLUTIONS:
There are two common methods to alter the O2 Sensor signal:
1. Alter the O2 sensor’s ability to analyze the exhaust.
2. Alter the voltage signal from the O2 sensor to the computer.
Update: Another method being tested is to change nothing. It has been stated that if you drive your car for 6 weeks, the computer will adapt to the new fuel and you will see improved mileage. This was tested on a 2 liter Ford Focus. The generator was producing .6 liters per minute at 14 amps. The mileage dropped from 27 to 24 for the first two weeks, but on the third week was back up to 27 mpg. The mpg slowly climbed each week there after, getting to 27.9 mpg on the 6th week. Not a spectacular result, but the car had better mileage and you could smell no fumes from the exhaust.
The car is now being tested with a generator producting 1.1 liters per minute at 13 amps. The results will be posted when the test is complete. If anyone has tested this method it would be good to hear about the results you obtained.
Altering the O2 Sensor analysis:
A common solution is to lift the O2 sensor out of the exhaust stream, using an O2 Sensor extender.
Another method recommended by some booklets is to wrap the O2 Sensor with aluminum foil. This is not recommended. It is likely that the aluminum will just blow off and get caught up in your catalytic converter.
The extender has limited workability. You may get 1-3 mpg savings.
Altering the O2 Sensor Signal Electronically:
The second and better method is accomplished with an O2 Sensor voltage adjuster, also known as an EFIE, (Electronic Fuel Injection Enhancer). The EFIE is an electronic device placed between the O2 Sensor and computer. The EFIE is manually adjusted to enforce a leaner mixture.
A benefit of an EFIE device is that it can be on the same electrical circuit as the HHO generator. If you turn off your HHO Generator, the O2 sensor signal reverts back to its original operation. This is important. You do not want to run lean without adding the HHO gas.
It may be easier to take a short cut using extenders, but for the best result go with an EFIE.
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