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January 2006
Newsletter
Austrian Road Tests Show Improvements in Mileage and Acceleration
University Testing Promised This Month, EU Certification Depends
On It
Diesel Vehicle Achieves Better Than Expected Improvements
Here I am in
Austria after working for four days on installation, testing, and
meetings with prospective dealers.
Things have been busy and jet lag is just starting to wear off. Let me update you on what was planned
and what has actually happened.
My dealer in
Austria is seeking European Union government approval for the Hydrogen Boost
system from University and government agency testing facilities. My trip was scheduled with the
assurance that some pre-installation testing would be concluded before my
arrival. Since the University
testing team’s dynamometer broke down last month, they were not able to
do the pre-test before my arrival.
So my task was to
install the Hydrogen Boost system on a gasoline powered Ford Fiesta and a
diesel powered Ford Fiesta in such a way that it could be shut off
completely to enable a pre-test, after installation. That may not sound like a difficult
task to some because you may think I can just pull the fuse for the
hydrogen generator and its off, right?
Well it is not
that simple, because the Hydrogen Boost system is not just the hydrogen generator
as many of my prospective customers would like it to be. Even if it was, how could I reverse
the long-term benefits that the hydrogen generator has upon the engine when
it cleans out the carbon that is built up in the combustion chamber? The fuel heater is another problem. Normally the fuel heater installation instructions
call for a simple installation of the fuel heater into the heater hose
circuit. If I were to shut off engine
coolant circulation to that circuit, there would be no cabin heat. That would be uncomfortable for the
testing team since it is in the middle of the winter here. The most difficult problem is that the
engine treatment cannot be shut off once it is installed. It also cannot be instantly turned on
if I simply leave it out for the pretest and pour it in for the post test. It takes 5000 miles of driving to
treat the engine.
Faced with this
challenge I found out that the University testing team wants to schedule
the pre-test and post-test for the same day or at least consecutive
days. Great! We’ll have to come up with a great
compromise that will only test part of the Hydrogen Boost system now,
shut it off for the University pre-test and then turn on what we can and
do the post-test. My biggest
concern is that the testing team will test only part of the system and
expect the total advertised improvement that the total system can
provide. Besides all the above
problems, I was informed that the testing team expects to test only a “bolt
on” system that does not modify or change any part of the engine or the
vehicle. Well that is also a
problem, because our system recommends a change of engine coolant
thermostat setting and replacement of the ethylene glycol antifreeze with
propylene glycol. And our
electronic control circuit could be considered a change of the engine
control system.
So my compromise
was to install the hydrogen generator as usual. Install the fuel heater the way I install it on my test
vehicles, with tees from each heater hose and a secondary circuit that
goes through our fuel heater and at least one shut-off valve that will
prevent engine coolant from going through the fuel heater. Install the electronic control circuit
but maybe not use it if negotiations with the testing team are
unfruitful. Refrain from the
engine treatment until after the pre-test and hope that it does have some
immediate short-term benefit. Do
our customer/dealer’s road testing with only part of the system and hope
that the University testing shows a better result.
At least one thing
went right. I was assigned a
really good mechanic who I also consider an artist. I am a function over form guy, which
you can probably tell by my sloppy experimental installations. I care more about how it works than
how it looks. Well Rene cares
about both and he did a nice job with me making the system looks very
professional and neat. We
installed what we could on both vehicles, leaving out the engine
treatment. Rene was with me,
running the stop-watch and verifying my consistent cruise speed for the
diesel tests. Another Austrian
man and my dealer accompanied me on the gasoline powered Fiesta test
drives. Everything is verified by
witnesses and the results were almost exactly as I expected.
The procedure for
mileage tests were to use the Scangauge trip mileage screen and travel
numerous times over a set course on a fairly flat section of road just
out of town, about 1 mile long.
We had a start line (first tree) and a finish line (stripe across
the road where pavement had been replaced. We set the speed at 80 km/hr and reset the trip mpg computer
as we crossed the start line and then recorded the trip mpg reading as we
crossed the finish line, keeping a steady 80 km/hr throughout the course. We repeated the test three times in
each direction and added all six readings together for a baseline
figure. The post-test was done
exactly the same way with the same people riding in the vehicle and with
the same weather conditions. The
post-test was done obviously with as much of the Hydrogen Boost system
turned on as we could, the hydrogen generator, the fuel heater, the
electronic control circuit, and proper tire pressure, but without the
engine treatment.
With the diesel
powered vehicle there was no electronic control circuit because there is
no fuel ratio to adjust on a diesel.
With the diesel Fiesta we also did two acceleration tests. To prevent any inconsistency in clutch
techniques from a standing start, we used a flying start method. On the first test we started the watch
as I floored the accelerator with the transmission in second gear at 2000
RPM and stopped the watch when we reached 4000 RPM in 3rd gear
(signaled to the watch keeper by my shifting into fourth gear). The second acceleration test procedure
was to start in 4th gear at 2000 RPM and stop at 3500 RPM,
without changing gears.
Following are the
results of the tests:
Mileage tests for the gasoline Fiesta showed a 5.3% increase in
mileage without ECC.
Mileage tests for the gasoline Fiesta showed a 16% increase in
mileage with ECC.
Mileage tests for the diesel Fiesta showed a 9% increase in
mileage
Acceleration tests for the diesel Fiesta showed 9.3% faster for
test one.
Acceleration tests for the diesel Fiesta showed 10.6% faster for
test two.
When the engine treatment is fully implemented I expect these
improvements to become consistent with the results we have achieved in
the past. We expect 20-25%
increase in mileage on the gasoline powered vehicle and we expect 12-15%
mileage and acceleration improvement on the diesel powered vehicle.
When the University testing team does their testing we expect
somewhat lower numbers because we don’t expect them to allow use of the
ECC (electronic control circuit) nor the proper tire pressure. Even though the engine treatment will
be poured into the oil and fuel, I do not expect any benefit from it
because there is no time to actually treat the engine. If I see a reported 8% improvement in
mileage on either vehicle by the University testing team, I will be
pleased.
Conclusions
Hydrogen Boost is
a complete system that has consistently achieved considerable
improvements in mileage when the whole system is applied. Even without the driving techniques applied,
Hydrogen Boost equipment and maintenance has also been quite consistent
in showing improvements. Using
only parts of the system has also been consistent in showing that
incomplete system implementation will bring disappointing results. As you can see in the tests reported
on in the last few months that the electronic control circuit is very
essential in taking advantage of the affects of the other components on gasoline
powered vehicles. This shows that
what we said in our November 2001 newsletter is indeed correct. Just like plowing with a horse, a
farmer, and a plow can get a lot of plowing done and leaving out one of
these will negate the affects of the other two; it is essential to use
every component of the Hydrogen Boost system. The ECC alone will not improve mileage, the hydrogen
generator alone will not improve it much, and a fuel heater alone will do
little more, but all three plus the other components will do a much
better job at increasing the efficiency of a motor vehicle.
I also want to
express my new found confidence in the use of the Hydrogen Boost system
on diesel powered vehicles. We
now have done testing on a diesel passenger vehicle and have positive
results, even without the engine treatment. I believe this shows that my decision to add a diesel page
to our web site with four new options for a Hydrogen Boost system was about
time. Visit our diesel page by
clicking on any of the numerous Diesel links.
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