Hydrogen-Boost

   Yesterday I tested a driving technique that increased my mileage by 20% over my previous best mileage rating, achieving 50 miles per gallon with the Saab 9000 Turbo and 10 amps on the Hydrogen-Boost mini-cells.
   I had read about this technique being used in high mileage tests of custom experimental vehicles that achieved mileage performance ratings of 200 to 600 miles per gallon. I decided to look into this technique further.
   I analyzed the drag coefficient data from a few weeks ago when I tested tire pressures and how they affected the drag on my Saab 9000 Turbo. I calculated the draw coefficients due to wind resistance and due to rolling resistance, a combination of tire drag and gear and bearing drag. I was surprised to find out how big a contribution was made by rolling resistance. I expected that the wind resistance would have been a bigger portion of the total drag. As it worked out the rolling resistance was more than the wind resistance until the speed reached 50 miles per hour with a tire pressure of 30psi and not until 45 miles per hour at 60psi, and at 20 psi the drags were equal at 55 miles per hour. The conclusion I drew here was that much more could be done to reduce the rolling resistance besides increasing the tire pressure. Extrapolating the exponential, coefficient of drag curve to a tire pressure of 120psi only showed about another 10 to 15 percent decrease in rolling resistance. This showed me that there is a tremendous amount of drag being produced by the gear oil in the transmission and grease in the wheel bearings. Since the Saab 9000 is a front wheel drive there is no rear end differential to contribute to the drag but I am now determined to look into the transmission and bearing oil/grease and seeing what canbe done to reduce the drag without causing wear on the gears. This I will do soon.
   Now back to the mileage test, I have heard that an internal combustion is most efficient at about three quarters of its power capability. So if I have a 160 horsepower engine, it will be most efficient at producing power when it is producing 120 horsepower. Now obviously I don’t want to drive at a constant speed that requires 120 horsepower because the wind resistance would be prohibitive to good mileage. I have been told by the previous owner of the Saab that it would well do the 135mph indicated on the speedometer. I have not tried it but I have been up to 100 miles per hour and it had plenty of acceleration at that point. But I would not expect to be able to drive at 100 miles per hour to get the best gas mileage since the wind resistance at 100 would be four times the wind resistanceat 50 miles per hour. I’m sure the rolling resistance would increase at higher speed but not as much as wind resistance. I still believe that a cruising speed of 45 to 55 miles per hour will give the best gas mileage for this vehicle.
   But how could I run the engine at 45 miles per hour and still run the engine at 3/4 power or 120 hp. I reverted to the technique used by the high mileage experimental test track drivers to accomplish both. First I picked a road where I would not hamper too much traffic, one that had a few gradual ups and downs but no steep hills up or down. The road I chose was posted at 45 mph speed limit. Of course no one obeys the speed limit all the time and most driver around here believe it is safe to drive 10 mph over the speed limit without getting stopped for speeding. So, I picked a loop of about eight miles, including two stop signs and two other turns onto another street. I chose to drive the loop in the clockwise direction so I could make only right hand turns. In the US that means only worrying about one lane of traffic at stop signs and none at right hand turns without stop signs. I chose a cold clear day when the engine would produce the most power. Any racing enthusiast will tell you that an engine produces the most power with cold air. Now that I think about it today, it probably would have worked better on a warm day because I wouldn’t have used so much gas producing the extra power at cold temperature.
   The driving technique I used would probably not be one that you would use except on solitary roads with little or no traffic. What I did was to accelerate at about 3/4 throttle to 55 miles per hour and then push in the clutch, take the transmission out of gear and shut off the engine. As soon as the engine stopped I turned the key back on, even though in my Saab this is not required in order to have steering (most cars will lockup the steering wheel when the key is off). I coasted until my speed was down to about 35 miles per hour. This took about 40 seconds. Then I would put the car into fourth gear pop the clutch momentarily to start the engine and then put it into third gear and accelerate to 55 mph again. This would take about 5 seconds. I did this repeatedly except when there was no traffic to interfere with the procedure. Of course at stop signs I tried to coast up to it without having to use the brakes. Most of the time I rolled through the stop sign. When the school buses came out I altered my speed and coasted slower to keep from interfering with traffic. Once I even stopped and waited for the bus and 12 cars behind it to clear my route. As you can probably figure I wasted very little fuel to the radiator or to the heater. My feet got very cold since even when the motor is running my floor heater does not work. All the heat comes out the defroster.
   Before I started I checked my tire pressures. They were not extremely high like I prefer, but the test was done at 40 psi. The engine was warm when I filled up with gas and I drove 40 miles on this test. Filling the tank at the exact same pump to the same exact tippy top full tank I used a total of 8/10 of one gallon. This calculated to the 50 miles per gallon I mentioned. The best I had been able to achieve before on this same test route was 40 miles per gallon on a 35-45mph slow accelerating, cruise with the engine on, test run with hydrogen boost. I had previously achieved a few miles per gallon better than40 on a long trip on the interstate highway at 55-60 mph. I’d be willing to bet that if I did this test again at 65mph coasting to 45mphI would achieve closer to 55 mpg. On the interstate highway around here I would not have near the traffic I had on the rural residential route this test was done on. So, for a Saab 9000 turbo that tested out at25 mpg before I made any improvements except the proper tire pressure, 50mpg was a doubling of the mileage. This still doesn’t beat the168% improvement I made in city driving, from 15mpg to 40 mpg. That’s a story for another day, and by then I will beat that figure.
   So until next time I greet you with hope of better mileage and happy motoring. See you in about a month.

Fran Giroux
Hydrogen-Boost

Hydrogen-Boost Update Letter 4-8-01

   Since our last update many developments have occurred here at Hydrogen-Boost. I will give you a short update on these developments.

   First of all, product development and testing have continued and even greater improvements in gas mileage have been achieved because of some new developments. We have included these latest developments in our operator’s manual addendum. Let me briefly tell you about a couple.

   Pre-heater: We have tested a very crude fuel preheating system that helps vaporize the fuel in an electronic fuel injected engine. It was quite simple and installed in about twenty minutes. All that was needed in our case was a six foot length of 1/4” soft copper tubing, two hose clamps, and some foam carpet padding. Installation was done on the 1987 Saab 9000 turbo. All we did was cut the fuel line leading to the fuel injector rail and insert the copper tubing which we had wrapped about 12 times around the upper radiator hose. We then clamped both ends and wrapped the tubing/hose assembly with 1/2” foam carpet padding to insulate it. We also insulated the tubing and fuel line all the way to and including the injector rail.
   A long test run of 230 miles was made with the only modifications to the vehicle being a small Hydrogen-Boost unit running at 15 amps, the pre-heater, and increased air pressure in the tires. The test track was the Adirondack Northway Interstate I-87 in Northeastern New York which is a quite mountainous highway. Speed driven was 70 miles per hour and no extreme driving techniques were employed except that on long down-hills the engine was turned off.
   EPA’s reported highway mileage for this vehicle, reported back when the speed limit was 55 mph, was 29 miles per gallon. This trip achieved 43 miles per gallon for a 48% increase over EPA’s reported mileage. Considering that this vehicle has 180,000 miles on it and the highway mileage tested out at 25 mpg with the increased tire pressure before the Hydrogen-Boost unit was installed this trip showed a 72% increase in mileage.
   More testing will be done on pre-heaters that raise the temperature further since this system doesn’t even make the fuel injector rail warm. It is the only item inside the engine compartment that is cool to the touch. This is due to the cooling effect of the fuel evaporating as it is injected into the intake.

   Engine Treatments: We have discovered that Slick-50 is not Slick-50 is not Dura Lube is not Prolong, etc. According to our new supplier Excel Plus, the Slick-50 of the early 1980’s that I tested on my twin engine ultralight airplane is no longer sold. Apparently the engine treatment that took on the name Slick-50 in the early 80’s split off from the partnership that was made famous by the “Teflon” formula. In the early 80’s the company split up with one partner keeping the formula and the other keeping the name Slick-50 which now is reportedly teflon and oil but not the formula of the early 80’s that worked. You can read the whole story by following the link on our technical information page of the www.hydrogen-boost.com website.

   Synthetic and light weight lubricants: During research in reducing the rolling friction of our test vehicles we discovered that the Saab actually uses a thin weight motor oil in the transmission. Also it was discovered that many race cars use a thin weight and/or a synthetic oil in their transmissions and rear end differentials. We have not completed tests on these possibilities yet but will report to you when we do.

   International News: Hydrogen-Boost is being tested at the present time in two foreign countries and we have had inquiries from many others. We are in negotiations in at least two countries on two different continents for manufacturing licensing and possible import to the U.S. from those countries. If you have any interest in this area or have any contacts in your country that might, please do not hesitate to contact Hydrogen-Boost. Our contact information is on the website.

   Independent Tests: Some of our hydrogen generators are being tested on vehicles independent of any other part of the Hydrogen-Boost System. Though this is not recommended when a much greater savings can be achieved by employing the whole system, these tests are welcome because they give us independent verification of improvements caused by a stand-alone unit. When we encounter new customers we make sure they understand that the Hydrogen-Boost System is a system, not a device. But it is nice to know what just the device can do. We have received reports of 20%increase in petrol economy with no other modifications or change in driving technique. Like we have said before, every vehicle responds differently to hydrogen injection. American made EFI engines don’t respond as well, Asian made EFI engine respond very well, and carburetor equipped engines also do well when the proper adjustments are made.
We stick to our claim that 80% of all vehicles on this planet are likely to see a 50% increase in mileage with the complete Hydrogen-Boost System.

   Competitors: We have recently discovered a few competitors in the hydrogen generation and injection business and we welcome them to the business. In fact we have installed links to these companies’ web sites from the technical information page of our website. Please feel free to visit our site and follow our links to our competitors. We welcome to the scene the following companies: Apollo, Xogen, Hy-Drive, and Quantronix. We hope to be able to cooperate with these companies and others to help solve some of the energy and pollution problems of our planet.

   If you do not want to be on our mailing list write to Toyota dealer. Last week I had test driven the Honda Insight hybrid vehicle and I’ve been wanting to test drive Toyota’s hybrid so I stopped in. The only Prius (hybrid) they had belonged to the salesman so I got to ride with him during my test drive. Toyota’s hybrid is set up different than the Honda. First of all the Honda is a light weight (1800 pounds)aluminum frame vehicle for only two passengers, while the Toyota is a full sized four to five passenger vehicle with a full trunk, weighing about 2800pounds. Also different is the operating system. The Honda isa full time engine on vehicle with a stick shift manual transmission. The Toyota is an automatic, does everything for you, smart vehicle. You don’t even need to start the engine, just get in and turn the key and put the “automatic” transmission in gear, and drive. This “automatic” transmission is not a geared, shifting transmission but a magnetically driven, continually variable speed device that is computer controlled like the rest of the car. The gasoline engine turns on and off automatically whenever it is needed or not. The battery powered electric motor/starter/generator is computer controlled and does whatever it takes to conserve energy. Even the braking system uses mostly magnetic, energy recovery, regenerative braking and very little friction braking. The salesman said that with this system the front brakes should last 100,000miles and the rear brakes would probably last the life of the vehicle. I don’t doubt this with me as a driver, but with most drivers it might not be quite as durable.
   What impressed me about the Toyota was that the city mileage figures were actually higher than the highway figures, 52 versus 45 mpg. Though not as high as the Honda at 61 and 68 mpg, with it’s 1000 cc engine, the Honda’s mileage figures were still quite good considering the 1500 cc engine and full size platform.
   I was also impressed that the Toyota engineers were not afraid to design the car to run with the engine off at times, though they could have gone one step further by having a true coasting mode. While driving down long hills the Toyota could not hold its speed without depressing the accelerator like it could if you popped it into neutral and truly coasted.
   What this vehicle did do, to a point, was apply automatically by computer, some of the driving techniques that are included in the Hydrogen-Boost operator’s manual, that must be applied manually with an ordinary car. It does give evidence of the truth of my recent claim that I can get better gas mileage in the city than I can on the highway.
   For most people this does not make sense as evidenced by EPA’s mileage figures for most vehicles. For normal driving with a normal car, the highway figure will be slightly higher than the city figure. But the Toyota Prius is not a normal car and I am not a normal driver.

Porpoising

   After witnessing the boldness of the Toyota engineers in designing a car that will run part time with the engine off, I was encouraged to incorporated porpoising into my normal driving, especially when city driving is actually porpoising by reason of traffic and traffic flow devices (stop signs and traffic lights).
   If you actually made a graph of speed versus time for your normal driving you would see the porpoising on the graph at least during city driving. The speed goes up and down and up and down, hence the name porpoising. During highway driving this is not usually the case as most people drive as fast as they can get away with, as they travel down an unrestricted highway, unrestricted by traffic that is.
   That doesn’t mean that a driver cannot use porpoising. It may seem strange to other drivers but its not illegal as long as you obey any maximum and minimum speed limits and don’t crash into other cars. As a matter of fact once you get used to it you can practice it without most drivers even noticing, as long as you don’t mind taking a little longer to get where you’re going.
   Let me explain what porpoising is and what I did to my car to make it easier. First let me explain why to use it, especially in the city. When you travel through the city you accelerate away from a stop light and then usually follow the car in front of you until you get to the next red light or stop sign, then you decelerate and use your brakes to slow down and stop. Let’s say it takes you 30 seconds to get from one stop to the next. The traffic in front of you won’t allow you to get there any faster, so as long as you take 30 seconds to get there what difference does it make to anyone how you do it? Now look at the following graph.

   The green line indicates a driver who jumps quickly to 30 mph and then drives at 30 until it is time to stop, at which time he stomps on the brakes and stops. The red line indicates a driver who accelerates moderately to 45 mph then coasts until its time to stop and then stops. Both drivers covered the same distance in the same amount of time but the red line driver used about twice as much gas as the green line driver. They both waited for the next stop light to turn green. Now since the red line driver was coasting three quarters of the time, and since he was going to sit still at the next light until it turned green, why should he have his engine running during this period. That would only created waste heat, and no motion, hence wasted energy, and wasted gasoline.
   When using the porposing technique, the red line driver turns off his engine during the coasting phase and waiting phase. If this procedure was used between stop signs and the vehicle had a manual transmission, the engine switch would be turned back on just before reaching the next stop sign and the clutch engaged with the transmission in a relatively high gear. This would start the engine without having to use the starter and battery.
   When traveling between lights or stop signs more than a half a mile apart, the engine is started whenever the speed drops below a comfortable speed for the traffic, then the vehicle is accelerated and coasting is resumed. Of course whenever there are hills, they are used to the best advantage by coasting on the downhills and accelerating on the uphills, whenever possible.
   To make this driving technique natural I have installed a toggle switch on my gear shift to shut off the engine ignition and the Hydrogen-Boost gas generator. The rest of the operating systems of the car are left on, including, turn signals, brake lights, fans, etc.
   Complications to this method are power steering, power brakes, lights, automatic transmissions, and air conditioning. None of these make it impossible unless there is extreme heat that requires maximum air conditioning. Power steering is usually not needed for relatively straight city streets until it is time to park or turn tight corners. Power brakes would still be available for stopping unless during the coasting phase the driver pumped the brakes a number of times for nothing, thereby depleting the vacuum in the brake booster. For night driving it might look weird to other drivers if your head lights got dimmer during the coasting phase and it might wear the battery down too quick.
   Automatic transmissions would require the driver to use the starter every time he needs to restart the engine. This would tend to restrict this method to longer intervals between stops. With my standard shift vehicles I don’t hesitate to use porpoising even on sections that have a stop sign on every block, where I only accelerate to20 mph between stops. I realize that is a bit overboard but it has become second nature to me so it’s no big deal. Of course a driver with automatic transmission could chose to coast with the engine running which does save some fuel but obviously not as much as with the engine off.
   Other complications that might evolve would be carbon buildup in the engine from never really getting hot, lack of heat in the winter because the engine doesn’t produce a lot of waste heat, and accumulation of water in the exhaust because the exhaust doesn’t really get hot. The catalytic converter may also build up some carbon unless some longer drives are taken occasionally. Carbon build up in the combustion chamber and lack of heat could be remedied by letting the engine warm up to normal temperature before engaging in porpoising. Also if you notice that the battery is being depleted by often use of the starter or use of the headlights, you might want to recharge it with a short time of “normal” driving. It might also be a good idea to make sure that the engine reaches normal temperature before ending your trips, to ensure that any moisture created by combustion is evaporated out of the engine by the engine heat, to prevent any corrosion.
   That’s it for porpoising, an easy way to increase your city mileage by at least 50%. Since I started using this method I have not tested a car with Hydrogen-Boost that I couldn’t double the EPA’s reported city mileage figure. I don’t think I could double the mileage without the Hydrogen-Boost but I know I would be hard pressed to double the mileage without porpoising even with the rest of the Hydrogen-Boost System.

May Sale

   Don’t forget our new model introduced this month foronly $250 US plus shipping. Email us for details at h2boost@adelphia.net

Until next time happy motoring to all.

Fran Giroux
Hydrogen-Boost

Hydrogen-Boost Update Letter 5-4-01
Addendum/Correction to Update letter of 5-2-01

   In response to Wednesday’s Hydrogen-Boost Update Letter we have received a valuable comment from John Huckfeldt that deserves our immediate attention and hence this Update Letter Addendum.

   In our last Update Letter we discussed porpoising as a driving technique that can save fuel. This technique included periods of time when the vehicle was moving but the engine was shut off. We mentioned that this would be inconvenient with an automatic transmissions because the starter would have to be used each time to restart the engine and that it might be better to practice porpoising with the engine running if you have an automatic transmission. No mention was made to any possible damage to an automatic transmission if porpoising was done with the engine shut off.

   John Huckfeldt wrote in with the following comments:

You mentioned switching off the engine and coasting - a car with an automatic will quickly blow the transmission if the car is coasting above about 20mph very often.
The engine has to be kept running - transmission rebuilds are much more expensive than a little fuel.

   We at Hydrogen-Boost have confirmed the concerns about driving an automatic transmission vehicle with the engine off. We checked with numerous dealers and tow truck operators who all agree that it is not a good idea to coast with the engine off if you have an automatic transmission because the lubrication for the transmission is provided by the “pump” that is not operating if the engine is not running. Even though there are seemingly no gears engaged that need lubricating while you are coasting, this lubrication is still apparently essential to the health of your transmission. So if you are ever planning to use porpoising with your automatic transmission, be sure to do it with your engine running. Personally I would havedone that anyway because of my own concerns about having to use the starter every time I shut off the engine.

   We thank John Huckfeldt for his prompt and accurate warning and for his efforts I extend to John an additional $50 discount on any hydrogen-Boost System we have on sale, including the May sale of our new compact model for $250.

   If any of you who receive our update letter have any tips or warnings you would like to share with us and out readers, please let us know and we will offer a discount to you as well.

   Thanks again John.

Hydrogen-Boost Sale Expiration Reminder 5-24-01

   Just a quick reminder for Hydrogen-Boost Newsletter subscribers that our introductory sale on the new compact Hydrogen-Boost System will expire on May 31, 2001. The new model Hydrogen-Boost System, retailing for $400, is on sale for the month of May for only $250 plus shipping. Visit www.hydrogen-boost.com for details and specifications on the Hydrogen-Boost System. For ordering details email to h2boost@adelphia.net

Hydrogen-Boost Update Letter

Hydrogen-Boost July Newsletter: 7-2-01

Mileage Possibilities and Efficiency Calculations

   With reports of 200 miles per gallon achievements with the Pogue carburetor and with George Wiseman’s experimental vehicle, I decided to do some calculations on my Saab 9000 to see what the greatest possibility of mileage actually is for this vehicle. I also wanted to know the efficiency of the vehicle at each speed.
   To calculate the greatest possibly mileages I took the observations from the coasting tests done last winter. To get those up to date, who didn’t read about the coasting tests I will explain what was done. The original coasting tests were designed to compare the drag coefficients for the Saab at various speeds and tire pressures. Coasting times were recorded for each of the following tire pressures: 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, and 15 psi. The amount of time it took to slow down from each of the higher speeds of the following series to the lower speed of each series was recorded: 65-55 mph, 55-45 mph, 45-35 mph, 35-25 mph, 25-15 mph.
   With the speed and weight of the vehicle (1500 kg with fuel and driver) the amount of kinetic energy at each speed was calculated using this formula: KE=1/2MV2 where M=mass and V=velocity or speed of the vehicle. Results were as follows:

Speed in mph    Kinetic Energy in Kilo Joules
   75    833.3
   65    626.4
   55    448.2
   45    300.0
   35    181.5
   25    92.6
   15    33.3
   With the coasting times for each series of speeds, and the average speed for each series, the distance covered during each coasting time was calculated with the following formula: Distance = average speed times elapsed time. Distances traveled (miles) during each testis reported here:

Speed Distance covered
interval    60psi    50psi    40psi    30psi       20psi    15psi
65-55    .2500    .2083    .2000    .1667       .1417    .125
55-45    .2361    .2292    .2222    .2083       .1736    .1458
45-35    .2442    .2333    .2388    .2167       .1889    .1556
35-25    .2333    .2250    .2208    .2000       .1583    .1292
25-15    .1944    .1722    .1667    .1583       .1222    .1000
   Further calculations were made for the 50 psi tire pressure. First the kinetic energy depleted during each test was calculated, then the energy depleted per mile and the miles per gallon (assuming 130,000 BTUs per gallon or 137,150 kJ/gal)

Speed interval Energy depleted    Distance covered energy per mile    mpg
   75-65    (estimated)    206.9 kJ    .1850    1118.4    122.6
   65-55    178.2    kJ    .2083    855.5    160
   55-45    148.2 kJ    .2292    645.6    214.6
   45-35    118.5 kJ    .2333    517.0    270
   35-25    88.5kJ    .2250    393.3    348.7
   25-15    59.25 kJ    .1722    344.1    398.6
   15-0 (estimated)    35.6    kJ    .1220    291.8    432.2

Upon close examination of the above information we see that if the motor train of the Saab was 100% efficient at converting the energy in the gasolineto motion down the road, then it would be possible to drive between 160 and400 miles per gallon.
Efficiency Calculations

   Comparing the actual tested mileages to the possible mileages we can calculate the efficiencies at each speed and under the test conditions. Below are the results of these comparisons.

30 mph city driving test before installation of Hydrogen-Boost
15 mpg tested versus 348.7 possible = 4.3% efficient

30 mph city driving test reported by EPA
22 mpg versus 348.7 possible = 6.3% efficient

30 mph city driving with Hydrogen-Boost installed
33 mpg versus 348.7 possible = 9.4% efficient

30 mph city driving with Hydrogen-Boost and porpoising technique
44 mpg versus 348.7 possible = 12.6% ef