Quote:
Originally Posted by J Franklin
Are you sure these things don't work? Any proof?
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Well, first of all, there is no proof that such gadgets do work. With the "100 MPG carb", the myths are always vague; it seemed that someone's uncle's third cousin's barber heard stories down at the corner bar and the myth grew from there. Wild conspiracy theories are repeated instead of hard facts, no real evidence proves such wild claims!
Heard of the Fish Carburetor? The myth says it was a 100 MPG carb. In reality, the inventor only claimed "up to 20% better fuel mileage". The typical car of the day got maybe 15 MPG; 20 MPG was seldom seen. So it was really a 18-24 MPG carb at best. Tens of thousands were built and sold by the Fish Carburetor Company, and they still show up on ebay so anyone can buy one and test it for themselves. Fish made enough money to sponsor a NASCAR car in the mid-'50's. But he never claimed 100 MPG.
As far as the "HHO" scam goes, it too is unworkable. The claim is that you can use electrical current from the alternator, pass it through a set of metal plates in a jar of water, and make hydrogen as you drive. Supposedly this gives magical fuel economy! Not true! It takes power to get electricity from the alternator. It takes extra gasoline to get the extra power, resulting in a net loss! Don't forget: A car engine is only about 20-25% efficient, and an alternator is 50% efficient at best. So a lot of the gasoline burned is wasted as heat. A gallon of gasoline has about 120,000 Btu's of energy. A gallon-sized container of hydrogen at ambient temperature and pressure contains about 42 Btu's! A typical HHO unit makes 1 to 2 liters of "HHO" a minute. "HHO" is 1/3 oxygen so that leaves 28 Btu's in our gallon of HHO and we only make about 1/2 gallon a minute. So there is not enough "HHO" produced to make any improvement!! It's all smoke and mirrors!