fun airbox

[ste s]

I was checking the air filter today and noticed there is a pipe that comes out of the airbox and goes to the manifold,is this to cool the manifold or is it there for another reason,never came across this set up before. 

[TeflonTom]

No not quite, it's connected to the heat shield on top oh the exhaust manifold, if you look inside the air filter box under the filter there is a little flap that is wax operated automatically, the hot air collected from above the manifold enters through here when the weather is really cold just to aid combustion, when the ambient temperature in the airbox is higher this flap closes meaning on fresh cold air is drawn in from the other pipe that goes through the front panel..

in all honesty I don't think the weather ever gets cold enough in the uk's temperate climate to gain any benefit from it, but in a snowy heavy winter it would be worth it..

so if you we're thinking of ditching the whole airbox and putting a cone filter there instead you should be fine, I wouldn't bother myself personally, my pickup made 130bhp with the standard air filter and standard airbox.

[ste s]

thanks for the info,what did you do to get 130 bhp out of it.

[TeflonTom]

Changed the engine, it was a 1.4 16v engine from an early 6n polo then it was stroked out to 1600cc

[juan27]

Isn't the arrangement there to avoid the throttle body icing up in cold weather? On my ancient SEAT the air filter has two positions for winter and summer that you have to adjust manually, but it does what the Fun flap (ooh err) does and gets air heated by the exhaust manifold on the winter setting. 

[krrcan]

No not quite, it's connected to the heat shield on top oh the exhaust manifold, if you look inside the air filter box under the filter there is a little flap that is wax operated automatically, the hot air collected from above the manifold enters through here when the weather is really cold just to aid combustion, when the ambient temperature in the airbox is higher this flap closes meaning on fresh cold air is drawn in from the other pipe that goes through the front panel..

in all honesty I don't think the weather ever gets cold enough in the uk's temperate climate to gain any benefit from it, but in a snowy heavy winter it would be worth it..

so if you we're thinking of ditching the whole airbox and putting a cone filter there instead you should be fine, I wouldn't bother myself personally, my pickup made 130bhp with the standard air filter and standard airbox.

Wouldn't it be better to have this switched by the termostat or something?

ie, only use hot air, untill the engine has reached optimum operating temperature.

[juan27]

Wouldn't it be better to have this switched by the termostat or something?

ie, only use hot air, untill the engine has reached optimum operating temperature.

Its not the engine temperature ....even an engine at normal operating temp can have problems with carb/throttle body icing. I had it happen many years ago on a Renault 12 about twenty miles into a winter journey...

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk

[adurer]

It is well known that only gasoline vapors burn. For those not believing that, do a simple test: pour gasoline in an open recipient and throw a lit match in it. The match will extinguish.

 

Now back to internal combustion engines. Gasoline comes into a liquid form and we need to feed vapors into combustion chambers  In cold weather, only a very small portion of gasoline is flammable. That is why a heat source is needed. Felicia is using hot air from above the exhaust manifold. Other cars use the so called 'hedgehog' inside intake manifold, which is an electrical heated heatsink. Either way, gasoline droplets (from carburettor or injector(s) are easier to ignite. You have to know that our engines are intentionally designed to have an incomplete burn of gasoline. That's why unburned hydrocarbons are expelled into atmosphere or are burned in catalytic 'converters', the lamest invention ever, designed to cover the lack of efficiency and pollution of our engines. The solution would be to feed the engines with gasoline totally vaporized. Only problem is that vested interests (aka oil companies) put additives in our gasoline to 'help' against detonation, but in fact to reduce intentionally gasoline vaporization and efficient burning. Think this way: when you buy gasoline, more than half is not translated to power, but heat and pollution.

 

krrcan has a good point asking about feeding hot air a longer time, after all he's been struggling a lot in the last month to improve the efficiency of his car. There are many types of fuel vaporizers being experimented. For those interested I have some useful documentation.

[krrcan]

I did search abit on the concept of complete fuel vaporization, but I have to admit I'm abit sceptical.
If you have managed to pull this of yourself adurer, I would be interested in knowing how you did it. But if you haven't managed, such a project is way out of legue for me.

What would be the problem with feeding hot air into the air-box constantly?

[TeflonTom]

cold air is more dense so it contains more oxygen, warm air aids vaporisation of the fuel droplets..... Take your pick.. It's a fine balancing act.

[adurer]

krrcan

I will ask the original developer (Dan Daum) of this very simple yet efficient device to insert an installation guide in our Classic section. I want you to know that I am against any snake oil device, like magnets-on-fuel-lines crap and such. As I told you in your topic on Ethanol, I have a solid scientific background, and I am the father of all skeptics when it comes to any alternative energy device. But in this case, we're talking about real gains. Stay tuned.

[HydrogenCrackSystem]

Hi Adurer.

Thanks for inviting me to join your group and post in this thread.

My name is Dan Daum and I post regularly on the fuel-saver.org in the Hydrocarbon Cracking System thread.

I'm originally from the UK but have lived here in Indonesia for many years.

I heard about the HCS from locals here as it was initially developed by an Indonesian from a US Patent describing how to thermally crack Hydrogen from Gasoline Vapour in a heat tube or catalyst.

He sold kits for people to fit to their own vehicles (both 2-wheeled and four) and I bought one to try on my Fuel Injected family car with excellent effects.

There are now many hundreds of vehicles across Indonesia using HCS.

The fuel efficiency, clean, quiet running and extra power are as a result of feeding a little Hydrogen into the air line and to that extent HCS resembles HHO (up to a point).

Many people have bought HHO boosters and fitted them to their vehicles without experiencing any significant mileage increase.

This is mainly due to the fact that the electrolysis reactor drains power from the engine in order to produce the Hydrogen.

Another feature of HHO is that it produces a flat rate amount of Hydrogen (and Oxygen) regardless of engine revs leading to haphazard results.

HCS is a simple system that anyone with the most basic automotive skills can cobble together in an afternoon from easily found parts and it works like this:

Gasoline vapour is produced (cold) in an auxiliary bubbler tank.

It then flows to a Heat Tube made from narrow gauge copper tubing which is wrapped tightly around the exhaust pipe at its hottest part where the Hydrocarbon vapour is cracked into Hydrogen and Carbon.

This Hydrogen-rich gas then flows to the air inlet and into the carburettor or injectors.

In order to be efficient; it must take no power from the engine and produce just the Hydrogen that the engine needs at any particular time.

The above explanations omits the propulsion method which is either Vaccuum (to suck the vapours through the system and into the engine) or Pressure (to push the vapours through the system and into the engine).

If a Vacuum is to be used; it must be a Venturi Vacuum which is low at idle and increases with the engine revs.

Many cars do not have a suitable Venturi although some people have been successful in drilling an inlet in the side of a regular carburettor.

The best Pressure source that follows engine revs is the PCV system which, as we all know, is Positive Crankcase Ventilation.

This pressure arises from 'blowby' gases leaking past the piston rings during the compression stroke and building up in the Crankcase.

In the simplest PCV systems; these gases are ventilated through a hole in the top of the engine somewhere and this variable pressure can be fed directly into the bubbler tank; forcing fuel vapour through the HCS and can be adjusted to produce the correct mixture at all times.

Some cars have a slightly more complicated PCV system involving the force-evacuation of the PCV gases by manifold vacuum; replacing them with fresh air from a breather tube.

These systems are not suitable for immediate use by the HCS but can be easily modified (simplified) for our purposes.

The conversion is both quick and easy and is also just as easily restored to its original state should the HCS be removed at a later date.

I have compiled a number of illustrated PDFs which describe in detail how to make the HCS and fit it to your vehicle.

They can be downloaded free at: http://www.baligifter.org/hcs/hcs.zip

Edited 4 November, 2013 by HydrogenCrackSystem

[HydrogenCrackSystem]

As you will read; I have achieved significant mileage increases with this simple, home-made system.

I use 'cold vaporisation' because the fuel industry mixes resins into the fuel which are specifically designed to gum-up high mileage carburettors that use heat to vaporise the fuel.

HCS is not a Vapour System as such although it does employ gasoline vapour in its primary stage.

It is a Hydrogen on Demand system which produces significant mileage increases, reduces noise and vibration and increases the power of the vehicle.

It should also be mentioned that the tailpipe emissions are reduced significantly when running HCS.

All the best.

Dan.

[HydrogenCrackSystem]

For those who can't visualise the system from my post above; here's a schematic diagram of the Hydrocarbon Crack System:

I use a radiator overflow tank as a Fuel Bubbler, 3mm internal diameter copper tubing for the Heat Tube and Silicone Rubber tubing to connect everything up.

The Adjuster Tap shown in the diagram is an Aquarium air line tap but any small tap will work.

Please understand that this is just a schematic of the HCS and exactly which materials you use will depend much on local availability and your own inventiveness.

All the best.

Dan.

[adurer]

I am totally backing up Dan's description and science behind it. I think we have to do something before petrol price hits the roof.

 

It would be a great idea to have a special section about devices that really help getting more mpg. Dan has a lot of information to share, he is very committed to share his knowledge and help anyone replicate the benefits of HCS device. There is real science behind it, no marketing BS, 100% free information, very cheap to implement, and Felicia or Favorit cars are a match made in heaven for this device.

 

TeflonTom, please help us get maximum visibility for this initiative. Thanks.

[krrcan]

Some possible problems:

* Dangers of gasoline exploding?
* The evaporated petrol taking "too much space", thereby reducing the ammount of air, and therefor the amount of oxygen in the combustion process.
* The vapor self-igniting under compression, before the spark.
* carbon resudue (tar, coal etc) buildup in the heating coil?

I would be very interested in seing this performed on a felicia, and if efficiency gains were documented, I would gladly perform the process myself.

[uma1998]

I running mine with a pipercross filter and drilled air box and no pipe to manifold runs ok

[adurer]

Some possible problems:

* Dangers of gasoline exploding?

* The evaporated petrol taking "too much space", thereby reducing the ammount of air, and therefor the amount of oxygen in the combustion process.

* The vapor self-igniting under compression, before the spark.

* carbon resudue (tar, coal etc) buildup in the heating coil?

Gasoline does 'explode' only in movies. You need vapors and a spark to ignite it. Do gasoline vapors explode in our fuel tanks?

 

Vapor amount taking 'too much space' is a nonsense to say the least. We're talking gases, not boxes in a wardrobe. Air intake is not restricted. By adding unmetered hydrogen, the oxygen sensor will sense a rich condition and will cut from the fuel injected.

 

The mix of methane resulting from thermal cracking and gasoline has a higher octane than the most refined petrol on the market. So no self-detonation.

 

Carbon residue may form only if heating tube is too cold (the tube not wound tight over exhaust and not insulated from elements)

Edited 5 November, 2013 by adurer

[krrcan]

Thank you for adressing the concerns.
I was not at all aware that methane+gasoline had higher octane than just petrol.

That the heating tube can be too cold, could be a problem when starting to drive. But one could perhaps have a termostat, so that this process doesn't start untill the engine has adequate excess heat.

[adurer]

That the heating tube can be too cold, could be a problem when starting to drive. But one could perhaps have a termostat, so that this process doesn't start untill the engine has adequate excess heat.

There's no need of any thermostat. The exhaust manifold gets VERY hot in 30 seconds. The IC engines produce enough excess heat, it's part of their inefficiency. That's part of the beauty of HCS, it puts to good use wasted heat and blow-by gases.

[HydrogenCrackSystem]

I agree with Adurer.

 

I never bother to warm the engine up before I drive off from cold start as it's kind of a waste of fuel; I just keep the revs low for a while.

The heat tube is below cracking temperature at engine start so the car drives like the choke is on for a couple of hundred yards or so.

Then the engine quite suddenly becomes quiet and the drive is smooth with plenty of power across the rev-band; empirical proof that the effect comes from cracked hydrocarbon vapour.

 

Hydrogen has a nominal octane rating of over 130 according to a chart on Wikipedia so pre-ignition (detonation) is unlikely to be an issue with HCS.

 

I have HCS fitted to my Kawasaki Ninja 650 motorcycle which is supposed to run on high-octane petrol due to its high compression ratio.

I run it on the cheapest grade of petrol which has an octane rating well below that prescribed by Kawasaki but with the Hydrogen input from the HCS; it runs a lot better than on the manufacturer prescribed fuel.

 

Most high octane petrol is just low octane petrol with added ethanol (wood alcohol).

Ethanol increases the octane but produces less power than regular unadulterated petrol.

Regular low octane petrol + HCS is infinitely preferable to low-grade ethanol fuel.

 

If I had a Skoda handy here in Bali; I'd make an HCS Installation Video for you guys and post it here.

Maybe Adurer would like to be the first here to 'take the plunge' and fit HCS to his car.

 

All the best.

Dan.

Edited 5 November, 2013 by HydrogenCrackSystem

[adurer]

There is a very well documented topic about HCS in here:
 
Hydrocarbon Cracking System

 

There are many concerns answered, photos of installation and statistic results. Fuel economy varies between 30 - 50 % with a noticeable increase in power.

 

Edostar made us a favor and condensed the most important up to date information.

[HydrogenCrackSystem]

Adurer.

That link is to the Hydrocarbon Cracking System thread on Fuel-Saver forum which contains a lot of discussion on the topic over the years.

Unfortunately the thread currently stands at 180 pages which would be quite a task to read through.

The fact is that HCS is a very simple concept which can be built very easily from locally sourced materials.

There are no specialist parts and the whole installation can be made in an afternoon at negligible cost.

Dan.

[carpman]

I know HHO can be used on a deisel, but can this method also work on a diesel?

[adurer]

Yes it works. See http://www.baligifter.org/hcs/hcs.zip

Edited 19 November, 2013 by adurer