Anyone tried any of the new water injection

[theoilman]

Has anyone tried any of the new generation of water injection systems? I've been getting spam from a number of different ones. What are any results?

Normally you don't get something for nothing. Many are claiming 20%+ fuel economy improvements. Any thoughts about the down sides - what damage can they do? What about the long term effects on engine life and emission systems?

[Scott K]

Never heard of it, what info do you have?

[theoilman]

I've seen a number of these things advertised. (I get several, up to 12 a day, spams on them. The sites I use for gas price checking all have ads for them too.) They all share a bottle under the hood for water, most add "their additive" to the water. Some have a coil wired to something ??? These are all connected via a vacuum line and T to a hard vacuum port on the intake. Some even claim to work on diesel engines too. They are claiming 20% to some even 70% increases in fuel economy!

The old addage, You can't get something for nothing. There has to be a down side. What will they cause damage to? Emission systems? Reduce long term engine life?

Internet search on "water for gas" should come up with several.

[Valv]

Are you sure they are not talking about hydrogen injection ?

I know there are some kits that use water and plates to create hydrogen from hydrolysis and inject it into fuel system to help mileage.

I haven't studied it much yet.

I know you can use water injection in diesel trucks to lower exhaust temps when towing or racing.

[Jeremy airjer W]

From what I have heard about the newer hydrogen stuff is that it will work for the first few trips. After that the PCM will start to adjust for the false lean condition and start adding more fuel. Hydrogen burns hotter, faster, and cleaner, apparently, but what I wonder about is if it will burn up valves/pistons because it is "lean".

[Shack]

Quote:

Hydrogen burns hotter, faster, and cleaner, apparently, but what I wonder about is if it will burn up valves/pistons because it is "lean".

I think this could be a major issue with this.

I would not rule out Hydrogen in the future.

[CJH]

Sounds like snake oil!

[Valv]

No it's not snake oil, it actually works, but the amount of savings compared to the work and care to make it work is beyond my interest, somebody might like the system, not me.

[Hookmaster]

I saw one of these systems in popular mechanics or some similar magazine. This was back in the early '80s. It said that something like this was used on some planes in WWII to increase mileage on bombing runs. It showed how to make one out of a canning jar, some copper tubing, a bubbler of some sort. I put it on an early '70s Chevy short box with a straight 6 cylinder engine. I didn't see any improvement but I had some leaks that I couldn't fix. The premise is you draw air throught the water so the air going to the engine has high humidity and this somehow increases the mileage. On newer vehicles with all the sensors it may screw something else up.

[deadeye]

There are some performance brands out there that do the water injection, Snow Performance is one of them.

They also have methanol injection, it uses your washer fluid (full of methanol to keep it from freezing) to cool the intake charge. It is mostly used on turbo applications but I could see it being used for others.

My cousin has water injection on his Ram and it is used like nitrous on gas engines. It cools the intake charge and increases the compression.

I have had a few people in buying stuff they say they are using for hydrogen injection. I have asked them to come in so I can see it work but so far no dice seeing anything work.

The water injection works for performance gains but I havent seen anything about the economy effects of it. I wish someone would get a little more serious about the hydrogen stuff, since we have a mostly unlimited source of fuel with that. They might have to do some oil injection to lubricate the top end of the cylinders but it would be nice to take the garden hose out and fill the car with the tap.

[Scott K]

If we could fill up from the garden hose, could you imagine the taxes we would have to pay on water then