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Article:Modifying the Vehicle's ECU to Accommodate a New Mixture from Hydrogen Boosting

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PROLOGUE:

Many people have been experimenting with systems in which an on-board electrolizer, using the vehicle's battery power, converts water into a hydrogen-oxygen gas, which they then duct into the engine's air intake, where the hydrogen catalyzes a more efficient burn of the fuel, resulting in significant mileage increase, torque increase, and a reduction in emissions. Some entities have been commercializing various iterations of this approach, providing everything from plans and kits to completed systems and installation.

One of the most knowledgeable researchers and compilers of the various approaches being tried is New Energy Congress member, Noah Seidman.

Table of contents
1 Intro
2 Modifying the Vehicle's ECU to Accommodate the New Mixture
3 Recommended Manufacturers
4 Be Careful
5 Water4fuel and Copycats
6 Related Concepts

1 See also

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Intro

From: "Noah Seidman" Industry leading fuel enhancement consulting (http://www.waterfuelconverters.com)
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 6:52 PM Here are two quick links with some introductory information. The homepage also has some good introductory information.

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Modifying the Vehicle's ECU to Accommodate the New Mixture

In general there are two components to hydrogen addition that effect efficiency. First is flame velocity, which provides more time for the fuel to burn between valve cycles. Second is the lean burn limit, in which gasoline does not like to remain flammable past a certain point. Leaning the air/fuel ratio results in less fuel being injected therefore less engine power output. The lean condition uses excess air to quench combustion temperature, which reduces NOx production. For performance purposes the engine should be tuned to use ultra lean conditions only when substantial power output is not required, therefore maintaining peak power output when necessary. Hence lean conditions will only be used during idle, moderate acceleration and cruise. Basically this is all defined in the fuel maps of the ECU, and there are many consideration in how to program them. Fuel enhancement allows for different options to consider when tuning the vehicles fuel maps. Also in automatic vehicles the shift points of the transmission can be calibrated to increase the average time the engine is operating in an efficient RPM region.

Increasing gas mileage depends on changing how the engine is operating. To do this the primary component that needs modification is the ECU or the carburetor. Stock ECU's are designed by OEM manufacturers such as Bosch, and are not modifiable. Only a couple of hacks, and chips are available to tweak stock ECUs, with the best and most effective course of action being complete replacement with an aftermarket tunable ECU.

One hack is offsetting a vehicle's oxygen sensor; small variations can be achieved producing air/fuel ratios up to 18:1 - 20:1. This method is completely constrained to the parameters of the stock fuel maps, and overstepping boundaries results in a check engine light being tripped. Another hack is to trip the check engine light. Modifying the signal from other sensors in the vehicle can vary air/fuel ratios when the check engine light is tripped. The main drawback of this method is it will not pass EPA inspection due to OBD-2 standards. The vehicle owner would have to reset the ECU, disable the fuel enhancement circuitry, and then drive for a period of time for the ECU to gather required EPA data.

There are deficiencies with these two hacks. The optimal implementation of fuel enhancement requires injection of predefined quantities of hydrogen depending on conditions (RPM, load, etc..). Different quantities of hydrogen injection will have a different effect, and should be reflected in great detail in the ECU's fuel maps. Such customization requires at minimum a dynomometer, and hopefully a pyrometer tapped into each cylinder of the engine. The detailed nature of the required fuel maps can only be achieved with a fully customizable ECU.

  • Note that there is a difference between engine efficiency, and overall vehicle efficiency. The gas mileage of the vehicle is a repercussion of more than the engines efficiency, and such things as drag, tire pressure, and transmission design play significant roles. The engine efficiency is limited by the parameters of a heat engine, described thermodynamically by the carnot cycle. Because of this engine management optimization is crucial to improving economy. The transmission, which is most likely controlled by the ECU must be modified to force the engine to operate in increasingly efficient regions for longer periods of time. If the engine is operating at 23% efficiency at 3000 RPMs, and 20% efficiency at 1000 RPMs, then the shift points in the transmission should target increase operation at 3000 RPMs. As the vehicle operate in this increasingly efficient region, for longer periods of time, the overall efficiency of converting gasoline energy into propulsion will increase. This is where CVT transmissions are effective.
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Recommended Manufacturers

While there are many "kits" on the market only a couple consider the modification requirements to increase gas mileage. Hydrogen Boost (http://hydrogen-boost.com) manufactured by Francis Giroux implements "limp mode" ECU override techniques". Using the provided circuitry, in combination with the electrolyzer and other products in the kit, the engine can be modified to increased efficiency standards. The Hydrogen Boost unit is very sturdy, durable and well designed.

The HyZor (http://www.eagle-research.com/images/newsim/hyzpromo.pdf) of Eagle Research, using EFIE oxygen sensor offset circuitry is a well designed simple product changing how the engine operates to a limited degree. The EFIE is inserted in series with the oxygen sensors voltage signal, providing a positive offset voltage creating an inflated signal for the ECU. This creates a leaning variance in the engines air/fuel operating conditions. The Eagle Research unit is a kit for enthusiasts that want to assemble their electrolyzer on their own.

There are many kits on the market, and when you judge the quality of a kit you must first critique the durability of the product. An onboard electrolyzer will experience changes in pressure therefore the reaction chamber should be designed with adequate integrity to maximize longevity. Also durable materials for the electrodes should be chosen. What arrangement the plates are in? Electrolyzer efficiency is of the utmost importance; how efficient is the electrolyzer? Does the kit provide technology to vary air/fuel ratios, and/or timing?

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Be Careful

Products that make claims of increasing engine efficiency by a large percentage are fraudulent. The maximum efficiency of a traditionally designed 4 stroke IC engine is probably around 25-30%. If an average engine operates at 20% efficiency, claiming a 100% increase in engine efficiency would result in the IC engine operating at 40% efficiency; this is scientifically impossible. Overly inflated claims are rampant on the internet, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

An engine is 20% efficient, and an alternator is 80% efficient. Therefore the electrolyzer is working at a theoretical maximum 16% efficiency. A poorly designed electrolyzer will drop the overall efficiency down to negligible levels, therefore a well designed electrolyzer is required. Lets say a 60-70% efficient electrolyzer is used, this will still drop the overall efficiency down below 16%. This is important to consider because hydrogen reformer technology will produce hydrogen from gasoline at upwards of 80% efficiency. The foundation for fuel enhancement is the quantity of hydrogen injected, therefore an 80% efficient system will have a substantially more pronounced effect!

When injecting large quantities of hydrogen timing modifications are required. Currently the timing of engines are before top dead center because of the combustion velocity of gasoline. Hydrogen burns much faster, and when the mixture of hydrogen and gasoline becomes great enough the timing must be closer to TDC, or even after.

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Water4fuel and Copycats

The Water4fuel kit does provide a map sensor override circuit. Depending on the design of the ECU on different make and model vehicles, this will have varying effects. While the intent of the product is consistent with the fuel enhancement concept, the durability and cross make/model functionality is seriously in question. The mason jar electrolyzer detrimentally lacks structural integrity, and the design of the electrolyzer does not consider efficiency.

Regarding marketing, these rampant PPC advertisements on search engines are egregiously manipulative. While the product itself is well intended, the marketing tactic used is basically fraudulent. The definition of fraudulent is: deceitful, deceptive, crooked, underhanded (dictionary.com). By advertising "run your car on water", and then on the website saying "run your car on water and gasoline" there is an apparent deceit. This creates confusion, and is detrimental to the credibility of fuel enhancement technology. Considering the stereotypes about increasing gas mileage, the marketing tactics of water4gas (and competition) are exacerbating the situation, further reducing overall credibility of the field.

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Related Concepts

Consistent with the above modification is water injection. The technique of injecting quantities of water into the combustion process further effects how the fuel maps can be modified. Water injection reduces combustion temperature and salvages a quantity of waste heat as the water expands to steam. This can compensate slightly for the decreased power output of an ultra lean air/fuel ratio. On a tangent I really like the idea of the 6 stroke engine. Six-stroke Engine Theoretically an existing engine can be modified to perform 6 strokes. This would require custom cams, gears, etc...

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See also

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