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How many amps does car need to function?

Posted: August 23rd, 2009, 8:51 am
by jollybengali
Hi guys/gals,

i would like to install a HHO generator, it produces Hydrogen and Oxygen gas in small amounts for increased gas mileage, so my problem is what is the maximum amount of amps i can draw from the battery before it effects the routine function of the car? i have an AEM radio Pioneer DEH-4600MP at 10A and a infinity basslink powered sub it has a two fuses a 60A at the battery and a 20A in-unit im not sure which one to use for calculations. Also, What would be a good buffer?

96 Mazda MX3 v6 GS
Power WINDOWS/Locks/SUNRooF/MIRRORS/

Any guesses would be much appreciated,

Thanks

Re: How many amps does car need to function?

Posted: August 23rd, 2009, 4:24 pm
by Inodoro Pereyra
Jollybengali: welcome to the forum. :)

Do NOT install an HHO generator in your car. HHO generators are a scam. They will NOT improve your gas mileage (they will actually increase your fuel consumption) and they will cause your engine to fail prematurely.

Re: How many amps does car need to function?

Posted: August 23rd, 2009, 5:27 pm
by hgallegos915
mythbusters already prooved this one wrong. check out their website.

hho generator does NOTHING..


if you want better milleage, get a klze, install a lightweight flywheel and a vacuum gauge.

why vac gauge? well you will teach yourself how to drive better, the more the engine is invac, the less fuel its using, the less vac there is, the more fuel is using. Usually people with properly tunned zes get around 30 miles per gallon. I was not tunned and I was getting those results.

Re: How many amps does car need to function?

Posted: August 23rd, 2009, 9:23 pm
by Nd4SpdSe
hgallegos915 wrote:mythbusters already prooved this one wrong. check out their website.

hho generator does NOTHING..


if you want better milleage, get a klze, install a lightweight flywheel and a vacuum gauge.

why vac gauge? well you will teach yourself how to drive better, the more the engine is invac, the less fuel its using, the less vac there is, the more fuel is using. Usually people with properly tunned zes get around 30 miles per gallon. I was not tunned and I was getting those results.
Indeed, I saw that episode too.

Exactly, add a good intake an exhaust and that'll add to the savings. I averaged about 33mpg on my ZE. I also agree with the vac gauage. I've got a vac/boost gauge for the Xterra and you do learn alot on how the motor works in terms of efficiency. Apparently the old "fuel economy" gauges in old cars were just vacuum gauges.

Re: How many amps does car need to function?

Posted: August 24th, 2009, 12:05 am
by Inodoro Pereyra
Exactly.
I used to be a member of the Mythbusters forum for a while, under a different username (2 actually, since the first time I ended up being banned due to a little "misbehavior" on my part :wink: ), and, I can tell you, HHO and other "water for fuel" threads show up there almost daily. So, if you want to find a lot of in depth information (and some of the nastiest flame wars on the internet) go there and start reading.

Other than that, there's a good article on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car

About the vacuum gauge, that's exactly right. Also in Mythbusters and in Top Gear has been demonstrated that the best way to save fuel is to change your driving habits, and a vacuum gauge would be an invaluable tool to learn to save every last drop of it.
Also, keeping your car in good shape. Tires properly inflated, air filter clean, good spark plugs, etc, will greatly improve your gas mileage.

Re: How many amps does car need to function?

Posted: August 26th, 2009, 2:12 am
by PilotSmack89
hgallegos915 wrote:Usually people with properly tunned zes get around 30 miles per gallon. I was not tunned and I was getting those results.
Or in some cases, a lil stock 4-banger can get 36MPG :lol:

Re: How many amps does car need to function?

Posted: August 27th, 2009, 10:44 am
by jollybengali
Hey Guys,

Thanks for the feed back. From my "youtube" research I've gathered enough people have tried this and had satisfactory results. So it wouldn't hurt to try it for a bit at least, what I want to achieve it complete combustion. I figure our cars run at high rpms so a significant amount of fuel is unburnt cause lower octane fuel can't flash fast enough. If you introduce Hydrogen, with its higher and faster flash point, it'll combust everything in the cylinder. Please advise me on any problems with my theory. So how many amps can I use for the HHO device?

Re: How many amps does car need to function?

Posted: August 27th, 2009, 11:30 am
by Inodoro Pereyra
Jolly: basically, the problem with your theory is...everything.

First, using hydrogen in a normal IC engine WOULD hurt. And it would hurt a lot.
There's s series of undesirable side effects caused by exposing most common metals (especially steel, aluminum and titanium) to gaseous hydrogen, known by the group name of "Hydrogen Damage":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_damage

of which the most important is called "Hydrogen Embrittlement":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement

Which would cause your engine to fail prematurely, if you were to inject hydrogen with the fuel.
The mechanism that causes this effects is not completely understood yet, but the effects themselves have been known for quite some time.

Second, you'd need obscenely high amounts of hydrogen to make any difference in either power or fuel economy. Gasoline has an energy density of 34.6 MJ/L, while hydrogen has only 0.01079 MJ/L, or 0.03% that of gasoline. That means you need about 3207 gallons of hydrogen to replace a gallon of gasoline.

Third, octane rating has nothing to do with combustion speed. Octane rating is the measure of a fuel's resistance to self detonate under high pressure/temperature, and upping it on a otherwise unmodified engine has no effect whatsoever.

Fourth, there's no such thing as a "faster flash point". Flash point is the temperature at which a flammable substance ignites when in presence of an ignition source.

Fifth, it's not true that there's a lot of unburnt fuel on modern engines. On the contrary: big efforts have been made by car manufacturers to get down the amount of unburnt fuels to a minimum, and, today, combustion in the cylinder is almost perfect.

Now, about your "HHO device", the answer is simple: there's no such thing as "HHO". It's a hoax.
Your device is just an electrolysis machine, nothing more.
You can use as many "Amps" as you want (as long as you dimension your electrodes properly), but keep in mind, even theoretically, you'd get about 1/3 of the energy you put on it, and, in the real world, your number will be more like 1/6 or lower.
And, of course, you need to add the cost of a new engine to the expense...