Has anyone ever installed one of those HHO thingies

[Jackpine]

Originally Posted by tommytunes

I have been reading about HHO generators for autos. The problem I always see is the computer wants to compensate for the added O2 and adds more fuel. Has anyone ever successfully used one on a gas engine. I hear that diesel motors do get some better performance.

If these things actually work, and I can't see how they really would, I don't see the computer sensing any added oxygen at all.

As I understand things, the device electrolyzes water into its "pre-burned" hydrogen and oxygen components. These are simply dumped into the intake along with the normal air. The charge that reaches the cylinder would have the same amount of fuel as before, because the MAF sensor can't distinguish oxygen (or hydrogen) from air. But, if things go as planned, the oxygen in the normal air charge combines with the fuel and the added hydrogen and oxygen burn too, releasing additional energy (supposedly). Since the oxygen that was extracted from the water is recombined with the hydrogen, the O2 sensors in the exhaust don't see anything different so they won't send a "lean" signal to the PCM, which WOULD call for more fuel.

Now, I have to admit that I don't know how O2 sensors work. If they are simple temperature sensors, they COULD send a "lean" signal to the PCM because the burning hydrogen should produce a hotter exhaust. Added fuel would cool it.

I also think it takes more energy to electrolyze water than you can recover by burning the separated components. AND the energy needed to do the separation is, I think, much more than you are going to get out of some solar device you can mount on your vehicle. I doubt you are going to get any useful amount of hydrogen at all.

I had four 15-watt solar panels for our trailer, and was really only able to get about 2.5 Amps at 13-14 Volts out of them - on a clear sunny day! This is hardly enough to do any serious hydrogen generation.

- Jack