As renewal for the Central Florida HHO Meetup Group I formed here in Orlando almost two years ago is coming up in a few days, and I’ve been doing a few other ventures lately, as well as interest in HHO having died down a bit publicly, I will be stepping down as Organizer. If someone would like to take it over, it has very good ranking when you look up HHO locally in Google. Last I checked it actually held the number one slot. Hopefully whoever takes over the reigns will have more time to organize things.

My original idea was to have monthly meetings where people show their systems, get together, and make a local club that could also appear at various events, car shows, etc. I’m still interested in being a member and making the events and Meetups that do get organized. I can connect the new Organizer with the person at the Coffee Shop we held our one meet at, if this was a good location for everyone.

As prices are creeping up again at the pump, I’m sure HHO curiosity will start to develop once more like the boom we had a few years ago and what got me more involved. I still am curious to see what is being produced and results people are getting. There were many systems that seemed promising including the HHO Monster system I was working with and Matt (the owner of HHO Monster) has on his vehicles and using with success, as well as the one Green Gas LLC was developing and having success with. Hopefully these developers keep pushing forward to make HHO a viable option for everyone in the future.

So if someone is interested in taking over and taking the group to the next level, let me know so I can “transfer command.”

It’s been a while since I have posted anything here about HHO. As time went on, since last working with the system on my Mustang, it seems the overall public curiosity has died down. My guess?  What someone once said to me:  we all have now gotten used to $2.70 per gallon. The next spike in HHO interest I’m guessing will be when the next gas crunch hits.

One theory I recently was told, is we may hit a big one around 2015. It seems the percentage of oil being pumped from the ground is going down every year. It’s not that it isn’t there, but the "pockets" that the wells are tapped into need to fill up from the oil around it in the ground, but this doesn’t happen as quickly as some of the pumping, so the one report I was told was because of this, the actual annual production decreases a bit each year with no new wells being built to tap the other resources and "pockets" that are full and available. There apparently is plenty of oil, it just involves the getting the technology to reach it, or even being allowed to build a well at all.  Because of this, there has been some early speculation that we might hit a gas crunch with barrels averaging around $150! This could mean $5-8 per gallon at the pumps, which spawned another theory that the high MPG engines we have now, like the diesel powered VW TDi that can push 50 MPG, will be in higher demand then and probably cost more as well. The person I was speaking with was speculating that if people are in the market for a new vehicle now, they might want to consider one of these types of vehicles and hybrids while they still are lower in cost and not as popular as the bigger vehicles. He also speculated that most manufacturers will probably get away from the larger V8 type engines in favor of the 4-cylinder turbos, where you can have the MPG of a smaller engine, but still the power of a bigger one when needed as the turbo spools up. Because of this, I also believe the bigger interest in HHO technology will be kicked off once more, probably as soon as the prices start to change. The last price increases caused the spike of interest, including my own.  Hopefully there will be some manufacturers and home builders that have perfected the systems even further by then.

It has been a while since making a post here and writing my newsletter, for those of you receiving that.  The last quarter of the year saw several new changes for me that pulled my attention away from here and my other writings.  As the new year rolled around I promised myself I would get more active again with my posts, and passing on new info.  Okay, it’s February, and while I have been making a few posts in some of the forums I visit, including the local HHO Meetup Group I started, my own personal venues have still been left behind.  So here I am!

First, I hope every had a good holiday season and the New Year is racing forward the way you had planned.  A lot has happened with the various products, shows, meetings, etc. I work with.  I will be attempting to recap much of that here, then sending out my newsletter doing the same as one big summary.

Amsoil has seen a few new products and some new recommendations have occurred due to findings of how well their products have been performing under certain conditions and applications.  Primarily this involves the newer diesel trucks and I’ll have a recap of the Toyota situation with the Amsoil Ea Oil Filter based on some new information that has come my way.  Yes, Toyota is in the Amsoil news as well (for those following all their recalls taking place at this time), and hopefully I can help shed a little more light on this.  For now you can look at the older blog post that basically explains the change in the Amsoil Ea Oil Filter interval for certain Toyota engines that are forming sludge and prematurely clogging the filter when used with the extended drain intervals.

Aggrand Organic Fertilizer Products, a division of Amsoil, continue to grow in popularity.  I started to redo my AltruHealth.com Web Site last September, but that got pushed to the back burner.  The URL works, but there is no information there as I was playing with some different templates to see which I liked best at the time.  This site will cover both Aggrand and Altrum products.  You can go there for more information in the future, but for the moment, other than having me email listed, it is linking to the Corporate Sites for both products.  To save time, you can visit the Altrum Web Site and Aggrand Web Site from the links in this message.

RMI-25 is still available.  In an older post, I mentioned the company is up for sale, and as far as I know, it still is with very limited supply left.  But my supplier was able to get his hands on a large amount while it was still available and because of that, I still can as well.  At least until that is gone or someone takes over the company and begins production again.  This is a really great product and will be a loss if they disappear.  I am always getting calls about it, perhaps more so now, as it is getting hard to find.  Currently I have access to the 8 oz. bottles, but only ship within the US.

Towards the end of the year, I picked up another new product called FilterMag.  I was interested in this earlier last year, but didn’t start carrying it until the end of the year, and getting my demo bottle to display has really been a show stopper for those that have seen it in action.  More in a future blog post, but in a nutshell, it is a magnet that attaches to your oil filter and helps to capture the very fine metal particles that even the filter cannot catch.  But wait!  You use an Amsoil Ea Oil Filter now, aren’t those the best?  Yes they are, but these ultra fine metal particles can still get through them and cause wear inside the engine.  The Amsoil Ea Oil Filters are better than any other oil filter on the market, but adding the FilterMag adds another level of protection.  But what if you are using the Amsoil Bypass Filter?  In that case, you really don’t need the FilterMag, it already is able to capture those fine particles.  So look at the list like this:

• Other Filters = Crap, or just above (insert laugh track here)

In the elite filtration class:

• Amsoil Ea Oil Filter = Good
• Amsoil Ea Oil Filter with FilterMag = Better
• Amsoil Bypass System = Best!

The FilterMag will catch those fine metal particles, but not other non-metallic particles or soot like the Amsoil Bypass System is able.  So if you want the best (especially if you have a newer diesel truck where these should be standard), this is the best route to go.

I’m sure I’m missing a few other things to add here, but I’ll get to them as I make my individual posts.

I do have a few events I will be at coming up.  Next weekend, February 20, 2010, I’ll be at the Mustang show I usually attend and setup at (download the show PDF flyer here), and later this Spring the Central Florida Earth Day Festival is coming up again, which I also intend to be at once more promoting the Amsoil extended drains, increased MPG with HHO Systems, and the Aggrand Organic Fertilizer products.

Watch here for more.

Today I did a little work on the HHO System in my Mustang.  As I mentioned in Part 4 I received the new PWM and LCD display to replace the one that came with my current system from HHO Monster.  These new units are what are being shipped with this system now and provide a steady current to prevent amp and current fluctuations allowing for a more stable signal for the fuel cells to produce hydrogen with.

The PWM, as can be seen in the picture, looks the same as the old.  This will change in later boxes as the adjustment knobs are no longer functional. I placed it in the same location, but the wiring is a little different, so I had to run two new ones into the cabin that connect with the new LCD display.

I removed the previous panel I made for the old LCD display, switch, and Air/Fuel Gauge.  The new LCD is in a larger box, so I need to do some creative adapting if I want it to fit in the same space.  But that’s a different project I won’t cover here now.  There was some extra wiring needed to install this LCD, since it is controlling the PWM now from here, thus the two wires mentioned above.  I removed the Air/Fuel Gauge since it is a basically a useless device. I’m thinking the Kiwi MPG will fit here nicely giving MPG feedback, which is far more important than the light show of the Air/Fuel Gauge.  The Kiwi will also tell Check Engine Light Codes, should they occur.

Once hooked up, all seemed to work well, I was able to set the controls on the LCD and the fuel cells were generating hydrogen.  Right now the LCD is only temporally installed as I design the rest of the panel.

More to come.

Results So Far and Upcoming Changes

Nothing. I’ll be honest, but as I said, Matt is seeing a 30% increase on his Toyota, in Italy he saw a 25% increase. We are shipping several of these systems to South America because of positive results they have been getting, with a cab fleet possibly ordering to equip all their vehicles. We have a Roto Rooter fleet of trucks (using one of our wet cell systems) that reported seeing an increase from 5 MPG to 7 MPG, and I talked with another Mustang owner at the HHO Games that installed a system in his early 90s Mustang and saw improved MPG, so it’s only a matter of time before I see a gain as well.

But through the trial and error, I’ve pointed out several improvements that could be done and we’ve been adjusting for, so these systems are getting better.

First off, the manufacturer has redesigned their PWM and the LCD display. The model I have had the Frequency and Duty adjustment knobs built into the PWM, which isn’t the most convenient when mounted in the engine compartment, like I have mine, and then try to watch the readout on the LCD panel at the same time while adjusting. The new system has one knob with multiple adjustments built into the the LCD display mounted inside the car. This makes it much easier to tune the PWM, plus the readout gives better feedback, such as amp output to the cells, versus simply a Duty readout. Also the unit now has a “straight current” design. If you recall, I mentioned that my Frequency was bouncing all over and a little fluctuation in the Duty. The new one provides a steady current to the cells. As fluctuations occur within the electrical system, it compensates so now what you set, it what you keep, a “steady current” to the fuel cells. This will make the hydrogen production much more reliable.

Another thing we are trying is adding an additional reservoir to help filter the hydrogen before it goes into the engine. This isn’t a new idea, and was believed to not be needed, since primarily adding a “Scrubber” is to help filter out the catalyst being used for the electrolysis process.  Using Potassium Carbonate in this system is far less dangerous than what some of the other systems use.  But one issue I was having in the hot Florida heat and engine compartment is the moisture of the water and in the gas actually being pulled through the tube to the intake. While the amount isn’t much, and the flash suppresser seems to be filtering it, I still was concerned. Adding this extra reservoir tank and running the hydrogen through this water first, which will also act as an overflow from the main supply, it will help to reduce this amount of moisture that may still be within the hydrogen gas. This second container will also act as the flash suppressor, removing the current one, and any flash that may occur will stop here and not back into the cells. I’m still thinking of adding a one way check valve which would act as an additional suppressor where my current one is. These aren’t as reliable as the current suppressor, but between that and the second tank, you basically will have doubled the safety.  In addition, using this second tank, and it acting as an overflow, you can now fill the first tank up nearly full, providing less upkeep and checking needed when it comes to adding more distilled water.

Most of these are enhancements to make the system better, which both of us like. As with any product, if you can figure a way to improve upon it and make it a better “mousetrap,” then why not? This industry continues to grow, design new systems, and improve upon current ones, based on new developments and customer feedback. We’ve heard of a few new concepts being worked on that sound exciting. If you purchase a system and have suggestions, please let us know. You would be helping everyone.

That’s the basics for the moment, I’ll keep you updated. I hope to have the new PWM and display installed in a week or so. The new display, because of the controller being built in, is larger and will no longer fit in my stereo DIN opening. I’m looking for different options, including maybe removing the display and adjustment knob from the box and remotely mounting them so I can still use this opening. Matt mounted his under his dashboard, which seems to look good in his Toyota truck, but with the more ergonomic flowing design within my Mustang, this won’t work as well. I’m picky, I want it to look stock. Watch for more updates.

More Inside the Car

I installed a simple kill switch so I can turn the entire system on and off. A typical install would have the accessory wire that turns it on, connected to a fuel pump so the system is only creating hydrogen while the engine is running. You don’t want to sit in a parking light and turn your key to listen to the stereo and be making gas. The kill switch simply is spliced into this line so I can turn everything on and off, should I choose. This is more to help with me showing the gas production on and off. The PWM also has a switch to do this, but I like this idea of a main switch. The red LED above that switch comes from the dual EFIE hidden behind the panel. The LED is built into the unit, but I pulled it out and remotely mounted it, again, just to see and make sure the unit is on.

The gauge to the left is an old Air/Fuel gauge I used on a car several years ago, but it’s basically a light show and pointless, which was proven when it showed a good reading back on the old car but with the larger turbo it had, I ran lean anyway and lost a some valves and warped a few pistons. This will probably be removed. The thought is to give you an idea of your fuel mixture by showing the feedback from an O2 sensor. With my car being a narrow band, they really don’t tell much of anything other than something is happening. The car ECU (or PCM) gets the signal and knows what to do with it, but the gauge itself just bounces lights up and down. Swapping the O2 sensor and gauge out for a wideband system will give you the actual reading, but doing that will tend to cost around $200.

Other gauge ideas could be an EGT gauge to show engine exhaust temps. If you are running to lean, these temps will rise and show on the gauge. Or maybe an accurate amp gauge to show the draw on the electrical system from a stereo, stereo amps, HHO generator, lights, etc. What I may end up doing is mounting the Kiwi MPG gauge there, if it looks like it will do the job.

Behind the panel, as mentioned earlier, is the EFIE. This taps into the O2 wires, in my case the front two O2 sensors. Once activated, you need to tune the EFIE to compensate for the oxygen the O2 sensor will see. Since it will see more, it will send that reading to the car computer, which will think not enough fuel is going into the engine and will compensate and dump in more fuel. You may have heard stories where people have commented about actually loosing MPG using an HHO system, and chances are, it’s because they are not compensating or have their tune incorrect. By adding this unit, I can now adjust it to send a different reading to the computer, so it is still happy and won’t add that extra fuel, in fact lean things out a bit since you are using hydrogen now as a partial fuel source. In the case of my car and the particular EFIE I’m using, which is the standard unit for this system, if you lean the adjustment out too much, the ECU will think the sensor is bad and drop into a default mode, usually a rich mixture, and most likely trigger the Check Engine Light indicating a bad O2 Sensor. This is what I’m trying to tune, but like I said, it’s a drawn out process to drive, gas up, figure out MPG, adjust, and then drive another tank, etc. This is where the Kiwi or Scangauge comes in handy or if your car has an MPG computer already in it, like my Chrysler Minivan.

More in Part 4

Into the Intake, the PWM, and Inside the Car

The tube heading into the engine has a flash suppressor, should there be a backfire, it will be caught here and protect the flame from reaching the resevoir which will be holding more hydrogen. This is a pretty safe system overall, hydrogen does not get stored, like what most of the hydrogen test vehicles currently being tested have. These have tanks storing hydrogen under high PSI, much like a propane tank. An HHO system makes the hydrogen as the engine runs and is consumed almost immediately with no storage when the system is off. There will be some changes to this setup in my car, which I will cover later and why.

Towards the back of the engine on the driver’s side I mounted the PWM. From here the wiring gets distributed to the cells and the display inside the car. This is basically your brains which helps to control the production in the fuel cells and also keeping them cool, by balancing out the amps and frequency needed. Again, more on the new PWM soon.

Inside the car I used an open stereo DIN slot I wasn’t using since I had changed out the stock stereo years ago. I made a plastic panel and mounted the digital readout which shows the Frequency the PWM is set for as well as the Duty. The Duty helps to determine the amperage draw on the system. You want to try and get the proper hydrogen output needed with as little amperage draw as possible. With this setup, a Duty right around 60 is good. This will fluctuate a little. The Frequency at this point is nearly pointless, since I have seen this thing going all over the place in readings and I believe it is related to the temperatures the PWM gets. There is different quality of hydrogen that can be produced, and if you locate the proper Frequency, which is nearly impossible without a sniffer in the tailpipe, you can fine tune that quality. A smaller amount of good quality hydrogen will perform better than a lot of bad quality. But with the various atmospheric conditions, temperatures, etc, it makes it difficult, and this PWM tends to fluctuate with heat, I found. However, the new PWM addresses this. Again, more later.

More in Part 3

I’m finally getting around to putting a post up about the HHO Monster Dual Dry Cell system I installed in my Mustang recently. The most difficult part about installing one of these systems is finding locations for the various parts. Now that that is complete, all seems to be working well and it’s a matter of time to figure out the proper tune to get the best MPG. Matt, the owner of HHO Monster, just replaced his older wet cell with a Single Dry Cell along with the new Pulse Width Modulator (PWM) that just came out, and immediately saw a 30% increase in his Toyota truck. I haven’t been so lucky yet, but I’m hoping with the new PWM and using a gauge like the Kiwi MPG or a Scangauge I can get the proper tune quicker. If he sees 30%, and the owner of the HHO Monster sister site in Italy sees 25%, I’m hoping to get similar results in the end. But for now, let me go over what I’ve done:

The Engine, Dry Cells, and Reservoir

Since my engine is the single cam 4.6 liter V8, we figured I should use the dual cell system to make sure we have the hydrogen output that might be needed. Each of these cells puts out about .8 of a liter per minute, with testing actually having shown to be more in most cases. I ended up mounting them under the front bumper on the passenger side of my car. If you look to the driver’s side, you might see the Amsoil Dual Bypass Filtration Systems, for those who have considered this from me as well.

The current supply reservoir tank is mounted next to the radiator reservoir and drains down into the cells, where the plates within each break out the 2 Hydrogen and one Oxygen (thus HHO instead of H2O), and the gas is then transferred back into the reservoir. The pressure from the gas keeps pressure in the system to help keep pushing water into the cells, while on the other side of the tank the gas is pushed into the engine. I picked this spot for the reservoir after remembering that the 2004-05 Mustang Cobras has a reservoir located here for their superchargers. The water has Potassium Carbonate in it as the electrolyzer so it is far more safe than many of the other systems using Potassium Hydroxide.

WARNING: Do not use Zephyrhills Distilled Water as your water source. When I first used this the tank filled up with suds that looked like a kitchen sink filled with detergent. Even with the tank 1/4 full, it filled it to overflow out of the top cap (when removed) and of coarse started to get pulled into the engine. We’re not sure why Zephyrhills is acting this way, but at the HHO Games, others commented about having similar problems and Crystal Distilled seemed to be the water of choice. Matt has used Publix Distilled with no ill effect. Once I mixed a new batch using Crystal Distilled Water, all was normal, no suds.

More in Part 2

For our first Meetup it turned out pretty good.  We had approx. 10+ people show.  Green Gas LLC was there, telling us some of their experiments they have worked on and how they started as just enthusiasts like the rest of us.   Also Barrett, who’s been doing various experimenting for years and works with a couple different companies, discussed ideas and theories he was working on seeing what sort of input others had, as well as share what he’s learned.  Between the two, I think a lot of people got a crash course on the various technical aspects of water, temperature, hydrogen production, and more, including myself.

The atmosphere was pretty laid back, as we all talked.  Special thanks goes to Ash, the owner of the Coffee Shop, for letting us meet there and enjoying his facility.

Matt, from HHO Monster, had one of his dry cells and a few other components people could look at and pass around, as well as making available many of the documents posted on the Meetup page in a booklet for those who were interested to take home to read.

I showed my HHO Monster dry cell setup on my Mustang and Matt showed the wet cell in his truck that is an older model of the current system he has on the Web Site.  I missed it, but I understand Green Gas showed a demo they had in one of their vehicles and did the ever popular igniting of the hydrogen bubbles.

Veronica talked a bit about the Kangen water she is associated with and the various benefits the process gives drinking water.  The water is actually considered a medical product for it’s benefits in Japan, where the system was developed and common in hospitals, as well as in Canada.  Because of the laws here in U.S. it can’t be marketed as such, but at the HHO Games where she was also setup, several people I spoke with swore by it.  If you have chance, take a look at the Meetup Group she has organized.

Some other discussion were of the Green City Event coming up in October that Veronica is promoting, their plans of various “green” related companies being there, showing their products, and a “hands on” section where kids (of all ages) can tinker.

Also discussed was the IHHO, an organization that is rapidly growing, whose goal is to weed out the true HHO manufacturers working to develop this technology, from those slapping together a glass and PVC pipe system in the garage and trying to market it with no real knowledge or R&D.  Many of these systems have been the cause of bad press and feedback when they don’t produce as advertised, and MPG actually goes down.  This organization will have some of the top people involved with HHO in it, sharing ideas and passing on actual tests and facts.

Watch for the next meeting announcement, and if you missed it this time, hopefully we’ll see you there.  Find out more about the Meetup Group and join: www.meetup.com/HHO-Hybrids

Mike

This week week after sharing an idea with Matt, from HHO Monster this past weekend, we started a Central Florida Meetup Group using the services provided by Meetup.com, called Hydrogen Injection Enthusiasts (HHO).

The  group was started to get people from the area together who are interested in using hydrogen injection as an alternate form of fuel.  While not replacing gasoline completely, using an HHO system to supplement your fuel intake will help to increase gas mileage and lower emissions being put out by the vehicle.  This makes it an excellent “green” product and an inexpensive option to convert your existing vehicle into a hybrid without the cost of buying a new car or truck.  It isn’t uncommon to see an average MPG increase between 15-30%, with some owners seeing even more.

Because this group is being sponsored by HHO Monster, we ask that no other vendors come to promote their products.  We intend to show those available from HHO Monster, which include numerous different manufacturers that have passed our own quality control, where we can also give the pros and cons of each system and suggest which one would work best in an application.  Other vendors are welcome to share in the discussions as this technology and group is open to everyone to learn and exchange ideas.  If you do have a product you would like to promote, please contact HHO Monster first. We might be interested in helping you market it, if it meets our standards and warranties we offer customers.

As the group grows, we hope to see many different systems and learn from each other. We hope in the future we can get some of the manufacturers to the components and systems to visit and explain in more detail how their products work. Besides having vehicles of our own on display, we will also have static displays to show.

If you’re in the area and are interested, please sign up for the group. As membership grows we will schedule the first gathering. A location is already set, we just need to get a better idea on how many would actually show up and let them know what day we’d like to use their location.  If you’re not in the area, feel free to follow along in the discussions in the forum we hope to get going as more people join and start talking.

Here is the link to visit and join:  http://www.meetup.com/HHO-Hybrids/