My dad and I both have a Jeep his is a 6 cylinder and mine is a 4 (for now). Less valuable engine was the one that got tested for the hydrogen system. I haven’t used the system or tinkered with it in a while because too many other things have come up (like a 5.3 Vortec in my wrangler). I remember that I found about a 20% increase in fuel mileage.
The mixture in the tank is sodium hydroxide or lye. It is a corrosive base so be careful. The lye is dissolved in water. We never made it as far as to get an exact ratio of lye to water but it depends on the surface area of your conductors that are touching the water. The stronger the concentration the more amps the system will draw and the more hydrogen produced. We used copper rods insulated from a stainless steel tank as conductors originally one was pos. and one was neg. We eventually made a switch inside the car to turn it off if necessary. We installed an amp meter inside as well to monitor the draw. We also connected it through the fuse box so it would not receive power when the engine was not on. To get the hydrogen gas from the tank to the engine we simply connected into the vacuum line.
We made two different designs both out of stainless steel. The first was a horizontal system. The main flaw with this design is that when you stop or accelerate the fluid inside of the reservoir sloshes back and forth. When the fluid sloshes some of it may get sucked into the vacuum line and make its way to the engine. The second design which is the one I have pictures of is vertical. This design dampens the likelihood of too much sloshing. It also makes it easier to find space for under the hood. Another beneficial factor is that the rods can now be longer, increasing the rods surface area and increasing the amps. This enables you to use a lower concentration of lye in the water and get the same output. To increase the surface area even more we made both rods positive and made the stainless steel tank itself negative. When we did this the amount of draw on the single alternator came into question. If I remember right it was drawing upwards of 80 amps. So we installed a second alternator designated only for powering the hydrogen system. This is where we left off and haven’t really done anymore experimentation with the system.
A few words of warning:
• Simple but worth mentioning hydrogen gas is extremely explosive (but this is what makes if perfect for running an engine)
• The copper rods eventually become corroded and need to be replaced
• The tank gets very hot and it seems that the warmer it becomes the more hydrogen it produces
• The fluid level will decrease as it is used and need to be replenished problem is there is still lye in the tank so you have to check the concentration again. Try using a coolant tester for anti-freeze.
• I have heard that doing this can promote rust in the engine and exhaust
• I have also heard that it cannot possibly work because energy in (from the alternator) equals energy out (fuel saved by burning hydrogen) knowing this I still gained about 20% in MPG.
The mixture in the tank is sodium hydroxide or lye. It is a corrosive base so be careful. The lye is dissolved in water. We never made it as far as to get an exact ratio of lye to water but it depends on the surface area of your conductors that are touching the water. The stronger the concentration the more amps the system will draw and the more hydrogen produced. We used copper rods insulated from a stainless steel tank as conductors originally one was pos. and one was neg. We eventually made a switch inside the car to turn it off if necessary. We installed an amp meter inside as well to monitor the draw. We also connected it through the fuse box so it would not receive power when the engine was not on. To get the hydrogen gas from the tank to the engine we simply connected into the vacuum line.
We made two different designs both out of stainless steel. The first was a horizontal system. The main flaw with this design is that when you stop or accelerate the fluid inside of the reservoir sloshes back and forth. When the fluid sloshes some of it may get sucked into the vacuum line and make its way to the engine. The second design which is the one I have pictures of is vertical. This design dampens the likelihood of too much sloshing. It also makes it easier to find space for under the hood. Another beneficial factor is that the rods can now be longer, increasing the rods surface area and increasing the amps. This enables you to use a lower concentration of lye in the water and get the same output. To increase the surface area even more we made both rods positive and made the stainless steel tank itself negative. When we did this the amount of draw on the single alternator came into question. If I remember right it was drawing upwards of 80 amps. So we installed a second alternator designated only for powering the hydrogen system. This is where we left off and haven’t really done anymore experimentation with the system.
A few words of warning:
• Simple but worth mentioning hydrogen gas is extremely explosive (but this is what makes if perfect for running an engine)
• The copper rods eventually become corroded and need to be replaced
• The tank gets very hot and it seems that the warmer it becomes the more hydrogen it produces
• The fluid level will decrease as it is used and need to be replenished problem is there is still lye in the tank so you have to check the concentration again. Try using a coolant tester for anti-freeze.
• I have heard that doing this can promote rust in the engine and exhaust
• I have also heard that it cannot possibly work because energy in (from the alternator) equals energy out (fuel saved by burning hydrogen) knowing this I still gained about 20% in MPG.