Hello! and a question... water?
 

Hi, just joined the board and think this is really awesome. I'm not very savvy regarding fuel economy. I drive a Toyota Matrix (average 24 mpg) and a Honda CB750 motorcycle (average 50 mpg)

I do have a question, and not sure how to find possible discussions on the board as I amstill learning to navigate it. I've seen on the web ads for a device that somehow uses water and claims to increase mpg significantly. Anyone know about it... or refer me to place on board where already discussed..
thanks in advance... and once again, hello!

Search the forum for threads on HHO... There's lots of people discussing it, and lots of skeptics.

-Jay

Beware spam and advertisements promising miracles. There are people discussing realistic homemade projects that may or may not help moderately (I'm skeptical but open-minded); these are worth investigating. There are also posts/banner ads promising to run your car on water or double your gas mileage; these should be ignored.

As another poster mentioned, HHO (where they use water to make hydrogen gas) is what you are probably thinking about. There is a lot of discussion about it on this forum, with no definite conclusions yet.

But the other thing you might also be thinking about is "water injection". The idea with water injection, is that you inject (distilled, or at least highly filtered) water into the engine cylinders AFTER the normal gas/air mix (turning a traditional 4-cycle engine burn, into a 6-cycle engine burn, with the remaining 2-cycles being the water injection). If done right, this water will vaporize from the remaining heat in the engine, giving you an extra up/down push of the piston for "free", and also having the positive side-effect of cooling the engine for the next cycle.

However, while such a system has been shown to work, the redesign of the engine and ECU (engine computer) to accomplish this is usually more involved than your normal "do it yourself" type would want to tackle. Also, once you do such a "water injection" type mod, you now are forced to keep water (with the minerals removed, i.e. normal "tap water" is NOT safe for this) in the car at all times, as you are now "burning" both the gas and the water you are injecting into the engine. So while "water injection" is worth a look (I'd probably do it myself, if the car mods weren't so involved, as I still think distilled water is cheap compared with the price of gas), it's not without its costs (including the major hassle to modify existing engines and ECUs to handle it).

certainly you could improve your efficiency in other ways, especially if you have a 5 speed.

lots of info here!