I hope no one is falling for these HHO add on kits that use your 12 volt system to separate the water and then burn it to supposidly conserve fuel and be green.
as you know there is no free lunch.
meaning every BTU of H2 you get out and burn it takes 50% or more greater power input to the engine to turn to make electric to separate the water only to burn it again at 60% eff max
so its a huge loss overall. unless you get your voltage from solar or braking power only.
Im rooting for calciumcarbide canister with a water drip which causes the release of acetylenn then inject it and burn it to make 150000 btu per LB . and no added input from the car.
true i have no experience with Calcium carbide production efficiencies but got to be easy and cheap if the miners did it 200 years ago.
your inputs welcome.
let the trashing begin

I used to use a calcium carbide light for hunting at night. Make sure you store it where it won't draw moisture or get wet. Oh yeah, get used to a really, really bad smell from the reaction when you add water.

HO MANY BTY/POUND OF GASOLINE EQUALS HOW MANY LBS CALIUM CRBIDE OR DIESEL (200 BTU/GL)

1POUND cAc2=BTU=VOLUME GENERATED COMBUSTION GAS.
SEEMS PURE ACETYLENE MAKES TONS POWER ER VOLUMETERIC MIXTURE- HENCE OXY/ACET TORCH

I believe you are "barking up the wrong tree"
but the best 'real world'
BTU per gallon information I know of is this official EPA study from around the country:

http://www.epa.gov/orcdizux/rfgecon.htm

The Bosch Automotive Handbook has tables of both gaseous and liquid fuel heating values.

as a historical aside,
the story of the invention of calcium carbide
for miner's lights
'blue tipped wrenches'
Union Carbide Corporation
Mr J. M. Morehead,
the Morehead Scholarships at UNC-Chapel Hill
and the Morehead Planetarium there
are all worth reading about:

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

Calcium carbide is the grainy gritty stuff used in SBR latex in the joining of the primary and secondary backings of action back tufted carpets.


AFA those hydrogen generators? A friend of mine ran one for several months on his '06 CTD over the road hotshot rig. He gained 2-2.5 mpg, got better idling and once he was up to speed he didn't have to push as far down on the gas pedal.

It was a system he bought from a company in Florida. Bad thing was he had to pull over and refill it every 150 miles (I am sure there is a fix for that) it kept blowing the fuse to the adjustable rheostat. I was on the phone with him yesterday and we talked about everything except why he sent the system back.

I will call him today and check into that.

I did take some pics of it when he was here. I think they are still in my camera.

OOOPS!!!! I am thinking of calcium carbonate! That is in carpet AKA marble dust!

I am skeptical that these hydrogen/oxygen generators give you more mileage, but I did see one interesting theory on why they might work on the web somewhere:

The theory is that the small amount of hydrogen/oxygen introduced into each cylinder was able to make the flame front burn much faster than a gasoline/air mixture, and therefore you could move the timing so that the spark happened much closer to TDC, thus making the engine more efficient. In other words, more of the power of the mixture burning was transferred into the crankshaft. This version of the theory doesn't try to claim that you get any additional energy from the Hydrogen/Oxygen that was put into the cylinder, only that the flame speed makes the engine more efficient.

Does anyone have any information or comments on this?

Talked with my friend with the Cummins. His system is still on there and running. It is a primative set up. Right now pulling his empty 9000lb trailer he is getting 16mpg. You constantly have to play with the amperage.

He is coming off the road at the end of this year. Freight is hard to find right now, he is going to drive for someone else.

With the diesel it sounds alot like the propand fumigation systems. Diesels normally run with excess oxygen in the cylinder so adding more fuel (diesel or other) will make more power, but the claim is the gaseous propane spreads the flame front faster, burning the diesel quicker to produce higher cylinder pressure (simular to advancing the timming?)
This is why I installed head studs on my Cummins Dodge 3500 when I put the MSD/Superchips Digital Propane Injection kit on.

The calcium carbide / water (acetylene generator) is an interesting idea, but why not just go the the welding supply store and but a tank of acetylene?

The problem with converting it yourself is that after the calcium carbide releases the acetylene gas, there remains this goo/mud (I think calcium carbinate?) it really stinks and dries nearly as hard as cement. I worked for a welding place that made acetylene and we would sell the leftover mess to a place that I believe made fertlizer out of it?

YES I HAVE RUN MANY OF MY CARS ON ACETY GAS, BUT THE CYL OF ACETONE IS TOO UNSTABLE TO BE RIDING ROUND WITH IT, EVEN FOR ME.
tHERE IS LOADS OF POWER IN IT.
THE cALCIUM CARBIDE IS MORE TAME TILL THE WATER HITS IT AND YES IT STINKS AND LEAVES A PAST RESIDUE WHICH CAN BE DIMPED OUT EVERY FILL UP AND ITS IN FACT A ECO FRIENDLY FERTILIZER
IF YOU ADD THE OXYGEN YOU GET HUGE POWER RELEASES JUST NOT SO MUCH THAT YOU MAKE A CYL TEMP OF 5000 DEG AND WELD THE RINGS.
WORK WILL CONTINUE. NOW WHOSE GOT A LEAD ON CHEAP SUPPLY OF THE STUFF (80 BUCKS)IS NOT WHAT INDUSTRIAL HOUSES PAY TO FILL YOUR WELDING TANKS

Now... back to the topic at hand. Acetylene only burns so hot because you inject oxygen into the reaction. When you start an Acetylene torch without oxygen it burns VERY slowly with an orange, sooty flame. It has similar energy properties to LDPE which is what they use to make plastic cups. It doesn't burn fast enough on its own to be an effective automotive fuel. It might work in a very low-rpm genset application, or on large engines that spin very slowly, but I would imagine that anything more than 1000-1500 rpms might be too quick for the acetylene to burn. Flame front speeds could be increased with higher compression,16:1, but I don't know what acetylene's threshold of ignition is; that is to say its "octane" rating

I guess I need to modify
my grandfather's old
charcoal or coke reactor
to use dried
"Soylent Green"
and run my engines
with catalytically produced
acetylene

Wouldn't that solve
two problems at once?