do fuel additives work?

Most aftermarket fuel additives are not cost-effective. There are various other pills, tablets, magnets, filters, etc. that all claim to improve either fuel economy or performance. Some of these have perfectly sound scientific mechanisms, unfortunately they are not cost-effective. Some do not even have sound scientific mechanisms. Because the same model production vehicles can vary significantly, it's expensive to unambiguously demonstrate these additives are not cost-effective. If you wish to try them, remember the biggest gain is likely to be caused by the lower mass of your wallet/purse.There is one aftermarket additive that may be cost-effective, the lubricity additive used with unleaded gasolines to combat exhaust valve seat recessionon engines that do not have seat inserts. This additive may be routinely added during the first few years of unleaded by the gasoline producers, but in the US this could not occur because they did not have EPA waivers. The amount of recession is very dependent on the engine design and driving style. The long-term solution is to install inserts, or have the seats hardened, at the next top overhaul. Some other fuel additives work, especially those that are carefully formulated into the gasoline by the manufacturer at the refinery, and have often been subjected to decades-long evaluation and use. A typical gasoline may contain:

* Oil-soluble Dye, initially added to leaded gasoline at about 10 ppm to prevent its misuse as an industrial solvent, and now also used to identify grades of product.

* Antioxidants, typically phenylene diamines or hindered phenols, are added to prevent oxidation of unsaturated hydrocarbons.

* Metal Deactivators, typically about 10ppm of chelating agent such as N,N'-disalicylidene-1,2-propanediamine is added to inhibit copper,which can rapidly catalyze oxidation of unsaturated hydrocarbons.

* Corrosion Inhibitors, about 5ppm of oil-soluble surfactants are added to prevent corrosion caused either by water condensing from cooling,water-saturated gasoline, or from condensation from air onto the walls of almost-empty gasoline tanks that drop below the dew point.

* Anti-icing Additives, used mainly with carburetted cars, and usually either a surfactant, alcohol or glycol.

* Anti-wear Additives, these are used to control wear in the upper cylinder and piston ring area that the gasoline contacts, and are usuallyvery light hydrocarbon oils. Phosphorus additives can also be used on engines without exhaust catalyst systems.

* Deposit-modifying Additives, usually surfactants.

1. Carburettor Deposits, additives to prevent these were required when crankcase blow-by (PCV) and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) controls were introduced. Some fuel components reacted with these gas streams to form deposits on the throat and throttle plate of carburettors.

2. Fuel Injector tips operate about 100C, and deposits form in the annulus during hot soak, mainly from the oxidation and polymerisation of the larger unsaturated hydrocarbons. The additives that preventand unclog these tips are usually polybutene succinimides or polyether amines.

3. Intake Valve Deposits caused major problems in the mid-1980s when some engines had reduced driveability when fully warmed, even though the amount of deposit was below previously acceptable limits. It isbelieved that the new fuels and engine designs were producing a more absorbent deposit that grabbed some passing fuel vapour, causing lean hesitation. Intake valves operate about 300C, and if the valve is kept wet, deposits tend not to form, thus intermittent injectors tend to promote deposits. Oil leaking through the valve guides can be either harmful or beneficial, depending on the type and quantity.Gasoline factors implicated in these deposits include unsaturates andalcohols. Additives to prevent these deposits contain a detergent and/or dispersant in a higher molecular weight solvent or light oil whose low volatility keeps the valve surface wetted.

4. Combustion Chamber Deposits have been targeted in the 1990s, as they are responsible for significant increases in emissions. Recent detergent-dispersant additives have the ability to function in both the liquid and vapour phases to remove existing deposits that have resulted from the use of other additives, and prevent deposit formation.

* Octane Enhancers, these are usually formulated blends of alkyl lead or MMT compounds in a solvent such as toluene, and added at the 100-1000 ppm levels. They have been replaced by hydrocarbons with higher octanes such as aromatics and olefins. These hydrocarbons are now being replaced by a mixture of saturated hydrocarbons and oxygenates.
Fuel Addatives

Air Car?

Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed that it expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year. And while ZPM is also licensed to build MDI’s two-seater OneCAT economy model and three-seat MiniCAT, the New Paltz, N.Y., startup is aiming bigger: Company officials want to make the first air-powered car to hit U.S. roads a $17,800, 75-hp equivalent, six-seat modified version of MDI’s CityCAT that is said to travel as far as 1000 miles at up to 96 mph with each tiny fill-up. We’ll believe that when we drive it, but MDI’s new dual-energy engine—currently being installed in models at MDI facilities overseas—is still pretty damn cool in concept. After using compressed air fed from the same Airbus-built tanks in earlier models to run its pistons, the next-gen Air Car has a supplemental energy source to kick in north of 35 mph, ZPM says. A custom heating chamber heats the air in a process officials refused to elaborate upon, though they insisted it would increase volume and thus the car’s range and speed. “I want to stress that these are estimates, and that we’ll know soon more precisely from our engineers,” ZPM spokesman Kevin Haydon told PM, “but a vehicle with one tank of air and 8 gallons of either conventional petrol, ethanol or biofuel could hit between 800 and 1000 miles.”

Save Big on Fuel

Drive Sensibly
Aggressive driving wastes gas. It can lower your gas mileage by 33% at highway speeds and by 5% around town.
Fuel Economy Benefit: 5-33%
Equivalent Savings: $0.09-0.62/gallon
Observe the Speed Limit
While each vehicle reaches its optimal fuel economy at a different speed, gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph.
You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.24/gallon for gas.
Fuel Economy Benefit: 7-23%
Equivalent Savings: $0.13-0.43/gallon
Remove Excess Weight
Avoid keeping unnecessary items in your vehicle, especially heavy ones. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your MPG by up to 2%. The reduction is based on the percentage of extra weight relative to the vehicle's weight and affects smaller vehicles more than larger ones.
Fuel Economy Benefit: 1-2%/100 lbs
Equivalent Savings: $0.02-0.04/gallon
Keep Your Engine Properly Tuned
Fixing a car that is noticeably out of tune or has failed an emissions test can improve its gas mileage by an average of 4%, though results vary based on the kind of repair and how well it is done.
Fixing a serious maintenance problem, such as a faulty oxygen sensor, can improve your mileage by as much as 40%.
Fuel Economy Benefit: 4%
Equivalent Savings: $0.08/gallon
Check & Replace Air Filters Regularly
Replacing a clogged air filter can improve your car's gas mileage by as much as 10%. Your car's air filter keeps impurities from damaging the inside of your engine. Not only will replacing a dirty air filter save gas, it will protect your engine.
Fuel Economy Benefit: up to 10%
Equivalent Savings: up to $0.19/gallon
Keep Tires Properly Inflated
You can improve your gas mileage by around 3.3% by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure. Under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.3% for every 1 psi drop in pressure of all four tires.
Fuel Economy Benefit: up to 3%
Equivalent Savings: up to $0.06/gallon
Use the Recommended Grade of Motor Oil
You can improve your gas mileage by 1-2% by using the manufacturer's recommended grade of motor oil. For example, using 10W-30 motor oil in an engine designed to use 5W-30 can lower your gas mileage by 1-2%. Using 5W-30 in an engine designed for 5W-20 can lower your gas mileage by 1-1.5%. Also, look for motor oil that says "Energy Conserving" on the API performance symbol to be sure it contains friction-reducing additives.
Fuel Economy Benefit: 1-2%
Equivalent Savings: $0.02-0.04/gallon
Note:based on fuel price of $1.90

Why get aftermarket headers?

A combustion engine's main product is horsepower and torque, it's by-product is exhaust.
In order to be competitive in today's economic market this factory needs to produce torque efficiently. It has to use it's main ingredients of gas and air wisely and be able to rid itself of byproducts efficiently.
Exhaust is a by product of the explosions that are produced over a thousand time a minute in your engine. It is vented from the engine by way of the exhaust manifold through the catalytic converter, through the muffler and out of the exhaust.
Getting back to the engine for a minute, for it to be efficient it has to get rid of this exhaust quickly. Why? well inside your engine are things called pistons they suck in air and gas and spew out exhaust, while there trying to spew out the exhaust the exhaust ahead of it is trying to get out of the way, but it's having a bit of trouble. Instead of the pistons spending all their gas and air on producing torque there wasting a percentage of these resources because the back pressure of the exhaust gas is pushing back on the pistons. If you could reduce the back pressure you could increase the horsepower. This is where exhaust headers come into play.
Replacing the stock exhaust on your car with a sport or racing exhaust system will not only increase horsepower (6-18hp), but will also assist to give your car a more aggressive look and sound.
The average amount of Horsepower gain is around 8 to 14. It depends on the quality of the stock header your replacing.
Most high-end header companies tune the resonance of the header to create a pulse wave to suck the exhaust gases out, creating a more efficient exhaust scavenging which is really important in header design.
Headers are designed in different exhaust ratios from low end performance to high end performance. If you do a lot of city driving or if you want better take off when pulling a load you'd want a header tuned for low end performance. If you want better performance for the open road at high speed you'd want a header tuned for the high end.

Jegs.com

http://headers.com

summitracing.com

Heres one for those of you that take your trucks and suvs through deep water. The best way to make sure you dont damage the motor by getting water in it is to put a snorkel on. This way the level in which the water would have to be to kill the engine is above the hood or even roof.

Most everything you need you can get from your local hardware store. The parts you need are:
3" PVC right angles
3" PVC 45 angles
3" ABS pipe (Like PVC but weaker)
4" air hose for a air cleaner (Like dryer vent hose but stronger) Get this from local auto parts place
PVC pipe glue
A tube of caulk

Tools
A cut off wheel
Caulk gun
Drill
1/8 drill bit
metal file
Chop saw
1/8 metal screws

Installation:
Your first step is to cut a hole in the fender. use a cut off wheel to do this.

Now set up how you want the pipe to run from just inside the hole to where ever your external location will be.

Make sure the air cleaner is sealed with caulk so absoleutly now water can get in it.

To make the snorkel hose, it needs to be attached it to the air cleaner housing. Cut a piece of ABS and push and it over the housing. Drill a 1/8" hole through the ABS pipe and the housing. Screw it into place. After you have the ABS screwed into place you need to seal it. Seal all the way around the pipe and the housing. You also need to seal around actuator for the hot air intake as well.

After you get all the joints lined up and marked, install it on the truck to so you know the cuts are correct. Before it's glued together you need to wipe all pieces with a mild paint thinner. Be careful the paint thinner will eat the pipe so don't soak it. Next, you will need to sand it down with a piece of gray scotch-brite so the paint will adhere on the plastic. Before you paint use the caulk to seal the joints so there's no air leaks.

The distributer cap should be sealed with the caulk as well. Just run a small bead on the inside of the cap. You will have to replace it just about every time you change your oil. If you don't you will get carbon build up on the terminals.

The tranny and oil dipsticks need to be sealed.

use the 4" tube to conect aircleaner to external pipe.


http://www.powerblocktv.com

The Definition of Horse Power

How do you define horsepower? Ask a car enthusiast and most of the time you'll get a blank look, a shrug of the shoulders and maybe a guess along the lines of "What a horse can do!".

That answer begs the question: What horse? A thoroghbred race horse that can carry the small weight of a jockey with a lot of speed, or a working horse that can pull heavy loads albeit slowly? Obviously there is a more precise answer. Car manufacturers, despite their reputation for being creative regarding the horsepower ratings of their products for marketing reasons, require a more stable definition.

Horsepower is defined as work done over time. The exact definition of one horsepower is 33,000 lb.ft./minute. Put another way, if you were to lift 33,000 pounds one foot over a period of one minute, you would have been working at the rate of one horsepower. In this case, you'd have expended one horsepower-minute of energy.

Even more interesting is how the definition came to be. It was originated by James Watt, (1736-1819) the inventor of the steam engine and the man whose name has been immortalized by the definition of Watt as a unit of power. The next time you complain about the landlord using only 20 watt light bulbs in the hall, you are honoring the same man.

To help sell his steam engines, Watt needed a way of rating their capabilities. The engines were replacing horses, the usual source of industrial power of the day. The typical horse, attached to a mill that grinded corn or cut wood, walked a 24 foot diameter (about 75.4 feet circumference) circle. Watt calculated that the horse pulled with a force of 180 pounds, although how he came up with the figure is not known. Watt observed that a horse typically made 144 trips around the circle in an hour, or about 2.4 per minute. This meant that the horse traveled at a speed of 180.96 feet per minute. Watt rounded off the speed to 181 feet per minute and multiplied that by the 180 pounds of force the horse pulled (181 x 180) and came up with 32,580 ft.-lbs./minute. That was rounded off to 33,000 ft.-lbs./minute, the figure we use today.

Put into perspective, a healthy human can sustain about 0.1 horsepower. Most observers familiar with horses and their capabilities estimate that Watt was a bit optimistic; few horses could maintain that effort for long.

Although the standard for rating horsepower has been available for over 200 years, clever car manufacturers have found ways to change the ratings of their engines to suit their needs. During the famous horsepower wars of the 1960s, manufacturers could get higher figures by testing without auxiliary items such as alternators or even water pumps. High ratings backfired when insurance companies noticed them and started to charge more for what they saw as a higher risk. Manufacturers sometimes responded by listing lower horsepower figures, forcing enthusiasts to look at the magazine test reports to determine what was going on. In the early seventies the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) stepped in with standardized test procedures and the fiqures were more consistent.

Between 1922 and 1947, the Royal Automobile Club used a horsepower rating that was the basis for an automobile tax. The horsepower of an engine was determined by multiplying the square of the cylinder diameter in inches by the number of cylinders and then dividing that figure by 2.5. Using this dubious method, What we know of as a 385 horsepower motor found in the 2001 Z06 Corvette would be rated at only 48.67 hp!

There is a metric horsepower rating, although it is rarely used. The two methods are close, with one SAE horsepower equal to 1.0138697 metric horsepower.

One mechanical horsepower also equals 745.699 watts or .746 kW (kilowatts) of electrical horsepower. This means that if you really want to confuse people, you could complain about the 0.0268 horsepower light bulb your landlord has in the hallway as opposed to the mundane 20 watt measurement

New developments in fuel cells

The newest breakthrough in fuel cell technology is carbon nanotubes.
these carbon nano tubes will be used in hydrogen fuel cells in order to contain the hydrogen. These tubes should help prevent an explosion in an accident, as well as they will help make it possible to put more hydrogen into a single fuel cell. I will post more information as i learn more.

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