Simple Water Injector saves Fuel & adds Power

[TeryT]

Here's a link to an article that shows you how to add a simple water vapor injector to your carburetor. My dad, being an old pilot & truck driver, has used water injectors for years. He demonstrated a simple water injector system (IV bag on his motorhome) for me once. The increase in power, while not phenomenal, made a noticeable difference & it ran cooler.

Homemade Water Injector

The testers in the above article calculated about a 6% increase in gas mileage on the 1978 Honda Civic test car, and a noticeable increase in power.

Background of Water Injectors - WWII Aviation

Anybody see any reason not to try this with my V8 4Runner?

 

[toto]

There's a big difference between the fuel system in a 1978 Honda and today's electronic fuel injection systems.

If there were a simple and practical way to improve gas mileage, the automakers would be using it to meet the EPA requirements for overall fleetwide fuel economy ratings. Instead, they're doing silly things like changing the recommended oil viscosity from 5W-30 to 5W-20 to get a miniscule improvement.

Mythbusters did a show about several supposed gas-saving add-ons like this (although I don't recall this specific one), and all of the ones they tested made no improvement or even got worse mileage.

 

[TeryT]

There's a big difference between the fuel system in a 1978 Honda and today's electronic fuel injection systems.

If there were a simple and practical way to improve gas mileage, the automakers would be using it to meet the EPA requirements for overall fleetwide fuel economy ratings. Instead, they're doing silly things like changing the recommended oil viscosity from 5W-30 to 5W-20 to get a miniscule improvement.

Mythbusters did a show about several supposed gas-saving add-ons like this (although I don't recall this specific one), and all of the ones they tested made no improvement or even got worse mileage.

I'm well aware of all you state. However, water vapor injection has been around a long time, and in World War 2 was used to increase bomber engine output at leaner fuel mixtures. I've never seen anything disputing this directly, so if you find a credible refute, please let me know!

 

[jeober]

I've heard of water injection used to decrease the temperature of compressed induction air in turbo and super charged systems to maximize air density. It is not preferred over an air to air heat exchanger but more used as an add-on approach.

Water injection alone will not increase mpg and, as stated earlier, the OEMs would be all over this if there were any potential with it. And injecting water has it own issues.

 

[TeryT]

Here's someone who did a real test on this device, with positive results. He did the test with a 1993 Ford Explorer (which is fuel injected - right?).

Test on water vapor injector system

Here's a copy of a listing by the Environmental Protection Agency Motor Vehicle Emission Laboratory, who did testing on various devices. Most were deemed "snake oil," but one water injector system was listed as significantly increasing fuel mileage (but also increased emissions)!

EPA says water injection works to increase fuel mileage!

The big question for me is would it muck with the 4Runner's engine & emission control computer?

 

[RonMAIDEN]

I know more than a few people running a water injection system on their very modded turbo cars and it does work to help cool down cylinder temps so the turbo and it's associated parts produce more ponies but the mpg increase was very minimal. The upside is that the inside of the cylinders gets a nice steam cleaning.

There are issues with it working consistently and on a day to day driver there can be too many variables for the system to work properly.

 

[RamThis]

Water injection is useless on a NA engine. I actually have a brand new, unused, AquaMist Water/Alcohol injection system to use on my truck, when the day comes that I can afford to get a supercharger for it. Water injection will help a forced induction engine to lower it's air/fuel charge to gain more timing advance and make the air/fuel charge more dense. Plus it keeps the cylinder and valves clear of carbon deposits. But on a NA engine, the effects are miniscule at best. I really just purchased this Race Version of the AquaMist system off the Cyclone group buy site because I was curious as to how much it would add to a forced induction system.

Old WW2 fighter aircraft used water injection as well, since some were turbocharged. I'm not sure if they used intake vacuum or a pump driven system to inject the water mist, but I've heard it really gave them an extra boost when needed for steep climbs, but it was at the cost of tearing up the engine. Not sure what it did to the engine, but this is just what I've heard. I do not know the whole mechanics behind how they did it.

 

[RamThis]

BTW here's my kit. Someday soon I'll get a SC for my Ram and try this thing out.....

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