Originally posted by rustyrazorThe oxygen sensor is installed in the exhaust (sometimes there's two) and through a chemical reaction it produces a small voltage. The voltage varies based on how much oxygen is in the exhaust. The computer (ECU) reads the voltage and when it goes above a set limit it will richen up the air to fuel ratio. when it drops below a certain voltage it will lean out the air to fuel ratio.
From my experience working with snowmachines and dirtbikes I can tell you that if you lean out the mixture too much you can literally burn a hole right through a piston but you'll have good mileage and power before this happens. The other thing that will happen is that you will get pinging/knocking/preignition/auto ignition. This means that the gas is igniting before the spark and is caused by the high temperatures. Carbon buildup can add to this condition since the carbon will hold heat and I believe it started the process of burning a hole in my piston. The engine will also pollute more especially NO gas.
The question you may be asking then is why should an engine run cooler with more fuel? Good question. I learned that answer when I was in school for engineering. It has to do with the latent heat of vaporization. The fuel enters the engine as a mist which is suspended liquid particles, not a true gas. When it's compressed the fuel vaporizes or turns into a gas. The process of changing liquid to gas takes heat so if you need to get rid of more heat you need to vaporize more fuel. This is where I could start into water injection (nothing to do with HHO) and how water can be used to cool an engine but I'm not going to do that.
So this means that the purpose for part of the fuel that goes into your engine is simply to cool down combustion/reduce pollution. I would like to note that it is still all burned. This means that we do have some room to play with the amount of fuel going into the engine as long as we can keep the heat down/ prevent pre-ignition.
So now onto how the EFIE works. It is wired up to the oxygen sensor and it takes the charge from the oxygen sensor and alters it. Usually it will reduce the voltage output so that the computer will allow the car to run slightly lean. I think you can see where the danger comes in
I suspect that most car companies dial in the oxygen sensor on the conservative side so you may actually be able to get better mileage by only using an EFIE.
This brings up a couple of other questions in my mind as far as HHO is concerned.
1. Does the hydrogen help prevent pre-ignition? I know that it has a higher flash point than gasoline. The flash point is the temperature at which a gas will ignite without a spark. So maybe.
2. Does hydrogen burn colder or expand more when it burns? By this I mean how much heat is given off when hydrogen burns and how much it. If it does than it can be used to substitute gasoline
Then there's the big question. Will all of the possible benefits of burning hydrogen combine to improve overall efficiency? I know that the energy needed through electrolysis to make hydrogen is higher than the energy it will produce when burned as a fuel.
I'm sorry about the long post. It's helped me get my thoughts about this topic into some order. Feel free to comment or to go on insulting each other.
