electrolysis waste energy scavenger for cars

[trevw]

Hi,

I was asked by my uncle to tell him whether something was a scam, it's a use of the infamous 'hho' or 'brown's gas' to improve the efficiency of a petrol engine..

The basic description is that you create an electrolysis cell running off of your car battery that doesn't attempt to seperate the gasses, you then feed the Hydrogen/Oxygen mix into your fuel/air mix.

My immediate response was 'SCAM' as you obviously can't get energy for free... However.

1) As I understand it the alternator is always doing more work than necessary, if you were to just use the 'excess work' it is doing rather than increasing its effort levels then this doesn't violate any principles.

2) There is talk online that if you do this then to get the greatest benefit you need to retard your timing (spark closer to TDC) this is because of the quicker burn due to this new petrol/H2O2 mix, could this improve the efficiency of the engine by moving more of the 'explosion' to a time after TDC with a stronger burn?

3) Performance cars can be fitted with a water injection system, I am unsure of all of the reasons for its affect but could the combusted hydrogen and oxygen steam be having a similar effect?

4) there are an enormous number of enthusiasts for this 'gadget' all sharing ideas to improve its performance, talking of improved safety features to prevent flashback etc. and I've not come across one person online saying 'I did this and it didn't improve my fuel efficiency' - however they could just all be closet pyros :lol:

I've got an oldish banger, am quite tempted to give it a go..

anyone else tried this/heard of it? Got any opinions on it? If anyone wants to read about it/watch vids about it just search on HHO (you have to ignore the pseudoscience that various people have tried to peddle about the gas mixture)

cheers

Trev