Aquatune

[freeztar]

A friend of mine sent me an email asking me to evaluate this product and if it was worth it.

 

AquaTune.com - Overview: AquaTune Water Injection Systems

 

From what I can tell, it is a water injection unit that purportedly uses sonic energy to break the bonds of water and add hydrogen to the fuel mixture. It is also supposed to strip away carbon deposits that are built up in the engine. They claim 25mpg boost and a cleaner engine with less emissions.

 

First thought is that it is complete BS. But, I'm not an engine person and figured others here could articulate the pitfalls/advantages much better. I did some searching, but mostly found forum posts with conflicting stories and a lot of heresay.

[Moontanman]

Is it possible to break the hydrogen oxygen bond with sound? I have read about water injection on engines but I thought it was to allow the engine to run cooler and burn more fuel not less.

[JMJones0424]

Without serious modification of the engine to increase compression ratios, I doubt the claims of 25% increase in fuel mileage. However, the concept of water injection is not at all new. The approach still has a cult following among drag strip garage mechanics, but most engines these days are not built to withstand the periodic expansion and contraction of the piston, rings, and valves seats that water injection will bring about. If your block is aluminum, I would shy away. If your pistons are aluminum, I would highly recommend against it.

 

An increase in horsepower should be expected if this system is installed on most stock engines, but the increase in power is due to a higher density of fuel/air mixture, and therefor likely negates the possibility of an observed mileage increase. Using a methanol (or ethanol) mixture will likely lead to an observed increase in fuel mileage, if you ignore the fact that you are now burning another fuel in addition to gasoline, which is generally more expensive to the end-user than gasoline.

 

If your friend is interested in the concept of water injection, I would recommend he check out established methanol/water injection systems made by companies that do not resort to fictitious claims about ultra-sonicly breaking the hydrogen-oxygen bond in water to work. Keep in mind though, that unless the engine is more stout than the normal stock engines produced now, you should expect an extreme decrease in over-all life of the engine.

 

I do not know the effects of using isopropyl alcohol as the website claims instead of methanol or ethanol like I have normally seen done. Isopropyl alcohol is usually the main ingredient in gas treatments designed to deal with water in the fuel tank, so in small quantities, it shouldn't be a problem.

[freeztar]

Good points on engine wear. Someone else on the web mentioned that H+ ions are acidic and can cause engine damage.

 

After re-reading the info, I'm left with the same impression from other types of "performance boosters" using H2 split from electrolysis with power provided by the alternator (we've discussed these before on Hypography). Burn gas->create electricity->use electricity to split water->use hydrogen to burn gas->repeat. It gets back to the whole getting more than what you give idea. :eek2:

 

The "cleaning carbon" pat is still pretty interesting, but they claim that this is because carbon and water do not mix (which I and others have demonstrated is not really the case with charcoal, though it is hydrophobic to a certain degree). I wonder if maybe a simpler system could be installed temporarily to solely clean out engines, and then be removed? Or are there better alternatives for that?

[Moontanman]

Good points on engine wear. Someone else on the web mentioned that H+ ions are acidic and can cause engine damage.

 

After re-reading the info, I'm left with the same impression from other types of "performance boosters" using H2 split from electrolysis with power provided by the alternator (we've discussed these before on Hypography). Burn gas->create electricity->use electricity to split water->use hydrogen to burn gas->repeat. It gets back to the whole getting more than what you give idea. :eek2:

 

The "cleaning carbon" pat is still pretty interesting, but they claim that this is because carbon and water do not mix (which I and others have demonstrated is not really the case with charcoal, though it is hydrophobic to a certain degree). I wonder if maybe a simpler system could be installed temporarily to solely clean out engines, and then be removed? Or are there better alternatives for that?

 

Back in the bad old days of cast iron V-8s and carburetors i used to pour water into my engine through the carburetor every 20,000 miles or so. I'd have someone push the gas pedal to the floor and pour water in the engine just to the point of choking it off. I'd do this for several minutes. it was supposed to clean the carbon deposits off the pistons and valves. I'm not sure if it ever really helped but the engine always ran fine afterward! I do know that water is bad for aluminum block motorcycle engines. they recommend running pure antifreeze instead of water antifreeze mix or pure water due to corrosion.

[freeztar]

Is it possible to break the hydrogen oxygen bond with sound? I have read about water injection on engines but I thought it was to allow the engine to run cooler and burn more fuel not less.

 

This certainly isn't the typical water injection system.

 

I'm not sure about sonically splitting water. I searched for it and could find nothing. I'd never even heard of it before.

[lawcat]

There are two separate interesting issues here for me. First, the dissociation of water. Second, the cleaner combustion byproduct.

 

The first assertion challenges my understanding of water dissociation. My understanding, and it is likely scientifically incomplete, is that molecules are dissociated in an electric field due to polarization of ions. Therefore, electrolysis works to polarize water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Now, this invention asserts that molecules polarize electrically(or dissociate mechanically) at resonant frequency. While this maybe true, I am unsure how much more efficient this would be even if true, than electrolysis which is a developed technology.

 

On the second issues, I am aware of other products and studies that claim that hydrogen injection into combustion chamber produces a more complete combustion, thus reducing the amount of byproduct. So the assertion that the combustion is cleaner certainly has some merit, once water is polarized, hydrogen injection introduced, and oxidizying with oxygen introduced.

[GAHD]

Sounds to me like they are simply splitting the "fluid" water with vibration, turning it into a vapor easily suspended in the low-pressure air (high-speed=low pressure), which is then fed into the combustion chamber, compressed (probably causing momentary precipitation) and then boiled.

 

Water boiling into a gas would give the engine a definite boost in post-ignition PSI(and thus power), simply because of the change of state.

 

Their claims of "hydrogen pockets" might be an engrish-ism, and they are probably referring to the natural state of free-floating oxygen and hydrogen ions in any water solution (basic chemistry).

[chilehed]

My training and experience as an automotive engineer cause me to yell "SNAKE OIL" whenever I hear stuff like this.