Nexus - 0306 - New Times Magazine-pages

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é(SCIENCE|2. A WATER-FUELLED CAR units, I'd have a lot of "problems". I asked to the vehicle's existing fuel gauge. If you by Carl Cella why, demanding an explanation, and was__ were to start your engine with no modifica- told very bluntly, and not in a very nice tions other than the carburettor to accept am the madman behind the US heavy- tone: "Do you have any idea what a device hydrogen fuel, it will run fine but the metal band, "Rampage", but long _ like this, available to the public, would do exhaust system will corrode in almost no before my musical success I was to the economy?" time, and if you leave the engine tumed off mechanically inclined, and the possi- This technology is so simple that anyone for an extended period, your stock valves bility of running a car on fuel extracted with over half a brain—and knowledgeable —_and guides will rust up and seize! from water intrigued me no end. in auto mechanics—can build one of these Stainless-steel valves don't cost much After reading all the information I could units. I've included comprehensive, no- and are as trouble-free as the stainless-steel find on the subject of hydrogen generators, bullshit, drafted design layouts, parts lists, exhaust system, so don't be a fool and try to I built my first actual unit in 1983, mount- maintenance tips, and a whole lot of engine go cheap because you'll only cause yourself ing it in the trunk of a 1979 Cadillac Coupé modification concepts to make construc- added expense and headaches, and you'll be de Ville. tion, part fabrication and implementation as cursing me for your own stupidity. For the I constructed my system from the best of _ easy as reasonably possible. cast-iron combustion chambers and valve all the other systems I read about, and then The unit I built works as great as claim ports, there is a high-temperature ceramic went even further, using the strongest it to, but I offer only the printed informa- coating called “heanium" that can be pre- materials and cleanest layout possible with- tion on how to build your own, and I take formed to guard against the same corrosion in reason. All the titanium nuts and bolts no personal responsibility for damage of _ that affects the valves, guides, exhaust sys- were scored from an aircraft salvage sup- any kind caused to your vehicle or self. tem and also the intake manifold, as mois- ply: they're cheaper, used, and since they'll (See schematics on follow-on pages.) ture down there will also cause corrosion. never wear out that's one way to save some I have only applied my unit to a carburet- Petroleum-based fuels have their own big bucks. Certain head and exhaust sys- ted engine; I've never attempted an applica- detergent action that protects against corro- tem modifications have to be made to tion to a fuel-injected engine, nor do I sion, much like soaking parts in oil pre- expect trouble-free extended use. For one, make any such claim that an application of vents corrosion. When using hydrogen as the combustion of hydrogen results in the — that type would be easily performed, if pos- an internal combustion engine fuel, extra rebonding of the previously-separated sible at all. Every cubic foot of water con- precautions must be taken to make extend- hydrogen and oxygen molecules, making tains about 1,376 cubic feet of hydrogen ed operation a reality, and not some drive- the engine's exhaust water vapour steam, gas and 680 cubic feet of oxygen. Because a-few-thousand-miles-between-fried- and nothing else—meaning absolutely no there is no pollution produced, all smog _ engines bullshit. pollution at all! devices may be completely removed, legal- Don't use sea water! It contains approxi- Most auto-makers use cast-iron exhaust ly, and your car exempted from smog mately three-fourths of a pound of salt in manifolds and steel valves. The combined checks, as are propane-powered vehicles. every gallon. Salt is a material that will effects of heat and moisture (moisture not The only maintenance I've encountered coat the electrodes very quickly, just mak- being present in the combustion of petrole- is, periodically, to wire-brush mineral ing one big mess. The reason for electrode um-based fuels) cause extremely rapid cor- deposits off the reaction chamber elec- deposit buildup is that tap water is never rosion of the system. Part of the fix is to trodes and, at longer intervals, to clean out 100 per cent pure: it contains mineral cont- install stainless-steel valves and an exhaust the chamber itself—neither of which is aminants that are drawn to the reaction- system constructed entirely out of stainless complicated or very time-consuming. I've chamber electrode during the electrically- steel. Racing shops sell stainless-steel incorporated so many backup electrodes so _ activated molecular separation process, that valves and stainless-steel 'turbo' mufflers this job won't be required roadside—as it results in the hydrogen contained in water that all work fine. Since hydrogen does not was for me when I first used only one, not being released from the oxygen molecules contain lead as some gasoline does, if knowing about any deposits entirely cover- they are bonded to, making a fuel that can you're not using a late-model, no-lead ing the electrodes and thus halting the elec- power an internal combustion engine. engine, the heads will have to be reworked _ trical reaction process. When the car dies I offer no design for an exhaust steam to include valve seats not needing the lubri- out, you just flip another switch until you're condenser, but I do make the suggestion cation lead provides. somewhere able to brush the reactor's elec- _ that one applicable to an automobile can be As for building this device to sell as a trodes clean in reasonable comfort—and _ built to increase the cost-free mileage even completed system, that's a dead issue. In not northbound on Highway 5, halfway further between fill-ups. A concept would 1983, I contacted the Department of between Los Angeles and San Francisco, include some form of exhaust-fed radiator Energy to show them that my car actually where my first breakdown was. that could incorporate air ducts, leading worked. I was confronted by two very bel- Where the steel gasoline tank used to be, from scoops, to direct highway speed air- ligerent ‘agents of tyrannical oppression’ a plastic water tank is fitted, along with an _ flow across it. who told me that if I tried to sell pre-built _ electric float sensor that should be attached I offer the idea, but not the design, A WATER-FUELLED CAR by Carl Cella NEXUS ¢ 51 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1996