Our local CATV company sponsors a show called "Go Green Hawaii" profiling local initiatives like solar, biodiesel, & energy-saving lifestyles. It's light on facts & details, assuming that most viewers can't even spell PV and showing lots of human-interest shots & pretty pictures.
Spouse was watching an episode on maximizing a car's gas mileage. Unfortunately the show garbled its terminology and failed to critically evaluate the concepts behind the recommendations. Rather than get all nuclear on my spouse's reporting (I know how well that works) I thought I'd throw these questions out to the board in order to learn the historical perspective. Maybe the show got their facts wrong but there could be a nugget of truth to be extracted from their claims.
So while I question their credibility, my curiosity is piqued by the following putative gas-saving tips:
1. Put a 1000 CCA battery in your car. The show claimed that a higher voltage ("better spark") would be delivered to the spark plugs, although they didn't seem to appreciate the function of the alternator or the primary coil. (Assuming cars still use primary coils.) Maybe they think that less gas is wasted during engine starts.
2. Use a high-flow-rate air filter. "KNN" brand was specifically mentioned. It would seem to me that a higher flow rate would just allow more/bigger contaminant particles to get through the system.
3. Use low-resistance sparkplugs. Autolite was recommended, although again I'm not sure what the advantage of a lower resistance would be. I don't think hydrocarbons care about the resistance quality of the spark-- or maybe low-resistance plugs produce a spark more quickly during the combustion cycle?
4. Synthetic engine oil (Royal Purple). I think this recommendation has been kicking around for decades but I can't recall whether any unbiased double-blind trials ever found any credibility to the claim. Then there's the issue of whether the gas savings really pay for the oil or whether the true savings is in the engine's longer lifespan. Considering that most of the rest of our cars have failed long before the engines, I don't think I care about better engine longevity.
5. Fully-inflated tires. Less rolling resistance, I guess, although I don't know how that affects tread wear (and tire life, which could raise the replacement costs).
6. Put down your beverages before reading this next one. Remember, I'm just reporting the show's claims here, so don't blame me for spewing liquids on your keyboards/monitors.
"Put mothballs in your gas tank." (I can't believe that the show's lawyers let this one go by.) The specific recommendation was five mothballs per gallon (not four, not six, and not even 5.5!). The theory is that the mothball's naphthalene boosts the fuel's octane rating, thus raising mileage. 10 minutes of research informed me that mothballs don't necessarily contain naphthalene anymore, and of course there's the issue of what the remaining crap in the mothballs would do to fuel pumps, fuel filters, and fuel injectors. Ed, I'm sure your fellow Chem Es would enjoy testing this one on an industrial-sized engine...
Perhaps a better question would be-- short of nitrous oxide, is there a fuel additive that boosts gas mileage enough to make it worth the expense?
I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. I don't the TV show has much left to offer, especially when all the Nuuanu aunties start calling in to learn how to extract the mothball sludge from their gas tanks.
Spouse was watching an episode on maximizing a car's gas mileage. Unfortunately the show garbled its terminology and failed to critically evaluate the concepts behind the recommendations. Rather than get all nuclear on my spouse's reporting (I know how well that works) I thought I'd throw these questions out to the board in order to learn the historical perspective. Maybe the show got their facts wrong but there could be a nugget of truth to be extracted from their claims.
So while I question their credibility, my curiosity is piqued by the following putative gas-saving tips:
1. Put a 1000 CCA battery in your car. The show claimed that a higher voltage ("better spark") would be delivered to the spark plugs, although they didn't seem to appreciate the function of the alternator or the primary coil. (Assuming cars still use primary coils.) Maybe they think that less gas is wasted during engine starts.
2. Use a high-flow-rate air filter. "KNN" brand was specifically mentioned. It would seem to me that a higher flow rate would just allow more/bigger contaminant particles to get through the system.
3. Use low-resistance sparkplugs. Autolite was recommended, although again I'm not sure what the advantage of a lower resistance would be. I don't think hydrocarbons care about the resistance quality of the spark-- or maybe low-resistance plugs produce a spark more quickly during the combustion cycle?
4. Synthetic engine oil (Royal Purple). I think this recommendation has been kicking around for decades but I can't recall whether any unbiased double-blind trials ever found any credibility to the claim. Then there's the issue of whether the gas savings really pay for the oil or whether the true savings is in the engine's longer lifespan. Considering that most of the rest of our cars have failed long before the engines, I don't think I care about better engine longevity.
5. Fully-inflated tires. Less rolling resistance, I guess, although I don't know how that affects tread wear (and tire life, which could raise the replacement costs).
6. Put down your beverages before reading this next one. Remember, I'm just reporting the show's claims here, so don't blame me for spewing liquids on your keyboards/monitors.
"Put mothballs in your gas tank." (I can't believe that the show's lawyers let this one go by.) The specific recommendation was five mothballs per gallon (not four, not six, and not even 5.5!). The theory is that the mothball's naphthalene boosts the fuel's octane rating, thus raising mileage. 10 minutes of research informed me that mothballs don't necessarily contain naphthalene anymore, and of course there's the issue of what the remaining crap in the mothballs would do to fuel pumps, fuel filters, and fuel injectors. Ed, I'm sure your fellow Chem Es would enjoy testing this one on an industrial-sized engine...
Perhaps a better question would be-- short of nitrous oxide, is there a fuel additive that boosts gas mileage enough to make it worth the expense?
I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. I don't the TV show has much left to offer, especially when all the Nuuanu aunties start calling in to learn how to extract the mothball sludge from their gas tanks.
