Re: fuel saver - any one tried it?
The orignal post is from affa in Norway. Being in the neigbourhood (Denmark), I'd like to point out that most of the magic stuff we hear about in this respect is 'tested and certified' in the US.<br />Warranties given are most often not valid in our countries due to vast customer protections schemes.<br /><br />The Danish consumer organisations have tested such 'wonder-devices' several times and the conclusion is: 'When you fit one of these you pay more attention to driving manners and any fuel saving would be possible even without the device'.<br /><br />KN claim this or that power gain but this may be a different story, depending on the setup in question. In general, performance filters help your engine to do what it is supposed to.<br /><br />If you start out with a Big Block, not the latest design, with badly designed air filter and weird hose layouts, it is no big magic to improve results simply by allowing the thing to run under best possible conditions. Simply help the engine to do as it best can.<br /><br />Car makers are very interested in optimizing mpg. In a near future they won't be allowed to sell their products if they don't achieve certain results.<br /><br />It is, however, not done easily and definately not by adding a clip-on gizmo. <br /><br />As stated in this (extremely funny and entertaining) thread we are dealing with physics. <br /><br />Many manufacturers are experimenting with all kinds of setups. Volvo used a low-charge turbo and saw good results in mpg although the max. hp didn't improve much. <br /><br />Personally I've redesigned the air intake to make it cooler (cold air allows for better filling), replaced the catalyst with a 400-cell hi-perf, run the car on a dyno to have the efi program optimized for my actual car (4-cyl, 2-litre, 16-valve no turbo). According to the dyno report the max. hp went from 167 to 177.5, torque increased some 15%, and ofcourse the mgp is accordingly WORSE if I make use of this extra power. IF I drive with caution the improved efficency can be converted to fuel saving.<br /><br />Notice that cooling the intake results in a higher efficiency!<br /><br />My other car (4x4, 4-cyl HDI turbo diesel with intercooler) is 100% original (still under warranty). It produces 110 hp, 250nm @ 1750rpm and makes 16.6 km per litre (39,425 mpg) calculated from 60.000 km (37500 miles) of real-life driving. In this case the intercooler serves mainly to remove the heat added to the intake air by the extremely hot turbo.<br /><br />On one of my previous boats with I/O I fitted a hose between the engine airfilter's intake and a vent opening to make it run on cold sea-air instead of the pretty warm air in the engine compartment. Performed better and improved mpg (although no scientific work was performed to state the actual result). <br /><br />Mpg in Scandinavia is a BIG issue as 95 octane RON gas costs some $4.90 (per US gallon), diesel some $3.98 (give and take some between the countries).
