Money Wasters or Fuel Savers?

Tag: Vacuum Gas Exhaust

As gas and oil hit ridiculous prices, fleets are looking for new ways to save money and conserve fuel. Are fuel-saving products the magical solution they’ve been searching for? You’ve seen the advertisements. A fuel-saving device or additive makes sweeping claims on how to improve your car’s engine, gas mileage and emissions. As gas prices continue their astronomical rise, the influx of products claiming to “increase gas mileage by up to 25 percent” seems to increase tenfold. At Business Fleet we’ve heard testimonials from product makers and satisfied customers. We’ve even featured a fuel-saving product or two in our “Hot Products” section. We also received a letter from one of our readers (Exhaust Jan/Feb 06) saying we were acting irresponsibly by giving our audience the impression that these “snake oil salesmen” were making credible claims. Many wonder that if these claims were true, then why wouldn’t every major auto manufacturer jump on board? Good question. We decided to investigate the industry of fuel-savers, from the sides of the product makers, test labs and auto industry. And we decided to find out for ourselves if these products really work.

Weird Science
The products usually come in two forms: additives for the fuel or lubricating oil and mechanical devices attached to the engine or support systems. The “science” of how they work differs. Some products bleed air into the carburetor. Some hook onto the fuel line to either ionize the fuel, warm it or to change the molecular structure. Some are “mixture enhancers” that make modifications to the vehicle intake sys-tem or enhance the mixing or vaporization of the air/fuel mixture. Other types include ignition devices, accessory drive and driving habit modifiers, calibrated vacuum leaks, a sticker on the gas tank and even an “herbal supplement” pellet that gets dropped in the tank. These products, with names like Fuel Genie, The Tornado, POWERFUeL or Cyclone Z, are found everywhere, from the pages of consumer and business magazines, to infomercials and, of course, the Internet. Future Fuel Technologies
Fuel or oil additives are the most common. FFT Gasoline Blend from Future Fuel Technologies is a fuel additive that claims to use a unique blend of organic and proprietary manufactured chemicals to increase miles per gallon by 10 percent to 30 percent, improve engine performance and decrease pollutant discharge from internal combustion engines. “I found an entity that would make a combustion catalyst soluble in gasoline and diesel fuel to help burn the fuel in the cylinder or in the engine more efficiently,” says inventor Frank Norman. Norman, who has a degree in chemistry and has worked for major chemical companies throughout his career, began working in his home lab on the product in 1994. Norman says his knowledge of organic reactions and polymerization enabled him to know exactly what he needed to make his product work. “I searched the chemical databases and found a company that was manufacturing the product I needed,” says Norman. “They were able to provide me with about two inches of the product in a small test tube, and I began work with tiny bench quantities.” Due to a potential joint development deal, Norman will not reveal the “mystery ingredient” or the company that makes it. He will say that as far as he knows, he is the only person currently using the product for anything. The FuelMiser Magnet
Devices that use magnetic technology are attached on or near the fuel line and claim to change the molecular structure of gasoline. FuelMiser President Steve Sachs understands that most magnetic products do not live up to the their lofty claims. He says, however, that his product has finally perfected the technology. “All other products we have tested since 1996 either melt down completely or they lose 40 percent to 80 percent of their strength during heat testing,” says Sachs. “Even if the engine overheated, our product would only lose 12 percent, and we factored that into the way we put it together.” The FuelMiser utilizes “magneto hydrodynamic technology,” a science that has been around since the 1800’s. The FuelMiser causes both dispersion and energizing of the hydrocarbon molecules flowing through the fuel line, according to the company, which enables more molecules to combine with oxygen. The enhanced combustion is supposed to help burn fuel more efficiently.

What the lab tests reveal
To sell “fuel extenders,” product makers must register with the Environmental Protection Agency. One step further, but not mandatory, is EPA-approved testing. The tests are expensive – $25,000 to $40,000 – and even though results could reveal gains in miles per gallon and performance, the EPA does not “approve” or “certify” the product. The EPA’s only goal is to ensure that the product will not harm the environment with increased emissions. “You can sell them even without proof that they actually have any benefit,” says Steve Mazor, manager of the Automotive Research Center for the Automobile Club of Southern California. “You just have to prove that it won’t hurt anything.” Mazor’s Automotive Research Center runs lab tests on fuel saving products for the EPA. The center also teams with The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) to test aftermarket “hop up” products, such as camshafts, headers and superchargers. He says his lab tests about five to 10 products a year, more when gas prices are high. Though Mazor says he hasn’t seen many products that actually harm the vehicles, he “almost uniformly doesn’t see any benefit” to any of the products that he’s tested in the last 10 years. Mazor adds that even a small increase – one percent to two percent – could be sufficient enough to say that a product works as long as valid and proven testing procedures, such as the EPA tests, were used. “Better fuel economy offers a major competitive advantage in the trucking, school bus and automobile industries,” says Dan Herman, who spent more than 30 years as an engineer involved with design and development of vehicles and engines. “If sticking a $5 magnet or adding an additive would really increase fuel economy significantly, don’t you think they’d do it?” Yes they would, says Pete Misangyi, Ford Motor Co.’s supervisor, Fuels and Lubricants Engineering, if the product was proven to work. “We can’t afford to test every guy that comes in the door saying, ‘Hey I’ve got something,’” he says. “If there is anything that might be of value, of course we’re interested because we have to leave the door open to something that may actually help.” On the flip side, Ford and Chevrolet state in their user’s manual that some fuel-saving products could void the manufacturer’s warranty if a problem with the vehicle develops. Currently, Misangyi says that Ford is pushing for its vehicle owners to use the suggested motor oil to increase fuel economy and keep the car running smoother. He adds that Ford chooses which “inventions” they look into carefully. “The way they say it was developed would pique my interest,” says Misangyi. “Our company investigates every possible way to squeak out 1/2 percent to 1 percent in improvements. So if someone says put this on and save 20 percent, you should be skeptical right off the bat.” {+PAGEBREAK+} Big Oil Conspiracy?
The makers of fuel saving products have other theories why auto manufacturers won’t endorse their products. “Oil companies’ prime concern is pumping gallons, not the efficient use of petroleum to make us less dependent on foreign oil,” says Arlene Norman, Frank’s wife. The “elimination of our dependence on foreign oil” claim has become part of most fuel-saving products’ marketing campaigns. The people who sell these products believe that oil conglomerates are responsible for the quashing of their products’ benefits to the general public. FuelMiser’s Steve Sachs has a slightly different theory. “Car manufacturers have a hard time accepting that a small company was able to perfect it,” he says. “Do you think that these guys really want to open up a can of worms when they’ve spent millions of dollars and didn’t get it to work?” Both Sachs and the Normans say that marketing their products has been an uphill battle from day one because of the litany of products that flood the market and because similar products have tried and failed before them. To help sway public opinion Fuel-Miser and FFT, as well as many other fuelsaving products, offer 100 percent satisfaction guarantees. Both the Normans and Sachs say that even if users contend their products don’t work, they rarely receive requests from purchasers for their money back. The Normans and Sachs are hardly the “snake oil salesmen” types. They do come across as genuine in their belief that its potential benefits are real. Mazor concurs. “I have found that many of these people who are trying to market these products are legitimate believers that their product does work,” he says. “They are not out there trying to rip us off. It may not actually work, but they believe it does.” Saving fuel in the real world
The fact that automakers struggle to increase fuel economy by even 1/2 percent is something to consider when thinking about purchasing a fuel saving product that makes eye-popping claims. Not even hybrids save 25 percent more fuel in the real world. Real world tips for saving fuel begin with some very mundane and oft-repeated suggestions:
Use only the octane level of gas you need.
Drive within posted speed limits using cruise control.
Avoid unnecessary idling.
Remove excess cargo weight from the vehicle.
Maintain the vehicle: keep the engine tuned, keep tires properly inflated and aligned, get regular oil changes and check and replace filters regularly.