About fuel-saver gadgets...and I need EFIE.

hcyen — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:58:15 +0800

I've had some experiences about fuel-saver gadgets so I post some of my observation here.

Car is made up of so many things and I categorizes them into subsystems based on air-fuel-combustion so that the focus is on fuel-saving or better fuel consumption (FC.) Also listed are those fuel-saver gadgets and services.

1. Fuel subsystem: fuel stick, fuel additive, fuel line decarbonizer/cleaner, fuel hose magnet, nano-fuel, fuel regulator etc.
2. Air subsystem: air compressor, cyclone vortex, turbo fan, air filter, throttle body (TB) cleaner etc.
3. Electric subsystem: grounding, voltage stabilizer (VS) (battery and socket types) etc.
4. Ignition subsystem: spark plug, spark plug cable, FireStorm, ignition earth, ignition booster etc.
5. ECU subsystem: Unichip, throttle controller/AT controller, Greddy Emanage, Volo chip, EFIE, MAP/MAF enhancer etc.
6. Engine subsystem: decarbonizer/cleaner, engine oil, engine oil additive etc.
7. Tinting subsystem: window tinting, sun shade etc.
8. Maintenance subsystem: all type of spare parts maintenance, alignment and balancing, tyre inflation etc.
9. Air-cond subsystem: cabin air filter etc.
10. Alternative fuel: HHO, NGV etc.
12. Suspension subsystem: suspension, spring coil buffer etc.
13. Exhaust subsystem: leakage, extractor, muffler etc.

We always read fuel-saver advertisement that it can save fuel up to 30% or more. I guess if the gadget really works, it can only achieve that figure in highway drive. It can never get this FC in city drive. My guess for city drive saving is less than 50% of advertised figure, i.e. less than 15% FC for example above. For a RM0.20/km FC, less than 15% means less than 3 cents so it's barely noticeable because our FC always fluctuates 2 to 3 cents. If we read the advertisement, testimonies and/or test drive carefully, we can always notice that their saving are based on highway-drive or an average of over 80km/h city-drive.

It's only required to install one or at most two for each subsystem.
More than two gadgets would not bring better FC for the particular subsystem. Generally, more subsystems with fuel-saving gadget bring better FC but there is limit for overall FC. My formula for better FC in city-drive is: 5%+4%+3%+2%+1%+1%+1%.....+1%.
One figure represents one subsystem. For those subsystems which are bottleneck or not maintained properly, fuel-saving is more so there goes 5%, 4%, 3% and 2%. Every car is unique in term of bottleneck because of driver's driving style and maintenance. And why I put 5% as maximal fuel-saving for a subsystem or gadget and not 15% as I mentioned earlier? It's because I believe in "normal distribution" of statistic. "Normal distribution" means 10% of population gets best result, 10% of population gets worst result and 80% of population gets so-so result. That's why I guess those 30% plus fuel-saving testimonies, if they are ever real, are "best-10%" or even "best-5%" users. For most of the users, 10% fuel-saving in highway drive and 5% in city drive is more rational.

So if I install fuel-saver gadgets and services such as fuel hose magnet, air compressor, voltage stabilizer, spark plug, decarbonize engine, window tinting, new suspension and new extractor, my calculation for better FC in city drive is 5%+4%+3%+2%+1%+1%+1%+1%=18%. It could be less if the bottleneck is not one of these subsystems and also some of the gadgets and/or services are fake or useless. With this formula, it's more realistic when we are going to install any gadget or service. This is why now I never expect any "marvelous" gadget for over 30% FC in city drive.

How to know if fuel-saver gadget is working or not?
My observation is it works when it increases car power in city and gives better FC when in highway. It's best to climb up a hill or flyover to test for more power in city. For highway test, it's more accurate for over 100 km trip. Only when city drive gives more power and also highway drive gives better FC, then this gadget can be considered workable.

Why can't we get better FC in city like in highway?
My observation is that in highway which we drive at over 80 km/h, the car itself has momentum and thus helps to push the car and its load. On the other hand, car engine is the only power to push the car in city when it's in stop-go-stop style and also traffic jam. Typical average speed is less than 60 km/h, or 50% of the time is less than 60 km/h, for city drive.

Second thing is we drive in same speed in highway with or without fuel-saver gadget but we tend to speed up in city when we get more power. For example, my comfort speed is 100 km/h in highway so it's easy to know when the gadget gives better FC. On the other hand, I tend to go for 70-80 km/h in city with fuel-saver gadget compared to 60 km/h before. This means fuel saved is converted to generate more power for higher speed. I guess most of us (80% in normal distribution) would be in hurry in city so more power means higher speed even though in city's congested roads. This means with higher speed and without car's momentum help, FC for city drive should be less than 50% of that in highway.

Do we stop here?
Not really. I'm now trying to solve the problem that FC for city drive can't be better. In order to deal with it, I want to talk about two ways of saving fuel. One way of it is by relieving alternator, engine and air cond. loads. Subsystems of this type are electric, engine, tinting, maintenance, air-cond, suspension and exhaust subsystems. This type of fuel-saving is same for highway and city drives and I guess its saving is less than 5% in city for each subsystem. When these subsystems are in optimal condition by using fuel-saver gadgets and services, they cannot be push to be better. These subsystems cannot be adjusted to bring better FC in city drive.

On the other hand, second type of fuel-saving can give better FC in city drive. This type of fuel-saving is for those that contribute to better or near complete engine combustion. These subsystems are fuel, air, ignition and alternative fuel subsystems. Since gadgets or services for these subsystems bring near complete combustion, this means we can get more power for the same amount of fuel pumped into engine chamber. In other words, they improve engine efficiency. But these subsystems when tuned to their optimal states, they give more or less same 5% better FC for city drive as first type of fuel-saving.

But when second type of fuel-saving combined with ECU subsystem, it can give better FC in city drive! How can it be? The secret lies in air-fuel-ratio (AFR.) Since engine efficiency is improved, we actually need not to press acc. pedal as hard to get higher speed. But lack of car momentum in city and also richer Oxygen in exhaust manifold offset the fuel-saving effect. This is all because AFR is fixed and its standard ratio of 14.7:1 is too rich for high efficiency engine. So we use some piggyback chip or EFIE to raise AFR to higher ratio so that less fuel would be pumped into engine. The result? Better FC for CITY drive!

Well, what about we use ONLY ECU subsystem to improve FC?
Yes, it can be. But it's like overclocking a CPU...It's very different to overclocking the same CPU in RM1K cheap PC than in RM3K performance PC. The chances for the former going crappy is much higher than the latter. Similarly, using only piggyback chip or EFIE to get a leaner engine in order to save fuel could lead to engine overhauling sooner or later. The standard rich 14.7:1 AFR is a fail-save design for stock car. This is why we have to upgrade our stock engine to high efficiency/performance engine before we can "overclock" it.

How do I know whether my car engine is standard or high efficiency?
This is easy. If we normally use RON95 before, now pump 3 to 5 tankful of RON97 or V-Power and test for extra power in city and better FC in highway. When its performance is noticeable and consistent but back to normal when using RON95 later on, this means the engine is standard and can be upgraded to high efficiency by some of the fuel-saver gadgets and/or services as mentioned above. I guess most of us (80% in normal distribution) could feel the extra power when using RON97/V-Power which has extra additives and higher octane for better combustion.

Now the last part is: where can we get affordable and much cheaper piggyback chip/EFIE which is less than RM1K or RM500?
We all know that piggyback chip is over RM1K and needs professional to install and tuning. In order to save some fuel cost, this is too much for most of us (80% in normal distribution) because we also need to upgrade many subsystems before this. Well, I had searched through some local forums and found an EFIE called EFI-CON but apparently it's out of market now. Then I found an U.S. EFIE which is USD79 (about RM240) here (link). But I'm not sure whether I can get a local installer and tuner for it. I appreciate if anyone can let me know where I can get an EFIE and installer locally. If really can't find one, maybe we can group purchase EFIE above and share our knowledge of installation and tuning.

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About fuel-saver gadgets...and I need EFIE.