I have heard about converting some cars to run on water, cooking oil or even a conversion kit to completely electric. I currently get about 41mpg in my fit driving on nice open country roads through central florida but **I want more***waah*** Yes, I want it to go even cheaper. I am willing to put in a little elbow grease if someone will help me convert. If anyone knows anything aboutthis share your opinion.

 

before you posted this you should have done some research, and learn the basics of thermo chemistry, there is no such thing as free energy or magic fuel. running on cooking oil is specifically for diesel engines. and there is no such thing as turning water into cheap energy, and if there was a way you could convert your car to electricity you'll just have a huge utility bill.
41 mpg is very good so i wouldn't get too greedy here.

 

yeah, 41 mpg is actually reaaally good for a fit. mine averages about 33-34.

we can always trade fits, i'll gladly take 41

 

actually....there are some engines taht run on water, that have been around since the late 60s...but the government WON'T let them produce. it was either ford or chevy that HEAVILY looked into the idea, only to pull out.

 

Wivestales! energy from water! What do we use to put fires OUT with?

 

Its not running a car on H2O (1 hydrogen 2 oxygen molecules) its taking H2O and running an electrical current (electrolysis) to break it down into Hydrogen H and Oxygen O . Unfortunately it takes a huge amount of energy to break down these bonds so it is very inefficient, also most times the energy will come from coal.

 

The only somewhat feasible conversion available for our Fits that I've seen is the E85 one. This is a mixture of 15% gasoline, 85% ethanol - a by-product of corn, or other similar harvest grains.
There's plenty of info on the web for it, so I'd suggest using google or similar search engine. GM is the only manufacturer currently to produce an E85 ethanol design in their automobiles that is certified by the EPA. Any aftermarket kit you may decide to go with with almost certainly void the warranty. And, unfortunately since ethanol has a much higher octane rating then pump gas, you won't see an increase in fuel economy, but rather a decrease. I've chatted online with a few folks with these kits and they see around 22mpg in cars that were once rated much higher - older vw's, toyotas, etc. But - the trade off is the cost of fuel. It's way cheaper to fill up on E85. And, much better for the environment. However the closest location I know of that refuels E85 for a Floridian like you (and me) is up in Georgia. I'll second the idea of you settling for the 41 mpgs. I get mid-30s most of the time.
As much as I'm not a fan of our overall government here in the good ol' U S of A, I doubt they prevented any manufacturers from researching or designing Hydropowered automobiles. There are actually quite a few out there, but all are one offs or limited production cars. Water powered cars are, as mentioned above, inefficient in today's automotive applications. Research the Honda FCX Clarity. Thats the closest we'll come to a hydrogen powered car - where it's only emission is H2O. Its availability is only in select areas of California currently, until the specially designed refueling systems catch on and can be installed nationwide.
You could look into the extremely costly and most probably not feasible engine swap from a toyota prius into the fit. Then, convert that car to completely electric and get 100+ mpgs. I've seen some of these on the road. They run almost entirely on the electric motor, and the modification involves adding a larger battery cell to increase the power. You can charge it from any home electrical outlet. Add, if on the off chance you do not have any electrical access, you can fill up the gas tank and run on that with the flick of a swtich. Very cool in my opinion, but you'd be better of trading the Fit for a Prius - if you absolutely must have more MPGs, then that's your only reasonable option at this point.
Hope some of this was useful - I do tend to type alot. Best of luck.

 

To break apart water into hydrogen and oxygen takes a certain amount of energy. When you "burn" (recombine with oxygen to make water) hydrogen the amount of energy yielded is exactly equal to the amount required to break the water apart. You're still going to have to use solar/oil/coal to break water apart. Basically hydrogen is a fine energy storage medium but the actual energy still has to come from somewhere traditional like oil or coal. Anyway a hydrogen car won't solve anything. I wish it would. No easy answers.

 

like the people said above, when you "power" a car on water, you are not running it on water but the Hydrogen and the oxygen molecules, that is all that is needed for a combustion reaction. Hydrogen, which is flamable, and oxygen which can support a flame. The only problem to this is that the amount of energy that it takes to break apart the H2O molecule is huge, and you have to put some sort of energy into it to break it.
in short, it is impossible to pour water into your car, and have water as your only by product. simple chemistry.

 

This is true, however you still have parasitic losses which amount to rather large amounts of lost energy in both steps. The storage of hydrogen is also rather expensive & requires energy to keep the tank cold.

The only way Hydrogen is a viable fuel is if it can be manufactured and then stored at "hydrogen" gas stations. Even then they need to figure out a cheaper means to break the it apart; there are some promising new nano-based tecnologies that are emerging. One of the better ones is a filter that is constructed with sharp points at a molecular level that actually breaks the water molecule apart with much less energy than using traditional electrolysis.

Bottom line, I highly doubt you will see the day where you pour water into your mass produced car and drive away. It is possible right now, but you would basically be ruining the environment worse with your massive electricity consumption over driving an econo car.

 

I think you should research more. Water cannot be run because it has no energy content (I think you may have gotten confused with Hydrogen fuel cell). Electric cars use electricity, which comes from gasoline in power plants (rarely it comes from dams, wind, nuclear, etc). Another problem with electric is many states still burn coal. In these states, an electric car is worse for the environment than a gasoline car.

Cooking oil is biodiesel. This is the most popular currently because the conversion is easiest. Already diesel cars (not gasoline) need slight modification to run biodiesel. I see plenty of VW's proudly run on biodiesel.

 

Not to mention most hydrogen chemistry (including H-cell) needs platinum. Would you drive a car with a platinum engine? This is the reason why current Fuel Cell cars cost around $1-10 million. People need to find alternatives to platinum before pursuing this technology.

 

actually, it requires slightly more energy to split H2O than you get by burning the H... so it's a net loss... something they always fail to point out when they are touting fuel cell cars...we're just moving the polution from the tail pipe to a power plant.

 

unless the power comes from a renewable resource

 

Someone needs to get on doing what they did on planet Krypton, all their technology was based on the manipulation of crystals. So I'm sure they didn't need gas.

Sorry, saw Superman Returns recently

 

 

There will always be 'perpetual motion machines' and people to buy them. There is no free lunch in nature.

The latest 'get more energy out than you put in' scheme:
The Hawk Recycler:
PopSci's Best of What's New 2007

Would be really swell if it worked...

 

"cheaper"? "elbow grease"? simple......it's called a 3' length of garden hose and a gas can and a parking lot of choice. now this is far from legal, but these laws are easier to break than the laws of physics any day of the week!

 

aah, a nice variation on the "100 mpg carburetor" tale.
hee hee.
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Miracle Carburetor