Smack’s Booster
The Smack’s Booster is a piece of
equipment which increases the mpg performance of a car or motorcycle, and
reduces the harmful emissions dramatically. It does this by using some current
from the vehicle’s battery to break water into a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen
gasses called “hydroxy” gas which is then added to the air which is being drawn
into the engine. The hydroxy gas improves the quality of the fuel burn inside
the engine, increases the engine power, cleans old carbon deposits off the
inside of an old engine, reduces the unwanted exhaust emissions and improves
the mpg figures under all driving conditions, provided that the fuel computer
does not try to pump excess fuel into the engine when it detects the much improved
quality of the exhaust.
This hydroxy booster is easy to make
and the components don’t cost much. The technical performance of the unit is
very good as it produces 1.7 litres of hydroxy gas per minute at a very
reasonable current draw.
This is how to make and use it.
Caution:
This is not a toy. If you make and use one of these, you do so entirely at your
own risk.
Neither
the designer of the booster, the author of this document or the provider of the
internet display are in any way liable
should you suffer any loss or damage through your own actions. While it is believed to be entirely safe to make
and use a booster of this design, provided that the safety instructions shown below are followed, it
is stressed that the responsibility is yours and yours alone.
The Safety Gear
Before getting into the details of
how to construct the booster, you must be aware of what needs to be done when
using any booster of any design. Firstly, hydroxy gas is highly explosive. If
it wasn’t, it would not be able to do it’s job of improving the explosions
inside your engine. Hydroxy gas needs to be treated with respect and caution.
It is important to make sure that it goes into the engine and nowhere else. It
is also important that it gets ignited inside the engine and nowhere else.
To make these things happen, a number
of common-sense steps need to be taken. Firstly, the booster must not make
hydroxy gas when the engine is not running. The best way to arrange this is to
switch off the current going to the booster. It is not sufficient to just have a manually-operated dashboard On/Off
switch as it is almost certain that switching off will be forgotten one day.
Instead, the electrical supply to the booster is routed through the ignition
switch of the vehicle. That way, when the engine is turned off and the ignition
key removed, it is certain that the booster is turned off as well.
So as not to put too much current
through the ignition switch, and to allow for the possibility of the ignition
switch being on when the engine is not running, instead of wiring the booster
directly to the switch, it is better to wire a standard automotive relay across
the oil pressure sending unit and let the relay carry the booster current. If
the engine stops running, the oil pressure drops and if the booster is
connected as shown, then this will also power down the booster.
An extra safety feature is to allow
for the (very unlikely) possibility of an electrical short-circuit occurring in
the booster or its wiring. This is done by putting a fuse or contact-breaker
between the battery and the new circuitry as shown in this sketch:
1 If you choose to use a
contact-breaker, then a light-emitting diode (“LED”) with a current limiting
resistor of say, 680 ohms in series with it, can be wired directly across the
contacts of the circuit breaker. The LED can be mounted on the dashboard. As
the contacts are normally closed, they short-circuit the LED and so no light
shows. If the circuit-breaker is tripped, then the LED will light up to show
that the circuit-breaker has operated. The current through the LED is so low
that the electrolyser is effectively switched off when the contact breaker
opens. This is not a necessary feature, merely an optional extra:
In the first sketch, you will notice
that the booster contains a number of metal plates and the current passing
through the liquid inside the booster (the “electrolyte”) between these plates,
causes the water to break up into the required hydroxy gas mix. A very
important safety item is the “bubbler” which is just a simple container with
some water in it. The bubbler has the gas coming in at the bottom and bubbling
up through the water. The gas collects above the water surface and is then
drawn into the engine through an outlet pipe above the water surface. To
prevent water being drawn into the booster when the booster is off and cools
down, a one-way valve is placed in the pipe between the booster and the
bubbler.
If the engine happens to produce a
backfire, then the bubbler blocks the flame from passing back through the pipe
and igniting the gas being produced in the booster. If the booster is made with
a tightly-fitting lid rather than a screw-on lid, then if the gas in the
bubbler is ignited, it will just blow the lid off the bubbler and rob the
explosion of any real force. A bubbler is a very simple, very cheap and very
sensible thing to install.
It also removes any traces of
electrolyte fumes from the gas before it is drawn into the engine.
You will notice that the wires going
to the plates inside the electrolyser are both connected well below the surface
of the liquid. This is to avoid the possibility of a connection working loose
with the vibration of the vehicle and causing a spark in the gas-filled region
above the surface of the liquid, and this volume is kept as low as possible as
another safety feature.
The Design
The booster is made from a length of
4-inch diameter PVC pipe, two caps, several metal plates, a couple of metal
straps and some other minor bits and pieces.
This is not rocket science, and this
booster can be built by anybody. A clever extra feature is the transparent
plastic tube added to the side of the booster, to show the level of the liquid
inside the booster without having to unscrew the cap. Another neat feature is
the very compact transparent bubbler which is actually attached to the booster
and which shows the gas flow coming from the booster. The main PVC booster pipe
length can be adjusted to suit the available space beside the engine.
This booster uses cheap, standard
electrical stainless steel wall switch covers from the local hardware store and
stainless steel straps cut from the handles of a wide range of stainless steel
food-preparation ladles: The electrical cover plates are clamped together in an
array of eight closely-spaced pairs of covers. The plates are held in a vise
and the holes drilled out to the larger size needed. The covers are further
treated by being clamped to a workbench and dented using a centre-punch and
hammer. These indentations raise the gas output from 1.5 lpm to 1.7 lpm as the
both increase the surface area of the cover and provide points from which the
gas bubbles can drop off the cover more easily. The more indentations the
better.
The active surfaces of the plates -
that is, the surfaces which are 1.6 mm apart from each other, need to be
prepared carefully. To do this, these surfaces are scored in an X-pattern using
36-grade coarse sandpaper.
Doing this creates miniature
sharp-crested bumps covering the entire surface of each of these plates. This
type of surface helps the hydroxy bubbles break away from the surface as soon
as they are formed. It also increases the effective surface area of the plate
by about 40%. I know that it may seem a little fussy, but it has been found
that fingerprints on the plates of any electrolyzer seriously hinder the gas
production because they reduce the working area of the plate quite
substantially. It is important then, to either avoid all fingerprints (by
wearing clean rubber gloves) or finish the plates by cleaning all grease and
dirt off the working surfaces with a good solvent, which is washed off
afterwards with distilled water. Wearing clean rubber gloves is by far the
better option as cleaning chemicals are not a good thing to be applying to
these important surfaces.
An array of these prepared plates is
suspended inside a container made from 4-inch (100 mm) diameter PVC pipe. The
pipe is converted to a container by using PVC glue to attach an end-cap on one
end and a screw-cap fitting on the other. The container then has the gas-supply
pipe fitting attached to the cap, which is drilled with two holes to allow the
connecting straps for the plate array to be bolted to the cap, as shown here:
In order to ensure that the stainless
steel straps are tightly connected to the electric wiring, the cap bolts are
both located on the robust, horizontal surface of the cap, and clamped securely
both inside and out. A rubber washer or rubber gasket is used to enhance the
seal on the outside of the cap. If available, a steel washer with integral
rubber facing can be used.
As the stainless steel strap which
connects the booster plates to the negative side of the electrical supply
connects to the central section of the plate array, it is necessary to kink it
inwards. The angle used for this is in no way important, but the strap should
be perfectly vertical when it reaches the plates.
The picture above shows clearly the
wall plates being used and how the bubbler is attached to the body of the
booster with super-glue. It also shows the various pipe connections. The
stainless steel switch-cover plates are 2.75 inch x 4.5 inch (70 mm x 115 mm)
in size and their existing mounting holes are drilled out to 5/16 inch (8 mm)
diameter in order to take the plastic bolts used to hold the plates together to
make an array.
After a year of continuous use, these
plates are still shiny and not corroded in any way.
Three stainless steel straps are used
to connect the plate array together and connect it to the screw cap of the
booster. These straps are taken from the handles of cooking utensils and they
connect to the outer two plates at the top and the third strap runs across the
bottom of the plate array, clear of the plates, and connects to both outside
plates as can be seen in the diagrams.
The plates are held in position by
two plastic bolts which run through the original mounting holes in the plates.
The arrangement is to have a small 1.6 mm gap between each of eight pairs of
plates. These gaps are produced by putting plastic washers on the plastic bolts
between each pair of plates.
The most important spacing here is
the 1.6 mm gap between the plates as this spacing has been found to be very
effective in the electrolysis process. The way that the battery is connected is
unusual in that it leaves most of the plates apparently unconnected. These
plate pairs are called “floaters” and they do produce gas in spite of looking
as if they are not electrically connected (they are connected through the
electrolyte).
Stainless steel nuts are used between
each pair of plates and these form an electrical connection between adjacent
plates. The plate array made in this way is cheap, easy to construct and both
compact and robust.
7
The electrical straps are bolted to
the screw cap at the top of the unit and this both positions the plate array
securely and provides electrical connection bolts on the outside of the cap
while maintaining an airtight seal for the holes in the cap.
Another very practical point is that
the stainless steel straps running from the screw cap to the plate array, need
to be insulated so that current does not leak directly between them through the
electrolyte. The same applies to the strap which runs underneath the plates.
This insulating is best done with shrink-wrap.
Alternatively, good quality tool dip
(McMaster Carr part number 9560t71) is an effective method, but if neither of
these methods can be used, then the insulating can be done by wrapping the
straps in electrical insulating tape. Using that method, the tape is wrapped
tightly around the straps, being stretched slightly as it is wrapped. The
section running underneath the covers is insulated before the array is
assembled.
The PVC housing for the booster has
two small-diameter angle pipe fittings attached to it and a piece of clear
plastic tubing placed between them so that the level of the electrolyte can be
checked without removing the screw cap. The white tube on the other side of the
booster is a compact bubbler which is glued directly to the body of the booster
using super-glue in order to produce a single combined booster/bubbler unit.
The bubbler arrangement is shown here, spread out before gluing in place as
this makes the method of
connection easier to see.
The half-inch diameter elbows at the
ends of the one-inch diameter bubbler tube have their threads coated with
silicone before being pushed into place. This allows both of them to act as
pressure-relief pop-out fittings in the unlikely event of the gas being
ignited. This is an added safety feature of the design.
This booster is operated with a
solution of Potassium Hydroxide also called KOH or Caustic Potash which can be
bought from local hardware stores - for example, in Lowes it is sold under the
name Roebic ‘Heavy Duty’ Crystal Drain Opener. To get the right amount in the
booster, I fill the booster to its normal liquid level with distilled water and
add the Hydroxide a little at a time, until the current through the booster is
about 4
amps below my chosen working current
of 20 amps. This allows for the unit heating up when it is working and drawing
more current because the electrolyte is hot. The amount of KOH is typically 2
teaspoonfulls. It is very important to use distilled water as tap water has
impurities in it which make a mess which will clog up the booster. Also, be
very careful handling potassium hydroxide as it is highly caustic. If any gets
on you, wash it off immediately with large amounts of water, and if necessary,
use some vinegar which is acidic and will offset the caustic splashes.
The final important thing is how the
booster gets connected to the engine. The normal mounting for the booster is
close to the carb or throttle body so that a short length of piping can be used
to connect the booster to the intake of the engine. The connection can be to
the air box which houses the filter, or into the intake tube. The closer to the
butterfly valve the better, because for safety reasons, we want to reduce the
11
volume of hydroxy gas hanging around
in the intake system. You can drill and tap a 1/4" (6 mm) NPT fitting into
the plastic inlet tubing with a barbed end for connecting the 1/4" (6 mm)
hose.
The shorter the run of tubing to the
air ductwork of the engine, the better. Again, for safety reasons, we want to
limit the amount of unprotected hydroxy gas. If a long run of 3 feet (1 metre)
or more must be used due to space constraints, then it would be a good idea to
add another bubbler at the end of the tube, for additional protection. If you
do this, then it is better to use a larger diameter outlet hose, say 3/8"
or 5/16” (10 mm or 8
mm).
If you don’t have the necessary tools
or workspace, then I will make one of these boosters for you. You can see the
details on the Smack’s web site at http://www.smacksboosters.110mb.com.
The parts needed to build this booster with it’s bubbler can be found locally
or ordered from web sites.
Powering your Booster
Use wire and electrical hardware
capable of handling 20 amps DC, no less. Overkill is OK in this situation, so I
recommend using components that can handle 30 amps. Run your power through your
ignition circuit, so that it only runs when the vehicle is on. A 30 amp relay
should be used to prevent damaging the ignition circuit which may not be
designed for an extra 20 amp draw. Make sure to use a properly rated fuse, 30
amps is ideal. You can use a toggle
switch if you like for further control. As an added safety feature, some like
to run an oil pressure switch to the relay as well, so the unit operates only
when the engine is actually running. It is very important that all electrical
connections be solid and secure. Soldering is better than crimping. Any loose
connections will cause heat and possibly a fire, so it is up to you to make
sure those connections are of high quality. They must be clean and tight, and
should be checked from time to time as you operate the unit just to be sure the
system is secure.
Adjusting the Electrolyte
Fill your booster with distilled
water and NaOH (sodium hydroxide) or KOH (potassium hydroxide) only. No tap water, salt water or
rainwater! No table salt or baking soda!
These materials will permanently
damage the booster!
First, fill the booster with
distilled water about 2" from the top. Add a teaspoon of KOH or NaOH to
the water and then slide the top into place. Do not tighten it for now, but
leave the top loose and resting in place.
Connect your 12V power supply to the
leads and monitor the current draw of the unit. You want 16 amps flowing when
the booster is cold. As the water heats up over time, the current draw will
increase by around 4
amps until it reaches about 20 amps,
and this is why you are aiming for only 16 amps with a cold system.
If the current is too high, dump out
some electrolyte and add just distilled water. If the current is too low, add a
pinch or two at a time of your catalyst until the 16 amps is reached.
Overfilling your booster will cause some of the electrolyte to be forced up the
output tube, so a liquid level tube was added to monitor electrolyte level.
The booster generally needs to be
topped off once a week, depending on how long it is in operation. Add distilled
water, then check your current draw again. You may observe a drop in current over
the course of a few refills, and this is normal. Some of the catalyst escapes
the cell suspended in water vapor droplets, so from time to time you may need
to add a pinch or two. The water in the bubbler acts to scrub this contaminant
out of the gas as well. I highly recommend installing an ammeter to monitor
current draw as you operate your booster.
Mounting the Booster
Choose a well ventilated area in the
engine compartment to mount your booster. Since every vehicle design is
different, I leave it up to you to figure out the best method to mount it. It
must be mounted with the top orientated upwards. Large 5" diameter hose
clamps work well, but do not over tighten them or the PVC may deform. I
recommend mounting the booster behind the front bumper in the area usually
present between it and the radiator. Support the weight of the unit from the
bottom with a bracket of your design, then use two hose clamps to secure the
unit, one near the top and one near the bottom. Never install the unit in the
passenger compartment for safety reasons.
Output hose and Bubbler
The bubbler on the side of the unit
should be filled about 1/3 to 1/2 full of water - tap water is fine for the
bubbler. The check valve before the bubbler is there to prevent the bubbler
water from being sucked back into the booster when it cools and the gases
inside contract. Make sure the bubbler
level is maintained 12
at
all times. Failure to do so could
result in an unwanted backfire explosion. That water inside the bubbler is
your physical shield between the stored hydroxy volume in the generator and the
intake of your engine. Install the output hose as close to the
carburetor/throttle body as close as possible by making a connection into the
intake tube/air cleaner. Try to make the hose as short as possible to reduce
the amount of gas volume it contains. I recommend using the same type of
1/4" poly hose that is used on the unit.
Here is a list of the parts needed to
construct the booster and bubbler if you decide to build it yourself rather
than buying a ready-made unit:
The Main Parts Needed
Part
Quantity
Comment
4-inch diameter PVC pipe 12-inches
long
1
Forms the body of the booster
4-inch diameter PVC pipe end-cap
1
Closes the bottom of the booster
4-inch diameter PVC pipe screw cap
1
The top of the booster
90-degree Quick Connect Outlet
fitting
1
3/8" O.D. Tube x 1/4" NPT
from Hardware store
Level indicator Nylon barbed tube
fitting
2
1/4" Tube x 1/8" NPT Part
Number 2974K153 or
from your local hardware store
Quarter-inch I.D. Poly sight tube
8”
Water-level indicator tubing -
Hardware store
Stainless steel switch covers
16
The plate array components
Stainless steel straps 12-inches long
2
The electrical connections to the
plates
3/4" Inside Diameter Clear poly
tube
12-inch
From your local hardware store
5/16” stainless steel bolts 1.25”
long
2
Electrical strap connection to the
top cap
5/16” stainless steel nuts &
washers
6 each
To fit the steel bolts in the cap
5/16” diameter nylon threaded rod
8” min.
Nylon Threaded Rod 5/16"-18
Thread.
McMaster Carr Part No 98831a030
5/16” inch nylon washers 1.6 mm thick
1-pack
Nylon 6/6 Flat Washer 5/16",
Pack of 100
McMaster Carr Part No 90295a160
5/16”-18 s/s jam nuts (7/32"
thick)
20
McMaster Carr Part No 91841A030
90 degree Bubbler Fittings
2
1/4" Barbed Tube 1/2" NPT.
McMaster Carr
Part No 2974K156
Check valve
1
1/4" tube, McMaster Carr Part No
47245K27 or
from your local Hardware store
PVC glue
1 tube
Same color as the PVC pipe if
possible
5/16" Neoprene sealing washer
2
McMaster Carr Part No 94709A318 or
from your
local Hardware store
Tool dip – 14.5 oz
1
McMaster Carr Part No 9560t71
Optional: Light Emitting Diode
1
10 mm diameter, red, with
panel-mounting clip
Quarter-watt resistor
1
470 ohm (code bands: Yellow, Purple,
Brown)
Now, having shown how this very
effective booster and bubbler are constructed, it should be pointed out that if
you use it with a vehicle fitted with an Electronic Control Unit which monitors
fuel injection into the engine, then the fuel-computer section will offset the
gains and benefits of using this, or any other, booster. The solution is not
difficult, as the fuel-computer can be controlled by adding in a little circuit
board to adjust the sensor signal fed to the computer from the oxygen sensor
built into the exhaust of the vehicle. Ready-built units are available for this
or you can make your own. If you want to make your own, then the web site
document http://www.free-energy-info.com/D17.pdf shows you how and as well,
points to Eagle-Research, the suppliers of alternative, ready-made units, also
stocked by The Hydrogen Garage.
Quite an amount of testing and
experimenting has been carried out by many of the people who have made copies
of this booster and two variations which have been found to be helpful are
shown here:
Firstly, in spite of the very
restricted space inside the housing, it is possible to introduce two extra wall
plates, one at each end of the plate stack. These plates are spaced 1.6 mm
apart using plastic washers and this triple-plate group causes an extra voltage
drop across the sub-set of three plates. The construction is then as shown
here:
The second modification is wrapping
the plate array in 4-inch shrink-wrap. This wrapping extends around the sides
of the plates and helps by cutting out some of the unwanted electrical leakage
paths through the electrolyte. This arrangement is shown here:
Enjoy using this booster and do your
part in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Eletrik
Smack’s Booster is a trademarked
name, and the design is patent-pending but remains fully disclosed for public
use.
Date of release of this copy of the
document: 3rd July 2008
14
Background Information
Many people find the plate
arrangement of the Smack’s Booster, rather difficult to understand, so this
additional section is just to try to explain the operation of the cell. This
has nothing to do with actually building or using a Smack’s Booster, so you can
just skip this section without missing anything.
The Smack's Booster plate arrangement
does look confusing. This is mainly because Eletrik has squeezed two identical
sets of plates into one container as shown here:
This arrangement is two identical
sets of plates positioned back-to-back. To make it easier to understand the
operation, let’s just consider just one of the two sets of plates.
Here, you have just the electrical
Plus linked to the electrical Minus by a set of four pairs of plates in a daisy
chain (the technical term is: connected "in series" or
"series-connected"). Easily the most electrically efficient way for
doing this is to exclude all possible current flow paths through the
electrolyte by closing off around the edges of all the plates and forcing the
current to flow through the plates and only through the plates.
Unfortunately, this is very difficult
to do in a cylindrical container and it has the disadvantage that it is
difficult to keep the unit topped up with water and difficult to maintain the
electrolyte level just below the top of the plates.
So, a compromise is reached where the
current flow around and past the plates is combatted by strategic spacing of
the plates:
This diagram shows the way that the
plates are connected. The red lines show paths of unwanted current flow which
produce almost no gas. This wasted current flow is opposed by the useful
current flow across gap " A"
in the diagram.
To favour the flow across the 1.6 mm
gap " A", an attempt is
made to make the waste flows as long as possible by comparison. This is done by
the gap " B" being made as
large as possible, limited only by the size of the booster housing.
The voltage applied to the cell (13.8
volts when the engine is running) divides equally across the four plate pairs,
so there will be one quarter of that voltage (3.45 volts) across each plate
pair.
If you look again at the original
diagram, you will see that there are two of these sets of four plate pairs,
positioned back-to-back in the container. Each of these acts separately, except
for the fact that there are additional current leakage paths through the
electrolyte between the plates of one set and the plates of the second set.
There is a steady voltage drop
progressively across the array of plates. Remember that they are connected in
pairs in the middle due to the metal-to-metal connection created by the steel
nuts between the plates: It is often difficult for people to get the hang of
how the voltage drops across a chain of resistors (or matrix of plates). The
voltages are relative to each other, so each plate pair thinks that it has a
negative electrical connection on one plate and a positive connection on the
other plate.
For example, if I am standing at the
bottom of a hill and my friend is standing ten feet up the hill, then he is ten
feet above me.
If we both climb a hundred feet up
the mountain and he is at a height of 110 feet and I am at a height of 100
feet, he is still ten feet above me.
If we both climb another hundred feet
up the mountain and he is at a height of 210 feet and I am at a height of 200
feet, he is still ten feet above me. From his point of view, I am always ten
feet below him.
The same thing applies to these plate
voltages. If you one plate is at a voltage of +3 volts and the plate 1.6
mm away from it is at a voltage of +6
volts, then the 6 volt plate is 3 volts more positive than the 3 volt plate,
and there is a 3 volt difference across the gap between the two plates. The
first plate looks to be 3 volts negative to the 6 volt plate when it “looks”
back at it.
You can also say that the +3 volt
plate is 3 volts lower than the +6 volt plate, so from the point of view of the
+6 volt plate, the +3 volt plate is 3
volts lower down than it, and it therefore “sees” the other plate as being at
-3 volts relative to it.
In the same way, my friend sees me as
being at -10 feet relative to him, no matter what height we are on the
mountain. It is all a matter of being "higher up" whether in terms of
height above sea level on a mountain or in terms of higher up in voltage inside
a booster.
Now, having shown how this booster
and bubbler are constructed, it should be pointed out that if you use it with a
vehicle fitted with an Electronic Control Unit which monitors fuel injection
into the engine, then the fuel-computer section will offset the mpg gains and
benefits of using this, or any other, booster. The solution is not difficult,
as the fuel-computer can be controlled by adding in a little circuit board to
adjust the sensor signal fed to the computer from the oxygen sensor built into
the exhaust of the vehicle, to allow for the improved quality of the fuel being
burnt in the engine. This is necessary because the exhaust will be so much
cleaner than it used to be, that the computer will think that the engine is
being starved of fuel (which it most definitely isn’t. With a booster, the
engine runs cleaner, cooler and more smoothly and it has enhanced pulling power
called “torque”. Ready-built units are available for correcting the oxygen
sensor signal for the improved situation, or alternatively, you can make your
own.
thanks lot of
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