My little saga....

[Dave Nowlin]

well yesterday I bit the bullet. I have had my Seigrene Diamond Cell complete with reservior, scrubber, secondary bubbler and powered with 8 gauge flexible copper car stereo wiring complete with 80 amp Isolator/relay with 40 amp auto reset breaker and backup 50 amp fuse installed for several weeks but hadn't added any electrolyte. I was afraid of it freezing. Well yesterday I put in 3 quarts of distilled water and two slightly heaping teaspoons of KOH flakes. I found one slight drip at a hose clamp and fixed that. Then I powered the unit up with no way to check the amp draw. It was air locked at first so I turned it off and went for a drive of about 10 miles. When I returned home I powered it up again. The 1/2 inch return line to the top of the reservior started flowing and kept getting stronger. It was obvious that I wasn't pulling 40 amps but I didn't really know how much I was pulling. Another thing puzzled me. When I removed the cap from the secondary bubbler I didn't see any bubbles. I made up a soapy water solution and checked the two fittings above the fluid line on the reservior to see if I might be leaking gas and I also checked the top fitting on the scrubber. No bubbles appeared. Scratch head. Well today I drove to Memphis to my youngest son's house. It is about 125 miles away. After getting there I opened the hood with the motor and cell still on. The unit was still making a lot of gas but I noticed bubbles and white residue on the check valve on the side of the scrubber. I said well I'll deal with that when I get back home. We went to Sears and I purchase a clamp-on ampmeter. When we returned to my son's house I started the truck and turned the cell on. At first I was reading just over 28 amps and little by little the reading crept up until it was almost 35 amps and then it began going back down and settled around 34 amps. Tonight I drove back home and when I arrived I left the truck running with the cell on and checked the amp draw. It varied from 32.4 to 32.9 amps and there didn't appear to be a leak around the check valve. I removed the cap from the secondary bubbler and it was bubbling like crazy. It seems the check valve must have been leaking all along and simply seated itself. I turned the truck off and removed the reservior cap and inserted a Kodak color thermometer and after one minute it read 93 degrees F with an outside temp of 41 degrees F. It seems this unit is running cool and the amp draw is very close to 30 amps. That had been my target current draw. Now I've simply got to start keeping very good records of my fuel economy. I'm not sure how much HHO I am making and really am not concerned about that at present. This cell was assembled according to Seigrene's instructions and will do what it will do at this amp draw. My concern now is just how much improvement can I get at this amp draw. On my 06 King Ranch 6.0 PSD I believe my alternator can handle this load but don't want to push things any further. I'm afraid it would necessitate a bigger alternator to go further in amp draw. Well that's all I can truthfully say for now.

Dave Nowlin

[hg2]

Dave there are a few things you'll have to be careful with running too many amps with the King Ranch 6.0s.You should monitor your voltage to make sure it doesn't drop much below 11.5v because you risk frying your FICM(fuel injection control module).

Also Your computer will not "kick in" the alternator until the glow plugs are finished cycling (a protection strategy). This is why the voltage is low at start-up - it is normal.So you might want to consider an on/off switch inside the cab until cycling is finished.

You may need to consider replacing your alternator with one that's rated higher amps down the road,because an FICM can cost you up to $500 to replace.

[Dave Nowlin]

I have a Scanguage mounted on top of my rear view mirror and monitor my voltage closely. It never got below 12.9 and usually was about 13.3 or 13.4 volts. I power up the unit with an Upfitter switch in the truck which is rated for 30 amps and only activates the Isolator. I turn the unit off before turning off the motor to evacuate the HHO from the intake. On start up I wait until the egine has been running 10 seconds or so before switching on the cell.

Dave Nowlin

[H2OPWR]

I have a Scanguage mounted on top of my rear view mirror and monitor my voltage closely. It never got below 12.9 and usually was about 13.3 or 13.4 volts. I power up the unit with an Upfitter switch in the truck which is rated for 30 amps and only activates the Isolator. I turn the unit off before turning off the motor to evacuate the HHO from the intake. On start up I wait until the egine has been running 10 seconds or so before switching on the cell.

Dave Nowlin

Dave, I want to see you have success. Please get yourself an amp guage where you can monitor amp draw all the time. You never know what can happen. Sometime something will happen. You can get a decent one with reasonable accuracy for around $10.00. Remove the external shunt and put it in line on the positive lead to your cell. Then run 18 guage wires to the meter in your truck. Anything could cause (and something will) too high amp draw. Melting wires, fried alternator etc. will be very expensive.

[Dave Nowlin]

Do you not think the 40 amp auto-reset breaker and 50 amp fuse together with the Scanguage mounted on top of my rear view mirror are enough? I have to spend some time watching the road. If I have an amp guage and am not watching it when something goes wrong, won't the result be the same? I could replace the fuse with a 40 amp. The upfitter switch has a 30 amp fuse in it's circuit and is only used to operate the Isolator/Relay. The 8 guage wire is run from the battery through the Isolator and the fuse then the auto-reset breaker before going to the cell. Auto manufacturers have gone to idiot lights in cars because people don't always watch guages. A fuse that is inline in the 8 guage circuit is about as positive protection as it gets. I am considering adding a 3 minute timer to the upfitter switch circuit so there is a three minute delay when it is switched on. This would provide protection if I forget to turn the cell off before shutting down the engine. The upfitter switches are dead until the key is turned on but I don't want to start filling the intake with HHO before the engine starts. Sometimes on cold mornings the glow plugs stay on for a while. What are your thoughts? Do you know of a positive way to protect my vehicle that works better than the fuse?

Dave Nowlin

[hg2]

Dave your timer idea sounds like the way to go to eliminate the possibility of forgetting to turn the switch on and off.The possibility of forgetting will eventually happen and could have damaging results down the road.

I've looked for a 12v timer without success,because I've wanted to use them for other mods I have,if you find one please post it.

[daddymikey1975]

I've looked for a 12v timer without success,because I've wanted to use them for other mods I have,if you find one please post it.

search your local alarm/audio shops. See if they sell a products from "Directed Electronics".. if you find one (and i'm sure you will, if not go to best buy)

Ask the sales guy or installer if they have a part number 528T in stock. It's a pulse timer. 12V with a 30amp SPDT relay built in. If they're clueless, ask them how they do a remote start on a diesel with glow plugs? the directed remote starts don't have a glow plug input or a time delay built in, so we use a 528T as a timer delay for the ignition circuit especially on the dodge trucks.

If they STILL look at you like you're a moron.. then just get them from here http://www.thrillaudio.com/Car_Audio...T-DRD528T.html

I hope this helps
mike
(p.s. can you tell how i earn my living?? LOL)

[Dave Nowlin]

I've thought further and wonder if I wouldn't be better off with a voltage sensing relay. One that would only allow the power to be on above a selected voltage. I was thinking of 12.5 volts. If the fuel injection module will suffer damage below 11.5 volts that should give me a safety margin. Can you recommend one please?

Dave Nowlin

[Dave Nowlin]

Well today I did a little work on my scrubber. I discovered that it was leaking part of the HHO I was making. I sealed off the leak with epoxy and decided to do a test run tonight. I have a little run I do that involves some flat road but mostly up and down hill, part of it pretty steep. I ran it earlier in the week without HHO and averaged 18.2 m.p.g. according to the gauge in my truck. I recognize these gauges are not absolutely correct, but they should be relative. That is run after run over the same stretch of road the margin of error should be the same. Tonight with the HHO on I got 20.4 m.p.g. I realize I've got a lot more testing to do, but it's a start. That's about 12%

Dave Nowlin

[hydrotinkerer]

Unless I missed it somewhere(probably) what is your lpm production?