What's the Story with Platinum Injection?

[jtkplc]

HHO Tek has these platinum injection products that guarantee 22% better fuel mileage. What's everyone's opinion of them? Are they a viable option for better mileage?

[velorossa22]

Never heard of them before. The idea of platinum and palladium is for catalytic convertors: Here's a description of how it works:
The oxidation catalyst is the second stage of the catalytic converter. It reduces the unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide by burning (oxidizing) them over a platinum and palladium catalyst. This catalyst aids the reaction of the CO and hydrocarbons with the remaining oxygen in the exhaust gas. For example:

2CO + O2 => 2CO2

There are two main types of structures used in catalytic converters -- honeycomb and ceramic beads. Most cars today use a honeycomb structure.
I don't see how platinum before the exhaust could help with mileage and having it after could help clean the exhaust but that's it.
Sounds like a gimmick to me...
But they give a 90 money back guarantee. Try it and see how it works!

[sweet7549]

However in practice this technology is - like all other fuel "saving" devices I have investigated - deeply flawed.


The first and most fundamental point is that the unburnt fuel fraction in a modern engine under typical operating conditions is far less than 20% - around 2% is much more usual. That is to say, only one fiftieth of the injected fuel escapes unburnt from the engine. The remaining 98 - 99% is completely broken down into smaller molecules and burnt to form carbon dioxide and water. So even if the device could significantly reduce this unburnt fuel fraction, the overall fuel saving would be extremely small.

If it really were true that around 20% of the fuel was being burnt in the catalytic converter, you would expect the gas emerging from the cat to be much hotter than that entering. I have worked on dozens of vehicles equipped with "pre-cat" and "post-cat" thermocouples, and have never seen a significant temperature rise except under fault conditions such as a misfire. Indeed, if you turn off ignition to one cylinder of a V8 engine (so that 12% of the fuel is burnt in the catalyst) then the heat release is so great that the catalyst would be quickly destroyed when the engine is at full power. To suggest that 20% is burnt in the catalyst under normal conditions is just not true.

The second point is that any true catalytic influence on the combustion must cause it to speed up. That is the definition of a catalyst, and is also the only plausible means by which the burn could be made more complete. However, the ignition timing on any engine is carefully optimised to suit the burn rate of the fuel/air mix. If the burn rate is altered, then the ignition timing must be altered to suit - yet no makers of platinum combustion enhancers suggest changing ignition settings.

An interesting aside is that all the systems I have seen advertised use engine manifold vacuum to draw the platinum solution into the engine. This means that the larger the vacuum, the more platinum is injected. However, the air flow into the engine is smallest at high vacuum, and largest when there is no vacuum at all (wide open throttle). So the amount of platinum added to the engine is inversely proportional to the amount of fuel and air taken in! At very light loads the platinum fraction is relatively high, at full load there is none at all. One might then wonder how the device can function optimally under all conditions. (A correspondent pointed out to me that using the vacuum between the air filter and the throttle would solve this problem - which it would, but it would also introduce other problems.)

Hope this helps

[Philldpapill]

Don't forget cost. I mean, holy bajesus! Are they really suggesting injecting PLATINUM, aka, Unobtainium, into the engine only to be spit out the exhaust??? A catalytic converter doesn't spit the precious medals out. In fact, people salvage these things to extract the tiny bit of medals in there.

Maybe I am totally misunderstanding this whole thing. See how much platinum is in there, then see what the price is. If the price is less than the current market price of Platinum, then that alone says this thing is BS as it doesn't even have Platinum in it(otherwise they would LOSE money by having to buy it, then sell it at a lower price).

This seems like another one of those magic potion scams. These people prey on the ignorant and unsuspecting. "Just add a little bit of our magic potion with magic Platinum in it, and poof! 22% gains!!!"

But, whatever... try it - naysayers have been proven wrong before, and will be proven wrong again... Hell, maybe this stuff is magic.

[Roland Jacques]

I can tell you that HHOTek stopped selling HHO products (temporarily???) to sell these instead. He seemed to think that PI was simpler to install & get good MPG results. But i do no for certain that some vehicles did not get any results.

[jtkplc]

Don't forget cost. I mean, holy bajesus! Are they really suggesting injecting PLATINUM, aka, Unobtainium, into the engine only to be spit out the exhaust??? A catalytic converter doesn't spit the precious medals out. In fact, people salvage these things to extract the tiny bit of medals in there.

Maybe I am totally misunderstanding this whole thing. See how much platinum is in there, then see what the price is. If the price is less than the current market price of Platinum, then that alone says this thing is BS as it doesn't even have Platinum in it(otherwise they would LOSE money by having to buy it, then sell it at a lower price).

This seems like another one of those magic potion scams. These people prey on the ignorant and unsuspecting. "Just add a little bit of our magic potion with magic Platinum in it, and poof! 22% gains!!!"

But, whatever... try it - naysayers have been proven wrong before, and will be proven wrong again... Hell, maybe this stuff is magic.

Well it's supposedly platinum vapor and for a gasoline engine you get enough for 30,000 miles worth at a cost of $240 if I'm not mistaken on price.