Cool old auto gas saver

[abunaitoo]

Found two of these.
One for V8 and the other for 4cly.
I guess it would work, but depending on how you drive, the A/C clutch will have to be adjusted/changed often.

[Bmi48219]

A fan clutch was standard on Buicks (probably others too) in the late 60’s and 70’s. It was a standard warranty repair item at the dealership I work in. That was before electric powered cooling fans, back when the cooling fan sat behind the radiator and was belt driven.
A mechanic told me they worked because they contained a substance that at low rpm’s linked the compressor drive pulley to the pulley driven by the water pump / fan. When the vehicle was going fast enough the air movement over the fan blades would spin it fast enough that this substance was displaced by centrifugal force allowing the fan to spin the a/c compressor without using engine power.
Is there a zip code in the manufacturer’s address? That would narrow down the date they were marketed.
The accessory I alway wanted to try was the water injector. It added water into the fuel air mixture and was supposed to increase horsepower and mileage. Some WW 2 fighter aircraft used them.

[elmacgyver0]

A fellow I worked with made a water injector out of a windshield washer pump.
He also made a device out of a pipe with a sparkplug connected with a diverter valve or damper if I remember correctly that would shoot a big flame with a loud boom at cars that tailgated him.
He had a lot of fun with it until the car behind him turned out to be an unmarked police car.

[fiberoptik]

Reminds me of a biker buddy. Was driving in the boonies late at night when a car coming at him had high beams on. He flashed them. Then again but nothing. Finally grabbed an empty Jack Daniels bottle and waited. When they passed by he tossed it out the window into the other car. Turns out it was a cop car !


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[facetious]

I remember back in the 70's hearing about some guy that put so many fuel savers on his car that he had to drain the gas tank before he could drive it so the gas wouldn't over flow and come out the filler neck.

I worked a part time job in the early 90's where there was a guy that had got a new car and couldn't stop bragging about how good the MPG's were. So some of his coworkers started adding a gallon of gas to his car each day just to hear him brag about how his millage just kept getting better. Then after a bit they stopped adding gas and started putting a little oil on the ground under his car. So he took it back to the dealer to show them how much his MPG's had dropped and was now leaking oil. He came into work mad because the dealer had told him that car could not have got that kind of mileage and there were no leaks. Don't know if they ever told him but was kind of funny.

[376Steyr]

Anybody remember putting cow magnets on carburetors to "polarize the gas molecules" and thus increase MPG?
https://www.amazon.com/Master-Magnet...52972068&psc=1
A cow magnet sits in the cow's stomach and collects bits of baling wire, preventing the wire from injuring the cow as it passes through the digestive system.
I wasn't really fond of the1970s the first time I lived through them.

[firefly1957]

I do not recall seeing a Freon pump without a clutch I have seen air compressors on truck engines that did not have clutches they did open a valve to exhaust the air but the piston was still moving.

Today's A/C compressors take very little to run unlike the twin cylinder compressor that was on my 1973 Dodge Charger That thing was a beast that would slow the car down 5 MPH if I did not step down further on the gas pedal! It also really cooled that all black car I had in in MAX A/C on a very rare 100 degree day enough to frost the inside of the windshield .

There was a lot of fuel saving things that many swore by few actually did much . I swapped parts on my 1978 Ramcharger with a 440 cid engine to make it part time 4X4 and I could not measure the savings . The change was also very hard on my rear tires as they tended to spin easily . On that same vehicle Exhaust headers and dual exhaust did not save gas until I drove over 55 mph the stock exhaust system loaded up badly at about 3000 RPM (70 mph) .
At 55 mph stock the truck got 15 mpg @ 70 12 mpg at 90 mph it was about 9 mpg . After adding headers and dual exhaust 55 MPH was the same but I was getting just a bit less at 70 mph and about 10 mpg at 90 mph .

I tried some of the coating , oil additives , in several vehicles there may have been a slight improvement with one exception a 1987 dodge D-50 (Mitibishi) pickup . In that engine Slick 50 really lowered the engine operating temperature it went from 3/4 of the scale to under the first line , that in turn messed with the lean burn system and reduced the fuel economy. It also made getting enough heat in the cab hard if it was below zero outside . On a odd note the slick 50 did get my wife home when she run the engine dry on oil for 80 miles ! The oil sender unit went bad and blew all the oil out she noticed the engine was noisy when she left for work but the oil light did not come on she drove 40 miles to work then 39 miles near home with a noisy engine before it stopped .
Three of the four cylinder heads had cracks in them water leaked into engine from cooling jacket two piston rings were gone the crankshaft was blue under the bearings the bearings had spun the cam looked about the same . After the engine cooled it did restart and drove the last mile home there was no repairing of the engine and with the rust issues the truck was scrapped .

[MaryB]

My favorite one is the hydrogen generator that uses power from the battery... the electrolysis process uses more power than you gain burning the hydrogen... negative returns... guys swore they got better mileage. A friend did it, I asked him if he had accurately tracked his mileage for a month before putting it in. Nope! Then how the heck do you know it is giving you better mileage? Stammers, stuff about it seems like he is filing up a little less... Physics doesn't lie, you use more energy than you gain!

[firefly1957]

Yes many people do not properly track fuel economy it is easier with some modern vehicles but I have checked at least one a GM Saturn that was off claiming better mileage then it got .
My 2015 Silverado is fairly accurate and gets nowhere near what the claim is of 22 MPG highway.

Alcohol in gas lowers economy also on average I have seen a 7% drop in Mileage using 10% ethanol fuel . I recently found the notebook in my 2000 Tioga motor home with ford V-10 engine Mileage was 12.7 before the government mandated 10% ethanol in fuel after the average was 10.5 mpg . I accidently put 15% premium in it in Minnesota in 2012 that tank got 7.5 MPG! It ran well just used more fuel the out west 85 octane for high altitude does the same knocking fuel economy down .

[fastdadio]

I'm not really sure what the items pictured in the first post are supposed to do exactly. What I can say for sure is that all modern vehicles have an a/c compressor cut out that is activated by throttle position. Push your gas pedal to the floor and your a/c cuts out. It's not designed to be a fuel economy feature, it's a safety feature to provide more power while passing.

[Loudenboomer]

Bimi48219. A side note about your water injection question that may be of interest. One of my jobs in the Air Force was a crew chief on a C-131. It was equipped with two P&W R-2800 engines (18 cylinder 2800 cubic inch) ADI or anti detonant injection was injected into the engines for take off. Not for fuel economy but to allow us enough manifold pressure (throttle) to get off the ground in a timely manner. We would inject about 55 gallons of water alcohol mixture into the engines on take off and initial climb out. 115 or 130 octane AV gas would be a different story but with the usual availability of only 100 octane fuel we would go into detonation on take off without greatly reduced throttle settings. With ADI we could achieve 2500 HP per engine for take off.

[Screwbolts]

If anyone really cares or is interested in water injection, search " Snow Performance "

[mexicanjoe]

My old '89 F-250 with 7.3 IDI ( NOT THE 7.3 POWERSTROKE), gets 17.5 on the highway. 20 in town due to skipping gears....... However because the fan clutch is seized it roars like a lion and never allows the engine to over heat, even pulling a 24 foot livestock trailer loaded to the gills with the a/c on during a hot West Texas day. She may be slow but she gets me there every time.

[abunaitoo]

Looked all over it, but couldn't find any date.
I'm thinking 60's or 70's.
Maybe 80's due to the gas crunch.
I did find this inside