My Personal Progress Report For My First HAFC Install

Here is the beast: A Ford 1997 12 passenger Club Wagon SuperDuty 1-ton E-350 full size van w/5.4 L engine.

INSTALLATION & Tuning Completed

Results:

Before Install the van got only 13.1 mpg highway w/AC on.

After HAFC Install & Tuning: (same course, same gas/station/pump, same conditions, etc)
28.56 mpg!!!!

Over DOUBLE, 118% to be exact! 28.5 mpg on a gas guzzler like this? NO Loss of power, no loss of performance.

Here are the details:

First, some photos of the installed parts (photos of actual kit are near end of page):

There is very little room inside the engine compartment on these vans, so I (temporarily) installed the fuel cell below and in front of the radiator. That is it behind and below the chrome part of the bumper with hoses and wires attached. (In warm climates and in summer this is actually an ideal location, but in the winter the water will freeze and will take long time to melt in an outside location as this. Inside the engine compartment it will melt more quickly).

This is the water reservoir, it is the container with 2 clear/white hoses coming out and the red cap on top). It is also temporarily mounted with nylon rope (blue and white) to hold it in place.	Below the air intake and attached to the radiator hose is the vaporizer. You can't see it, it is covered with a wrap and aluminum foil to help in the heat exchange. Again, i will move this later and use heater hoses to heat it instead (the radiator hose does not heat up as fast)
This is the Optimizer-3 box with the cover off. The meter shows the .196 (~.194) volt setting for modified O2 sensor trip point. The Optimizer is a fairly complex device. The large chip in the middle is a microprocess / microcontroller chip with is a whole computer on a chip. A home hobbiest would be pressed to duplicate the complexity of the Optimizer with a few parts.	This is the Optimizer box closed up and ready to bolt up under the dash.

Below I am going to give a more detailed explanation, in my own words, of how this whole thing works.  For those who are technically inclined, mechanics or just the scientifically curious, hope this will give you some insight.  For those who are not so inclined, you don't have to read it.  

How does the HAFC kit deliver such dramatic results?

The kit does 4 major things.
1) The Covalizer. A 16 oz bottle of covalizer comes with the kit. We add 1 oz per 25 gallons of gas.  (this you will need to purchase on an on-going basis and costs about $20 for 16 oz which will treat 400 gallons of gas). What the covalizer does is it breaks down the covalent bonds of the molecular clusters in the gas.  (It breaks the clumped up molecular clusters into smaller sizes).  This is step one in helping the gas to burn more completely.  By itself you may get a 5-25% increase in mileage with just the covalizer alone.
2) Vaporizer.  We cut the gas line before it reaches the injectors and we route it through a vaporizer unit that does 2 things. First, we strap the vaporizer around a radiator or heater hose and wrap foil and a blanket around it as it is used as a heat exchanger.  This preheats the gas to 160-180 degrees.  The hotter the gas the more easily it vaporizes in the cylinder.  Engines run on gas vapor, not liquid gas.  The more we vaporize the gas, the more it burn more completely.  It has also been found that ionizing the gas helps to vaporize it.  Powerful magnets are housed in the vaporizer and this ionizes the gas as well.   [Note, fuel line magnets have been around for years and some claim proven results of 10-20%, but others reported no improvement.  What Dutchman researches found was that the magnetic ionization process is thwarted when the gas line the magnets were placed on were metal. That the metal lines interfere with the magnet flux.  For this reason plastic gas lines are provided in the kit to route the gas in and out of the vaporizer, and the vaporizer itself is attached to the rubber hoses of the radiator or heater, all of this helps achieve real measurable results.
3) Hydrogen.  The kits include the Hydrogen Fuel Cell.  These cells take distilled water and separate, via electrolysis, the oxygen and hydrogen gases.  Both the hydrogen gas and oxygen gases are combined into one gas, called water-gas or HH0 or Brown's gas (named after Dr Brown who researched the unique properties of this gas).  This gas is, obviously, rich in hydrogen, and yet also contains pure oxygen.  The gas you burn in your car, whether refined crude oil or corn / plant alcohol, is a Hydro-Carbon rich fuel. Hydrogen, combining with oxygen in the air, is what explodes and burns in your engine, whether it comes from alcohol or crude oil, it is hydrogen and oxygen that is burning. But, gas and alcohol have other carbons and elements.  It is these other elements that interfere with the full and clean burning of the fuel.  We introduce pure hydrogen and pure oxygen into the mix with the result that it assist the gasoline to burn more completely.   We are not generating enough hydrogen gas to run the vehicle on water-gas, as that would take too much electrical power - but, we are generating just enough that works to help the existing gas burn more completely.
4) The BRAINS - called the Optimizer.  The Optimizer is what makes the whole kit really work.  Modern engines have on-board computers, often called ECU (Engine Control Units), that monitor many sensors, as the amount of oxygen in the exhaust, to air flow, air intake temperature, engine coolant temperature, etc.  The engine's computer reads these signals and then computes the best gas/air mixture for the load and engine speed.  
Those computers were programmed and designed to deliver the best performance for the type of fuel available on the market.  That fuel has a specific burn capability, and the computer is programmed to provide a certain amount of that gas to get the best result.  
All of that is great - as long as one uses the fuel that the computers were designed ffor.  But, if you IMPROVE the gas to beyond what the computer expects, this causes unwanted problems.
The on-board computers are designed to look for a specific amount of oxygen coming out of the tail pipe under specific engine conditions.   If it sees not enough oxygen it assumes the engine is getting too much gas and so it cuts back on the amount of gas going to the fuel injector.  If it sees too much oxygen it assumes the engine is running too lean, too much air for the amount of gas, and so the computer increases the amount of gas going to the injectors. 
The oxygen sensors (our units also work with AFR sensors, but i will outline O2 sensors here for illustration purposes) put out a range of volts from 0 to .9 or so volts.   The on-board computers are set to trip at .45 volts.  Anything under 4.5 is considered too lean and more gas is injected in the engine, and anything above .45 volts is considered too rich and less gas is injected.  The O2 sensors and the computer are constantly switching between rich and lean to regulate the gas usage. 
What the Optimizer does it is hooks in between the O2 sensor and the engine's computer, and it also modifies several other sensor readings.  It offsets or shifts the voltage coming out of the 02 sensor such that when the input of the sensor is, say, .4 volts into the Optimizer, the output from the Optimizer (which then goes to the input of the car's computer) is shifted to, say, .7 volts.   .4 volts would have told the engine's computer to go rich, to put more gas into the engine, but, since we have shifted the voltage, the optimizer is now telling the engine's computer NOT to inject more gas. 

What is it that the Optimizer and kit are trying to achieve?   Are they simply making the engine run more lean?   NO.  NOT AT ALL.   We do not want to run the engine more lean.  We want the engine to run at optimum performance.  When an engine runs too lean it is bad on the engine, bad on performance, even bad on gas mileage.  Too lean, not giving the engine enough fuel, can pit piston, causing major engine damage, or burn out the valves.  You will hear pinging and lose of power.   No, we certainly don't want that.    However, what our kit does is assist the existing fuel to burn more completely.  Thus, we need LESS gas to achieve full power, full performance.   Say we put in a teaspoon of gas and the engine runs at 2000 rpm for 1 minute producing 150 horsepower. (I am just pulling random numbers here for sake of example).  We now add pure hydrogen and pure oxygen, we break down the covalent bonds of the molecules in the gas, we ionize the gas and pre-heat it.  Now, we can run the same engine at 2000 rpm for 1 minute and still produce the same 150 horsepower, but we only need 3/4 teaspoon, or in my case, less than 1/2 teaspoon.  
This is great.  The engine will not be running more lean on that 1/2 teaspoon, not at all. No pinging, no loss of power. The engine will be remain running at optimum, it simply needs less gas to achieve the same performance.  
But, what we must do is trick the engine's computer into thinking it needs to deliver less gas.  The engine's computer has to be tricked into thinking that the engine is fine, but it only needs 2/3rds or 1/2 the gas.   
That is not so easily done. 
Just translating the voltage of the O2 sensors is not enough.  That is a key part of it, but that is not enough.  The computer is programmed to think that there is something wrong with the engine if the O2 sensors keep telling the computer to give less gas.  The computer looks at rpm, air flow, air intake temps and coolant temps and compares all this to what is supposed to be 'normal', and if those O2 sensors keep giving readings that are out of what is normal, then the computer is designed to just start ignoring the O2 sensors and assume they are malfunctioning, and resume dumping more gas into the engine anyway.   This is what the engine's computers were designed to do. 

So, what the Dutchman engineers found was that the computer looks at the coolant temperature and uses that as a gauge for how rich or lean the engine should run.   The Optimizer modifies the signal from the engine's temperature sensors such that it tells the on-board computer that the engine is running warmer then it really is.  Not Overly Hot, just warmer than normal.  The engine's computers are programmed to give an engine less fuel, to go lean, when the engine is a little warm.  That is because the warmer the engine the more fuel efficient it is, the more air and less gas it needs.  But, warmer engines wear out faster.  We do not actually increase the temperature of the engine.  Not at all. But, what the Optimizer does is it increases the signal from the sensor such that the engine's computer thinks the engine is running warmer.  This produces a condition where the engine's on board computer is now happy in giving less gas to the engine.  How much less, we can now control via shifting the voltage level from the O2 sensors. 

Recall, I told you that the industry set trip level for an O2 sensor is set at .45 volts.  Anything greater is seen that the car is running to rich and the computer gives less gas.  Anything under is seen as too lean and the computer gives more gas. 
I found it really interesting that on my big 5.4 liter V8 I was able to shift the trip voltage all the way from .45 volts down to .194 volts.   That is less than 1/2.   And. Which is about right to get double the gas mileage out.  What the Optimizer does is that voltages coming from the O2 sensor that are greater then .194 are output to the engines's computer as voltages .6 to .9 volts,   so the engine's computer sees it as well above .45, so it thinks the engine is running rich and keeps trying to compensate by sending less gas to the injectors.   Anything below .194 the Optimizer shifts the voltage out to .35 or less, so the engines' computer will see this condition as too lean, such as under heavier load, or acceleration, and will proper inject more gas.

Just to make it clear, even though the engine's computer is now happy with sending less gas, the engine itself is not running lean.  The added hydrogen and modified gas is burning more completely, so the engine is running in optimum performance.  
The trick is in Tuning of the Optimizer.  You have to adjust everything, sometimes even adding a resistor or modification here or there, to where the engine's computer is happy with trying to lean out the gas, but, the engine is not running lean, but is making full use of the modified gas.  Once a good mechanic or tuner has got it, it is not all that hard, really.  But, it does require a scan gauge tool.  Can't do it without it, not on 1996 and newer cars.   [The kit can be installed on older cars with OBD 1 computers, and the process is similar, but you can't get all the readings from a scan tool.  And, it can be installed on carburettor  engines without the use of the Optimizer, but, you will need to go in and mechanically tune the engine, adjusting timing and possibly changing a jet in the carburettor to that of a propane jet.   I can get you more info about that if you need it.]

A mechanic who understands today's engine computers and how they work, and can understand what I am talking about here,   and is a doer, can get into the mechanics and electronics of it,   he will be a person who will be able to properly tune the kit.   Feel free to print out my explanation above and take to some local mechanics.  When you find the guy whose eyes lite up and says,  "Wow, this is Great,  this is really mean stuff, this is something I can get in to and do it", you have most likely found the guy (or gal) who can install and tune your kit.   Have that person call me and if after I speak with him for a while and i can see he has got it, and is not lost at what needs to be done,   we have found you the local guy you need to install this for you  (and if you feel you are that person, let me know).  If you find a local mechanic who read the above and says he can do this, but, wants more info, there is a 5 DVD set of discs (18 hours of class room training) available for mechanics for less then $35-40 that explains EVERYTHING in microscopic detail how the kit works, how to install, and how to tune it. 

What are you waiting for,   get your kit on order now. 

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Hi, my name is James Beals.. I am not an employee of Dutchman Enterprises, who is the manufacture of the HAFC, but an independent sales associate who is selling the HAFC kits.

This page is dedicated to a report on my first install.

I got my first kit, whose # is 4834, on May 15th, 2008

I am installing this kit on a 1-ton 1997 Ford E-350 12 passenger full size SuperDuty ClubWagon which has a Triton 5.4L V8 engine.

There will be a delay before I can install it as the Check Engine Light just started coming on. Since we don't know yet why the light is coming on, we have to find out first and fix the problem first. If it is coming on because of a problem with the gas or air-mixture components on the engine, or any of the emission control system, then it will not be possible to do a clean or good install. We need to read out some of the engine codes first, before we install, so we can properly tune the HAFC Optimizer (it's computer).

So, for now here are photos of the kit - as I got it in :

This is a new design of the Dual Fuel Cell kit. The older one was a stainless steel canister that held the water and had the electrilizer plates inside. This new design is smaller and holds very little water at a time. Water is supplied via the separate water reservior.

This is the HAFC Optimizer-3. It is the brains of the system. It is a computerized system that installs, electrically, between the engine O2 sensors and other sensors and the engine's on-board computer so that it can modify (optimize) the signals sent to the on-board computer so that it works best with the modified fuel and hydrogen gas assist.

The vaporizer also has strong magents which help to ionize the fuel.