RON NOVAK'S DO-IT-YOURSELF WATER INJECTION SYSTEM

(Page 2 of 2)

November/December 1979
Mother Earth News editors 
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Then one day, while the New Yorker was running an errand in a pet shop, he noticed a small aquarium "air stone" that was (what else?) busily breaking an incoming oxygen supply into tiny little bubbles ... to mix air into the fish tank's water. Ron bought one of the low-cost objects, attached it to his homemade injector's underwater tubing, and—eureka!—he was in business!

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The entire installation procedure was easy, inexpensive, and legal (Ron didn't fiddle with his car's EPA emissions devices). And Novak's "new" water-injected Honda ran better—and further on one tank of gas—than it ever had in its life!

Since that first attempt, Ron has installed his "bubbling bottles" on all sorts of vehicles ... from a BMW R60/2 motorcycle ... to a 1973 Opel GT ... to a 1968 Cadillac. In each case, gas mileage improved dramatically! So, folks, there "ain't no reason" why you can't get better performance and gas mileage by building your own water injector ... no matter what form of gasoline-engined transportation you're driving! All you have to do is read this article's sidebar, head off to the nearest pet store for your "auto parts", and then get to work!

EDITOR'S NOTE: People who read about Pat Goodman's water injection system (see "Water Injection Wizardry" in MOTHER NO. 59, page 46) may wonder about the differences between Ron's homemade "carburetor squirter" and Pat's more sophisticated—and, of course, more expensive—device.

The most important functional distinction between the two is that Novak's injector"bubbles" most rapidly when the car is idling and least intensely when the vehicle's under full throttle. Goodman's smog pump-controlled instrument, on the other hand, increases its vaporizing activity with higher engine output. Pat's "mistifier" will therefore produce a much greater overall boost in gas mileage than the do-it-yourself device does ... but can only be added to a car that already has a smog pump. Ron's homemade system can be installed on just about any vehicle on the road today.

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WATER INJECTION:6% GAS SAVINGS AND MORE POWER—FOR AS LITTLE AS $3.72

Installing a hydro-atomization system on your car—a modification which adds damp air to the engine's intake mixture and produces a variety of benefits—involves little more than the purchase of a three-inlet valve (such as a fish tank's air regulator), an aquarium air stone, five feet of eighth-inch clear tubing, and a strong plastic bottle ... plus about 15 minutes of under-the-hood tinkering.

When MOTHER's mechanics tackled the job, they were able to pick up all of the necessary pieces—with the exception of the $1.98 brass valve—at a local pet shop for only $1,74. The boys then simply drove around the corner and recycled a photochemical bottle from a trash bin behind a photo shop, stopped by a nearby plumbing supply store to pick up the three-way valve, and returned to the research center to actually install the parts ... which took just a shade over ten minutes.

You can begin your installation by splicing the valve into one of the vacuum lines which comes from the base of the carburetor. (In many cars the distributor advance hose would be the best choice for valve-insertion. However, the Honda Civic CVCC that MOTHER operated on has a very convenient quarter-inch vacuum line run ning to a fresh air valve, so MOTHER's crew tapped into that hose with their makeshift control.)

Next, securely suspend the liquid—containing bottle in the engine compartment. (In this case our research team fabricated a holder from an old coat hanger and bolted the assembly to an existing fastener on the left wheel well of the Honda.) Once your tank is in position, drill two eighth-inch holes in the top of the container ... one on each side of the cap. Then run a suitable length of the eighth-inch hose from the remaining outlet on the three-way valve to one of the eighth openings ... and allow a half inch of the tubing to enter the reservoir.

Now take the rest of your eighth-inch hose, insert it through the unoccupied eighth-inch hole, attach the air stone to the inside end of this line, and slide the aerator and tube into the bottle until it just touches bottom. The leftover eighth-inch line—which protrudes from the container—should be snipped off to about three inches in length.

Finally, fill the reservoir—to about an inch from the top—with a solution of four parts water to one part alcohol (the latter keeps the water from freezing in winter), start your motor, let it warm up, and then adjust the valve until a gentle bubbling comes from the air stone. Once that's done, it's time for a test drive!

MOTHER's researchers noted an immediate improvement in low-RPM power—which helped the Honda to accelerate up hills that had previously required a down shift—and a significant reduction in vibration. Better yet—after we ran three tanks of gas (and a quart of fluid) through the engine—the Civic's gas mileage jumped from 32 to 34 MPG. Plus, much to the auto owner's surprise, water injection cured a longstanding cold weather starting problem. In fact, the driver claims that the modification "paid for itself" with that starting improvement alone... and that, in his opinion, the power gain and gas savings are icing on the cake!

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Comments

  • Cabby 6/4/2009 8:24:39 AM

    I'm going to try this on my high-compression watercooled 1.8L VW Jetta... only concern at this point is where to inject the humidified air. I may have to do it into the air box after the air filter but before the CIS air vane, to avoid unbalancing the fuel-injection system, as these cars are very vacuum-leak sensitive. It would probably be less of an issue on fuel injected cars with electronic multipoint injection (VW switched to that around 1990 or so from the mechanically metered fuel-injection systems.) I would suggest that those modifying fuel-injected cars, pretty much anything built after about '85, know their car's internals pretty well, or find a friendly mechanic willing to experiment a bit.

  • Alan 11/21/2008 6:50:44 AM

    Has anyone done this to a 318cu in. Dodge engine. I'm going to convert this engine to a V-4 as shown in a 1979 Mother Earth News mag. I love my old 1987 Dodge "two" wheel drive Ram Charger but it uses too much fuel. I don't need to pull heavy loads and it is used to get the groceries and take short trips. I'm just not in a position to buy a car or any other type of auto it just not in the cards. So I have to work with what I now have. I like this truck because it has such a long production run so lots of used parts in junk yards at low costs. I used to have an uncle who drove gas powered log tucks back in the 40's and 50's. He told me back in the early 70's that they had a 5 gallon tank of water mounted behind and above the truck cab which was used too allow for water injection for there very under powered log trucks of the day. Water injection allowed there log trucks to climb the gradients out there in the forests when loaded with logs. Water injection gave them the power they needed for those old flat 8 engines. I'm hoping to get at least 24 mpg out of these two conversion instead of the 12 or 15 mpg I get today.

  • TROY GRIEPENTROG 11/4/2008 10:46:06 AM

    Doug,

    I've updated the measurements you were looking for. Some of our articles (this one is nearly 30 years old) got a little messed up when we moved them online. Thanks for bringing this one to our attention.

    You might want to take a look at the "Image Gallery" in the "Article Tools" box at the top of the page. There's a diagram that you may find helpful.

    Send us a photo and let us know the results!

    Troy

  • doug 11/3/2008 11:01:34 PM

    Okay Im trying to actually figure out from the words here what you're describing. By "valve" do you mean a tee? a three way splice? sometimes called a 'Y' as well? Of course a valve would have a selector with some control and no, you dont actually mean a valve. And does your keyboard have a slash so you can write 1/8" so its clear? or 1/4" which must be the intent of 118" or 114"...

    This is such a simple system I think I get it, but could you use some editorial help?

    Best, love you guys. But please try to be professional. People read this stuff!

  • Ken 7/13/2008 12:23:01 PM

    I don't wish to take away from Mr.Novak's accomplishment,but we were doing this very thing in the 1950's when we were teen-agers.I had one of these set-ups on my 1949 Ford V-8 flat-head with 3 Stromberg 97 carbs and Weiand high compression heads.And yes,we used aquarium air stones then.We lived in Bakersfield,California,and this was a way to make our engines run cooler in the summer.Fuel economy wasn't a consideration as 100 octane gas was $.25 a gallon.This was taught to us by my buddy's dad,who was a mechanic and a friend of the late Indy champ,Billy Vukovich.My neighbor's name was,incidentally,Mr.Novak.

  • bruce 1/16/2008 10:49:43 PM

    why not run the vacuum hoses to a steady sorce of vacuum so it not
    drop off when under hard throttle

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