Increasing the efficiency of the internal combustion engine (ICE) is of interest to many car enthusiasts. The fact is that whatever car you buy, you always want to have a more powerful engine and drive faster.
Strange as it may seem, but these dreams are feasible. Engine power can be increased. It’s also possible to change the fuel consumption and environmental class of your car.
But let’s start with an easy one. A gasoline internal combustion engine (ICE) uses a spark plug to ignite the air-fuel mixture. A diesel engine uses a nozzle.
In order for them to work more efficiently, providing a good ignition of the mixture, high energy must be applied to them.
For a diesel injector, not only the design (and the design is important for the spark plug as well), but also the pressure of the pump feeding it. For a gasoline engine spark plug, the voltage switched to the primary winding of the ignition coil is important. Therefore, pumps with increased pressure for diesel injectors and thyristor ignition systems for spark plug ignition of gasoline engines, increase the efficiency and power of the engine.
If it’s so easy to improve engine efficiency, why aren’t auto manufacturers using it? They do! But only for commercial trucks and generators. After all, their efficiency exceeds 80%, while the ordinary ones have 60%. Standing next to a working Volvo or Iveco truck, you can smell ozone, but not diesel fumes. It’s the same with diesel generators from leading companies.
As for non-commercial vehicles, there are two reasons – both, however, commercial.
The first is the obvious corporate conspiracy that a passenger car should not be too fuel efficient. After all, oil has to be sold. And if technologies that reduce fuel consumption are used, the end consumer is greatly overpaying for them in line with the price of the car.
The second is the complication of the design, which is also reflected in the cost of the car, and the latter is reflected in the competitive qualities. The apologists can be named Ford Mondeo (class “C”) and Ford Ka (class “A”), which managed to consume the same amount of gasoline – 8 liters per 100 kilometers of run. As they say, “feel the difference”. On the “smart solutions” like increasing the pressure on the injection pump or thyristor ignition, the company does not go because of the cumulative effect of the described two factors.
So, let’s move on to the most interesting: useful tricks. Naturally, their application requires additional safety measures! Everything must be done with the “right” hands, otherwise the risk of fire of the car increases.
Fitting the HPF – high pressure fuel pump. It is present even in systems with electronic injection control. By installing a boost pump from a gasoline injection system for about $100, you can get up to 10-16 bar at the high-pressure pump inlet.
To prevent premature wear on the gears and plungers of this expensive unit, it’s worth putting in a boost pump with a current generator. A normal 20 W light bulb in series with the pump motor will limit the output pressure to 1 bar. This prevents dry friction in the fuel vacuum bubbles when the fuel filter is clogged with dirt or paraffin.
This trick extends the life of the fuel injection pump, especially where there are cold winters. The point is that the booster motor also heats the fuel.
There are some dangers in case of wrong adjustment. This is a burst line from the pump to the inlet filter of the fuel injection pump, since it is designed for vacuuming, not high pressure. Connections can leak, or even disconnect.
By the way, the largest number of “killed” HPF and bad starting of the diesel engine, just account for “sucking” air in the suction line of the fuel. And this even in the pressure pipelines with flanged joints takes place (forevacuum, or injector effect).
On thyristor ignition, they write a lot of untruths about the spark being stronger, but shorter. This is not true. If the primary winding of the ignition coil is supplied with 300 volts instead of 15, it’s only natural that for the same 5 amp current consumption, the same amount of energy will be used up in about 1/20th. In fact, it’s about 1/10 to 1/5, depending on the design of the LC circuit and the size of the gap.
But no one is limiting the pumping power within reasonable limits! And 15, and even 30 amps most of the car’s electrical systems can handle: with 80 amp alternators, you can afford it. The plugs will wear out faster, of course, but an ordinary thick electrode candle will live like a high-tech one.
By the way, on a two electrode ignition coil, it only lasts 5,000 miles if you reverse polarity – the electrode is sprayed on one pole of the coil. And as a bonus, 30% fuel economy!