F-350 Ford Truck Diesel HHO/Hybrid Conversion Project

We decided to start out with our diesel truck for several reasons. One we felt that with the truck, mounting a unit would not be as difficult as it would on a smaller sedan. Second, the installation on a diesel engine is a bit quicker as there is nothing that you need to do electronically to the vehicle to utilize HHO and third, diesel fuel continues to cost more that a regular gallon of gasoline so mileage improvements were important to us.

Our first piece of the puzzle was deciding on what kind of kit to purchase. We took a look at several different designs as the builders of these kits went into a bit of frenzy over having the most HHO production. Now having a good and steady supply of the HHO fuel is certainly important but there are some limitations on how much you can actually use. And since these systems at best are a bit of the old backyard engineering, there's not much control when it comes to HHO production. If you take a look yourself, you will find kits made from plexiglas boxes, PVC pipe and canning jars. All of them produce HHO and I am sure can produce a quantity that will help offset some of the use of regular or diesel fuel in your vehicle.

I finally decided on a unit that was made using a water filter canister. The canister itself is clear so you can readily tell the condition of your water mixture and the heavy plastic or poly carbonate seems substantial enough to hold up to the heat and rough conditions it would be subject too. Next was finding a suitable mounting location. At first it appeared that mounting it just behind the grill would work although some arrangement would have to made for refilling. Unfortunately, once I pulled the grill from the truck I realized that while it could fit in that space, it was going to be a bit tougher getting it mounted than I expected. I started looking around and on this truck, most of the space under the hood is occupied with something. I finally realized that directly underneath the air intake hose was a good spot as there was plenty of space and I could actually fabricate a mount off the side of the throttle body. Refilling the unit would only require popping the plastic air hose off to get access.

With the unit mounted, the next steps are wiring the unit and adding the hose connections. Wiring is rather simple. One side of the unit goes to a solid ground while the other side is connected to an ignition-on connection with the proper size fuse in the circuit. The fuse by the way is a very important piece of the kit. Do not install a HHO unit without having it fused. Should you do so, you would run the risk of the unit going into a runaway state until something quite simply melted down. Sort of like the China Syndrome. Also, do not wire the unit directly to the battery or a connection that is continuously hot. You do not want any HHO production occurring if the engine is shutdown. After wiring, you need to connect the output of the unit to the intake hose tube. This is accomplished by drilling the proper size hole for your brass fitting, then securing the fitting in place and sealing it. My method of securing the brass fitting was to place a small stainless steel hose clamp around the portion of the fitting that is inside the intake hose. A small amount of black silicone around the outer edges and you are ready to go. Connect your hose from the unit to the intake hose with a flashback device install inline and the installation is now complete. A flashback device is nothing more than PVC valve with the idea that should a spark or backfire occur in the engine, the PVC would keep that from reaching the HHO unit and causing an explosion. Yes, hydrogen is a fuel - remember? If handled safely though, it is no more a problem than gasoline.

The last item is to purchase several gallons of distilled water and baking soda. Very important, do not use anything but distilled water as minerals and other contaminants in tap water can have a serious effect on the production of HHO. Mix one teaspoon of baking soda to one gallon of water for your initial attempt at producing HHO. The baking soda will be the catalyst to help the electrons flowing in the water separate the hydrogen from the water. Fill the container to within one inch of the top with the mixture. Place a 5 amp fuse in the fuse holder and then start your vehicle. Most people report that initially the vehicle my run a touch rough, then clear up and idle better than it ever has before once the HHO is flowing into the engine.

You can increase the amount of baking soda and up the amperage on the fuse, but you want to make sure that you never get the HHO unit to the point that it is boiling. Boiling is bad news and could result in some unknown events. Make changes with caution and understand that you are not going to completely replace your gasoline or diesel fuel, you are just supplementing it which is why we refer to it as a hybrid.

Our next step is to drive the truck and monitor the mpg obtained by using the Scan Gauge. Ideally, we should be using less diesel fuel to get the truck up to the same speed resulting in a higher mpg reading. We will also monitor the water mixture usage, making sure to keep the unit topped off with the mixture as needed. Once we have an idea of how much mixture we are using over the course of a 1/2 tank of fuel then we will have to do less monitoring.

One question that comes up is in regard to freezing conditions. Assuming that we are not talking about single digits continuously, there is enough expansion room in most of the kit units to allow for freezing without causing any damage. Once the vehicle is started, the mixture will melt quickly due to the electrical current flowing through it. More vigorous cold conditions may require that you pull the unit out when parked for any length of time. You could also add a small quantity of windshield wiper fluid, but understand that this will cut the HHO production and reduce your mileage.