The Elusive High Mileage Carburetor

Chapter 1

In the Beginning

I began my experience in the mechanical field at the age of eighteen as a jet engine mechanic in the United States Air Force.

While in the service, I redesigned the turbine section of the jet engine. The change was submitted to the Air Force through their suggestions program. After several months of evaluation, the suggestion was returned to me. I was told that the change was too major for the military to be able to implement on existing aircraft engines. They recommended that I submit it directly to the engine manufacturer for evaluation.

This I did. Unfortunately, the patent attorney that I selected to represent me took me too lightly. He assumed that due to my youth and lack of formal education, the idea could not have much merit. Due to his careless attitude and poor advice, I lost all rights to the manufacturing of this change. It is now being used in jet aircraft.

After my time in the service, I drifted around for a while from job to job, hoping to find a place of employment that might value intelligence over how much formal education one had. I finally ended up comfortably as a large marine thrust systems assembly and test mechanic. Some time later when the business came into some financial difficulty, I was laid off.

I am fortunate to possess the gift of creativity. I decided at this time to profit from it directly, rather than allow another company to benefit from it, or lose, as I did with the jet engine modification, to a large company.

I has been intrigued for some time with the concept of attaining higher gas mileage by converting gasoline into a pure vapor. If there was anything to it, I assumed that it Couldn't be a project too expensive to pursue myself. And God knows, there was a demand for it.

I spent several months researching the theory behind vaporization. I found there to be a great deal of interest already existing on the topic. There was so many stories of vaporizers that had been proven so successful around the country that, according to the reports, attained as much as 150 miles to the gallon. This only helped to inspire me. I consulted with universities, chemists, and physicists for information. In the end, I found the theory to be extremely sound. Not only could higher gas mileage be obtained, but according to the theory involved, the engine should run cooler, last longer, and have a tremendously lower amount of toxic emissions.

Why was it then, that these units were not being utilized? It seems insane!

As much as this country needed this, and as much as the government was screaming for energy conservation and cleaner emissions, how could this technology be kept from the public.

At the time, I wasn't concerned. What I was concerned with was that I knew there was a great demand for it and I was going to make a fortune.

By this time, I was running low on personal funds. A personal firmed of mine, Billy J. Seay, Had enough faith in me to feel that I knew what I was doing, and offered to assist me. Soon after, we formed a partnership.

After a long and cold winter spent in my garage at a drafting table, I emerged with a set of blueprints. It wasn't until early that summer that we could find someone that was willing to spend their time and money to build a unit.

The test vehicle selected was a 1975, one-ton Ford pickup truck. The engine was a 351 cubic inch engine. We rigged a one-pint can under the hood for a fuel tank.

The director of the National Car Drivers' Association was among the witnesses on the rainy morning that we had selected for the test. The location of the test was just off the track at the Seattle International Raceway.

I was quite nervous. I almost wished that the test would be delayed. It is very stressful to stand, watching how months of work will function in an actual test. Most of the morning was spent making final adjustments and safety checks.

The vaporizer unit was designed to operate using waste engine heat. For this reason, the vehicle had to be started on the conventional carburetor to obtain the desired engine heat. As the truck was warming, I climbed into the front seat with two of the machinists that assisted in building the unit. Two more were standing in the bed of the truck, peering over the cab into the engine compartment. I was holding temperature gages in my lap to monitor the temperature of the carburetor inlet and the heat exchanger core. One of the onlookers described the appearance of the vaporizer: "It looks like a chrome octopus attached to the engine."

It has already become apparent that morning that in the design, there was a problem with the exhaust gas restriction through the primary heat exchanger core. We could not attain the desired amount of heat for vaporization at idle. Once the engine was put to a load, the temperature would soar to the desired level. Because of this factor, I decided that if the test was made to be conducted at this point, it would need to be made with the truck driving at least 45 miles an hour, therefore putting the engine under a load.

There was quite a bit of excitement. Aside from the observers in the truck, there were more following in the chase car. We placed a magnetic flashing yellow beacon on the roof and started off. Upon gaining about 45 MPH, the temperature of the primary heat exchanger attained the desired heat. The switch that directed the fuel flow from the carburetor to the vaporizer was thrown to the on position. Almost instantly there was a surge of power. This was because the vapor being introduced into the engine in addition to the fuel flow was shut off. Once the bowl emptied, the engine gained r.p.m.'s and then slightly lost power. Then we steadied at 50 MPH. The engine was running so smoothly and quietly that if we were not still cruising at 50 MPH, we would have suspected the engine died. The engine was expected to run smoother however. Once the fuel is converted to a vapor, the density and distribution of the vapor is tremendously more even, therefore causing the engine to run much more smoothly. Using the one-pint gas can. we logged just a hair over 80 miles to the gallon. There was sheering and even shock. Although we had all seen it, we still doubted our success. We kept looking for some factor that we had overlooked that gave us an inaccurate total. We were expecting something closer to 40 miles per gallon.

After some re-rigging, we managed to get the truck to idle on the vaporizer. While the rest of the mechanics were forward tinkering with the unit, I became curious. According to my calculations, the exhaust should be almost completely free of all carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon content if the fuel was being burned so completely. I went back to the exhaust pipe and sniffed. And sniffed again. It was like a blow dryer. I could not smell much of anything except a hot breeze. I knew that it was primarily composed of carbon dioxide, no more harmful than what we exhale from our lungs. Of course, with all the shock of the day, I doubled my own observation. I called the foreman back for his opinion. He bent down and sniffed, then raised himself excitedly, giggled, and seconded my opinion. Everyone had to observe and offer their opinions also. It was an amusing sight: all five of the mechanics were bent over with their backsides up in the air, sniffing the exhaust. Unanimously, we agreed that we couldn't smell any toxic gases. Again, feeling that this was too good to be true, we all doubted ourselves. Feeling that we just wanted to believe it so much, we must have just smelled what we wanted. So, we went to the next vehicle without a vaporizer, started the engine, and sniffed it's exhaust fumes. We choked. The intensity of it burned our eyes and throats.

We finally agreed that the exhaust was definitely cleaner on the test vehicle. At this time, my partner and I were in seventh heaven. We could picture cars getting 80 m.p.g. coast to coast with the Wagner label on the vaporizers under the hoods.

Our success did bring us to our first realization. How could it be so easy? The only conclusions that we could come to was that there was a reason that these things weren't out for public use. Maybe, there was some validity to these rumors that we had been hearing about oppression. It is was true that these things had been snuffed our by the hundreds, how could we come to the opinion that we could succeed at something that no one else had succeeded in doing.

Before blindly jumping into an attempt to manufacture our device, we decided to step back and take a good look at what we had to overcome.

In this analysis, we came into the following information. This is a basic history of gasoline vaporization and the political intervention as we understand it.

Consider that his is only our opinion, although it based on the testimonies of oil company employees, college professors and graduates, inventors, and their relatives, automotive industry employees, politicians, and in many public documentations that are available to the public. I am assuming that even it my opinion may not be a popular one with some governmental officials and large companies, I have the freedom to express it because this is the United States.

Copyright © 1999 HIMAC