Turbo231 Posted June 6, 2006 Report Share Posted June 6, 2006 Hello All, Some of you may have heard that placing a magnet or wrapping a magnet around your fuel line "lines up" the hydrocarbons in the fuel and the fuel burns more completely, thus giving you better fuel economy. If you haven't, just search the web for "fuel line magnets" and you'll catch all sorts of theories. Now, I'm in the camp that putting a magnet on a fuel line isn't going to help anything, otherwise they'd be doing this from the factory in a desperate effort to boost their fleet fuel economy. However, at work, for the fun of it, we tore apart a bunch of hard drives. These drives have very powerful magnets that move the little arm back and forth across the disk...these are very strong magnets...I've got a little blood blister to prove it as they slam together quite hard. With nothing practical to use with these magnets, this fuel line theory came up, and I've decided to test it for myself. My 1994 Caprice Wagon with a LT1 right now is getting between 19.5 and 20.5 MPG with general rural driving. I have taken the two most powerful sets of magnets and wire tied them to my fuel line, right next to the fuel rail to get them as close to the engine as I can. One set is on the metal portion, which might reduced the effectiveness a bit, the other a little higher up on the line. With any luck, this will work, without luck, it won't and I'll just take them off. Its free, neat, and will totally rock it if works. I also stuck two magnets on the oil filter to see what they can catch. I'll keep you posted with my fuel economy. I've seen magnets discussed in regard to oil filters, but hopefully this will put a new spin on things. If any of you have experience with this, including better placement, let me know, I'm open to anything. I know this isn't a W body engine, in fact, I don't even own a W body anymore, but this applies to any engine and probably would have worked on my 3.4L DOHC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedGTP Posted June 6, 2006 Report Share Posted June 6, 2006 if your magnet keep some .... pieces..... after some time .. you hole was smaller and smaller .. and .. stop gas pass.. no ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo231 Posted June 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2006 Since all the fuel passes through the fuel filter, I don't expect much particulate matter. Second, the Caprice has composite fuel lines, so rusting isn't a factor. The goal is to, in theory, bust up the hydrocarbon groups with a magnetic field...if hydrocarbon groups are even magnetic...who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastbird232 Posted June 6, 2006 Report Share Posted June 6, 2006 Don't magnets only influence metals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo231 Posted June 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2006 Well, everything is either atracted to or repeled by a magnetic field. It is called an item's permeability. Copper, Aluminum, water....all have very low permeability, i.e. they just don't care. Iron, steel, etc...have a high permeablity. Where common gasoline sits, I don't know. That's what the test is for. The amount that the steel fuel line effects the magnetic field of the fuel in the line....or on the composite line....who knows, that's what makes testing things fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssheen Posted June 6, 2006 Report Share Posted June 6, 2006 A couple of comments. Some people suggest having the south pole of the magnetic towards the fuel, may be more effective. This may be because fuel has charge as it goes in the engine and air the opposite. Or so I have read somewhere. Have not been able to find it again. Another thing is to put them on non metal lines. Also to glue a metal backing to them. That will 'deflect', for a lack of a better word, the field so it is stronger. That should clue one into why not to put them on metal lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfewtrail Posted June 6, 2006 Report Share Posted June 6, 2006 "Magnetic Fuel Treatment Magnetic fuel treatment devices installed in automobiles are similar in design to magnetic water treatment devices. Hydrocarbon fuel is pumped through a canister containing one or more magnets or a magnetic device is clamped to the external surface of the fuel line. Magnetic treatment of fuel, it is claimed, results in increased horsepower, increased mileage, reduced hazardous gas emissions, and longer engine life. Typically, vendors claim that either mileage or horsepower will be improved by about 10 to 20 percent. They also claim that if no improvement in mileage is noted, then the improvement must have come in the form of more horsepower. This, of course, makes it difficult for consumers to determine whether their magnetic fuel treatment devices really are working. A literature search for magnetic fuel treatment studies revealed that such studies are practically nonexistent. I found a total of three references. Two of these (Daly 1995; McNeely 1994) were anecdotal accounts describing the use of a magnetic treatment device to kill microorganisms in diesel fuel, a fuel treatment application not usually mentioned by magnetic fuel treatment vendors. The third reference (Tretyakov et al. 1985) describes tests conducted in which the electrical resistance and dielectric properties of a hydrocarbon fuel were found to change in response to an applied magnetic field. This report does not address whether the observed physical property changes might affect fuel performance in an engine, but it references two research reports that may contain performance data (Skripka et al. 1975; Tretyakov et al. 1975). Unfortunately, I could obtain neither report, and both are written in Russian. My literature search search found no other credible research reports pertaining to magnetic fuel treatment. The utter lack of published test data is revealing. According to the vendors, magnetic fuel treatment has been around for at least fifty years. If it actually worked as claimed, it seems likely that it would by now be commonplace. It is not. Vendors of magnetic fuel treatment sometimes respond to this reasoning with hints that the automobile manufacturers and big oil companies are conspiring to suppress magnetic fuel treatment to maintain demand for gasoline. Such a conspiracy seems quite improbable. This supposed conspiracy has not managed to suppress other fuel-saving innovations such as fuel injection and computerized control. In summary, I found no test data that support the claims for improved engine performance made by vendors of magnetic fuel treatment devices. Until such data become available, considerable skepticism is justified. At present, it seems quite unlikely that any of the claimed benefits of magnetic fuel treatment are real." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastbird232 Posted June 6, 2006 Report Share Posted June 6, 2006 Will those magnets have any adverse effects on your engine's electronics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssheen Posted June 6, 2006 Report Share Posted June 6, 2006 There is nothing like expermenting yourself to see what works and what does not. As long as it does not cost much, or destroy anything. At least that was my view on this. I did see a ton of negative write ups as well. My neo bar magnetics were like 7$. To me worth trying out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo231 Posted June 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2006 Will those magnets have any adverse effects on your engine's electronics? Not these. Notice the closest magnet on the bottom...they are attached to a steel place that strengthens the magnet field and in this case, stops the field on the other side. So, unlike refrigerator magnets, which you can flip and it will still be attracted to stuff, these are only magnetic on one side. The two magnets farthest in the picture will stick to the palm of you hand if you place one in your palm and the other on the back of your hand....yet flip them over and they won't attach to anything. Neat stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGPilot Posted June 7, 2006 Report Share Posted June 7, 2006 MythBusters already proved the magnets to be a FARSE! Of course it is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo231 Posted June 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 MythBusters already proved the magnets to be a FARSE! Of course it is! Yep, they've done this one, although I haven't seen the specific episode. I know they like to take things over the top, but not having seen the episode, I'm not sure if they did on this one. They seem pretty reliable people, but just remember, don't believe everything you see on TV. Who is to know Exxon-Mobile didn't pay them pocket money to lie and make it seem one way of the other. It's not true, but what do I know? I know I have free magnets and 2 minutes to attach them to my car and see for myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peeeot Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Hey, I'm with you, there's no harm in trying. It would be nice if it works. A quick search did not reveal any information on the forum about using tiny quantities of acetone (2 oz per 10 gal, or 0.156% acetone) in gasoline to improve mileage. As soon as I've run through enough tanks of gas in my Cutlass to establish an economy baseline, I will start experimenting with it. Here's an article on the subject. The main web site has a bunch of other economy-saving ideas, none of which I've tried: http://www.lubedev.com/articles/additive.htm Anybody ever hear about this, or try it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssheen Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 I have tried the acetone. On my Daytona the mileage seemed to go down. The Cutlass, not sure. Forgot to mark the mileage log. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian P Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 I actually did use acetone for a few months straight. The final average was 1 mpg higher vs not using acetone, so I ditched it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peeeot Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Yeah, it seems like it involves a lot of carful measurement and calculation and testing to get the most effective results. If the improvement is significant, it would be worth it, but at this point I just dont know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intlcutlass Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Don't magnets only influence metals. MRI? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo231 Posted June 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2006 Ok...first complete fill up 219.6 miles and 10.785 gallons for a 20.4 MPG...in normal range. I'll just keep editing this message with new numbers. Average Fuel Econ: 19.5 to 20.5 6/13: 20.4 6/22: 20.4 6/29: 21.4 About Mythbusters...I saw that show the other day. They took one they purchased from somewhere and tried it with no success on either the carb or fuel injected car. They took it no further and didn't even indicate how powerful or what kind of magnets were used. Not very scientific about the magnet theory, just the brand of magnet fuel line thing they tested. They could have taken it to the limit with a kick ass powerful electro-magnet. Anyway, my mileage has been on the high side of the average range...I've got one more tank of testing before a long trip and AC usage will delay the remainder of this test until the fall. However, I can report that it isn't reducing my mileage, so the test will go on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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