This thread is primarily for the youngsters among us that never had the pleasure of thumbing through the newest mail order parts catalog. And once one was done, since the pages were softer than the "slick" pages of the Sears and Wards catalogs, the pages had another use But some of the old-timers may enjoy the memory trip. These are all from a 1955 catalogue, but I have others to post, depending on the interest. Jon. A buddy of mine bought the Vapojet water injector system. It was dry in 20 miles. You had to carry water with you and continue to fill it. Did it help? Sure, we got to stop and stretch our legs every 20 miles Someone on the H.A.M.B. asked about the vacuum leak mixture screws a few weeks ago. Incidentally, these are still in a 1971 catalog, so evidently the first production run didn't sell that well.
When I was in high school automechanics the instructor told us of a gent in town who was a sucker for every one of those mail order gas mileage or performance boosters like that and was always buying them and stickin them on his car until it didn't want to run right and then he would show up at the High school shop for the kids to sort out and they would pull the latest batch of trinkets off the car and tune it up and get it running right and stick the trinkets in a box that got stuck in the store room, when the box filled up they gave the stuff back to him. I think I must have had to work on the cars of a couple of his friends later as that Water injection bottle setup seemed to be real popular in this area at the time.
Here are some additional from the 1960 catalog: Seems like every few years, someone comes out with the multi-electrode spark plugs! Jon.
Laugh if will... but there was a guy in our town that did purchase everything he could for better fuel mileage. He had a carb that got 25% better mileage, a fuel pump that got 15% better milage, had those air bleed air screws , ram air., water injection.... everything!!! He would drive around town and about every twenty miles or so..... he would have to stop and siphon out a gallon of gas to keep his tank from overflowing! True story. Bones
Yeah and my cousin's brother-in-law works with a guy that knew the guy that built that 100MPG carb we've all heard about.
God, I remember this stuff. I'm getting old. I recall talking about adding all of these things to a car, and thinking if it worked, the thing would make so much power, it would probably blow up. Now, it would be a wonder if it would run. A man have me a carb spacer, back in the 70's. It was another gas saver thing. It had propeller blades under the throttle plates. That was what everyone looked at, if they saw the advertisement. But in back there was a reed valve, that vented air into the mixture. I decided to use it, after I blocked the incoming air route, and removed the prop blades. I needed a carb spacer, and it fit my requirements.
I am indirectly partially responsible for the great cow magnet fiasco! My apologies. A lot of years ago, got a call from a gentleman in Texas that had rust issues in his fuel and was going to take the car to the Pate show in a couple of days for sale, and could I overnight a rebuilt carburetor to him today? Well, the answer was no, but: I told him about the Carter Magna-trap. This was a magnet with a special shape to fit into a Carter glass bowl fuel filter. I have told many enthusiasts about this, and suggested one of the refrigerator magnets like your better half uses to stick honey-do jobs to the refrigerator. He told me he had a dairy farm, and had several of the cow magnets (cows are stupid, they will eat just about anything, including baling wire....oops, showing my age again ). If you feed one of the magnets to a cow, the wire doesn't pass into the entire digestive tract (you city folks, use Google, not about to get into the digestive system of a bovine ) He would make a loop in the fuel line and tape three of the magnets to the loop, hopefully to stop the rust from passing into the carburetor. About 3 days later he called, and he was laughing so hard, it took about 15 minutes for him to repeat the story. Seems everyone that looked at the engine asked about the cow magnets. After the first few, he started with a story that he continued to embellish as the day wore on. The final story was the magnets created a flux field, supercharging the fuel molecules, and giving almost non-Newtonian power and fuel economy! Well, you guessed it. P.T. Barnum scores again! This even made the Johnny Carson show (remember the "headlines" segment)? Over 300,000 cow magnets were sold in the southwestern United States within a month. Every supplier was sold out, and had back orders. Here is a link to a picture of the Carter Magnatrap that I placed on my website: http://www.thecarburetorshop.com/Carter_Magnatrap.jpg And now you know "the rest of the story" Newspaper story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...noredirect=on&utm_term=.19601413ca5d Jon.
Don't forget the the water electrolysis (HHO) units. The hydrogen and Oxygen getting sucked in will increase fuel economy by 40% or more. They claimed to be almost free energy, only the cost of the water.
I remember J.C. Whitney sold "rebuild in a can". Supposedly you added it to your oil and it would resurface bearings and valve seats. Even as a kid, I wasn't dumb enough to think that would work!
Not as funny as you may think..! Some of the above IS ACTUALLY useful...if used properly..! For one...delete the "on-off" capability, who here doesn't think an engine runs better using cooler air ? IF setup properly, water/methanol-water will crutch a too high a compression engine. Apparently "carbkings" friend just bolted his on..! Didn't tune it properly..! Mike
There was a guy at work that used to try some of the above devices. Other co workers would go out in the parking lot and add fuel to his gas tank with out him knowing. They would then let him brag about the great fuel mileage he was getting.
If there's anything besides EPA requirements that is ever invented, discovered, or produced that actually reduces fuel consumption or increases mileage ,,, the oil companies want it. There's been quite a few products that actually caught the attention of the oil companies.
QUOTE="Montana1, post: 13004863, member: 259066"]Hey Jim, Don Garlits has one in his museum! Ask him about it next time you see him. View attachment 4228016 [/QUOTE] I wonder how Garlits got that. The last I heard "Big Oil" bought it up and killed it.
For the record California makes money off a gallon of gas then "big oil" $.417 vs $.37 https://www.energy.ca.gov/almanac/transportation_data/gasoline/margins/index.php
Mike - tuning a bottle and a hose is rather difficult And yes, water injection or alcohol injection CAN work, but not at a cost (then) of $2.39! Jon.
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