Anybody used one of these?

[Rata Road]

I picked 1.5 of these at a swap meet yesterday. It had a Model T sticker on it not that it means anything.
I guess they are a period accessory to improve economy/performance on any car at the time.
Has anybody tried one?

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[Moxie26]

That's a new one for me, but I'll take a guess. I would say the intake manifold has to be tapped and threaded in the central part of the Cross piece, this unit screws into that manifold and the what looks like a threaded cup attachment to this piece could be filled with something like marvel mystery oil or even just plain water just for the purpose of eating better combustion in the cylinders.

[Rata Road]

No, I think it goes in the fuel line. Sorry first pics didn't show the other pipe. It has a inlet and outlet.

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[Scott_Conger]

Kevin

I am going to suggest that one of the fittings is probably for a vacuum fitting and that it has a dashpot arrangement to vary the water going into a manifold. This era was rife with humidity/water injection devices. I have never seen any kind of device which delivered water or any other liquid into a fuel line...

carburetor - yes; manifold - yes; fuel line - no.

Since it says "Auto Vapor Humidifier" I think you can take their word that it humidifies vaporized fuel (not raw fuel) and thus mounts to an intake manifold via the NPT fitting.

It's a fun gizmo which has little practical use other than to probably double your gas mileage or some sort of other similar promise that these things typically came with. Too bad the one is broken.

Whether I'm right or wrong, I am hoping that Jay, Dan or someone has some period literature that will tell you (us) what it really does and how it does it.

[RVA23T]

I use one every time I fill up with E85 unleaded in spring, summer, fall & sometimes in winter here in the humid Mid-Atlantic and go for a drive, but on mine I have no control over the humidity level, and it is invisible .
I hate humidity.
Is there not a theory of using water mist to de-carbon cylinders?

[Erik Johnson]

That looks like the Vix Humidifier that was advertised in Popular Mechanics magazines in the 1920s and 30s. It drew water from the cooling system and injected it into the intake manifold.

https://books.google.com/books?id=4-EDA ... er&f=false

Click on this link to see variations:

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q ... =749&dpr=1

[Erik Johnson]

In response to Scott Conger's post about the era being rife with water injection devices:

I go to alot of estate sales in the Twin Cities.

About 25 years ago, I was at one where there were boxes in the basement with dozens of NOS water injection devices - the pot metal style that is installed between the carburetor and intake manifold (which is most common type I've seen at swap meets over the years).

I've seen water injection devices advertised in the back of old periodicals as as an easy way to make money (for example the Vix ad above) I can imagine as that was the situation with this particular stockpile of water injectors. Some poor fellow saw one of those get rich quick ads, bought a few cases of them but wasn't a successful salesman so they were relegated to the basement where they sat for the next 60 to 70 years.

[TXGOAT2]

You don't need a water injector or vapor injector with modern gasoline. Modern "gasoline" has much higher octane equivalency than a Model T would ever need, and carbon build up in the cylinders won't be an issue when using modern oil and modern gasoline.

Water injectors were used in the past to reduce carbon buildup and increase fuel octane equivalency when using poor grades of gasoline, or when using a mixture of gasoline and kerosene or straight kerosene. They do work, if properly designed, and if the operator knows how to use the device. A mixture of water and alcohol works better than water alone. Water injectors were used on some WWII aircraft to avoid detonation due to low octane fuel.

It's difficult to make a water injector that properly manages the rate of injection to match the immediate needs of the engine under all operating conditions. The amount of water injected needs to be metered precisely. A cold engine needs no water at all.The highest injection rate would need to occur at full operating temperature and full load/full throttle. The rate should be zero at light loads and at idle. Only pure water should be used.

Water injectors were used on a number of farm tractors and a few stationary engines that were designed to run on kerosene. In such applications, they were of significant benefit.

A Model T using a water injector would benefit from having a heat pipe or hot spot intake manifold or both. An unheated intake would make for difficulties under many operating conditions.