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Thank you for purchasing our HydroCommander. You will find this device is simple and reliable and can aid you in your fuel economy goals and hydrogen tinkering.

It is assumed that you have some basic mechanical/ technical skills. If not then please get a mechanic to help you install this device. The instructions included are basic general guidelines. Your particular vehicle many vary.

Please tune carefully as you are fully responsible for the use of this device.

Feel free to let me know how well your mileage goals are coming along! You can email your experiences to mpg(a)hydrohybrids.net

Enjoy the extra miles per gallon!

~Jason

HydroHybrids.Net

 

Installation Instructions

Your Mini Map enhancer explained

1)      Knob = MAP/MAF enhancer. Fully counter-clockwise will be full rich or factory setting. Turning the knob right will lean out the car.

2)      With the wires face the knob should be pointing straight down.


Knob colors may vary depending on supply. If you want a particular color then radio shack has a nice selection.

 

The Wires:

Black = Negative wire. This should be run to any solid chassis ground where convenient.

 

Clear Speaker Wires Are the MAP/MAF signal wires

Clear/copper = Connect to the MAP/MAF side of the signal wire at the cut

Clear/ silver or Clear/ copper with WHITE STRIPE = Connect this wire to the ECU side of the cut on your MAP/MAF signal wire.

>>IF BOTH of the speaker wires are copper then the one with the WHITE STRIPE goes to the ECU!

Test probe ports on device wires = Black is ground and red is o2 signal wire voltage. This makes tuning your o2 enhancer a breeze!

MAF/MAP SENSOR ENHANCER 

If you have a hard time locating the wires DO NOT DO ANYTHING! Stop right there and leave this job to a mechanic. Guesswork won't serve you right this time. One wrong connection may burn the computer and you'll be wasting hundreds of dollars on repairs. This is a very simple connection but must be done with confidence.

ATTENTION: The tuning procedure calls for clockwise and counter-clockwise rotation of the knob. You will be full rich in the counter clockwise end and full lean in the clockwise. The idea is that turning clockwise will “enhance” the more you turn.

 

Now locate the 3 wires connected to the MAP or MAF sensor. These will be located coming off of a sensor either near the throttle body or near your air filter. There will be one for the positive supply voltage, usually 5 or 12 volts but it does not matter. The signal will be the one with the WEAKER voltage, and will change with RPM if you start the engine and rev it up. And there will be a ground wire.

You want to CUT the signal wire so we can tap into it and alter it. You can solder or crimp electrical wire connectors, so you can always hook it back to factory setup. But I doubt if you'll ever want to go back!

You will want to connect a wire from the clear/copper wire of the HydroCommander to the MAP/MAF side of this cut. This will carry the original signal to our commander. Next you want to connect the clear/silver with to the ECU side of the cut. This will carry our modified signal on out to the cars computer.

If you cannot locate the sensor or the wires, or you're not sure, you'd better get the car's manual. DO NOT IMPROVISE OR GUESS – you may damage your computer. You can always walk into AutoZone and purchase the maintenance manual (Haynes) specific to the fuel injection system of your test car.

 

You can simply use a common multimeter to probe the wires in this group of three wires to identify the sensor wire as described above.


Now for actual tuning on the road.

  1. Turn the knob all the way to “rich” (it should be fully counter clockwise). This will be factory original.
  2. Make sure your hydrogen device is operational. Warm up the engine and drive a while before messing with the knob.
  3. DO THE NEXT STEP WITH CARE – ON A SIDE ROAD - JUST IN CASE YOUR ENGINE STOPS UNEXPECTEDLY.
  4. Now start turning the knob clockwise, the mixture will turn leaner and leaner until the car stalls or bucks as you drive. Back the knob off slightly after the bucking and chugging.
  5. Keep the danger of overheating in mind. If your hydrogen device is non operational temporarily, set the enhancer at or near original factory setting (rich).
  6. Another thing I've noticed is that set points change from one gas station fuel to another, weather conditions, cold engine, etc. The differences are not large, but if you're on the edge then the car will buck or vibrate and you'll need to change the set point a bit. Remember that this is a simple device. There is no point in computerizing it, it will require a whole new programmable ECU which is a very costly thing for most drivers and countries.
  7. NOTE: When this device turns on the "check engine light", and it WILL do that, you can turn off the light using a ScanGauge-II (1996 cars or newer).

HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR BENEFITS


One recent set of road tests (6-16-07) averaged 52.4% better mileage. But tests from a week earlier on the same car averaged only 24.5%. Actually 22% if you count out idling. WHY such great difference?

The secret of the BIG DIFFERENCE between the two test groups: The later and more successful one got MORE THAN DOUBLE average gain, was because the MPG was not dialed to near choke point. It was about ¼ turn closer to factory setting! On the earlier tests I was choking the engine half to death. It reminds me of the greedy guy slaying the gold laying hen to get all the gold right now...

MY CONCLUSIONS

Don’t overwork the engine by leaning it too much – play around until you find the PERFECT BALANCE point. Leave it where at its best position.

Now there’s a bit of a problem because the “best position” will vary by driving area and environmental conditions. I have found that there could be two or even three points that you want to be set at:

  1. Absolute maximum gas savings for highways.
  2. A bit less than that for city driving, because you’ll need extra power to start off after each stop.
  3. Possibly you may want to switch back and forth between full rich and full lean (maximum lean that doesn't kill the engine and doesn't cause bucking or vibration) mixture, so you can compare the effect of the enhancer. That’s what I used to get easy readouts in my tests.

THIS IS MY OWN CONCLUSION. I am willing to be proven wrong, but so far the results indicate that this principle can work in your favor. One last note, I studied other solutions and methods. I believe they are of some benefit, but they are mostly VERY complicated, far beyond the scope of our philosophy of keep-it-simple (and affordable) .