freeze your car?
 

i found this interesting story on a tv news website:

There is a man who fills up his tank once every two months. One tank of gas, literally, lasts him two months. He is freezing the price of gas by freezing something else.

People complain about the price of gas and we are all spending dearly to stay on the road these days. The money we spend on gas seems to burn up faster than the fuel.

While there may be little rhyme or reason to why the prices are on a perpetual roller-coaster, there is one man who has found a way to freeze them in their tracks, literally.

David Hutchison is a Cryogenics expert. He built this Cryo-Process himself. He runs a business out of his garage where he cryogenically tempers all kinds of metals. He submerges them in a frozen tank of nitrogen vapor that is 300 degrees below zero.

David says, “During that time, at minus 300 degrees, the molecules slow down. Then they reorganize themselves. That's when the actual chemical change happens.”

Hutchison cryogenically tempers machine parts, tools, golf clubs and even razors. He says it makes them last three to five times longer.

A few years ago he began an experiment on his hybrid Honda, freezing the engine components. The results were a fuel-efficiency dream.

David Hutchison says, “You should expect a “Cryo'd” engine to last anywhere from 600,000 to 1 million miles without wearing out.”

A hybrid Honda typically gets really great gas mileage anyway, around 50 miles to the gallon, but David Hutchison's cryogenically tempered engine has been known to get close to 120 miles a gallon.

“It's just a very efficient vehicle.” Hutchison says,

Racers have picked up on David's trick of cryogenically freezing car parts. It is now widely accepted among NASCAR and Indy-car racers.

Hutchison has no plans of taking his Honda to the track. His prize is in his pocketbook.

David says, “I thought about selling it, but gas prices keep going up. So, I thought, I'm not going to sell it.”

Hutchison tells us cryogenically tempering car parts has more benefits than just fuel efficiency. He freezes all of the brake rotors at a car dealership near his home in Missouri. It makes them last three to five times longer.

here's the link, though i am not sure how long it stays up on the site.


http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?s=3390503

Re: freeze your car?
 

That was a really cool link (I had to copy and paste the text for it to work).

Maybe this copy of it will work better:

http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?s=3390503

Re: freeze your car?
 

If I cryo-froze my Insight for longer life, I think I'd name the car Ted Williams. :P


I'd like to see articles of NASCAR racers doing this too.

Re: freeze your car?
 

I've contacted him directly in the past to find out more and never gotten a response back. The website/business actually has been doing the Cryo process for things like razor blades for shaving.

Re: freeze your car?
 

OK, I read the article (saw it months ago somewhere else).

Now I'm trying to understand how cryo treatment of the engine parts (pistons, rods, crank?) would improve gas mileage. The metal is rearranged at the molecular level and this does what?
I have heard of cyro'd motorcycle clutch plates before. I can see how a brake rotor's lifespan could be increased, but I can't wrap my mind around any gains in fuel efficiency.

Somebody help me.

P.S. - What was his gas mileage before he tore his little three-banger apart and froze all the internals? How much of a gain did he get? Lotsa unknowns.

Regards,

Re: freeze your car?
 

I can see lifespan increasing for cetain components but not all. As for getting better gas mileage, that's total bs. Think about it, all a car manufacture has to do is dip certain parts in a cryo vat to increase mpg... yeah right.

Re: freeze your car?
 

I didn't see mention of the cost. So how much would it be to remove, dip, and re-install your engine? Let alone the cost of an auto plant doing that kind of procedure. Rest assured, in a Capitolist economy if something like that were profitable, we'd have cryo-frozed everything. I'm guessing it's big bucks to do something like an engine...

Re: freeze your car?
 

Racers of all disciplines have been using cryotreated brake rotors and sometimes transmission gears too. They're supposed to be a little more resistant to cracking after cryo-treatment, that's all. I've never seen anyone claim (or more importantly, be able to prove) that it improves efficiency of anything.

Re: freeze your car?
 

Pricing: http://www.diversifiedcryogenics.com...rtspricing.htm

Looks like $500 for a one-off full engine cryo-treatment. Not really cost effective, but not totally cost prohibitive either. Looking through the site, it is mainly aimed at just improving wear for items like brake rotors, transmission gears, gun barrels, and things of that sort. I still see no claims of improvements in fuel efficiency from a company that's actually doing cryo treatment.

Re: freeze your car?
 

I have done some research into deep freezing. It is hard to describe without being able to draw you a picture, but imagine a product that has gotten some use -- such as a trumpet or a razor. Its molecules are still all attached together,but they are all over the place and disorganized. When you deep freeze something, the molecules shrink down really far together so that they are all packed very tightly. When you then thaw the item, the molecules expand back out, but they expand uniformly. Every molecule ends up the same distance away as all the ones around it. The item is structurally perfect and is much more effecient. Trumpets hit the perfect notes, razors stay sharp for a very long time. I'm not surprised to hear an engine runs much better, but I am skeptical of the 120 mpg number. I would certinaly pay $500 to go up to 120 mpg. Didn't we just pay $2,000 to go to 40 or 50 mpg!?