At Home In Ephrata

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since I put anything on my Live Space. I have been busy getting MySpace pages setup for the TV show and for myself. I started attending one of the largest private art schools in the country in June. The Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I have always been interested in TV and film since I was a little boy, and since I have a bunch of free time I decided to go back to school.

I learned that I would need to buy a Mac computer in order to attend the university. As you can see from my last post I was very surprised and found the transition from PC to Mac not that difficult. The video editing software we are using is what many of the production houses  use. Even Mr. Coppola uses it. So it can’t be to bad. After installing Final Cut Pro HD on my iMAC, which took several hours and over 60gb of hard disk space, I found a treasure trove of tools, Video filters, professional audio editing software, Color correction software, Title Software, the list is just incredible. I now have the task of taking all 28 episodes of the TV show and color correcting and audio correcting them. This I will have to do on my spare time.

I started Classes in the Summer Semester so things were really crazy. Both classes I took were writing classes. I was maintaining a B average until I had an emergency room visit and took me longer to recover then expected. It’s heck getting old. Luckily I get to send in missing assignments in this week to make up the grade from summer.

The fall semester plans to be much more fun. Photo Story Boarding and 8mm. Yes, they still make 8mm film. I even have an 8mm camera, projector and editing station. By the way, Did you know the show “Monk” is filmed on 16mm film then transferred to digital HD? I didn’t either till i read it in text book for the Non Linear video editing class. Which is my second class for the semester by the way. The third class is one of the classes I had to drop from summer. Storytelling. The instructor is an actual writer that works in TV and film industry and has a TV movie coming out on Sept 12th on the Hallmark channel called “Citizen Jane” and it is based on a real life true crime story. My instructor wrote the book and the teleplay, stars in it include Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club), Sean Patrick Flannery (Young Indiana Jones), Nia Peeples and rock star Meat Loaf Aday. And this is one of my instructors?!?!?! If you are going to learn something, learn it from someone that ACTUALLY does the job, and is successful at it, not from someone that did the job and wasn’t successful. Most of the instructors at the university are part time and work in the TV and or film industry full time. So I should be able to get a good education from it.

Other things that are going on around here. My youngest daughter started kindergarten this year, my oldest is in high school now. Man time flies.My wife is hoping that I will be able to physically handle going to school. I tell her that we won’t know until I try. Other then the one minor incident in July I haven’t been feeling to bad. I am supposed to be going over the the University of Washington Research center  sometime in the next few months to run a bunch more genetic tests and such. They want to study me for a while since they haven’t had a case as severe as mine and have no real data to do research from. It’s fun being a guinea pig. They hope top prevent my body from shredding itself apart from the inside. All of the connective tissues holding things in place are decaying and they have no idea how to stop or treat it. I had to stop taking the pain medications so I could attend school. I couldn’t think or study while taking them. So I now only take them at bedtime.

My wife still works for Wal~Mart and is doing very well there. Once you have been with them for a while they take care of you real nicely. She is still working over night but she seems to like it. It also gives me plenty of time to work on computer and video stuff with out being disturbed. We hope to build our house within the next 5 yrs. I have most of the designs and modifications done. The architect hates it when I change things. And we may be able to start building in 4 to 5 yrs. It is going to be a very nice Log Home. Approximately 3,500 square feet for main house and a 1,500 sq foot guest house. The only problem we have is WHERE to build it. We were thinking of the south west area. We lived in New Mexico for 3 years and I liked it. Winters there are not very long and not as cold. So we have been looking in that general direction. I almost bought 10 acres in Arizona for dirt cheap and property even had a canyon with a stream running through it. only thing was NO UTILITIES, no electric , Telephone nothing. Electricity would be no problem Solar panels and wind generators, easy fix. The big problem would have been, NO EASY ACCESS to internet. Now that I just can’t go without. SAT internet is ok but still to slow for the file sizes I upload. 350 to 500 mb files can take a long time at 1mb upload.

I will probably post some more videos on Veoh.com or MySpace soon so check those out if you can. Just look for Hedgy0 at both Veoh and MySpace, you should be able to videos from that.

First let me say when Protium Fuel Systems says everything needed, They meant it.

Well, for those of you that are interested in how we got the Hydrogen system to fit under the hood of the 2007 Trailblazer, We actually didn't. We mounted most of it in the bumper. Yes, the bumper. We pulled the plastic cover off of the bumper to get easier access to the areas we planned on mounting the water tank

and RCR Unit

We also mounted the pump near the RCR unit.

The Amp gauge we mounted under dash

with velcro and also used wire wrap to make it look more professional.

We also mounted the Fuel Optimizer

and then discovered we couldn't use it with Modulated Frequency sensors. Oh well. It all looks very professionally done. I thank Vern and his soldering iron for getting all the electrical connections done right and looking spiffy.

First off I must give you a few warnings. DO NOT use baking soda in a hydrogen system of any kind. Gasoline and diesel have chemicals in them to alert you of a poisonous gas called carbon monoxide. Using baking soda in a Hydrogen on demand system will also produce this gas, except it won't burn your throat, or irritate your eyes. You will just get sleepy and shortly there after be deceased. A system that says to use baking soda in the water should be avoided. The other thing to watch for is if it says to use glass jars for the electrolysis chamber. Personally to me having glass jars under the hood just don't sit right with me. They may work, but just look like something you would be embarrassed to show anyone. "Hey looky here Billy Joe I got me a six pack of mason jars under the hood." the glass jar systems also seem to only give you maybe 5 mpg more then not having it. The protium system is much more efficient and looks very impressive and professional. I doubled my mileage in town on the first day of running the Protium System.

Ok, now on to installing the Protium kit. One thing you will need to know is whether your car or truck uses modulated frequencies on the MAF or MAP sensor. Call your local mechanic to find out if your vehicle does. That's what I did and got lucky to find someone who actually knew what I was talking about. If your vehicle does use modulated frequency sensors then you will not be able to use the protium fuel optimizer and should order the kit for the carbureted engines. I was told that basically that is the major difference between them is one uses the fuel optimizer.

Once you have decided on what system you will need, then it is time to look under the hood for a good location for the water tank, the accumulator tank and the RCR unit. (the RCR unit is where all the action happens). Now on my 2007 Trailblazer there is almost NO ROOM under the hood to add anything. The accumulator MUST BE INSTALLED VERTICALLY!!! The RCR unit can be mounted either way. After several hours of trying to find a place and test fit the accumulator under the hood we found a spot behind the driver side headlight just before the battery. Just enough room to mount it, after slightly moving the car horns out of the way. We drilled a hole into the body and one into the frame at the top front part by the head light. These were the locations of the mounting bolts to hold the accumulator in place.

Now that we have the spot for the accumulator that is about 8 inches long, it was time to find a spot for the RCR unit that was 12 inches long. It took us most of the day and a bunch of four letter words to even think of a place to put it. I was under the car looking toward the front of it and noticed a section right behind the bumper that had a small strut that held the ground effects on the front on. It was big enough to hold the RCR and close to the accumulator. In fact it was almost directly beneath it. Excellent!!!! Now the hard part. Trying to get it mounted. OK, I found a sturdy metal beam I can drill a mounting hole into and use the strut bar bolt for other end. Kool!! or so I thought. The one thing I didn't count on was not being able to get to the upper bolt to mount it to the strut bar. OH man what now? Ok how do we get the plastic cover off the bumper, nice only a few bolts and plastic pins holding it on.

Now I have the plastic bumper off my brand new trailblazer and am drilling a hole into a metal beam on the front. While trying to remove the strut bar bolt which had a nut welded onto the frame, the bolt broke!!!! Oh Geez, we got like 4 days till we pack the truck up and move and one thing after another happens. OK, so I drill out the bolt and rethread the hole. Oops, Wrong thread for the replacement bolt. To bad your going in anyway. So I got a self tapper in and there it will stay.

Bolt One of the RCR mounting bracket was now in place. I took the RCR unit and test fitted it on the mounting bracket, great it will work. Now I look at the frame where I drilled the hole for the other mounting bracket. Yikes, its almost 1/4 inch off. So I loosen the mounting bracket and bent it a bit to conform to the holes location. Perfect, or as close as it is gonna get. I got the bolts snugged up nicely and look proudly at my work. OK now the next part, running the hoses to the right places.

There was one hole already in the body panel that will work nicely for the hose that goes from the accumulator back to the electric fuel pump and back to the RCR unit. And I can run the hose from the upper port of the RCR unit to the accumulator, just outside the body panel and up where some wires and another hose go. Follow the hose diagrams on the Protium site for proper hose connection. You should print the diagram out for best results. There is also a diagram online for the wiring without a fuel optimizer. If you follow the very well labeled wires and where they say to go you should have no problems hooking them up.

The tubing that came with the system was just barely enough to go from the accumulator to air intake and from accumulator to pump. I purchased some more tubing to complete the installation. This was like the 5th trip to auto parts store for parts we needed for one reason or another. The guys at the auto store were getting real curious as to what we were doing to my trailblazer.

We get the tubing all run and the wiring and we start the engine for the first time using hydrogen. And wouldn't you know it the Check Engine Light came on. I was prepared for this and shut the engine down and installed the oxyisolator that was supplied with my system. This solved the Check Engine Light immediately. Off we go to start our in town test. Which proved to be very surprising. We went from 13 mpg in town to 25 mpg in town. And as of this writing we are still increasing out mileage to 29.7 mpg in town. The single RCR unit is plenty of hydrogen for in town but at highway speeds it doesn't seem to be enough for a 6 cylinder. I will be ordering a second RCR unit and wiring kit to run two of them on one system.

The fuel pump that is supplied with the system seems to be the weak link. We had to replace it 6 times in less then two weeks. We have been driving several hundred miles a day. I finally got a different type of pump and it seems to be working for now. The main problem seems to be the fuel filter on it. As the system breaks in it generates some rust that plugs up the filter and dries out the pump making it fail. After the second pump I removed the filter, It seemed to run longer but as soon as the system hit 30 amps the pump failed again. I think the pump failed due to rust buildup in the water.

I went to another auto parts store and purchased a different type of pump, the previous one was a typical rotary style pump, this new one is similar to an air pump on a fish tank. It seems to be working for more then a few days. Which is as long as the other type lasted. So far so good. But we haven't put as many miles on it as we have the others. Although I did have to flush the water because the amps were at 30 again. And it's still working. I need to call Protium to discuss my findings.

The one auto parts store didn't have what I needed so I went to another one that had a manager that was building the glass jar ones with baking soda. I informed him of the dangers of using baking soda, and showed him the one I had installed. He promptly asked me for the web address and called his friend that he had building the glass jar units. Needless to say he was planning on ordering several of the Protium systems.

How many times have we seen statements like this? Well, I have been looking online for several months. I finally found a company that not only had a high quality system but also thought of safety. The system has a cut-off in case of an accident or engine stall. This was a very big plus in my eyes.

Although the system cost over $900 dollars, the equipment you receive is of very high quality. And the technical support is great. I ordered my kit back in July, and received it just a few days before our big move (they are on a 6 week back order)across country from New Mexico to Washington State. This left us with little time to test it before taking it on the road. Luckily for me Vern had arrived from Washington state to help us move back.

With a little hard work and a lot of reconfiguring we got the kit installed. Total time was 3 days. The kit is supposed to be able to be installed in 2 hours. The reason for it taking so long was finding locations for the three main parts. The accumulator has to be mounted vertically, the RCR unit can be mounted in either direction. We found a small area behind the drivers side headlight that would hold the Accumulator, and mounted the main water tank to the back side of the bumper on the passenger side and the RCR unit mounted on the back side of the bumper on the drivers side. Vern came up with a great remote filler station so we wouldn't have to take the bumper cover off each time to fill it.

After getting all three of the larger parts mounted we started on the wiring. There are extremely well labeled wires letting you know where they got connected. The relay and circuit breaker mounted to the fender well on the driver side with ease. the amp gauge mounted easily on the dash with the Velcro that was provided. The fuel optimizer however was a little difficult, Not in installing it or wiring it, but in its use. It seems that the optimizer does NOT WORK with MODULATED FREQUENCY MAF sensors. If your are not sure if yours use a modulated frequency then call up you local dealer and ask. Hopefully you will be as lucky as I was in finding a person that actually understood the question i was asking. So, after finding out the optimizer won't work for my 2007 Trailblazer we removed it.

So now the system is installed, wiring all taped up or put into wire harnesses, it was time to test the in town mileage improvement. The trailblazer usually gets about 13 to 14 miles per gallon, the main reason we were looking for a fuel supplement system. We filled up the tank at our local Sams Club. After driving around town for 2 hrs and going up hills at 20 miles an hour, by the way the trailblazer actually performed much better then it did going up the same hills without the hydrogen hybrid system. After 60 miles we went back to the gas station and filled back up. To our surprise the trailblazer only took 2.5 gals of fuel. That was a 10 mile per gallon increase. And this was after the FIRST test. After talking with Protium Fuel Systems about it they said that it will improve over the first 180 hours of operation. That is basically the systems break in period.

Now during this first 180 hours of operation you will have to rinse the system out to flush out the rusty muddy colored water. Since we didn't get a chance to test the system on highway before hand we had to hope for the best on the road. The only real problem we had was the electric fuel pump that comes with the system has a fuel filter on it. The only thing we can figure is the filter would plug up and deprive the pump of water and burn up. We decided this after the second pump we purchased at Auto Zone did the same thing. So I decided to skip the fuel filter on the third pump. So far its working great after 3 days (others only lasted a day) of use and the amount of rust colored water is far less.

On the trip to Washington we had to replace the pump several times. But at one point we could not find a auto parts store within hours of driving from our location and had to run the system with out it. Lucky for me Verns ingenious remote water fill station was gravity feeding into the RCR unit. So the hydrogen built up a bit in the RCR unit but then would move up to the accumulator and into the engine. Since the Hydrogen was basically free flowing up into the intake of the engine we were unable to get an accurate reading on mileage improvement, Until now that is. At 148.7 miles of highway and city combined driving we can give an actual number for average miles per gallon. 148.7 miles used a total of 5 gallons of fuel. for those without a calculator that comes to 29.74 miles per gallon average. A heck of an improvement from the 13 city and 22 highway we were getting with a combined average of 17 miles per gallon. Now the system still is not broke in yet and we are still getting better mileage each day. I am NOT saying that you will get this great of an increase. I am saying you WILL get an increase, of how much depends on how you drive and how bad of shape your engine is in.

In my opinion, Protium Fuel Systems lives up to its word. The parts are of high quality and the tech staff volunteer there time to help you get the system installed and running correctly. There system really works. And it works on both Gasoline AND Diesel Fuel. I highly recommend getting one of these systems for your vehicle. If you don't have room for it under the hood, try looking at behind the bumper or between the front grill and radiator.  You will want the accumulator as close to the air intake as possible but keep it away from the exhaust manifold. Since we have a straight six cylinder we mounted the accumulator on the opposite side of the exhaust manifold.

As the mileage improves or goes down I will let you all know. I know it seems to good to be true but the conversion of water to hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis has been around since 1806. Yes, that's right almost 70 years before cars started using gasoline for fuel. I have yet to have the emissions tested but I will be doing that in a week or so to let you know how it goes.

Until then, Check out Protium Fuel Systems at the following web site. www.protiumfuelsystems.com