An expert in vehicle ECU remapping and engine cleaning, Top Gear has the power to unlock the full potential of your fleet with its engine cleaning system Hydroflow
Social trust seems to be an attenuated luxury in modern Britain.
An abundance of miracle fuel saving products on the market doesn’t help. So many of them have led to disappointment one can hardly blame fleet operators for adopting a jaded attitude.
Top Gear Managing Director, Steve Kilcoyne, and mobile Sales and Support Technician Tony Drake are no strangers to sceptical glares as they explain the process of Hydroflow.
But when put to the test, their engine cleaning system always seems to generate smiles.
Top Gear and Hydroflow
Steve has been fitting and selling exhausts since the 1970s and founded Top Gear (not affiliated with the BBC programme) in 1984 as he moved into vehicle tuning and ECU remapping. Unlocking the full potential of an engine is his specialty.
With the advent of cleaner emissions technology, the logical step was for the company to become more involved with diesel particulate filters (DPFs) and catalytic converters. Now it sells and demonstrates decarbonising machines.
Top Gear is the sole distributor in the United Kingdom, Africa, USA, Thailand and the Phillippines for the European-designed engine decarbonising system Hydroflow.
The company has been performing engine cleaning for just over three years, and with the changing nature of engines and the recent Volkswagen emissions scandal, awareness to what it does has been growing.
How Hydroflow works
Sunk into a 45-litre water tank are two charged electrical plates separated by a rubber pad. Electricity is passed through the water, reverse-engineering the H2O to oxyhydrogen (HHO), or Brown’s Gas, named for Australian inventor Yull Brown.
The HHO is then pumped into the car’s air intake where it increases the flammability range. With a bigger burn, carbon deposits are stripped away throughout the engine and exhaust system, including the catalytic converter and DPF. Unlike most other engine decarbonising systems, no chemical additives are required to create the necessary electrolyte.
Coaches, buses and heavy commercial vehicles are particularly susceptible to carbon build-up in their engines, thanks to complicated fitment of emissions devices such as DPFs and EGR valves. Low average speeds, idling and a high number of stop-start cycles also contribute to increased risk of carbon buildup.
The more gas that is supplied, the more efficient the clean. When the hydrogen is combusted, it turns back into water. Out of the exhaust comes condensation, soot, and carbon.
The result
Director of RWT Commercial Services Bob Turnock was the first to test a Scania K series owned by National Express West Midlands. He is a household name and well trusted throughout the industry. He, too, listened to Steve and Tony with doubt, but having driven the vehicle before and after Hydroflow treatment, he was the first to espouse the remarkable change.
“I can’t believe it,” he says. “The engine is smoother and sweeter. The response is there. You definitely notice the difference.”
At time of writing the vehicle tested showed fuel economy improvements of up to 11%.
According to Steve and Tony, previous demonstrations have shown that vehicles can lose up to 1 horsepower per 1,000 miles driven owing to carbon build-up. That can be regained through Hydroflow engine cleaning. But the real benefit for fleet operators is in the fuel savings.
One of the company’s first heavy commercial vehicle contracts, Micheldever, underwent a two hour clean on one of two lorries which ran identical routes. Both vehicles had approximately 300,000 miles on the odometer. Two months following the engine cleaning, the company reported a fuel saving of £164 a week following the clean.
Top Gear’s newest Hydroflow machine, equipped with touch-screen user interface, is £12,000. While there are competitors on the market which are cheaper, Steve and Tony urge buyers to be cautious.
“There are other companies out there with similar systems,” Tony says. “One produces 1,800 litres but uses a chemical. Ours, at the same price, produces 2,300 litres with no chemical.”
The chemical he refers to is potassium, mixed into the water to generate the electrolyte. Top Gear’s system uses only readily available de-ionised water. “Potassium is harmful to aluminium,” explains Tony. “If you’re cleaning coaches which do heavy mileage three or four times a year, it could potentially corrode the cylinder head.”
Are there risks to Top Gear’s system? “If the engine cuts out, it would keep pumping hydrogen gas into the airbox,” Tony explains. “But a vibration sensor is on the engine that cuts off the supply if that happens. Otherwise, we would just switch the machine off, pull the pipe out, and give the air time to dissipate.”
Other benefits
“We won’t oversell, we just say what it does,” Steve adds. Just as with everyone else in the room, both Steve and Tony were sceptical of the technology before they took to selling it.
Some customers which wish to buy Hydroflow have to finance it. Top Gear acknowledges that £12,000 is a lot for them. But by selling cleaning services to customers, it is an investment that can pay off sooner than you may think. One buyer made its money back within a year, according to Tony.
“And it’s helping us all do our little bit for the planet,” he adds. “If we can sell a product and make the world less polluted at the same time, it can only be a good thing.”
