What is being installed here?
 

LINK

Came across this video, showing what looks like a water-based system designed to improve fuel economy (they're claiming a 25% decrease in fuel consumption for one of the 240Ds).

Per the company's website:

The ambient air is sucked into the bubbler to form humid air by passing through water. It goes through the Retrokit Nano Pro catalytic reactor, heated by contact by the exhaust gases. Once treated, this aerosol dopes the combustion being mixed with the intake air, via the diffusor placed between the air filter and the turbo (or intake in case of atmospheric engines).

http://www.hypnow.com/images/schema-retrokit-2012.jpg

Anyone here familiar with such systems? Seems like an odd concept.

Snake oil essentially. Nothing will increase mileage by 25%. To the extent it does anything it adds moisture to the intake which can reduce temps a bit and also promote cleaning the engine a bit.

Better solutions are water injection systems, some of which use a methanol mix to provide a bit more power. The technology here is sound having been used in high performance aircraft since WWII and extreme power diesels like tractor pulling machines and so forth.

Google water injection and you'll find lots of information and various systems including some nice DIY solutions.

I think there are some threads here on PP as well.

Actually... if the snake's oil was indeed an oil... if you added about 32oz / gallon of diesel... you could see up to a 25% decrease in the amount of diesel you use...

Anything short of that, it's just snake oil.

I only run 5W40 synthetic snake oil in my OM617 thank you very much.

Thanks for the insight... so, nothing harmful, but certainly nothing worth going through the trouble of installing.

Retrokit Nano Pro catalytic reactor

Lots of buzz words in that product name there too.

What you probably should install it a Turboencabulator. They're pretty much guaranteed to give you 25-45% boost in economy.

The only thing I've seen that is guaranteed to increase mileage by 25% is to place an ad on Craig'sList.

Just 25%!?!?

Well now if you were injecting MeOH then I could see a bit of water being good for egt but this is a good old fashioned hornswaggle. Sadly there is a sucker born every 15sec anymore and they keep these charlatans in business. I had a good laugh at the craigslist comment; too true.

Agree, sounds like someone is posting in the wrong section! 240D's should get at least 50 MPG when placed on craigslist

All true, but one thing I promise: nobody who spends money on junk like this ever reports anything less than total success. Even if they have to sit behind the wheel and make Vroom Vroom noises, they will find a way to derive satisfaction from the purchase.