Do AirDog® Fuel Systems Add Horsepower?
When it comes to enhancing the performance of your diesel engine, few components offer as many benefits as AirDog® Fuel Systems. Not only do they improve fuel efficiency and acceleration, but they also reduce engine wear and tear and exhaust emissions. Still, the question remains: Can AirDog® Fuel Systems do all that and add horsepower? Thankfully, for heavy-duty truck owners, the answer is an unqualified “Yes.” Follow along below, and let us explain how that happens.
The Problem with Entrained Air in Diesel Fuel
As a truck rolls down the road, hitting bumps and making turns, the diesel fuel in the tank sloshes around, mixing air bubbles into the fuel. Contrary to popular belief, those air bubbles do not float up and out of the fuel quickly enough to prevent them from entering the fuel line and onto the engine. Besides air, moisture also enters the fuel due to improperly sealed storage tanks or through condensation in the fuel tank as the outside air warms and cools. Both situations present problems because diesel engines do not burn fuel with entrained air as efficiently as pure diesel fuel, and the problem becomes worse when the fuel contains moisture.
Thinking about how the diesel fuel’s air and moisture cause problems, consider how the typical fuel filter functions. By design, most fuel filters perform one job: they trap solid contaminants in the fuel before they enter the engine. While trapping solids is critical, it is insufficient because standard fuel filters do not remove air and moisture, and performing those steps makes AirDog® systems different.
How AirDog® Fuel Systems Work
The AirDog® Fuel System’s first step is to send the fuel through a water separator that eliminates moisture and particulates down to 30 microns. Second, the fuel passes through the AirDog® fuel pump, and onto the fuel filter, which removes particulates down to 6 microns, and air from the fuel, sending the separated air and a small amount of fuel back to the fuel tank. The AirDog® integrated fuel pump sends the pure diesel fuel to the engine at a regulated positive pressure. The integrated pump also reduces the opportunity for air to enter the system by keeping vapors out and reducing vapor-causing cavitation.
AirDog® Fuel Systems significantly enhances throttle response and power delivery by supplying the engine with air-free fuel, better and consistent fuel pressure due to the integrated pump, and improved fuel spray patterns due to the lack of air in the fuel. By sending pure fuel at the correct pressure, the fuel gets sprayed properly, and the engine burns the optimal fuel-air mixture for the current engine setup, resulting in increased horsepower. This improvement is particularly noticeable when driving at higher elevations, where traditional fuel systems often struggle.
Additional Benefits of AirDog® Fuel Systems
Besides boosting engine horsepower, AirDog® Fuel Systems offers many other benefits, so let’s focus on five of the most important.
Enhanced Fuel Mileage: A notable advantage of AirDog®Fuel Systems is improved fuel efficiency. The system ensures optimal combustion by providing the engine with clean, air-free fuel, resulting in better mileage and fewer trips to the pump. Typically, trucks using AirDog® Fuel Systems are several tenths of a mile per gallon more efficient than comparable units with standard fuel filters. Those savings add up quickly, with many users recouping the cost of the AirDog® Fuel System within months of installation, depending, of course, on their miles driven and conditions.
Reduced Emissions: Optimizing fuel combustion with an AirDog® Fuel System also reduces emissions. Air and water or vapor in the fuel retards injection timing. As shown by a University of Illinois College of Engineering study, one-third of injections are retarded. The retardation triggers the chain of events resulting in partially burned fuel or unburned hydrocarbons, including carbon monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), and unburned total hydrocarbons (THC). Of course, the same advantages of AirDog® Fuel Systems that reduce emissions result in improved fuel efficiency when the fuel burns more completely, sending less money out of the exhaust. Increased fuel efficiency accompanied by environmental benefits is difficult to find and beat.
Optimized Performance: Air and water-free fuel promotes proper cooling and lubrication, improving engine performance. This translates into better throttle response, smoother acceleration, improved power delivery, and reduced wear and tear. Drivers experience a smoother ride and have less need to downshift as trucks hold their gears better. Not only does this benefit the bottom line directly, but it also makes for happier drivers, who are the lifeblood of the fleet.
Extended Injector Life: Another benefit of air and water separation is that injectors stay cooler and are better lubricated, promoting longevity. Without an AirDog® Fuel System, the presence of air and vapor in the injector delays the pressure buildup and injection, resulting in retarded injection timing. In addition, the air bubbles are not evenly distributed in the fuel, so the amount of entrained air entering the injector varies from injection to injection and also impacts the fuel spray pattern. In addition, higher amounts of air retards the injection timing, resulting in low torque or power output, increased fuel consumption, increased exhaust emissions, rough idle/wet cylinder, and poor throttle response. AirDog® Fuel Systems solves these problems by eliminating entrained air and water from the fuel.
Made in the U.S.A. with A Four-Year Warranty: To complete the package, AirDog® products are proudly manufactured in the U.S.A. and come with a four-year warranty, which is four times longer than the typical engine whose performance and life the AirDog® Fuel System enhances. That makes the AirDog® Fuel System the complete package.
Having described how AirDog® Fuel Systems work and how they differ from traditional fuel systems, it is clear they provide much more than additional horsepower. They transform how diesel engines operate, offering improved performance, fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and greater longevity for critical components. If you own or operate a heavy-duty truck, investing in an AirDog® Fuel System will be one of the best decisions you can make to enhance your vehicle’s performance and bottom line.
