Saving money from thin air
Pablo Planas’ Khaos Super Turbo Charger
By Rome Jorge
It is nothing high-tech. At 4 inches in length, 3 inches in height and 9 kilos in weight, the Khaos Super Turbo Charger (KSTC) is little more than a palm-sized assembly of chrome-plated tubes, anodized aluminum caps, stainless steel bolts and a cut-out scrubbing pad for a filter. It is so simple it could be constructed in many of our local machine shops, and it is. Its inventor Pablo Planas did not finish college. But his invention is nothing to sneeze at. It contains no turbine and is certainly not chaotic.
Planas named his invention after the Greek goddess of air, the Khaos Super Turbo Charger. Everybody wants it.
Energy Secretary Vincent Perez endorses its use. Makati Land Transportation Office chief Luciano Caparas swears by it. President Arroyo recognizes its inventor with the Presidential Award Medal for Outstanding Invention. Representative Generoso Tulagan of San Carlos Pangasinan insists on its installation on all his staff vehicles. San Jose Builders Inc.’s Gerry Acuzar finances KSTC’s distributor, Inventionhaus International; he is a satisfied customer himself.
They believe KSTC saves them fuel. And new customers keep on coming.
Since November 2003, 3,500 units have been sold. Inquiring motorists walk in Inventionhaus International’s grimy and chaotic office at the Timog Avenue’s President Tower every few minutes. Newsmen from television and print add to the crowd. The second floor parking space just outside the office is filled with cars, its owners availing themselves of the free installation.
It is worth P6,500. Customers like Caparas attest it is worth every cent. “My 2002 Toyota Revo 1.8 liter gasoline engine consumed one liter of fuel to every 7 kilometers. After installation my engine went further at 10 kilometers per liter.” He adds, “The performance is better than ever. It is more powerful and smoother on climbs.”
How it works
KSTC, despite its name, is not a turbocharger. It does not force-feed fuel and oxygen into the engine like a real turbocharger would. It simply allows in more air, not fuel, through a calibrated and filtered hole on the intake manifold, after the carburetor has already mixed fuel and air into fine mixture. Most engines have a plug in the manifold intake where a tube from the KSTC can allow more air to get sucked in and no drilling is required. KSTC works only for gasoline engines.
Gasoline engines are most efficient with a fuel to air ratio of 15 is to one. The mixture is determined by the carburetor that opens a butterfly valve to let air in every time one steps on the gas pedal. The rushing air sucks along with it a fine spray of gasoline. The further one steps on the gas the wider the valve opens and the faster air sucks in more gasoline.
The problem, according to Planas, is when the engine is idle—when one does not step on the gas pedal at all and the butterfly valve is totally closed. Only a trickle of fuel and air is supplied to the engine to keep it from dying through an alternate fuel-air route called the idle circuit. Planas notes, “The gasoline-to-air ratio when an engine is idle is not 15 to one. The mixture is too rich, too much fuel is wasted.” Incorrect fuel air mixture produces unburnt fuel and increased carbon monoxide emissions, contributing to pollution.
Planas highlights that “the very definition of ‘idle’ is useless.” KSTC seeks to remedy the inefficiency by supplying more air to the engine.
However, many of today’s high-end cars use, instead of carburetors, electronic fuel injection systems that automatically calibrate the fuel-air ratio, whether at idle or at acceleration, to its most optimum ratio. A computer constantly corrects the fuel air mixture based on exhaust sensors. Performance cars often use forced induction systems such as superchargers, turbochargers, nitrous systems that force-feed an engine air and fuel.
KSTC has knobs with which to calibrate the air it supplies. It comes with its own air filter, evidently made from the same materials as scrubbing pads. According to Planas, it needs to be maintained every three months by cleaning the unit with soap and water. KSTC has a lifetime guarantee.
Proof is in the numbers
Taiwan’s Automotive Research and Testing Center verifies and quantifies KSTC’s impact on fuel efficiency. Tested on a Mitsubishi Freeca (Adventure) with an original carbon monoxide emission of 1.0 percent, the device was found to lower emissions to 0.1 percent. The Mitsubishi Freeca tested used a gasoline engine with a fuel injection system. Test results state the engine did not have any catalytic converter. It did not specify any electronic fuel management system.
Month-long tests by Ford Makati have thus far finds no harm in its use. According to Mike Luyon of its parts and services division, “our findings have so far indicated the device does no damage to the engine.”
As for fuel efficiency, “Ford engines, like most high end vehicles today, utilize computerized fuel injection systems that automatically calibrate the fuel-air ratio.” However, he notes, “There is a lag time before the electronic system kick-in. KSTC can make up for that.”
He states that “installation of the device will not violate the warranty of a Ford engine as long as it is not found to be the cause of the damage.” And clarifies that it does not throw-off the calibration of electronic forded induction devices “because their sensors are located at the exhaust.” The computer compensates for the fuel-air mixture changes brought about by the KSTC as well.
His tests are still on-going and are not conclusive.
Fuel crisis then, fuel crisis now
The KSTC is nothing new; it was invented by Planas in 1973 and was formerly named “Gas Reducer.” Planas admits, “It was a hard sell then because of its claims of being the world’s number one fuel-saving device.”
Just as the current petrol prices now prompt such avid media attention, the oil crisis three decades ago inspired Planas to investigate the cause of engine inefficiency and pollution that it produces.
In 1974, President Marcos endorsed the testing of the product to different government agencies including the military. In 1976 his device won first place among 44 gadgets in a technical test. In 1977 reports of National Pollution Control Commission found the device effective.
A simple man, a simple device
In person, Pablo Planas is articulate. Though this 67-year-old former jeepney operator and father of three daughters lacks college education, he finished several vocational courses, including one on automotive mechanics.
He is warm, affable and jovial in a sober manner. He lacks the slick hard-selling guile of salesmen. Instead, he is surrounded by business-savvy partners.
He has more than 25 dealers nationwide and is represented in as far away as Davao and Baguio. KSTC is manufactured by several machine shops to his specifications.
He states that several foreign firms have offered him generous sums for the rights to his device. He says he has so far refused them. Apart from endorsements, the government has yet to support further development of the product. Though Philippine patents have been acquired, foreign patents are still being processed.