Putting the Z5 to the Power and Emissions Test

July 14, 2009 - 7:27 AM by Karin Kloosterman

z5-happy-customer

Since writing my first article on the Israeli-invented Z5, a small add on to your car’s air filter to save gas, there has been no shortage of skepticism and critics. I’d blogged about it on TreeHugger and the article was pulled due to all the negative feedback by readers who hadn’t tried it.

The public knows they are no fools: any mention of a “device” that sounds like a Cyclone Fuel Saver, FuelMAX or Water4Gas elicits a knee jerk response. How could a small cylinder added to your car’s air filter save gas, decrease pollution or give your car more power?

People want to believe that they can save up to 30% gas, and spare the environment from emissions, but does it work?

To test the company’s claims that the $208 mail-order Z5 can help the environmental cause, Green Prophet took Gal Luft from Set America Free to a garage in Israel to emissions test and power test cars before and after the Z5 installation.

Here’s what we found:

z5-luft-hand z5 test emissions photo
(An up close of the Z5)

I know Luft likes to call things as they are, and that he’d be a good person to talk this over with. Eli Mor from Z5 picked us up at the train station and we headed to the “Test Be Sharon” garage in Petach Tikva (phone number 09 767 5555). There we met with Moshe Badash, the co-inventor of the Z5, mechanics who have the Z5 installed in their cars, and also people who we picked up off the street to have the device fitted in their car.

The term “device” sounds kind of an exaggeration in the case of the Z5 because it looks relatively simple. It’s about 6-7 cm in width, about 8 cm across, with walls about 2 mm thick.

A pie pattern, seen in one of the pictures above, is not for changing air flow patterns, but for improving the contact of air molecules with the alloy it’s made from. I was kind of shocked when one of the mechanics started cutting one apart – removing one slice of the pie – to fit it into a 2008 VW Touareg, but Badash says the effect of the Z5 on the engine performance has nothing to do with air flow: “It’s not changing or restricting the air flow. It’s changing the molecules of the air for microseconds,” he says.

(Emissions before, see K value 0.5 on right side)

(Emissions after, see K value 0.1 reduced on right hand side)

If you like the background on the story, read my piece on ISRAEL21c here. Or Ehud’s story in the Jerusalem Post.

Emissions

According to the emissions test on the Touareg (diesel), emissions decreased by 80% after installing the Z5. See the papers above. Emissions are measured by the k value. We looked at 3 other cars, a 2001 Renault Kangoo (diesel), a 2004 Tourneo Connect (diesel) and an unleaded gasoline car, which I am going to have Luft sum up after the fuel savings test later this month.

He has the test results on paper, and I have them on video which will take me some time to edit. Luft says not going to make any conclusions about the Z5 until after the final test, but he seemed very positive about what we saw.

(Fitting the Z5 into a Touareg as Luft (left) and Badash (right) talk about how it works.)

Power

For the power test, we looked at a 2000 VW Bora 1.6 which at first registered a 88.3 Hp, and after the ZP installation it went up to 116 Hp.
A 2002 Honda Civic VTech 1.6 before the Z5 clocked in at 91 Hp, and after the Z5 111 Hp. A 20% increase in power.

Miraculously, or maybe not, the cars had returned to the same performance as though they were just driven off the lot. I saw the tests with my own eyes. Could there be room for error? Possibly, but only if the mechanics at the garage are in collusion with the company to “fix” the results on the computer, something I highly doubt.

(The Z5 fits into your air filter).

What I sum up from going to the garage to see the Z5 installation:

The Z5 reduces emissions. One car after being fitted with it was able to pass the emissions test. Without it, it would need to get its filters cleaned. I’d need a bigger sample size to give you a percentage of emissions saving but it looked quite radical, up to 80% per car.

The Z5 can provide more power. According to the 2 tests we saw at “Test Be Sharon” it does. About 20%. Again, we’d need a much larger sample size to draw any conclusions.

Gas savings. Herzl Biton, a mechanic at the garage says he has a Z5 fitted on his Hyundai and instead of 18.8 liters per 100 km, he now gets 16.5 liters per 100 km. Gal Luft says he intends to go out in the field later this month to test for fuel savings. He’ll be giving his sum up on the Z5 at that point.

Would I buy a Z5? Yes. If I had a car I would. With personal contacts to the company, I know that if it doesn’t work or you’re not satisfied, they will return your money. I received a complaint from a Canadian buyer who’d read my story about the Z5 in a Canadian paper. Turns out it wasn’t fitted properly and now she’s a happy customer.

It could be a great add on if you own a fleet of cars; talk with Eli Mor he might be able to make you a promotional deal.

One bit of advice: If I bought a Z5 I wouldn’t try and install it myself. Even though the company says it’s not difficult to fit, cars today come in all ranges of sizes, with air filters in hard to reach places. (Not to mention that I thought the engine was the air filter). I’d suggest taking it to a garage, and have it done there. If you don’t notice an emissions reduction, gas savings, or more power, ask for your money back. With a 30 day money back guarantee I don’t see what you have to lose.

As for gas savings, I’m also planning to follow up with Gerry Schlissel (an American-Israeli in the top picture smiling) to see if he’s noticed any long-term performance results with the Z5 on his Kangoo. I called today and he wasn’t in. *And stay tuned for more after Luft goes on the gas savings test.*

The Z5 looks to me like a transformative technology, and I look forward to being able to provide more information on it as it comes in. Of course you can always check out sites and gas-saving tips like on TreeHugger in the meantime, who offer 66 tips for saving gas.

::Z5 website

Share with others