OT: This Swift thing
Gene Heskett
gheskett at wdtv.com
Wed Jun 11 23:06:00 EDT 2014
On Wednesday 11 June 2014 22:11:53 Gregory Ewing did opine
And Gene did reply:
> Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> > Automotive cooling fluid in modern sealed radiators is typically a
> > mixture of 50% anti-freeze and 50% water.
>
> Sometimes it's even more than 50%, at which point
> you really have an antifreeze-cooled engine. :-)
There have been cases where that 50% may have been exceeded actually
driving on the streets.
At least 3 decades back, not too long before caddy came out with the
northstar engine, which was rigged to get you home at a reasonable speed
even if the radiator had been holed & the coolant lost. They used a wee
bit of the knowledge gained from keeping Smokey Yunick is experimenting
cash. He had an old VW Rabbit that was both a parts car, and the test
bed. Two cylinder motor, I suspect built on a Harley 78cid crankcase, no
radiator, no air cooling. Ceramic cylinders and pistons, it ran at a
quite high internal temperature because the cylinders were insulated from
losing heat by fiberglass blankets. It displaced 78 cid, made about 150
HP, and got well over 120 mpg running around in Daytona Beach. The one
magazine article said it hadn't lost a stoplight grand prix ever but
Smokey stopped that by making whoever was driving it, 100% responsible for
any tickets it collected.
It would have been gawdawful expensive to put it into production since
those 2 cylinders & pistons cost more than the complete V8 Northstar
engine.
I thought it was one radically cool idea at the time. And I am amazed
that something like it has not invaded the automotive world what with all
the emphasis on both high mileage & decent horsepower caused by the high
petro prices. Today I'd imagine a new cat converter might need to be
built because at those temps and compression ratio's, I can see a hugely
illegal amount of the various nitrogen oxides the EPA wouldn't tolerate.
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS
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