Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 17:57:44 EST
Reply-To: CMathis227@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Chuck Mathis <CMathis227@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Any experience with electronic rust prevention?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
David,
I susect that the overall benefit of these systems in an automotive application is an extreme lightening of the wallet resulting in fewer spinal alignment problems for the owner/driver;).
Both you and Keith noted that ship hulls are submerged in sea water and pipelines are buried in dirt both of which are much better electrolytes than air.
Even if one of these widgets worked as well as its ship or pipeline counterpart one would still have to do a lot of inspection and maintenance -- about the same amount that one has to do on a non-protected Vanagon. I believe these systems belong in the same category as those turbine widgets for your intake and carb magnets.
Chuck
In a message dated Thu, 25 Jan 2001 4:12:37 PM Eastern Standard Time, David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET> writes:
<< At 03:06 PM 1/25/2001, Chuck Mathis wrote:
>These sound like an automotive version of the cathodic protection systems
>used on petroleum pielines and the US Coast Guard's 110' patrol boats.
There's a big difference here -- pipelines and ships both operate submerged
in an electrolytic medium, either seawater or dirt. Cathodic protection,
whether with sacrificial anodes or impressed-current systems, makes little
sense without this.
Aside from that, for an idea of the complexity of this field check out
<http://www.nacecorrosionnetwork.com/HyperNews/get/forums/cathodes.html> or
do a google search on "cathodic protection." The Nacecorrosionnetwork
stuff is mostly industrial, but there is also a short thread talking about
the automotive systems, including 2-3 people saying they were happy or knew
of one or more individuals who were happy -- and one fellow who had this to
say:
>I reviewed a report on a similar system a few years ago. The company was
>looking for "experts" to provide endorsements. However, the information
>provided was very limited, and I had more questions than endorsements. For
>example, they didn't want an assessment on the viability of the system,
>they already "knew it worked". They had test reports from labs saying it
>passes certain tests; but the tests were very carefully crafted by the
>manufacturer. Needless to say, they didn't send the additional information
>I requested, and they didn't get my endorsement.
david
David Beierl - Providence, RI
http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"
>>
