Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:37:06 -0800
Reply-To: Bruce Nadig <motorbruce@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bruce Nadig <motorbruce@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: ReRe: Fryeday Question & MythBusters!! Naphlene
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
I watch MythBusters, and I do take issue with #3 - Sugar In The Gas Tank.
The test that they did was very brief. This would hardly be a realistic
situation. Once the sugar is there it will dissolve in the gas. It may take
a little bit of time and agitation (driving, which includes going over bumps
and around turns), but sugar will be a disaster.
Two different scenarios will make this happen.
#1) Very Little Agitation
Most vehicles have their fuel pick-up at the very bottom of the tank. This
is exactly where the undisclosed, or slowly dissolving sugar will
accumulate. The fuel pump will suck up the partially dissolved sugar, and
some of the undisclosed sugar. The pump itself will cause agitation, which
will cause the sugar to dissolve.
#2) Agitation
Normal driving will cause enough vibration to help the sugar dissolve on its
own. It may take some time, but the sugar will dissolve eventually.
So what happens when the sugar is dissolved in gasoline? Simple. There is a
huge amount of carbon in raw sugar. When the gasoline with the dissolved
sugar makes it to the combustion chamber very bad things will happen. The
heat and pressure of combustion will cause the sugar to carbonize. Further,
after the gasoline with the dissolved sugar is squired out of th fuel
injector, on its way to the engine much of the gas will end up on the hot
intake valve. The hot intake valve will cook the gasoline/sugar mixture. The
result will be carbon on the intake tract side of the valve.
So we will have massive carbon build up in the combustion chamber and
massive carbon build up on the intake valve. This most certainly will affect
the engine and its performance. This type of build up will most likely
demand a complete engine tear down to rectify.
MythBusters is a fun show, but in this case they simply weren't thorough.
Over time, sugar will damage an engine. They just did one brief test.
My 2¢.
Cheers,
Bruce
motorbruce
motorbruce@hotmail.com
>From: Matthew <mpteleski@YAHOO.COM>
>Reply-To: Matthew <mpteleski@YAHOO.COM>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: ReRe: Fryeday Question & MythBusters!! Naphlene
>Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:18:11 -0800
>
>don';t you guys watch myth busters?? geeze. they did
>all of these old tales on a only caddy v8 engine. (no
>longevity tests though)
>
>1) coffe grounds do stop a coolant leak
>2) a raw egg in the radiator stops a coolant leak
>3) sugar in the gas tank doesn't do squat
>4) potato(e) in tail pipe does not stop the rig from
>starting (w/ Bush spelling (e))
>5) mothballs (naphlene, not paradicholorbenzene) in
>gas tank made no noticable issues
>6) shooting a car will not cause it to blow up
>7) you can't get sucked up by a fire-fighting
>helecopter's water intake
>8) tomato juice washes out shunk smell
>(t-butylmercaptan)
>9) you cannot go around a swing with rockets
>
>and more...
>
>-matthew
>no cable, just an antenna, so i only get myth busters
>when at a hotel on trips.
>
>"Racing with the wind and flirting with death
>So have a cup of coffee and catch your breath"
>
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