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This is pretty cool for a mechanical failure -- particularly the oil fountain. The whole video has a bunch of different angles, but the best closeup is at 1:30. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8gvgISVHak
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Mar 5, 2012 20:55
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I remember reading a story a while back -- maybe even in A/T on this forum, I dunno -- from a guy working the oil fields. Apparently there can be so much oil in the air around a rig that the trucks will occasionally run for a while with the fuel supply cut off. Literally the only way to shut them off then is to block the intake with whatever you have at hand. I remember the story had an ending something like: "Well, that day we discovered that not only will an industrial truck run on diesel fuel, its own crankcase and turbo oil, and a suspended mist of fresh crude...it will also run quite happily on newspapers, shop rags, and an entire set of workman's coveralls."
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Mar 17, 2012 04:20
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So I've been rebuilding my motorcycle engine over the last month or so, because this happened to it halfway across the San Mateo bridge; Fun. Any ideas what would cause something like this? There's no valve damage, and you can see that the hole isn't where the valve impact points would be anyway. I didn't hear any knocking prior to the sudden loss of power, so I don't think it was running lean or with improper timing, and I didn't find any rocks or screws or anything in the crankcase. No damage to the spark plug either. I'm baffled. VVVV Wouldn't that sound like, you know, knocking? Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 02:39 on Apr 8, 2013 |
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Apr 8, 2013 02:33
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What sort of "long period" are we talking about here? A hundred miles? A thousand? More? I've only put a couple of thousand miles on the bike since I bought it from the PO, who definitely treated it...roughly. Is it possible that the piston could have been partially damaged before the bike was mine, run well enough for a while, then eventually given up when I started pushing the bike hard? In any case, I'm going to be extremely careful about setting the timing when I get the engine remounted in the bike. e: the bike shop manual recommends regular 87 octane gas, which is what I've been using, but would switching to 91 for the increased detonation resistance have any negative effects? It's not like it's that expensive to fill up the tank. Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Apr 8, 2013 |
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Apr 8, 2013 03:39
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The camshaft journals on my bike engine are just smooth round machined areas on either side of the head, but at least they're integrated into small castings that only cost about  to replace should they explode, and they're definitely oiled.Seconding that boring the journals out and installing bronze bushings (or Nikasil plating or something) would be an awesome idea. But then again, this is the car where the oil pump shuts off if you go into a hard left turn, soooo Slavvy posted:It was the 60's, what do you expect? A lot of pushrod engines lube the cam by oil gravity feeding through the valley and sort of just dripping randomly on the cam. I always liked the "let's just make a thing that dips into the sump and throws oil all over everything, it'll get there eventually" method of lubrication. No idea how engines with splash lubrication run at all.
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Apr 8, 2013 23:46
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CommieGIR posted:The train always wins. Always. Not quite always. One of my favorite videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mHtOW-OBO4 (how often are you going to hear the line "a rocket-powered driverless lorry smashes head-on into concrete"?  )And if you liked that one, you'll love this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNWgj-_tePU
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Apr 16, 2013 06:31
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Horrible mechanical failure imminent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY4CsKXPKLk
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Apr 17, 2013 00:03
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The end of that is pretty fascinating. Go and murder someone on top of the nuclear waste repository, and by state law there's no way you can be tried for the crime. I bet the mob would have loved it.
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Apr 18, 2013 23:27
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kastein posted:Awesome roll cage, bro: No no, that's not a roll cage...the guy owns a bunch of vintage Triumphs and that's where the oil is stored.
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May 12, 2013 02:06
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Maker Of Shoes posted:65, actually. Yeah, when I got my AZ license a few years back I said "this has to be a typo, right? It expires in 2015, not...2051." "Nope! Expires when you're 65. Come back every 10 years to get your photo updated. Have a nice day!"
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Jun 8, 2013 05:50
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DiggityDoink posted:That and my dad apparently repaired part of the emissions system using house plumbing. The guy said it was actually a brilliant hack but CA is anal about all of that system being stock. The crankcase recirculation hose on my car had a dry-rotted rubber fitting to connect the hose to the air filter. The piece was only available from Ford for like 85 dollars with a bunch of other junk like the PCV filter attached, so I made a little cylindrical mold and cast a new one out of black 2-part urethane rubber. The sperg at the e-test somehow figured out that it wasn't a stock part (too shiny, I guess) and failed me until I replaced it with the ~real thing~. Jerk. And guess what part of the car is starting to dry-rot again already!
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Apr 17, 2014 20:09
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kastein posted:jesus christ At my former university, the physics lab had some sort of flywheel device blow up thanks to a hairline crack in the rotor. I don't remember the exact numbers, but the rotor was about the size of a beer keg and it spun well over 100,000 RPM. It let go while they were still spinning it up, so it hadn't reached maximum energy yet. The 250-pound steel "containment" cover of the machine was launched through the ceiling of the lab into the classroom above, and they later found shrapnel from the incident in a parking lot more than two hundred feet away.
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May 22, 2014 06:48
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Collateral Damage posted:If they're not turning he's not increasing the odometer either, so the car preserves its resale value! Back when I was younger and hybrids were brand new, I really wanted a Honda Insight (still do, they're  ) and posted on some Insight forums. One of them rapidly turned into a hypermiling forum. The post I remember most distinctly was one person saying he'd discovered an amazing new way to boost your mileage. See, it's normal for hypermilers to line up for a parking space and then shut off the engine and coast into it rather than driving in, so they can save that extra half-milliliter of gas. It's also normal for them to avoid using their brakes as much as possible, because that's wasted energy! This guy put the two together and suggested that you not only shut off your engine as you approach the parking space, but also shoot for the farthest one you can get to before the car stops, bleeding off your speed without using the brakes and adding a free eighty feet to the odometer!I wonder how many times he ran out not-quite-into the space and had to get out and push (because, of course, starting the engine just to move a mere ten or fifteen feet is totally verboten)
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Jul 23, 2014 19:16
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Also,  why are there shredded holes in the metal on top of the dash?
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Jul 23, 2014 19:19
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InitialDave posted:The clutch disc, being attached to the input shaft of the gearbox and therby driven regardless of the pedal being dipped, did not like seeing what was later calculated as nearly 20,000rpm, and made its escape in exactly the way you would expect. Huh -- I never considered this. Fascinating. I don't think I've ever coasted down a hill in first with the clutch in, mostly because the transmission whine when I'm going too fast for the gear is disconcerting to me, but now I have an extra reason not to do it. Just a couple weeks ago in CA we were talking about another reason not to do it, specific to motorcycles: the majority of bikes share the oil between the transmission and the engine, so if you're coasting downhill at 60 with the engine idling, the transmission is spinning at 60 but only seeing idle oil pressure. Bad move. Something I did do, though: When I was in high school and learning to drive, I once made a really overzealous downshift on the freeway and went from fifth to second instead of fifth to fourth, while travelling 60~ miles an hour. As I dropped the clutch back out and saw the engine rev up past the redline, there was a loud BANG and a cloud of white fog. After much panic and freaking out on the side of the road and driving home at 20 miles an hour and so on, it turned out to just be a freeze plug blown out the bottom of the engine (I assume because of overpressure in the coolant system as the water pump got going a million miles an hour). No other damage -- that old Ford SPI 2000 was unkillable. Could have been far, far worse, apparently...
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Jul 24, 2014 03:00
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Fucknag posted:A description of the energy involved, from here: One of the legends around the physics department at my undergrad university was about an accident they had with some type of flywheel device a few years before I started. I don't remember the exact function of the machine, but from descriptions it was about the size of a washing machine, had a flywheel inside the size of a beer keg but solid steel, and spun it at upwards of 100,000 RPM in a vacuum. One day, due to a previously undetected hairline crack, the flywheel let go as they were spinning it up through 75,000-80,000 RPM. It demolished the machine, demolished the lab, and threw a 200-kilogram "containment shield" on top of the machine through the ceiling into the classroom above. They later found pieces of the equipment in a parking lot 200 yards away. Miraculously, no one died or was seriously injured.
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Jul 24, 2014 03:05
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8ender posted:I had a SPI powered Escort and it was unkillable. Sold it with 275k on it and the next owner took it to 300k and beyond. As far as I know it's still clattering away being harsh and lovely. I guess some SPIs were better than others. Likewise -- the one we had was a 97 Escort wagon, and I think we sold it with around 220,000 miles. Still running and still on its first clutch :iamafag:
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Jul 24, 2014 06:09
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How come the bad voltage regulator would cause damage to the alternator? Shouldn't it only affect the downstream components?
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Jul 25, 2014 04:18
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kastein posted:gently caress all that lightweight bullshit, go with Osmium, the densest of metals. It'll be fine until the powder oxidizes and suddenly everyone is dead and/or made of cancer. And because it's so dense that all the primordial osmium has long since sunk to the Earth's core, any that you find near the surface necessarily came from a meteorite sometime in the last billion years or so.  Yes, it is pretty loving expensive.
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Jul 26, 2014 04:10
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Almost like the manufacturer's recommendations are correct!
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Jul 31, 2014 03:13
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The truck to the right is a nice touch. 
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Aug 1, 2014 04:01
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Steel balls, you mean 
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Aug 4, 2014 18:50
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Agent RE-RE posted:I've had several sets fail this way. It usually takes me a moment or two to realize, then I have to go back and check my WHOLE days work. > Get a mechanical vernier caliper, never have to worry about dead batteries or wrong readings, and stop fooling yourself with more accuracy than your hands are actually capable of to boot 
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Aug 21, 2014 02:01
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That happened to my family's old Mazda minivan when one of the coils in the pack blew. Turns out injecting fuel into a dead cylinder with five others running well means it ignites inside the catalytic converter. We noticed it when my sister, sitting in the back, asked "Dad, why is the floor so hot?"
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Aug 22, 2014 07:05
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buttcrackmenace posted:My first old rx7 had an extra pipe suspended under the main exhaust system. It seemed to be a cat bypass or something similar. A brief stomp and release of the accelerator resulted in a heroic bang out the back of that pipe. Old RX-7s had trouble meeting emissions standards even before catalytic converters were a thing, mostly because of unburned fuel and incomplete combustion products (long, narrow combustion "chamber" = cool combustion = lots of soot) so Mazda's first solution was something called a "thermal reactor". Basically an air pump into a chamber high up in the exhaust system that allowed the combustion to complete and turn the soot and CO into less objectionable CO2. (ie: fuel keeps burning inside the exhaust system). Could it have been that? I ask just because all the RX-7s I've seen have And "bridged ports" is one of the more drastic mods you can do to a wankel. There aren't any cams or valves to adjust to get increased gas flow, so if you want more intake or exhaust potential you have to literally enlarge the ports like you would on a 2-stroke. As you grind away material, eventually they get so large that you can't get any bigger without having the apex seal fall out into the port as it traces its path along the rotor housing. The solution is to stop there, leave a line of material ("bridge") that the seal rides on, and keep hollowing out on the other side. Standard port  Expanded port  Bridged port  Bridgeports have terrible idle characteristics, just like a huge lopey cam designed for the dragstrip does, but you probably already knew that. Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 00:16
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Dr.Smasher posted:I thought the Dodge 4.7 sucked because it made lovely power for a V8 and drank gas like an alcoholic at an open bar wedding reception. Why would they drink gas if there's an open bar?
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Aug 23, 2014 02:55
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Eh, even the 92 is a good deal for around here. e: fun fact -- the gas right now is, normalized to contemporary purchasing power, the most expensive it's ever been in the USA, including times like the Great Depression and the '70s oil crisis. The cheapest gas in history, again by purchasing power, was in Clinton's second term. Way to go, Dubya. Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Sep 1, 2014 |
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Sep 1, 2014 21:18
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xzzy posted:Remember when "Regular" fuel was actually an important distinction? I still say "fill it up with regular" when I go to a full-service gas station, and I haven't gotten leaded gas once!  Kind of like how a manual transmission is still called a "standard" even though, what, at least nine out of ten cars on the road have automatics?
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Sep 2, 2014 01:04
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EightBit posted:and the designs of older engines Worth noting that a lot of the airplanes you see out there are old. Like, a lot of the high-wing Cessnas you see around were built in the 1950s and 60s.
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Sep 2, 2014 06:41
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Somewhat Heroic posted:I once put leaded race gas in my speed6 (I want to say it was 108 octane). I assume that people here already know that putting leaded gasoline in a modern street engine will rapidly destroy the catalytic converters and god knows what else in the emissions system, but it bears mentioning just in case.
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Sep 3, 2014 06:16
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BlackMK4 posted:We've had a lot of flooding lately here in Arizona - heavy rains, ground chemistry that doesn't see much water so it doesn't absorb but rather floats on top, and roads that aren't setup to handle water. I also used to live in Arizona and yeah, the floods are surprising. One thing they warn you about is being out in the desert when there's a thunderstorm, even if it's not in your area. You'll be standing in the sun and see a storm off in the distance, and figure you're okay, and then half an hour later BAM a flood comes out of nowhere and washes you into a canyon and you drown. What's happened is the rain falling in the distance wasn't able to soak into the baked, hard-dried earth, so it just ran whichever way was downhill and ended up at your location in a big mass all of a sudden. The desert is a strange place.
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Sep 5, 2014 05:35
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At the Norwalk Dragway they have a truck with a jet engine mounted to the back and the exhaust directed downwards through what looks like a giant vacuum cleaner nozzle, narrow and flat and about twelve feet wide. It drives up and down the track for a few minutes every time it rains and dries it out. I don't know if that's a common thing but it sure seems to work.
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Sep 15, 2014 09:17
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What the hell kind of situation makes a piston look like it's been attacked with a ball-peen hammer? More specifically than "catastrophic failure of the everything", I mean.
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Sep 16, 2014 08:00
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Well maybe if they wouldn't build the ships to fit through the canal with like six inches to spare on either side, you know
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Sep 22, 2014 03:21
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A Melted Tarp posted:E-cig people have some of the most florid cases of Asperger's the world has ever seen.  "M'lady," *cocks fedora, takes drag on nintendo controller* more here http://imgur.com/a/J0Qp1
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Sep 23, 2014 20:42
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Christ, those things make a lot of smoke. Or steam or whatever it is. Is that normal?
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Sep 24, 2014 06:13
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some texas redneck posted:I actually kind of like the smell of some e-cigs. Yeah, because they make them taste like candy. From YOSPOS: quote:You know when you were a kid and your dad was shaving and you'd pretend-shave beside him because you thought it made you look grown-up? Everything redditors do is that same talismanic grasping at symbols of adulthood and sophistication tinged with an air of desperately overthinking it while completely missing the point. e: oh, wow, there was a whole other page. well e-cigs are stupid and for babies. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Sep 25, 2014 04:47
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I've known about this video for years and I started laughing as soon as the title loaded. I love that exploding basketball so much 
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Sep 27, 2014 09:18
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:I saw a How It's Made on scuba tanks recently, it blew my mind that the whole thing is made from a solid piece of extruded aluminum. Deep drawing is a hell of a thing. xzzy posted:The mythbusters where they did this with water heaters is probably one of their best episodes. It's loving incredible how high those things go. What always fascinates me is that it's not the pressure itself that causes the danger, but the compression. A scuba tank being filled with air at 3000psi is a bomb ready to go off. A scuba tank being filled with water at 3000 psi is no big deal if it springs a leak. Doesn't make logical sense but there it is.
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Sep 27, 2014 23:26
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CharlesM posted:Not a transmission but it reminds me of one time I went to the junkyard. These guys from a rotary shop were pulling one and just stuck their fingers in the ports and turned it to see if it had good compression or something like that. I was kind of surprised of such a basic test. They drove a decent distance too, from Reno, NV to Sacramento, CA (~130 miles). On old motorcycles you can get in the ballpark by sticking your thumb on the spark plug hole and kicking the kickstarter. If it blows your finger off with a loud POP then the compression is good enough to start and run, anyway. If it just farts or hisses, or if you can't feel it pushing at all, move on. e: this also works with lawnmowers, chainsaws, etc
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Oct 3, 2014 07:28
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