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Hydro, OK Car Consumer Discussions

Re: Why a 1949-1950 Lincoln? (Mr_Shiftright) [hpmctorque]

by Mr_Shiftright on Mon Oct 06 15:22:35 PDT 2008

Yes old Hydros were rugged. Many of them are still working without rebuilds. Really? Ford used a GM product? I never knew that. Any info on that somewhere?

Re: 1997 toyota camry timing belt [dntlss]

by Mr_Shiftright on Fri Aug 29 10:33:20 PDT 2008

If the belt brakes the valves are no longer connected to the pistons through the camshaft, so the bottom crankshaft should spin freely even if the valves were jammed tight or the camshaft was seized. You may need to get a socket and cheater bar on the front crankshaft pulley to see if this engine is actually seized. Aside from oil starvation, hydro-lock or a jammed timing chain tensioner (which you don't have) I can't think right off of any other reason for an engine to seize while running down the road. I suppose it could have eaten a valve but even that usually wouldn't cause seizure. I'm just not sure you have in fact an engine seizure issue here. More investigation in that area! I

Re: Cars Caught in Subjunctive Mood? [graphicguy]

by bolivar on Mon Aug 25 13:54:41 PDT 2008

You said "No matter, the oil industry's time is short. With the new tech coming around the bend, demand will continue to decline...." I'm sorry, I just don't agree. I have no idea what 'new tech' is coming that will knock oil down. Our electricity is generated from coal 49%, natural gas (essentiall 'oil') 20%, nuclear 19%, and hydro 7%. Taking electricity from these sources and then storing in batteries to run autos is a very inefficient energy use. A Prius battery pack has an expected life of 60 or 70,000 miles, then it's replacement cost is $6,000! The environmentalists worry about us putting AA batteries into land fills. Where are the hundreds of pound auto battery packs going to go? And, aren't these 'new tech' batteries even more nasty to get rid of than the alkyline???? We can't pull hydrogen out of water without a huge net energy loss of electricity to drive the process. The hydrogen that is produced in natural gas is already being extracted and used for various chemical processes. This pretty much make 'fuel cell' tech an big looser. Here is my guess as what is coming. Oil/natural gas is going to continue as the main energy source. It is going to get more and more costly, mainly because the 'third/second world' countries, namely China and India, are moving quickly toward 'first world' status, sucking up large amounts of the world supply. Coal will continue to increase as a source of electricity generation. It is dirty, and cleaning up its burning will make it more and more costly (current third world countries don't worry about cleaning it up, this is where most pollution increase is coming from). Only after energy gets significantly more expensive, nuclear will step up and will probably be used for most electrical generation. France already generates something like 75% of theirs via about 50 nuclear installations. They don't do much right, have delicate sensitivities about what the USA does in the world, but the French have build a nuclear system already. It will take people in the US being hot in the summer and cold in the winter because of high energy costs, but people will then accept widespread nuclear electrical generation. Or continue to be hot and cold. Our engineers can probably currently over-engineer a nuclear plant that will be 'safe'. The US will accept burying the spent fuel under some desert region. Then, long term, our only hope is that the little silver colored aliens will stop with their anal probing and show us what powers their flying crafts.

Re: Cars Caught in Subjunctive Mood? [duke23]

by graphicguy on Mon Aug 25 07:51:03 PDT 2008

duke....I think we're mostly on the same page regarding oil. While I do agree that taxing fuel could be a good idea. No one wants more taxes, regardless of the impact it would make. People just don't trust the gov't to do it correctly. Or, to use the taxes for their intended purpose. No matter, the oil industry's time is short. With the new tech coming around the bend, demand will continue to decline....probably right at the same point that the new drilling sites start producing. That will put a stake through the heart of the industry. You think Exxon, BP, etc is preparing for this new eventuality? Probably not. They'll be stuck selling a commodity product, with decreasing demand. Not a good business model. Some new companies will crop up that will capitalize by building infrastructure that'll accomodate electric charging stations, or hydro, or any other alternative fuel du jour comes down the pike. Back to cars.....this was when I was fresh out of college. A business colleague bought a new Citation. It was supposed to be the sporty version. I forget what they called it....I think it was the Citation X. It was all "zooted" up with crushed velour seats, and allegedly a sport suspension. I don't remember it being anything close to sporty at the time (I probably would have bought a VW GTI at the time for about the same money). True to the lost automotive decade of the '80s, it literally started falling apart within 24 months. The pieces of the interior fell off with no provocation. It looked like a frat house on a Saturday night with the amount of pieces broken, that he'd just toss on the floor. I'd say the Vega would have probably enjoyed the same build quality. Ford had their go with exploding Pintos. Lest we forget, there were Pacers and Gremlins on the roads back then, too. GM's ill-fated V8 diesel conversions and their first foray with multi-displacement V8s. I can't remember the last time I saw a Chrysler "K-car" on the road, or even an Omni. I'll assume those didn't hold up well and that they won't show up at any Mecum auto auction any time soon. I'd rather not go back down those automotive roads. Someone said the upcoming Volt can't travel very far before it would have to be recharged. If I'm understanding the car correctly, it can travel up to 40 miles on electric power only. It also has a small 4 cyl engine that "kicks-in" when the batteries are depleted to recharge them. I'm hearing some crazy numbers being thrown around, but I'm hearing 100+ MPG and a traveling range of 500 miles. But, what I see as a sticking point (aside from the batteries which I think are lithium ion) is what kind of longevity they'd have. For example...let's say your commute to work is 30 miles/day....all electric driven. You park the car in your garage at night, plug it in, and have a full charge the next day. You may go weeks, maybe even a month, where the gas engine doesn't even fire up in this scenario. What kind of stress would this put on the small gas engine in the vehicle.....only firing up occasionally. And, when it did, it would probably only be for brief periods of time. That's the worst type of stress you can put on a gas engine. Add to that, the estimates I'm hearing are that the Volt will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $30K, maybe $40K. That's a lot of money for a car that's probably going to be snail slow...at least initially and handle dismally with low resistance tires. But, I'm sure those are the types of things GM's engineers are trying to figure out right now.

I think it will

by marsha7 on Sun Aug 24 19:15:21 PDT 2008

be quite some time before cars run on something other than petroleum, especially with the diesel/gasoline infrastructure set up nationwide like it is... We should obviously move forward with alternative fuel research, but I believe the first place it will show up will be outside the auto industry... It would be easier, if easier is the word, to alter how we power our homes and buildings first...we need to update the power grid, but how that power is derived can change, because it is the same power over the same lines, whereas the auto needs a complete network of alternative sources...the power company can convert to nuclear, or wind, or solar, or hydro, and the users would never know, as long as power ran thru the wires to their home or office... If we ccan reduce the petroleum aspect of power generation by 50%, we could free up that much more oil for the cars while alternative sources are researched for the cars...with 200 million cars out there, eliminating oil/gas as a fuel source will take time, whereas an entire city or region could stop using oil/gas for power generation with, say, a nuke plant ot wind power... Just thinking out loud...

Re: take the challenge [techquipment]

by brian76 on Sat Aug 23 08:43:01 PDT 2008

Good for you tech- !! thank you for doing the experimenting. This confirms what I've been able to glean from all the stuff out there. It DOES work to some degree by allowing a leaner burn and yes the timing needs to be retarded. but it works best (so far) on carburated engines because there are many new tech components that would need to be adjusted in a newer engine. Some folks have achieved some success by moving the o2 sensor out from the exhaust manifold to compensate since the leaner burn fools the sensor into enriching the mix. keep up the testing as some of us would like to try this but lack your background. by the way, the one I saw in operation in my town fed the hydro into the throat just below the carb. This worked better than intoducing it into the air cleaner. keep us posted and I appreciate your open mind