Blown Gasketed Alpiners,
On Sun, 22 Jun 1997 19:12:50 -0500 Fred Levit <fle426(at)nwu.edu> writes:
>There is a huge difference between the amount of moisture present
>at the exhaust pipe of a normally functioning car and one with
>a leaking head gasket. In the latter case there is a rain of
>drops, easily felt, striking the palm. There is soon enough
>fluid to drip off your fingers. This I know because I have
>experienced it.
I too have experienced the old tail pipe faucet scenario, and agree that
if...
1) the engine and exhaust are hot
2) The humidity is not too high
The engine very likely has a blow gasket, BUT
That gasket likely blew well before the exhaust pipe turned into a
faucet.
On both of my 2 blown head gaskets, my engine gave evidence of impending
doom weeks before major water consumption began.
Under load, the radiator temperature would come up rapidly, but fall
rapidly at idle.
The spillover would pee even with the engine cold.
On one engine, my radiator popped when the combustion gasses made there
way into the cooling system.
I have never seen an alpine leak coolant into the oil system, unless a
rod
had first liberated a water passage.
Water (H2O) is one of the two main constituants of the burning of
hydrocarbons.
2(CHx) + 3(O2) >= x(H20) + 2x(CO2) "or someting like this"
The H2O is in the form of steam, which can and will condense back to
liquid
if the temperature, atmospheric pressure, or humidity shift the vapor
pressure
or dew point in favor of the liquid.
This means that when you start a cold engine, expect to see some water
fallout
on you hands, or the ground, or whatever else happens to be near the
exhaust
pipe.
I would not expect fallout after the engine is up to temp however unless
you
live in Finland (Lauri?).
I dont want any of you to think that a water dropplets from the exhaust
is anything to be too concerned with.
There is a definative test that can be performed by most garages, that
consists of the following...
A special radiator cap is installed, that has a tube comming out of it.
A small hand pump pulls some vapor from the radiator, and pulls the vapor
through a special solution. The solution changes color in the presence
of
hydrocarbons.
Color changes? Oh Oh.
Jarrid Gross
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