Strange mechanical theories?!?

I'm sure everyone's heard at least one of these, here's my new favorite, I just had to share...

Yesterday at work the guy in the bay next to me was changing freeze plugs on a Dodge, he got really upset when my boss gave him brass freeze plugs to install. He wanted steel. He turned to me and said,

"You know why the factory uses steel plugs, right?"

"Uh yeah, because they're cheap."

"No. It's because the steel plugs rust, and as they rust they attract the rust that's floating around in the cooling system. Eventually, the steel plugs start to leak, and when you pop them out of the block, you clean out the chunk of rust that's behind them.
Brass plugs are bad, because they don't rust, and the rust inside the motor works its way up into the heads and plugs the coolant passages there, and the engine overheats."

Keep in mind this guy is in his 60's, and has been a professional mechanic longer than I've been alive.

 

Wow,never heard of a "rust magnet"!LOL.

 

Thats a good one..wonder if he has ever heard that if you run a good coolant and possibly a corrosion additive there wouldnt be any problem like that to begin with. and if you change the coolant when it is needed the corrosion issue is almost non existant.

 

Freaaaaaakkkkkkkkk!!!

 

Never? I have one in my driveway. The title says it's a 60 Chevy

 

sounds about like my '41 diamond t...

 

You could always stick round magnets to the steel freeze plugs to attract any metallic debris. Maybe it would work in an older engine that is full of nasty crap.

 

I guess he never heard of Galvanic Corrosion.
Dissimilar metals will create corrosion when in contact with each other.Which one of the two metals that is lower on the Electromotive Scale will corrode first,the other doesn't corrode at all.They use the principle on big ships,with sacrificial Zinc plates bolted on the hull.The Zinc corrodes away,and this protects the steel hull.

Therefore:Steel plugs should last longer than Brass,
because they will corrode at the same rate as the block.


And they should be less money,
since steel is less expensive than brass.

 

hell
that makes sence
thanks

as far as strange mechanical theories
ain't nothing a 2lb hammer can't fix
if that fails duct tape
oh s#$t get JB putty
gotten me cross country in the 53 couple times.
as far as theory
speed = money x injenuity x money
how fast you wanna pay

 

It's called cathodic protection. Wikipedia has a very good, brief article about it.

 

i'll go ya one better, this was actually said by the guy i work next to,

" you don't need to know how something works to fix it"

this clown has been working at the dealership as long as i've been a tech, i wouldn't let him change a bulb in my car.

 

Not exactly mechanical but these have always bugged me.

Wooden clothes pins on a fuel line? Slim possibility that it works as a heat sink?

Storing a battery on the concrete floor.

s.

 

How about "don't leave an exhaust ventilation pipe on a turbocharged engine when it's not running because it will spin the impeller with no lubrication and wear it out". I was told this one at work.

Flatman

 

The "you don't have to understand anything about it to manage it" school is alive and well in many areas of business and industry.

Oh, yeah, never paint a brake drum; it will make it run hot. Wish I could find some of that magic paint; I could make a killing selling it to industrial users.

 

I seen posts claiming that painted barrels or powder coated barrels on old bikes will make them run hotter, maybe but will it make a difference?

 

If he wants to prevent rust, the freezeplugs should have been in zink instead.
On all aluminium boats you normally mount a anode of zink to prevent gavaninc corrosion.

 

How about "hungry water"? The idea that using distilled water in a cooling system is bad, because the water will then seek the minerals it lacks, and promote corrosion rather than inhibit it.

The "battery on a cold cement floor" thing is real. So is the "battery on a cold hardwood floor", "battery on a cold linoleum floor", "battery on a cold slate floor"...

 

we have floor heat in the shop at work, the service manager told me not to put the battery on the concrete floor, I laughed.

I figure the same thing, cold floor, frozen battery. I can picture some old timer who picked up his frozen battery off the floor and it was dead, going around warning everyone of the perils of concrete sucking the electrons out of the battery.

 

You'd be surprised how many mechanics think this works. I always ask, if it did why doesn't the factory do it?

 

ELECTRICAL THEORY OF SMOKE...BY JOSEPH LUCAS

Positive ground depends upon proper circuit functioning, the transmission of negative ions by retention of the visible spectral manifestation known as "smoke". Smoke is the thing that makes electrical circuits work; we know this to be true because every time one lets the smoke out of the electrical system, it stops working. This can be verified repeatedly through empirical testing.

When, for example, the smoke escapes from an electrical component (i.e., say, a Lucas voltage regulator), it will be observed that the component stops working. The function of the wire harness is to carry the smoke from one device to another; when the wire harness "springs a leak", and lets all the smoke out of the system, nothing works afterwards. Starter motors were frowned upon in British Automobiles for some time, largely because they consume large quantities of smoke, requiring very large wires.

It has been noted that Lucas components are possibly more prone to electrical leakage than Bosch or generic Japanese electrics. Experts point out that this is because Lucas is British and all things British leak. British engines leak oil, shock absorbers, hydraulic forks and disk brakes leak fluid, British tires leak air and the British defense establishment leaks secrets...so, naturally, British electronics leak smoke.

 

'54 Stude, that's funny!!

 

It is called the Galvanic Series
And it works like this

When selecting metallic components, they should be as low as possible on the galvanic series. Any dissimilar metals in proximity to one another should be close togeather on the galvanic series. Non conductive insulators can also be used to isolate the components from the electrolyte and prevent the galvanic couples from occurring. Also coupling a small anode to a large cathode significantly increases the corrosion rate

 

The "smoke theory" is tossed around jokingly by electricians all the time. When I renovated my old barn into a garage, I was talking to the inspector about it and said "didn't let the smoke out once". He got it, no one else has. It's funny how it can actually be "proven" by testing, yet we all know it's false. For a much more involved "explanation", check this link
http://www.peizhang.com/forfun/forfun_writings_smoke.htm

 

The clothes pins on the fuel line does have some merit, but it takes quite a few in the right places to make a real difference.

It is an insulator. As the fuel inches its way along, it picks up heat if the fuel line is running near a heat source (block, manifold, radiator fan wash, heater hose etc), so insulating a section where it is likely to soak in a lot of heat from the surroundings can often keep the gas from boiling inside a hot section of pipe.

I believe you can do much better by slitting a length of rubber fuel line and slipping it over the steel fuel line to insulate it where is passes thru the hot areas so the gas doesn't pick up as much heat as it slowly flows to the carb.

Where the steel fuel line passes thru cool flowing air, such as low down by the frame (if there is no exh pipe nearby), a spring coiled around the line will help cool the fuel, and where it passes thru the hot areas (that includes where the radiator air exits the engine compartment), an insulator will help keep the fuel cool.

So two seemingly opposite ideas will both help as long as you put them in the correct places.
In the wrong places they can possibly aggravate the gas boiling conditions.

 

Some people know just enough to be dangerous!

 

All good British mechanics keep some of this in their tool box for that very reason...

 

That's xlnt!

 

I`ve always enjoyed the battery on concrete floor theory. Whenever I hear someone say that I ask them to please explain to me how the concrete can draw voltage from the battery.
No one has explained it yet ......

 

PRICELESS! Thanks

 

When I worked at a department store auto center I heard some real doosies. I think the best was the lady that would turn on her headlights for a half hour on a cold morning to "warm up" her battery!

But the king of them all has to be this!!
http://www.tehlounge.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=16060

CHAZ