Car destruct sequence?

Growing up in Hawaii, there was a guy in my neighborhood whose hot rod had managed to send a head cover through the hood. He was forever afterward known as "Toyota Exploda'."

--scott

serious

Won't work. You may destroy the engine but the rest of the car will still be fine. Best way to handle the problem would be to rig either charges to destroy the sensitive parts of the item OR in the case of papers just use the old standby of an acid charge inside the envelope with them. or use digital media that will wipe if removed from the package without proper procedures.

Sounds like the Lotus Esprit Turbo from the Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only. However, that vehicle was not so much self-destructing, as theft-proof.

All you really need to prevent sensitive things getting into the wrong hands is an appropriately sized thermite charge in the glove box (where the secret stuf is stored) and another on top of the engine to melt a hole through the block. A flashier option is to make the engine block of of sintered aluminum, so that the thermite charge can set it on fire (may need a blower to get enough oxygen to maintain combustion).

Making the car out of magnesium might also produce spectacular results, but it is intended to be safe, in normal use, right?

I wish it was only fantasy on Tecumseh HSK850 snowbloer engins. I just had to replace what they call the shortblock ( the whole engine ) due to it was over reving , the short to groud to shut it down didnt work as it was already in diesel mode. the governor / throttle lever was inaccessable. And it blew part of the connecting rod out the lower "block"

Small engines don't seem to last long. I've had several lawn mowers put holes in the case. So did my last Toyota.

Don't know about the Toyota, but I do remember the disassembly of a string trimmer engine in one of my engineering design classes as an example of design for a price. Those of us who were familiar with the inner workings of an engine were appalled at what we saw - the con rod was basically a couple pieces of stamped steel laminated and riveted, like a padlock. No bearing at all. But, of course, they can be made for pennies and will last longer than the average homeowner will care to keep them...

Now that begs the question, where do you find small engines that still are built like big engines inside, so you can just keep them running essentially forever with rings and bearings every couple decades. The answer is, I don't know (but I'm not much into small engines nor am I currently a homeowner, so I haven't been shopping for any gas-powered appliances...)

nate

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Huskvarna chain saws ( Swedish company ) still builds good stuff but it is going to cost *big money.* Unless you are a Pro and use this stuff for a living, you won't spend the big money required to get a Pro Model.

But the things are out there ( for a price ).

Lg

Kohler still makes them that way. And believe it or not, so does Kawasaki (or at least my local John Deere dealer says that the two are comparable, and Deere has used both (more Kohler than Kawasaki) over the years.

I think Wisconsin Engine is still in business, and probably make the very best small engines... but they have always charged a whole lot for the Wisconsin name (both on engines and on replacement parts). And they always specialized in the 20-horse and up sort of range, not the lawnmower-sized range of engines.

Briggs and Stratton has developed a pretty rotten rep of late, although my last Briggs engine (a 1994 Diamond Commercial 6HP mower engine) is still running like new.

Our pal Dan has always had good luck with Tecumseh engines, but to me they've always been like Hondas. Other people can run them forever, but they fall apart on me about the second time I use them.

Neither of these guys have weed-eater sized motors, though. As far as I know, all of the decent weed-eater sized motors are model airplane designs, and the design constraints on them are a little different than what you might want for a fixed engine.

Honda makes some acceptable little cheapies, but nothing to write home about. Husqvarna makes some decent snowmobile engines, but not really anything much smaller for general purpose (unless you're willing to heavily modify a chainsaw engine).

I've had much better luck with Honda products. They aren't anything impressive, but I have never had them fall apart like B&S or Tecumseh stuff.

Even so, I really wish I could find a nice little 1/4 hp engine for fixed use, that could take continuous operation at full throttle for months on end.

--scott

True. Echo ranks among the best in that category. Unlike the cheapies, its got full crank bearings, a real connecting rod, real rings on a real piston, etc.

The cheapies work surprisingly well, but the Echos are not only good, but serviceable too. Take one of the cheap-o brands in and ask for a part, and the small-engine shop guys will laugh in your face.

I've also heard that Stihl chainsaw and weed-whacker engines are comparable to Echo, but I haven't ever owned one.

Well, I've personally never had a B&S fail, but I do know that others have. At work we have a little Honda EU2000 2kVA generator- SWEET little package about the size (and appearance, at a glance!) of a 5-gallon gas can, and not much heavier. Its an alternator and inverter setup, so that the engine speed can vary with load resulting in pretty low fuel burn rates. And its QUIET! Other than having the most foul-smelling exhaust of any small engine I've ever been around, its working great so far. I wouldn't guess how many hours are on it now (probably not more than a hundred or so) but we've used it everywhere from the Nevada desert to sitting right next to the high water line on a beach. But we'll see whether it is going to be truly long-lived, or if it'll be a throw-away when the fist major breakdown happens. There's an AWFUL lot of plastic on that thing.

Would it be possible, though, to, for example, flood the combustion chamber with highi-pressure 100% pure oxygen (not air, but PURE O2) and lots of fuel, with the spark plugs sparking away?

Wouldn't that make a big boom, big enough to blow the car apart?

you guys watch way to much movies but i think that if u just pumped gas into the cylinders then it would probably flood and not blow up. u would have to put something a little easier to light in there like Nitrous oxide or something.