Joe Coolant

This may not seem like the time of year when you need to worry much about cooling, but most of us have at least one cooling system that needs to be running well year-round.

Yep, the coolant in your car is still working just as hard in spite of the mild weather.

Last fall I had a bit of a scare with my Ford. For a few months I had noticed a gradual loss of coolant, and like anyone who knows a bit about cars I started dreading the possibility of a dead water pump. So I crawled under the Exploder and took a peak. No seepage from the water pump. What a relief! At least I wouldn't have to worry about replacing that, but where was the leak? I had replaced a failing radiator hose clamp so I knew the problem wasn't there. The hoses were still quite pliable and not showing any cracks. Still there was a leak



So I did some googling. Apparently the fittings for the ATF heat exchanger (mounted in the side tank of the radiator) have a reputation for leaking ATF into the radiator (overheating your engine) or leaking coolant into the ATF (ensuring a burnt out transmission in very short order.) So I checked the coolant for discoloration and the transmission fluid for signs of moisture. Nada! This was getting frustrating
Then one day after work I left the car in the drive for a few minutes, intending to run errands before it got too late.
I came back to this.



Well if I can't spot it now I must be blind, so I got the flashlight and mirror and started looking around. Sure enough I found the leak, but it wasn't where I would have expected




That's the side tank of the radiator, and that's a crack which must have been slowly expanding for months.
The side tanks are made of a high density plastic, which is actually quite rugged and probably more cost effective to make than brass or aluminum tanks. The problem is, that when it finally fails, there's no bringing it back, you have to replace the whole thing. Luckily for me I live in the information age and one google search and two phone calls later I had tracked down a brand new radiator at an Auto parts store that was still open. I drove very carefully there and back, trying to avoid hitting any bumps for fear that I would suddenly see a cloud of sickly sweet steam billow up from the hood.

I made it back just fine though, and with a little help from these guys I managed to install and burp the new radiator by the wee hours of the morning.



If I did it again I could probably have gone fast enough to finish the job and still get a good night's sleep.

So how would this scenario have gone in an older vehicle? Well has anyone else noticed how few radiator shops are out there? There used to be little shops all over the place that specialized in brazing and when you had a coolant leak you could go to them to have your radiator pressure tested, then when they identified a leak they would get out the torch patch it up so your radiator was water tight again.

More on the Flathead V8 (+/-)

For those of you who are a fan of the flathead engine pictured above, here are a few pictures from my 1937 guide to Ford V8s. I would take this information with a grain of salt though. You’ll notice the coolant system description highlights the importance of the height of the radiator, indicating that this is used to assist the natural, buoyancy driven circulation system. Don’t count on it!




These engines have a reputation for overheating, partly because the water pumps on earlier models were not quite up to snuff, and partly because of the routing of the exhaust through the engine block. Frequently steam bubbles would develop in the water jacket, leading to overheating and cracking of the block, which would then allow exhaust gasses to blow into the water jacket, making the overheating worse. It’s really rather amazing the design lasted as long as it did.

Close

Improved manufacture techniques and the use of plastic tanks on radiators have pretty much eliminated this market. Now you just go to a shop where they automatically recommend new hoses, a new water pump, and a new radiator all while trying to sell you a coolant flush, fuel injector cleaner, and a new serpentine belt on every visit.

There's very little on a coolant system that you can't actually fix at home. A pressure tester is handy for diagnosing leaks as well as faulty radiator caps. A garden hose, some tubing, and a few clamps are sufficient to flush most coolant systems (a procedure which is rarely as necessary as the shops might tell you) and if you are having thermostat trouble, there's a very simple test for you to diagnose the problem.

Of course any time automotive parts and kitchen wares cross paths, you may want to tactfully present the idea to other members of the household in case there are potential objections to the taste of ethylene glycol in the morning coffee!

Jolly Good!

I'm flying home from England this weekend, which means it's time to start re-setting the internal clock by a little disruption of my sleep pattern. And that is the perfect time to put together a post!

Dirtcrashr over at Anthrobogology has apparently named me as a Liebster blog!

OK so the way this works, is, if I understand it correctly, is that once awarded a Liebtser you're supposed to identify 5 other worthy recipients, each of whom have less than 500 followers, then leave a comment on each blog with a link back to your award post, hoping they continue to spread the love. So for my Liebster blogs are...

I would say Mr. Completely, patron saint of the Gun Bloggers Rendezvous (a fund raiser for Soldier’s Angels) but he’s already been nominated at least once so I’m going to nominate his better half over at Kee wee's Corner! A delightful place for fun light reading and some beautiful posts.

Next up, Mr. B and Midwest Chick, wonderful folks, good writers, and both equally handy with shooting irons and kitchen implements.

Since it’s the weekend I’m going to recommend you spend some time Near the Salty City where you you’ll find enough good tunes to make a good sound track for your Saturday night.

Last but not least, if you haven't visited the Smallest Minority, you certainly should! And while you're at it, check out the Kalashnakitty T shirts!

So everyone please pass along your awards and keep the chain going.

And with that, I'll get back to packing.

Well, maybe a few more pictures!

Duct tape is forever!

Let’s play ‘what if’ for a moment.

You come to the work in the morning and look at the calendar. February 14. That sounds familiar; ah wait, it’s Valentine’s day. You haven’t bought a gift, or even a card. You would call the florist, but that costs money and it’s the last minute so it will cost extra and it’s probably out of the way on the trip home.

What to do…

I say, take a cue from Red Green and go get some duct tape.

You can find instructions for duct tape roses elsewhere online, but I’ve tweaked them a bit and I think the results are quite nice.

Start with two rolls of Duck brand duct tape, one green and one red. You’ll also need some wire, but you should already have this in the emergency kit in your car right?!

Start with a wire (In this case left over from rewiring my house) and wrap it with green tape. Then cut the first petal from red tape. Cut a piece that’s roughly square then fold the corners like so.

And so

Wrap it around the stem to form the center of the rose.

Now here’s the trick to getting something that looks like a rose and not just a wad of duct tape. Slit a foot long piece of duct tape into halves or thirds. Wrap this around the base of the first petal.

Because the petals are thicker at the top than the base, this wrap is needed to keep the blossom from turning into a cone. You’ll want one of these strips for every 5 or 6 petals you put on the flower.

Begin wrapping petals around the stem, followed by the thin strips.

Once the blossom is looking full (at least a dozen petals or more,) wrap the base of the blossom with green tape.

Make a few leaves from the green tape. These can be a bit taller than the red petals.

Surround the blossom with a few green leaves then add a couple leaves to the stem.

Repeat to make a bouquet or add to a vase and act like you planned this all along.

You just saved about 30 dollars on a bouquet of roses!

And remember, I’m pulling for you! We’re all in this together.

It's a Jungle Out There

I'm packing my bag again for another overseas adventure. Chances are it'll be 1-2 weeks, which is barely enough time to get over the jetlag. This one is short compared to most trips I've made overseas and better yet, I'm going to a place where people speak my language. Admittedly the weather will likely be pretty cold and damp, but I doubt it'll be much more troublesome than Chicago this time of year.

I've mentioned that I spent plenty of time in Asia recently and having done so does help me to appreciate the value of working in a place where an industrial base is well established and a more or less capitalist economy is considered normal.

I spent considerable portions of last year and the year before in Vietnam. I forget the exact amount of time, but I know it was long enough to rack up 4 visas in my passport, become a familiar face to the entire lobby staff at the hotel, get invited to a local wedding, and navigate through much of Saigon without a map. I even had a chance to take in the Liberation day festivities while I was there. (Congratulations. Uhm, how's that whole, liberation thing working out for you?)

I stayed at a pretty nice hotel on the waterfront where you could see the fireworks display quite well. I'm glad too because I would not have wanted to be in the crowd on the street.

Of course I didn't actually work in Saigon, I actually travelled out to one of the nearby provinces every day where I was trying to piece together some back engineered surplus equipment for a new factory. It wasn't that far away, but it seldom took less than an hour to make the trip. The traffic and the roads made me glad I wasn't the one driving (the rental car came with a driver) because I'm certain somebody would have been hurt.

As you start off in Saigon, the roads are pretty good. The main thoroughfares are several lanes wide, well paved, only flood during heavy rain, and they have functioning traffic lights. I soon found out the traffic lights were mostly for show. Right of way seems to depend on the size of the vehicle, the volume of the horn, and whether or not you have a passenger hanging out the window waving people out of the way. Mopeds could usually weave in and around other traffic, but if you were in a car or small bus you had to go with the flow, and sometimes that meant you were going so slow that a one legged boy on a bicycle could pass you. (One time members of our team were able to get out for a smoke and a beer without fear of losing sight of our bus!)

Once you got out of Saigon the road conditions went downhill. I was working in a developing industrial region so the pavement had yet to catch up with the traffic. That wasn't really a problem on dry days but when it rained the unpaved surfaces combined with the lack of proper drainage meant that you would end up with enough potholes and washouts to slow traffic to a crawl. It didn't really help that most of the vehicles weren't particularly roadworthy.

Improvised taillights were probably the least of the hazards on the road. Overloaded trucks with poorly secured loads were the norm. I recall being in one traffic jam which was caused by a truck loaded with rebar stopped in the middle of the road. When we finally got to the head of the jam you could see that the rearmost axle had let go and the wheels were splayed outward in resigned acceptance of gravity's superior strength. I think the most accidents and traffic jams must have been caused by flat or blow tires. I'm pretty sure everyone there was operating on a 'run to failure' maintenance system because mopeds, cars, and trucks all had their share of bald tires. One case in particular was parked at the loading dock one day when I pointed it out to a coworker. The tire had obviously been retreaded at least once, and the replaced tread was coming off in such big chunks that you could no longer consider the tire to be round. My coworker commented on it, poking at the bare patches with his finger. The rest of us moved away and asked him not to tempt fate by poking the tire again.

Once we finally made it to work things weren't always so bad. I was working in a new factory, which meant it was pretty clean compared to what have seen elsewhere and we actually had an office and workshop area that was air conditioned, so you could always get away from the factory floor and cool down a bit if you needed to. We did have a few problems like flooding (or even rain) in the production area, but it's not like it rains every day in Vietnam, and walking around the puddles to check for wires is good exercise.

Of course being a new factory meant that there were a few things missing like workbenches, vises, calipers, air hoses, safety glasses, polishing compound, polishing wheels, light fixtures, electric cords with plugs, pipe fittings, bolts, micrometers, electrical tape, duct tape, solder, spare parts, cabinets, height gauges, flashlights, hand presses, taps & dies, and wrenches to name a few. The tricky bit was that when you needed something, or needed to have something repaired/modified, you couldn't just run down the road to Grainger or the local machine shop. You needed a guide who knew all of the local shops and businesses or else you were sunk.

You see, most of what is sold here comes through small shops, and while I like seeing local businesses make money, you really have to know your way around to find anything. To put it in perspective, suppose you were doing home repairs. Instead of going to the home depot and picking up everything at once, you would stop at a place like this for plumbing fixtures. Then you would look for a shed with a bunch of poles leaning against it to get your lumber, a shop with big spools of wire for your electrical supplies, and then maybe another shop after that to buy your hardware.

Plenty of times when I asked for a piece of equipment the answer was, "Saigon" meaning the nearest place to get it was in or around the city. That meant sending someone back to town. If they had to take a bus, it was usually a 4 hour round trip, but if you were lucky, you could send someone on a moped and cut the time in half.

Mopeds are the dominant mode of transportation for people and any other less than truckload shipment you need to make in Vietnam. You could break up the monotony of a long drive a little by looking for crazy things being carried on the backs of mopeds. There were usually two approaches to this. For bulk items people would hang baskets from the sides of their bike, stack the rear seat with boxes and then have the driver carry another basket or box in his lap.

It's blurry, but you get the idea. The other approach was the buddy system and this was usually for single or oddly shaped items like bookshelves, lamps, or plate glass windows. The driver would watch the road and the buddy would hold the package in between them. One time I noticed a moped with an oddly shaped cargo and I managed to get out my camera in time to capture it.

It was hard to see clearly at first.

It must be some kind of pipe, but how is he holding on to it.

Ah, he's wearing his cargo. Now I will refrain from making any flatulence jokes here, but if you are so inclined you may wish to make up your own that include the terms 'alternative fuel' and 'afterburner'

There were more colorful moped cargoes as well.
That reminds me, is Valentine's day coming up?

Ah well, I've never been big on buying flowers, why start now.

I have to say, the people I met in Vietnam were generally quite nice. The language barrier made things a bit difficult, but I was never treated with any hostility.

In fact I was sometimes surprised the number of willing workers around. Sure we played the little games where the mechanics tried to find excuses to go home early, but for the most part the mechanics and floor level Supervisors seemed genuinely interested in what we were doing and responded positively to both instruction and direction.

Where things got a bit tricky was dealing with management structures. I won't speak ill of anyone I worked with as we all managed to get the job done in the end, but you could certainly tell that when some subjects came up there was a resistance to make critical decisions or say potentially unpopular things. That's not really a surprise. Communist mindset is still quite strong in Vietnam and even though it's moving into a market economy. As a general cultural observation, making a decision means you're vulnerable to punishment when it goes wrong, and you'll get more work if it goes right. It's not surprising that few people will stick their heads above the parapet. Maybe that will change in the future, but I doubt it will change quickly.

Billboards like this are pretty common. The themes vary from heroic figures to idealistic looking villages full of healthy people working and 'doing their part.' I'm not really so interested in the translation of this billboard as I am the opinions of the people who go by it every day and the people living in the hovels just 100 yards down the road. I'm guessing not everyone sees eye to eye with the department of cultural affairs.

All in all, it wasn't a bad time. I suppose if I weren't trying to set up a factory in the jungle it would be a decent place to visit. Still, I think I enjoy spending my time in places with better motorways, fewer mopeds, safe drinking water, and fish that doesn't taste like the Mekong delta.

Until next time, look out for those bicycles and Ox carts!

Dress like an engineer

Apparently Kurt has taken me to task over not posting so I had best address the issue by putting up something new to look at.  I'll start with something which came to mind not long ago as I was reorganizing my closet.

I think more people need to dress like an engineer. 

Now I know engineers don't necessarily have a great reputation for being well dressed, in fact I'm certain that at least some of us have selected clothing based purely upon the weather report and a basic evaluation of the thermal properties of the clothing. (Forecast says wind today, I had best break out the forced air convection formulas.)

Still, there are many career minded engineers out there and many of them realize there is truth in the old saying  "Clothes make the man.  Naked people have little or no influence on society." (Mark Twain)

 Eventually this concern over the quality of wardrobe will cause one's mind to turn to ironing.  In fact with our wide array of off the rack clothes and automatic washers and dryers, ironing is the most time consuming part of dressing oneself. 

So what is the most efficient way to get your clothes pressed and wrinkle free?  Personally, I favor the Ironrite.  This device was initially dubbed the mangle ironer, referencing the then common clothes drying device better known as the wringer.

Eventually someone with a little marketing experience stepped in and provided a name that wasn't associated with unintended disfigurement and the Ironrite was born.  These are by far superior to other methods of ironing because they don't require you to stand over an ironing board and because the danger of entanglement adds a bit of an adrenalin rush to an otherwise dull chore.

Of course most of us don't have access to these machines due to space limitations or the fact that a new machine of this size and quality would cost substantially more than today’s consumers would pay for any device without an apple badge, a touch screen, and a set of white earbuds.

That pretty much leaves you with the ironing board and handheld steam iron.  While this approach is time consuming one can find some solace in the fact that steam irons are much better than the flatirons of years past.  The biggest difference of course is the addition of a steam system. 

Rather than rely purely upon direct conductive heat transfer, steam irons speed the pressing process by injecting  steam directly into the fabric, simultaneously heating the fabric from within and utilizing the heat of vaporization to transfer more energy than would be possible by conduction alone.  Of course this technology is still somewhat lacking in that there are currently no superheated steam or even pressurized boiler models availible to the average consumer.  For this reason I recommend only ironing on days with very high barometric pressure as your steam can reach higher temperatures.

Consult your steam tables for further information.

Individuals located at higher altitudes are at a disadvantage here.  Placing ironing boards at sea level (or just high enough above sea level to avoid electrocution) is preferable.  Conditions in death valley are probably best for the utilization of a steam iron, but I suspect the drawbacks of going there to iron would outweigh the benefits.

As to how you should go about ironing your shirts, well there's a very simple system I use to iron as efficiently as possible.  Just repeat after me: Collar, Sleeves, Front, Back. 

I always start with the collar.  Why? because a nice crisp collar is the most noticeable feature of a shirt and always conveys a good impression.  Also it's the only part of the shirt which is consistently visible regardless of the other garments you are wearing, and if you're trying to be efficient, why would you bother ironing the parts of the shirt that don't show?!



Take your shirts out of the laundry and press the collar first, then hang them up in the closet until you know what you're going to wear with them.  If it's the summer and you're dressing light, a nice vest might be in order, in which case you only need to iron the sleeves.  This saves the time ironing the other parts of the shirt.  Taking a few extra seconds to put a nice crisp crease along the top of the arm will make your shirt look nice and sharp and will completely avoid any suspicion that the remainder of the shirt is still sporting prune like wrinkles.

For more formal occasions when a jacket is required you must iron the front of the shirt, that is unless you decide to wear a three piece suit in which case having a well pressed collar is sufficient so long as you don't remove the jacket.  

Now the back of your shirt...well if you spend a lot of time sitting down or you are very conscientious about keeping your back to the wall, I say don't bother ironing what nobody will see.

So to recap, if you don't have a mangle iron be sure to use a handheld steam iron.  Only iron when the barometric pressure is high.  Always iron your collar first.  Only iron the other parts of your shirt if they will be seen.

If all else fails, just wear a turtleneck, sweater, and wrinkle free khakis. 

Don't miss the next installment of engineering fashion when I teach you how to accessorize like a true technical professional.

Another year comes and goes