Acid (was: Drain valves versus plugs versus suction)

[James Marriott]

> My car was recently in the shop, and one of the mechanics had
it parked
> right in front of one of the bays.  Inside the bay was a beat
up 4k that was
> elevated a bit, and the engine had just been started up.  There
was
> tremendous amounts of black "stuff" dripping out of the exhaust
and all over
> my car.  In fact, about 25% of my hood was covered with this
"black water"
> by the time it caught anyone's attention.
>
> I told the mechanic, somewhat angry, "thanks for covering my
car with
> sufuric acid", to which he said, "What are you talking about?
I haven't
> heard that one before, thats just some harmless water!"...
>
> It was dilluted sulfuric acid, wasn't it?

Indeed it was. Virtually all non-gas petroleum-based hydrocarbon
fuels (coal, diesel, gasoline, etc) contain sulfur compounds,
which lead to sulfur dioxide emissions, which lead to acid rain.
It also led to, for example, BMW replacing a bunch of 4.0
all-aluminum V8s under (a very expensive) warranty (program) due
to our higher-than- Deutschland sulfur content dissolving the
cylinder walls.

http://www.webpak.net/~marriott/gasoline.htm

cu, James Marriott
'87 4kq (alias "late-B2 90q") with rare NG engine, 181k
'89 200q (MC1, ProconTen/no bag, 1.8 blah blah), 139k
Boise, ID, USA     http://www.webpak.net/~marriott/
www.ringsperformance.com