Re: Whats the sodium for?

["Fred Munro" <munrof@isys.ca>]

Glen;

    The melting point of sodium is 97.5 celcius, just below the boiling
point of water.
    Sodium also burns in water, so don't be cutting open old exhaust valves
to take a look. It does a really nice job on skin, not to mention eyes and
mucous membranes.

Fred Munro
'91 200q  253k km


-----Original Message-----
From: quattro <quattro@acacianet.com>
To: quattro@coimbra.ans.net <quattro@coimbra.ans.net>
Date: Monday, June 01, 1998 9:02 AM
Subject: RE: Whats the sodium for?



I'm not sure that sodium reaches a liquid state at the temperatures
encountered in even a turbo-charged internal combustion engine. Anyone got
another theory?

-glen


>In the turbo head the valves have sodium in 'em.  How does this allow
>you to run more boost?  Does it cool the valve better???

As the valve opens and closes the liquid sodium moves inside the valve,
taking the heat away from the tip and transfering it to the well cooled
stem. Liquid sodium is an excellent heat conductor - it is used on some
nuclear sumbarines for cooling reactors.


Aleksander Mierzwa
Warsaw, Poland
mailto:alex@matrix.com.pl
87 Audi 5000CS turbo (mine)
88 Renault Medallion wagon (mom's)
91 mountain bike (just in case both cars broke at the same time :-)