Hi everyone,
I have a story which I thought we might all find funny:
A good friend of mine drives a Vanden Plas Princess 1300, better
known to you and me as an Austin 1100 (like John Cleese always
drives) with a walnut dash and better soundproofing. For some
reason he has a soft spot for the 1100/1300 family of cars.
Weirdly, his other soft spot is for driving in the rain......(?).
A few weeks ago it was raining hard in the UK and a friend told
him that there was a stretch of road that was covered in about 3-4
inches deep of water. So he was out there ASAP, it was dark and there
was no-one around so he took a slow cruise through the water (it was
about a 100 yard stretch of Mega-puddle). Having successfully
navigated his way out of the other end, he went up the road and
turned round. He decided to take a run at the puddle relatively fast.
So he drove towards the puddle at about 40 mph, and just before hitting
the water put the car in second gear in order to keep the revs up to stop
it stalling. For a few seconds all goes well, he has his foot hard down
in second with the engine screaming, but its going great, creating a good
bow wave. Then suddenly there is an enormous bang and the car stops dead,
he said it really was like hitting a wall. Having regained composure
he tried to restart the engine, nothing happened. So he gets out with a
torch and paddles round to have a look at the engine. Opening the bonnet
he finds the engine bay scattered with pieces of copper, and what looked
like cardboard. Closer investigation reveals that this material is
head gasket!---Yes you've guessed it, while delivering maximum power
in a low gear the engine had drunk a few pints of water! The resulting
hydraulic lock causing the head gasket to be ejected!!
Next day he retrieved the car and took the head off, one piston had a crack
right across its crown, but since it was his only transport he just
replaced the head gasket. Not surprisingly, compression is a bit low
on that cylinder, and it burns some oil--but it still goes.
so watch that deep water,
Dave
|