[Shop-talk] Engine damage

[Benjamin Zwissler]

Well, first I'd clear up the popular myth that sugar in the gas will kill
your car very quickly.  Snopes and Click and Clack have both dealt with
this and both say the sugar won't do any immediate damage to your car.
Sugar doesn't dissolve in water and the worst problem might be a plugged
filter, but even that's unlikely.  Most likely its just going to sit in the
bottom of the tank.

So, if you're looking at other things that will quickly kill an engine if
added to the fuel, my first thought would be diesel fuel or water.  I'd say
both are reasonably detectable though and generally reversible.  Beyond
those I'm not sure.  If you put something that lowered the Octane
significantly you could damage the engine from excessive knock.  You could
plug the filter, carb/injectors with some type of contaminant, maybe epoxy
paint or something that thickens/hardens.

Lots of thiings could be put in the oil, including gasoline, water, etc.,
that would cause slow damage to the engine.  Excessive amounts of ether
starting fluid in the intake while its running will kill it pretty quick.
As will dribbling lots of water in the intake.  Depending on how much time
has elapased these may not be detectable.

Ben....

On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 12:17 PM, <eric at megageek.com> wrote:

> Hello all, theoretical question about engines.
>
> My co-workers and I were talking about trying to identify if an engine was
> tampered with after it was destroyed. (I work in law enforcement.)
>
> We were wondering, would you be able to tell if someone put sugar in a gas
> tank and it lunched the engine?  Mostly on a small engine verses a car.
> (I'm assuming that a fuel filter would catch any additives in a car.)
>
> If so, is there something else to put in gas that would kill it?  Or
> something else that can be done that was undetectable?
>
> I knew this would be the place for the definitive answer!
>
> Eric P
> "Be as beneficent as the sun or the sea, but if your rights as a rational
> being are trenched on, die on the first inch of your territory." Ralph
> Waldo Emerson
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