In article <12...@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> osbo...@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Larry N. Osborne) writes:
>a common trick of my youth was to ram a potato onto >the exhaust pipe of a car. When the engine was started pressure built >up until the potato was ejected with a loud bang. We used to do this >to each other, but my exhaust system was always leaky enough that the >pipe was for show only ... I once drove 450 miles and then noticed >the potato.
By any chance did you grow up in Idaho? We used to do this to the school buses, using potatos stolen from the farm across the street from the school. I always assumed that this was a regional thing caused by the easy access we had to potatos. Nobody else I've mentioned it to has ever heard of such a thing. /dwight -- I didn't claw my way to the top of the food chain to eat vegetables. Dwight Tovey dwi...@locus.com The views I express are entirely my own and do not in any way represent
I've heard of putting a raw egg in the gas tank... It seems that the gas would cook the egg, and would block the fuel pump after a while. After letting things settle down, the egg would move away and the car would be fine for x minutes, then would die again...
-- David Huang | "Calzoni Pizza: Internet: da...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu | Delivery in six UUCP: ..!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!daveh | hours, or else your America Online: DrWho29 | pizza is cold."
In article <12...@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>, Larry N. Osborne writes: > Wouldn't the exhaust gases compress and the exhaust system expand > enough to at least allow the engine to start? I don't have any recent > experience, but a common trick of my youth was to ram a potato onto > the exhaust pipe of a car. When the engine was started pressure built > up until the potato was ejected with a loud bang. We used to do this > to each other, but my exhaust system was always leaky enough that the > pipe was for show only ... I once drove 450 miles and then noticed > the potato.
Sugar in the gas tank damaging? No way! I bet that rumors been spread by the same oil companys that have been holding out on the 100mpg engine. Sugar is obviously one on the main fuel additives they use to increase performance.
In article <1991Apr5.145132.13...@sbcs.sunysb.edu>, jpete...@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (John G Peterson) writes:
> Sugar in the gas tank damaging? No way! > I bet that rumors been spread by the same oil companys that have been > holding out on the 100mpg engine. Sugar is obviously one on the main > fuel additives they use to increase performance.
Ok, then explain me this: When I was a kid, my 5 younger brothers and I had a go-kart. Being boys and therefore mostly braindead until they reached their respective majorities, they thought what fun it would be to drop variously colored jellybeans into the gas tank. It did quit running, and my dad raised a holy stink and beat several bottoms as a result.
These are the same kids who put small pebbles into the gas tank of his Harley also. Apparently this is also a no-no?
Jean | Lemmings is nothing more than an werjun@large / \ existentialist metaphor for the cs170703...@vger.nsu.edu \ / great cosmic rat race we call life. |
In article <46...@ut-emx.uucp>, da...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David H. Huang) writes:
> I've heard of putting a raw egg in the gas tank... It seems that the > gas would cook the egg, and would block the fuel pump after a while. > After letting things settle down, the egg would move away and the car > would be fine for x minutes, then would die again...
> -- > David Huang | "Calzoni Pizza: > Internet: da...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu | Delivery in six > UUCP: ..!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!daveh | hours, or else your > America Online: DrWho29 | pizza is cold."
--
I wonder how many foreign substances are supposed to do this in a gas tank? The one I heard was a pair of pantyhose -- supposedly they are light enough to be sucked into the intake at high speeds, but at low speeds or with the engine stopped will slosh away from it. Does nylon dissolve in gasoline?
On another item in this thread, I understood that dissolving mothballs (paradichlorobenzene variety) in your gas tank would make your car go like the proverbial bat for a while, but that eventually (if a sufficiently high concentration was used) you would "burn" holes in the pistons (due to excessive temperatures or pre-ignition).
Also, a FOAF is reliably (:-)) reported to have threaded a spark plug into the end of his tailpipe, run a plug wire to it (removing a wire from one of the cylinders), and fitted a switch to energize it. When turned on, it made a great smoke screen/flamethrower (this vehicle presumably did not have a catalytic converter).
(OK, it's not car sabotage, but it IS in the "fun with cars" supercategory.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Tom Greer (gr...@mwk.uucp)| This stuff springs entirely from my own mind, and is M. W. Kellogg | neither endorsed by nor known to my employer, the 601 Jefferson Ave. | U. S. government, the Vogon Poetry Appreciation P. O. Box 4557 | Society, or any other entity wise enough to avoid Houston, TX 77210-4457 | reading it.
In article <302.27fb9...@mwk.uucp> gr...@mwk.uucp writes: >Also, a FOAF is reliably (:-)) reported to have threaded a spark plug into the >end of his tailpipe, run a plug wire to it (removing a wire from one of the >cylinders), and fitted a switch to energize it. When turned on, it made a >great smoke screen/flamethrower (this vehicle presumably did not have a >catalytic converter).
This idea comes straight out of one of George Hayduke's books. As I'm at work at the moment I can't check it to see which one it is. Hayduke also mentions somewhere that the OSS used a mixture of several substances, most notably ground cork, to put in gas tanks in lieu of sugar during WWII.
--jjw
-- Her eyes were cold and || John Wichers || wich...@husc4.harvard.edu harsh, which made them || 121 Museum St #2, Somerville Ma. 02143 tough to chew. - Danno || Anarchy - It's not a law, it's just a good idea. || Jesus saves sinners ... and redeems them for valuable cash prizes!!! ||
The reason Tang was developed in the first place was not as a drink for astronauts, but as a tool to be used by the government against possible civilian uprisings. A few ounces of Tang in the gas tank will instantly immobilize any motor vehicle. By cleverly developing the powder, they managed to give it an orange taste when mixed with water, thus concealing its true purpose. Selling it in grocery stores meant the government would always have a ready supply close at hand.
This fact is well-documented in the book "Secrets of the MJ-12 Trilateral Illuminati Commission" by L. Ron Hubbard.
- snopes
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---+ | The Weakly Enquiring World Star News | | April 8, 1991 | | | | Chimps steal kidney from human zoogoer -- and give it to ailing orangutan! | | | | Cancer boy receives 3 million "Get Well" postcards -- all postage due! | | Family forced to spend life's savings on postage instead of surgery! | | | | Methane/ammonia atmosphere best for humans, asserts Yugoslav astronomer! | | | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---+
Quoted from - osbo...@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Larry N. Osborne):
> >dkra...@orion.oac.uci.edu (Doug Krause) writes: > >>(Christopher J. Shields) writes: > >>A good trick I learned in grade school- ram a super ball up the muffler. > >If the seal is good enough, and the car is in good > >condition, the engine shouldn't even start.
> [...] a common trick of my youth was to ram a potato onto > the exhaust pipe of a car. When the engine was started pressure built > up until the potato was ejected with a loud bang.
Well I wasn't going to mention it, but now you've brought it up ... My brother used to tell me the things his friends got up to at school (so this is a FOAB story) ... stuffing spuds (potatoes) into exhausts was one of their pass times - two incidents mentioned were :
1) they inserted one into the exhaust of a Mini (very small British car), the car loaded up with 4 teachers spluttered into life, and crawled very slowly across the carpark, then stopped, a bemused looking teacher got out and walked around the car, scratching his head. When he eventually spotted the potato he extracted it and glared towards the classrooms :-)
2) another occasion they plugged the exhaust of a police car, but as described by Larry it simply blew out with a bang :-)
Another interesting exercise was to stretch a short piece of rubber tubing (eg a short length of bicycle inner tube), over the end of the exhaust, with a nail through the open end of the tube. Apparently these made marvelous noises (most appropriate for police cars?).
Now come to think of it, maybe the Mini story should have had the rubber tube rather than the stud ... oh well, it's only a FOAB story :-) -- _ o(_) (c) Tony Wills 19** | All the world should live in alt.folklore, / /\ twi...@actrix.gen.nz | unfortunately some die in sci.skeptic NZAmigaUG | -AJW 1991
In article <302.27fb9...@mwk.uucp> gr...@mwk.uucp writes: >In article <46...@ut-emx.uucp>, da...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David H. Huang) writes: [Edited] >Also, a FOAF is reliably (:-)) reported to have threaded a spark plug into the >end of his tailpipe, run a plug wire to it (removing a wire from one of the >cylinders), and fitted a switch to energize it. When turned on, it made a >great smoke screen/flamethrower (this vehicle presumably did not have a >catalytic converter).
Ah yes. I can verify this (thus taking it rather neatly *out* of the legend category). I went to go and watch some motor racing at Knockhill race circuit in Fyfe (that's in Scotland) which included, amongst other rather crappy specialist events, a truck that did wheelies. What is also did was spray large quantities of flame out of both exhaust pipes which, being on a truck, pointed directly upwards. Seeing this for the first time, I wondered just how they managed to accomplish this spectacle, and I went down to the track to talk to the driver (knowing friends in the right places sure helps!). He told me that there was a spark plug at the end of each exhaust pipe to ignite the unburnt fuel that emerged from them, both driven off a coil independent of the truck's own ignition system. This astonished me, since I'd assumed that the truck was diesel powered, and therefore had no ignition system in the first place, but no, it turned out that it was, in fact, petrol powered. Which presumably meant that me must have attained some quite spectacularly crappy miles per gallon figure for his truck. Or maybe that should be gallons per mile. Anyway, that should sort out this UL once and for all.
However, I wonder, would it work on a diesel engined vehicle? Anyone?
James -- .$. | |>. _| /\ /\/\ <- _\~ /\/\ < [_+ /~ <- [_+ <> /~ | D. James McGregor e-mail dmcgr...@cs.strath.ac.uk | "Beware of software engineers bearing screwdrivers!" |
In article <1991Apr4.151132.402...@locus.com> dwi...@locus.com (Dwight Tovey) writes: >In article <12...@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> osbo...@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Larry N. Osborne) writes:
>>a common trick of my youth was to ram a potato onto >>the exhaust pipe of a car.
>By any chance did you grow up in Idaho? We used to do this to the school >buses, using potatos stolen from the farm across the street from the school. >I always assumed that this was a regional thing caused by the easy access we >had to potatos. Nobody else I've mentioned it to has ever heard of such a >thing.
My father, who grew up in West Virginia, told me about doing these sorts of things in his youth.
>>>a common trick of my youth was to ram a potato onto >>>the exhaust pipe of a car. >>By any chance did you grow up in Idaho? We used to do this to the school >>buses, using potatos stolen from the farm across the street from the school. >>I always assumed that this was a regional thing caused by the easy access we >>had to potatos. Nobody else I've mentioned it to has ever heard of such a >>thing. >Definitely a multi-regional phenomenon. ;-)
Yep. Longish time ago, I was a rentapig, working at a site where buses were kept during the night. The drivers, not wishing to strand old folks and such by going on strike, wanted to communicate their displeasure to management without causing loss of service. Since I was clearly a hippie scum type, they didn't feel they had to silence themselves just because I walked into the room.
"Two points." I say. "One, I don't want to catch y'all smokin' dope on my route, because the paperwork I'd be 'sposed to do is a real drag -- and if you smoke in _that_ room, which doesn't have a key station" (a security guard carries a clock that has a paper disk in it, and as the night passes, the disk rotates, and the guard, inserting keys at the various stations, is able to document that SHe was there and awake (or, at least, that SHe had removed the keys on hir first round, and stayed awake) "I won't."
"Second, why don't you get a bag of potatoes, and just leave one lying around in the bus yard, now and then."
Further conversation revealed that these folks, for all their claims to be well-informed workers, had never heard about this. But the next night, I did find, and duly wrote up, the presence of potatoes "suspiciously near" the exhaust pipes of buses.
The next day, the general manager was still there when I went on-shift. He asked "you mention potatoes being 'suspiciously near' to the exhaust, and 'no other sign of sabotage' -- what's that about?"
I explain, respectfully, about the significance of potatoes, and several guards got overtime for the next several nights till the company settled with the drivers. (Since the drivers weren't collecting fares as they drove, and the extra security was costing more than the few folks who paid anyway would cover....)
This happened in the midwest, but I'd learned about it when someone my dad worked with on the east coast potatoed HIS exhaust. Amazing how the things we learn in childhood come back when we need them.
STe...@xanadu.com 1016 E. El Camino Real, #302, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 (thelema.uucp seems to work for some, thelema.com has no business working)
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