BS ENGINES

[Clinton L. Corbin : Backgrind/Gold : Pager 0544]

>>    4:) A new piston : You'd melt a standard piston real quick, they're a low 
>>grade aluminum, cheap as hell. Replacing it with a Stainless steel piston would 
>>make it nearly flame proof.
>
>Stainless steel piston????  Bit heavy I would have thought?  Why not
>graft in a crank and piston from said Honda?? ( BTW most pistons tend
>to be flame proof!!!!)  This would solve the con rod problem as well
>(I have seen several of these snap even when the engine was powering a
>mower)

Aluminum pistons being flame proof?!  Aluminum melts at around 1100F (used to
work in an aluminum foundry).  Flame temp inside an IC engine is around 1600F.
At 1600F, aluminum is a really pretty BRIGHT orange liquid!  The only thing 
that saves the piston is the limited time that the fuel/air is burning 
(relative to the total time) and the heat transfer to the cylinder.  If you
increase the amount of energy being generated in the combustion chamber 
(say by turbocharging or just increasing the breathing of the engine) enough,
the piston will not be able to dump the extra energy to the cylinder and bam,
you melt a nice hole in the piston.  BTW, molten aluminum is not the best lube
in the world!  All in all, aluminum is not the best material for a piston.
Unfortunately, a really great material (Carbon/Carbon Composites) costs about
fifty times as much!  Maybe someday we will all have pistons that CANNOT melt.

Clint
ccorbin at intel7.intel.com