New-York tribune., 1921-10-30
Heat Will Solve
Engine Problem
On Frosty Days
Stove and Dishrag Will Get
Results in Vaporizing the
Fuel Where Enriched Mix
ture Only Adds to Supply
By H. Clifford Brokaw


Technical Director, West Side Y. NJ.
c. A. Automobile Schools
When the frost is on the pumpkin
and it is time for the urbanite to be-
gin yelling to the janitor for more heat
IN his apartment and for the subur-
banite to begin shovclling coal into his
furnace, then the autoist begins to have
trouble getting his car started. This
ls the open season for commuters to
miss their trains because whereas it
mas been taking, during the warm
weather months, no time at all to start
the engine, now it often takes five or
ten minutes to get the engine to run.
And the colder the weather gets the
more difficult it is to make the engine
start. Noises indicating that cars have
acute attacks of bronchitis can be heard
issuing from garages these snappy cold
mornings. In some cases the din more
nearly resembles a reproduction of the
battle OF Chateau Thierry. Men can be
seen running back and forth from
house to garage armed with steaming
teakettles and dishrags.
Now, to the novice, the new owner.
the first inclination would be to cuss
the manufacturer and the engine. 1t
isn't the fault of the engine at all, it is
because "the gasoline doesn't gas How
ever, there is a solution of the problem,
at least enough of a remedy to make
lie little happier for the owner.
This condition of gas was absent for
several years. In the early days of
automobile construction, before the
manufacturers were able to devise a
carbureteor for vaporizing gasoline un-
der all conditions, we had this same
trouble as soon as the weather turned
cold. Persistent experiments produced
carburetcr which overcame the
trouble. Then, almost as soon as a
carburetor was developed which would
vaporize the gasoline undr adverse
conditions, somehow the volatility of
the gasoline was found to have de-
creased
1t is true that the gasoline now sold
has greater heat-producing quality.
If only we can get it properly mixed
and volatilized. 1t may be that the
gasoline producers, by putting heavier
gasoline on the market have been of
a real service to auto men, once we
have learned to utilize it economically
and efficiently. They may have had in
mind higher power, but they have given
US a gas which is hard to vaporize on
frosty morning.
In changing gasoline from liquid to
vapor considerable heat must be sup
Piled. When the atmospheric tempera-
ture is too low there is not sufficient
sprayed into the carburetor. When
the engine is warm the process
of vaporiza ton goes on from the
needle valve to the moment of ig-
milton, but if the engine is cold
the process is retarded more or less,
and under some conditions it is posi-
Die for thoroughly vaporized gasoline
to be again condensed. The man who
does not understand is inclined to say
uncomplimentary things about the en-
CINE and talk about ''freproof gaso-
line The only trouble is that the
temperature is SO low that we must
heat the air before we send it into the
carburetor
Practically all the carburetor manu-
facturers put out ''stove" to heat the
air supply, which is attached around
the exhaust pipe, so that the hot air
surrounding the pipe is conveyed to the
carburetor, which warns the air en-
terlng the intake, thus supplying the
heat necessary to effect vaporization.
This "stove" or gas warmer might be
called "hot air furnace"
How to Raise Temperature
The process of vaporization absorbs
large amount of heat. To raise the
temperature of the liquid one degree
takes certain amount of heat. The
amount required per degree remains
the same until the point of vaporiza-
tion is reached, when several hundred
times that amount of heat is required
to effect vaporization. The "hot air,
furnace supplies the extra amount of
heat.
A great many carburetors have the
mixing chamber water-j jacketed, and the
water from the cooling system is circu-
lated through it, supplying some heat
in that way Sometimes that in itself
is sufficient, but at present it seems ad-
visable to use both. Neither one of
these is in operation when the engine
IS started; the "hot-air furnace" de-
pends upon the exhaust pipe being
heated and the water-jacket upon the
engine itself being heated long enough
to warm up the circulation to find some
that it becomes necessary to dnd some
means to supply heat until these warm
up.
When the car is started in warm
garage the gasoline will vaporize prop
erly and the engine will run in good
shape, but s soon as the car goes out
iheo lHc Solu Ill ~ VIII cool tne engine
so that some of the gasoline will be
condensed. Therefore we close the
radiator cover partly or wholly until
the engine is thoroughly warmed. If
the car is started in cold garage the
teakettle and dishrag method must be
resorted to. Wrap the cloth around the
intake pipe and the carburetor so that
it does not cover the air intake, and
pour the boiling water on the rag, tax
ing car that none gets in the air intake.
The hot water will heat the carburetor
and intake pipe and raise the tempera-
ture of the mixture so that the engine
will run. In some cases it may be nee
essary even to drain out the cooling
system and fill it with hot water, so
that the combustion chamber becomes
heated up.
OF course, sometimes the skipping
can be overcome by enriching the mix
ture by the dash control, but with the
present heavy gasoline the enriched
mixture does not seem to do much good
and is simply adding to the supply of
gasoline, which is already refusing to
vaporize. Therefore it seems to be the