Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1220268
an electric fan and a heater. Be- tween them, one can find a fuel injector. The heating element is heated until it turns red, then fuel is sprayed onto it and the flame is distributed by the fan. The whole thing works like a flamethrower – it is quite spectacular, to be hon- est. The exit nozzle has a metal attachment pipe that is then placed under the car. It takes only 15-20 minutes to warm up the engine bay enough for the car to start without any problems what- soever. This is how it's done in Ya- kutsk, a city with population of 300,000, the capital of Yakutia. If anything, unexpected happens along the way, a fire burning un- der the oil sump is the only solu- tion. However, it may only be applied in case of old GAZ, Lada and UAZ vehicles. In case of con- temporary cars, the fire may dam- age seals within the engine, melt plastic plugs or insulation of the wiring. Thus, solution as such is risky, as it may do more harm than good. Let us look for a civilized solution to all of the aforesaid problems. And let us start at the end – from the freezing liquids. All other liquids: coolant, power-steering liquid, A/C liquid, transmission oils, may also freeze up in low temperatures – this may also lead to irrevers- ible damage. Frozen coolant is the worst-case scenario as it may cause the engine block or the cyl- inder head to crack. This renders the vehicle unusable. Numerous complications may emerge then. The simple way to survive is to follow the role model and copy the habits of commu- nities living in tough conditions. So, what do the Sakha do with their cars, during the wintertime? They use two solutions – they do not turn them off, and if they do, they keep the cars in heated ga- rages. And they do not use diesel. Then the problem number one be- comes irrelevant. And what about malfunctions? There is a service available in Yakutsk – after pay- ing around 30 euros a guy comes with a burner and a set of blan- kets that he uses to cover the en- gine and whatever can be found under the hood, and then he clos- es the hood. Blankets are also put on the body of the car, cover- ing the bumpers and the doors, isolating the space underneath the car. Then, the burner comes alive. The whole system features First, one should answer a question: why a Diesel engine would not start at the temperature of -45C degrees for instance. There are several reasons why. The fuel is the first one – diesel fuel behaves like a gel in low temperatures. Even though the air/diesel mixture may be ignited in the cylin- der, when the fuel is in a gel-like consistency it would not be able to pass through the injector or even through the fuel system. The oil in the engine is also becoming more viscous in conditions as such. The effect is sim- ilar as the one witnessed in case of fuel. The engine filled with a liquid that resembles honey that was left in a cupboard for a few years faces a much greater internal resistance. Much great- er force is needed to overcome that resistance and move the crankshaft. The battery is another problem. The elec- trolyte in acid batteries freezes in a tempera- ture between -25C and -35C degrees, provided that the battery is fully charged. If the battery does not carry the complete charge, the freez- ing temperature is higher. Frozen batteries are damaged irreversibly – this cannot happen in any case. Unfortunately, even if the battery is not damaged, its efficiency, namely the quantity of current it may put out, is drastically limited. Overlapping of problems #2 and #3 has been depicted on the drawing here. Not only does the engine need more energy to start – the battery is providing less energy in circumstances as such. www.fragoutmag.com