Do you know an old invention that could work today? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

#1 08-15-2003, 10:45 AM

In the old british sports car thread a Rolls Royce innovation was noted. It seems that in the 30's a customer complained about an engine not running so Rolls built a car with two engines! They could run independantly or together for more power. I am a fan of old machinery. Stationary engines, farm equipment motorcycles etc and I believe that there could be some old inventions that could be reserected. Any ideas out there?

jsmith · #2 08-15-2003, 12:04 PM

in the auto world lots of inventions were killed off by detroit, specially if they were radical (even if it worked really well). it will ruin them financially to have to retool their plants...

rickg · #3 08-15-2003, 12:32 PM

Hey Bmunse! You're one of "us"! I'm a collector of "fine rust" too!

I can think of one thing that was "re-invented" back in the 80's, water injection systems for cars. Remember those? The gas octane ratings were plummeting like a rock, and there were still alot of cars that needed the high-octane leaded fuel. So alot of companies made bucks selling water injection systems to cool down the mix and reduce knock.
Heck, they were using water injection back in the 1920's on old tractors so they'd run on crappie gas(or whatever was handy). And airplane engines used it in WW2. Nothing new.

jsmith · #4 08-15-2003, 12:50 PM

hey rick,

yeah, whatever happened to those? jcwhitney used to sell several different types. i remember my bro made one up with some tubing and a water bottle, basically using vacuum to suck air through water producing a "water injection" effect. worked great and kept manifolds clean too...

#5 08-15-2003, 12:50 PM

Right on brother!
About water injection.
I had a customer with an aftermarket torbo bolted to an RX7 It would spark knock worse than anything I ever saw. I spent hours building a water/methanol injector. When that car was right, it was awesome.

rickg · #6 08-15-2003, 01:09 PM

I seem to remember that thing didn't really perform all that well. But did some gnarley burn-outs!

rickg · #7 08-15-2003, 01:15 PM

That 455 is one heck of a stump puller! I took on one when I had my '67 Chrysler 300 with a 440 wedge. It was a dead even race.

#8 08-15-2003, 01:24 PM

I lived at the drag race strip in the sixties and saw the hairy Olds run somewhere. It may have been during my pilgramage to the Indy nationals in 66 or 67. TV Tommy Ivo was there with his four engine Olds powered dragster too. Of all the odd balls though Hollie Swindells Back up pick up took the cake. A hemi installed in the back of a dodge van pickup( I don't remember what model dodge called their creation). But Hollies truck was driven from a seat installed to the rear. He was one of the quarter mile wheelie guys. He steered it with two brake pedals. hollie is from right here in St Louis. I know him well enough that his junk yard dog attacked me and sent me to the hospitol with a broken leg.

Botnst · #9 08-15-2003, 03:26 PM

Related, I guess....

I knew a retired naval officer who'd modified his Corolla with all kinds of sensors so he coul dkeep up with exhaust and intake manifold temp and and pressure and he'd put some direct controls on his carb so that he could fine-tune the thing.

The reason he did all that was to monitor th effects of his mod: had taken the transducer thingy from an untrasonic cleaner and attached it to the throat of the carb so that the fuel would be completely aerosol before it went into the manifold.

He swore it worked and could adjust the thing so that he'd get some sort of optimal Temp and pressure differential between input and exhaust.

I remember driving around out in the countryside of S Mississippi with him, each of us with a couple of beers inside and another in hand. He had to drive and adjust all that stuff all the time and swore it was a great improvement.

It was cold beer on a hot summer afternoon, anyway.

Botnst

#10 08-15-2003, 03:41 PM

you don't say if he had a sensor in the exhaust or not but if he did, The first driver assisted computer carb!
That perfect point is called stoichiometric (sp)
I have done some of my craziest things when beer was involved. Throw in the s. Mississippi heat and you can get some serious brain damage.