Nov 12, 2022
New puzzler time.
It was a very hot day. Not a dark and stormy night, but a very hot day. So the opposite of a dark and stormy night.
We got two letters about this a while ago. Two different types of cars had this happen, but the type of car doesn't matter in this case. Anyway, here goes.
This fellow was driving his car on the highway on this very hot day. He was driving a long distance on this hot day. And there had been a thunderstorm earlier in the day. He had driven through the thunderstorm, but it was so hot, the rain did not cool anything down. So he's driving along, and finally exits the highway. He gets off the highway, onto a secondary road, and then pulls into a strip mall parking lot.
He pulls into this parking lot very quickly, and as soon as he does, the engine stops. It just cuts out, right there. So he turns the key and tries to start it again, but it is dead. Nothing. It's like someone has removed his battery from the car, just like that. The lights on the dash all work, but the car won't start. He doesn't know what happened.
He opens the hood and everything looks normal. His headlights work, and his radio works. But he turns the key and nothing happens. So he calls the tow truck. They take the car to the nearest dealership. And they tell him, "You've got troubles. You need an engine." And they tell him what caused this is turning into the strip mall. That is when it happened.
So, here is the puzzler question. What happened, and how. Good luck!
Okay, it is that time again. Puzzler answer time. Here we go.
A recap for you. A very hot day, right after a very heavy thunderstorm. Muggy day. A guy is driving along the highway, and he decides he is in urgent need of a haircut. So, he pulls off the highway towards a strip mall. And he pulls into the parking lot rather fast. He pulls in going pretty quickly. And as he does this, all of a sudden, his car just quits on him. The engine just cuts out. Done. He turns the key, and nothing. But the lights and the radio still work, but the car will not start. So, the tow truck comes and takes it away. And when they get the mechanic to look at it, he says, "I've got bad news for you, pal. You need a new engine..."
So, what happened? How could that be?
And here is the answer.
It happened when he made that turn into the parking lot so quickly. It had just rained, and as such, there were puddles all around on the street. So, as he went through the puddle, his tires cut through the water and actually pushed the water up in advance of the car. The tires push the water forward so that you can cut through the puddle. And as luck would have it, in this case, with this particular car, the water was pushed up and got sucked into the air intake. This is supposed to be the air that the engine breathes, but now, it's water.
The air intake, in this case, was low and close to the ground. So he sucked in a few cylinders worth of water. And what happened is he hydro-locked the engine, unfortunately. And sadly, it doesn't take much water for this to happen. A few tablespoons of water getting in there would be enough to do it. There's such a small volume remaining when the piston is on the compression stroke. So the piston happily comes up on the compression stroke and there's water in the cylinder, it is expecting to go up three inches, but now there is only two inches because of the water. And bang. The piston got crushed, the connecting rod got bent, the cylinder head gasket blew and hence, a new engine was now needed.
All from a little bit of water from a puddle!
