The Slick Stuff

From: John G. Olden (jgolden@prairienet.org)
Date: Thu Sep 24 1998 - 12:46:35 EDT


I don't beleive any of those commerials on oil additives but last year I
broke down and tried one. We blew an engine in our demolition derby car
and had replaced it with another 1974 Buick 455. I thought what the heck
it can't hurt and put in a quart of Dura Lube. When we loaded it up we
come to find out the tranny was going away so I thought I'd go ahead
and run it on that night but baby it so I would still have something
for saturday after I put in another transmission. We'll about half
way through my heat I took a hit in the right front. The engine started
knocking and I thought to myself, "Great we threw another rod out the
side." So I decided what the hell and started getting into it. It would
knock like crazy then I would get hit then it would stop knocking.
Another hit and it would start up again. Engine never missed a lick
though. I was one of the final 3 cars so I qualified for the final.
Drove it back to the pit and shut it down, changed a flat, refilled the
radiator (along with some stopleak). Got ready to go and it wouldn't
restart. Damn it must have shut off with the crank against one of the
broken rods. So I used a buddies car that didn't make it to the final.
Ended up 6th out of 60 BTW. :) We spent all night rebuilding his car
since we wrote mine off as a loss. After we finished we finally got
around to looking under the Electra. That first hit bent the steering
drag link up into the oil pan. The knocking I heard was the rod caps
knocking a hole in the dented oil pan. Depending on where the wheels
were steered was the comming and going of the knocking. There was no oil
left in the pan. We turned the steering wheel so the link cleared the
caps. Low and behold it started right up and purred like a kitten. All
in all it had to be running for at least 15-20 minutes with no oil in
it. I'm sold on Dura Lube for this application. Don't know how it would
protect a good oiling system.

Just another 2 bits.

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<> (JOHN G. OLDEN) jgolden@prairienet.org <>
<> www.cu-online.com/~champark/jwff <>
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