Mike Tobin writes:
> I remember a minus 20 night in Montana, no garage, ttrying to get a carb
> to manifold seal on a Hillman. I spilled a floatbowl's worth of gas on
> my bare hand and discovered how really effective evaporative cooling can
> be.
A caution to those of you not familiar with trying to work on a car in COLD
weather:
When the temperature outside is -20F, gasoline (a liquid) is also at -20F!
This is REALLY cold and will do bad things to your hand. Water freezes at
32F, so liquid water (MBCR) is never much colder than 32F. Gasoline,
however, freezes at much lower temperatures! In the most recent Alcan rally
(way up above the Arctic Circle) a driver *severely* hurt his hand by
spilling gas while filling up the tank! When you combine the fact that the
gasoline is nearly at air temperature with the fact that there will still be
additional evaporative cooling, skin freezes nearly instantly!
Basically, DON'T touch gasoline (or alcohol, radiator coolant (gee, so that's
what antifreeze is for...)) in COLD temperatures.
Kenneth B. Streeter | ARPA: streeter@im.lcs.mit.edu
MIT LCS, Room NE43-350 | UUCP: ...!uunet!im.lcs.mit.edu!streeter
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Cambridge, MA 02139 | (617) 225-2249 (home)
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