Mike Lishego wrote:
> As I posted earlier, I wanted
> to be sure that my car didn't freeze, so I sprayed WD-40 on my door
> handles and trunk locks, only to see it freeze...Not a good start
> for the trip, methinks...
You can buy lock de-icer in tiny single use capsules
that have a peel and stick surface on them. So you
can "stick" a packet of it inside a bumper or somewhere
you can get to when you need it. Very nice, no need to worry
about protecting in advance because you are equipped
to deal with whatever happens.
> There was my carb linkage, frozen solid - I can only assume that since I had
> held the pedal in about the same position for a while, it enabled
> the linkage to freeze up, even though it's right over the
> manifolds...
The carbs themselves get very cold from all the vapourizing
fuel. (sort of the same principle your A/C works on, and why
your air tools get frost on them sometimes even in summer)
If it's cold but wet, there is a lot of steam under
the hood from water hitting manifolds and other hot bits. This
steam is then coalesced by the cold carbs which leads to
water vapour on the bodies and possibly ice.
Some carbs incorporate de-icing water passages
just for this reason. A lesser failure mode is sometimes
the piston freezes in place. You still can close
the throttle so it's not a safety issue, but with the
piston stuck open the idle is awful or nonexistant until it
thaws and drops.
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
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