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Add your technological catastrophe here

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LAN_403

Conundrum

Sat Apr 18 2015, 06:03AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

"reminds me of a neighbor who had a problem with getting batteries stolen from his spare car.
after the 4th one he asked me for help.
i had him disconnect the positive cable at the starter.i then installed a 24v aircraft battery.
2 weeks later the hood was ajar and the battery missing.
a few days later there was a big commotion a few doors up in the alley.kids were pushing a smoking car out of their garage.it was on fire under the dash.
after the fire dept got done putting it out(what was left of it)one of the firemen asked who was the idiot that put the 24v battery in it?
never had any more batteries stolen!"

Feel free to add to this thread..

-A

dexter

Sat Apr 18 2015, 09:00AM

Registered Member #42796 Joined: Mon Jan 13 2014, 06:34PM
Location:
Posts: 195

based on your story the thread title is quite misleading title it should have been "Add SOMEONE technological catastrophe here"

Ash Small

Sat Apr 18 2015, 09:04AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

On the subject of 'technical catastrophies', here's a 'ridiculous' reccuring problem, exacerbated by laziness.

I used to do a lot of work on offshore racing powerboats, back in the '90's.

A local racer and former European class 2 champion was fitting out a boat for a 'Round Britain' record attempt, he decided to fit a couple of Rover V8 engines (the old Buick 215 engine), in order to get reasonable fuel economy (They had fitted a 500 gallon fuel tank, and planned two re-fueling stops), and he got a local grasstrack racer and regular National grasstrack champion to prepare the engines, which I fitted, under instruction from 'those who knew about these things'. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I offered to weld up some stainless water cooled exhaust headers (stainless is far from ideal, as seawater obviously contains sodium chloride, and chlorine is the worst enemy of stainless, especially when hot), but 'The Team' decided to get some aluminium headers from 'The 'Man' in Wakefield' who produced headers for the grasstrack racers, and got him to weld a water-cooled jacket around them. Now aluminium likes hot seawater even less than stainless does, I pointed this out, but was met with the response that 'They knew what they were doing'.

Now, it's pretty common knowledge that if you are using what's known as 'raw water cooling' (ie 'seawater') in an aluminium engine, the minimum requirement is to flush the engine(s) out with fresh water after every run, to minimize corrosion, but could they be bothered to get this done???? Far too much trouble.

Anyway, they entered a few races and generally 'prepared' for their 'Round Britain Record Attempt', then, a few days before the predicted 'weather window' in June, they discovered a leak in one of the exhaust headers, and came to me asking me to 'weld it up', blaming 'faulty workmanship' by the 'expert' in Wakefield. I tried to point out that it was a corrosion issue, and also tried to point out that if any seawater had found it's way back to the exhaust valves they would have become severely weakened, and should be replaced as a matter of course, but this all fell on 'deaf ears'.....There wasn't time, etc, etc.

Anyway, the 'weather window' was confirmed by the Met Office, and they set off at midnight, got about five miles, and 'dropped' an exhaust valve

You might think that was the end of it, but one of his fellow racers, and a 'regular' National Class 1 champion had a boat with two V12 Lambourgini engines, also fitted with 'factory' Lambourgini cast aluminium water cooled exhaust headers called me in to strip one engine after it had blown during a race. I stripped it, examined the parts, and discovered that one exhaust header, while it looked OK from the outside, had 'disintegrated' inside, most of the inner through which the exhaust flowed was 'missing', and some of the exhaust valves were also 'missing' the heads.

No problem, just re-configure the boat to race with one engine. Next race, he got about 15 miles, was still way ahead of 'the pack' when that engine blew, and the boat caught fire

Needless to say, when the owner of the first boat decided to re-engine with a big block V8, and found the water cooled exhaust risers were too short, and that it would take weeks to get some longer ones from the States, he asked me to weld up some stainless ones.

The Mercruiser ones, which he eventually ordered are made from cast iron, for very good reason, some cast irons are very resistant to salt water corrosion.

Patrick

Thu Apr 23 2015, 08:16PM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

Ash Small wrote ...

they discovered a leak in one of the exhaust headers, and came to me asking me to 'weld it up', blaming 'faulty workmanship' by the 'expert' in Wakefield.

sounds like the space shuttle Challenger. Dont worry it will fly fine, you worry to much, its never been a problem before.... quit your complaining were flying.

Conundrum

Sun Apr 26 2015, 07:25AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Yeah, the "head in the sand" approach is common in "Big Pharma" as well.
Cough Vioxx /Cough

-A

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