The main reason that lawnmower engines are so incredibly dirty is that they are two-stroke engines.
I'm sorry, that hasn't been the case for quite some time - they're almost all 4-strokes now. This Link shows that 2-strokes were being phased out under EPA rules as early as 1997. Lawnmower engines are, however, predominately of the flathead or "valve in block" air-cooled style. They have a lower compression ratio than most auto engines and some waste quite a bit of fuel out the exhaust as extra coolant to keep the engine from overheating. The main problem with lawmowers and other small engines, in my opinion, is simple maintenance - or lack thereof. People ignore it so long as it still cuts grass/throws snow/whacks weeds/etc. So it belches a bit of black or blue smoke - still gets the job done and gas is cheaper than a tuneup.
Note, unless it has "OHV" somewhere on the engine it's probably a flathead - overhead valve (OHV) engines are still new enough that they are still worth advertising. Honda makes good ones, and I think Briggs and Tecumseh have at least a few designs on the market. The newer 4-stroke weedwhacker engines are OHV as well, for the better efficiency from the higher compression ratio and better heat rejection.
One thing I find myself asking not only myself but other Americans is what is their primary citizenship. What I mean by that term is which political boundary (if any) supercedes all?
Are you a citizen of the United States first? A citizen of Texas? A citizen of Chicago? A citizen of the Bronx? A citizen of North America? A citizen of yourself? At what point do you consider yourself a member of a community that will look out for other members?
Unfortunately, despite the good points you drew, it looked to be a rather spirited response to a literal interpretation of a sarcastic post. I agree that some people espouse Saumas' sarcastic comments as actual beliefs, and I find that horrible. I think he had a nice dry comment, with the tag at the end giving away the sarcasm. I could have modded it flamebait, but for that tag at the end. It looked like you had missed the sarcasm completely, taking it as flamebait. As you didn't really shred him and you did provide several interesting/insightful points, I didn't count you as a troll. Thus I posted, rather than modding.
That was the dilemma, mod or post. I chose to leave the mod alone at "normal" and post a comment, rather than mod one or the other down. Unfortunately, sometimes there just isn't enough choice in the moderation system. There's no "-1 missed the point +1 insightful anyway" mod that I know of, other than not modding and just posting a response.
Thanks for the reminder, though. Not everyone remembers that bit about mod vs. post.
Dilemma. Your post has lots of interesting bits concerning the mass media and how it's whipped a lot of people into a frenzy and how it's "much ado about nothing". It also is written as a response/attack on another post which is insightful in it's dry sarcasm. (Seumas' post)
I'll leave them both modded "Normal" and hope others read both in their entirety. So far neither one of you is a troll, and I don't expect you to be.
"Besides burn it" you ask? Not much, though in Minneapolis, Minnesota the County household hazardous waste collection center took a few half-full old 5-gallon marine gas tanks off my hands. For free. Guess they figure it's better for them to go ahead and take the stuff without charging for it rather than have people dumping it somewhere.
If you can't find a place like that, you'll have to just "burn it". Fortunately, you can still burn it like regular gasoline, in an engine.
In this case, you specified old "marine" gas. That makes me guess that it has 2-stroke oil mixed into it. You'll want to find out how oily it is. Test it in a regular "low-tech" 4-stroke air-cooled lawnmower or similar small engine. Preferably the flathead style Briggs, Tecumseh, Wisconsin, etc. styles. Not the newer OHV styles. Try a small amount mixed half-and half with "fresh" gas. If you get blue smoke, you've got oil in the gas. Add more fresh gas until the smoke level is "acceptable" and you can use it to mow your lawn.
No smoke? Probably no or little oil in it. Use whatever mixture of old gas/fresh gas you like, so long as it starts. You'll probably need at least a small amount of fresh gas mixed in to help get it started - old gas has probably lost most of it's volatiles.
I would not reccomend using this old gas in any 2-stroke engine applications - it might not hold the oil well enough to lubricate the engine, or the varnish in the gas might interfere with lubrication as well.
If you don't use a lawnmower often enough to use up that gas, ask your neighbors if they'd like a little free gas for their lawnmowers. Explain what it is, and show them how it works in your lawn mower, and they'll probably let you add some of your old gas to their lawmower gas. If your old gas has oil in it, remember to make sure you don't add too much or their lawnmower will smoke and they won't be happy. For non-oily gas, 25-50% is likely to have no problems, so long as their lawnmower gas is fresh. If they stored their lawnmower gas all winter (like I sometimes do...) maybe 10% of your old gas can be mixed in. If your gas is oily, and their gas is old, maybe put a splash in the mower fuel tank just before they fill it up from their supply. Be prepared for neighbors who want you to fix whatever happens to their lawnmower while they use your gas, and for a tank or two after that.
If you've got an older non-catalyst carbureted low-tech low-compression vehicle, preferably one that already uses a bit of oil, or a neighbor with same (Old pickups are best for this, due to their large tanks and poor fuel economy) you can get rid of it pretty quick. For any tank that holds at least 20 gallons, you can dump all the old gas into the vehicle's tank right before you fill it up with fresh gas at the gas pump. For smaller tanks, use only half the old gas for each fillup. Might want to get a spare fuel filter in case yours clogs, but it probably needs changing anyway if it's an old beater.
I would not reccomend using it in a newer catalyst-equipped fuel-injected vehicle unless you are certain the gas is new enough that it is unleaded, and then I would dilute it like it was oily gas whether it was or not. The fuel filter in fuel injected vehicles is harder to get to and usually more expensive.
Don't use it in a high-compression engine, unless you are willing to "baby" it and know what detonation/pinging sounds like.
To clean out the old tank, just half-fill it with fresh gas, shake it around a lot in there, top it off and then use the gas the same way you used the old gas to be safe. Do that once or twice and it should be ready for regular use. If you want to store gas in it, use Sta-Bil or something similar to keep it from "getting old", and use the stored gas up every spring and every fall (if you have seasons, in warm sunny places just change it once a year) so you always have the correct fuel stored for the season and it's always fresher.
JT has good points, but I'd like to comment on this snippet:
"Just run the wires through the a/c vents & put the speakers in the vents. It will still sound better and require less work than a wireless setup. Plus..., no visible wires..."
If you go this route, please use the appropriate "plenum rated" cables for anything you run through ductwork. Cable that is rated for plenum use has insulation that burns slowly and emits little smoke - important in case of fire. Better safe than cheap. Not to mention the possibility of an insurance adjuster denying a claim if said cheap cable contributed to any otherwise covered losses...
As for the speakers in the vents, I'm not so keen on that idea from both a safety standpoint (not sure if they make "plenum rated" speakers...) and from the standpoint that they'll block airflow.
Last bit of lyrics (per link provided, thanks!) should be:
a pig in a cage on antibiotics. Sample looping in background: [This is the Panic Office, section nine-seventeen may have been hit. Activate the following procedure.]
Now I wonder what that sample loop is from? Never heard the song before... -cajun
GN = Grand National As in the rather fast turbocharged V-6 powered Buick. Nice ride! IIRC, this was the car that had it's debut ad showing a black car with the text above it reading: "Lord Vader, Your Car Is Ready."
Actually, lead-acid batteries are quite well recycled. One-shot source from a google search: http://www.ibpstl.com/brind.htm shows around 98% of all lead-acid batteries being recycled. Lead is *worth* something, and it is much easier to melt down old batteries to make new ones than it is to dig up new lead/lead ore. -cajun
Hmm. If you mean "overwhelming the resources with a crowd of people directed from the slashdot website" not likely.
However, it's possible that if enough people who are interested in taking out the more nonsensical parts of the DMCA - and can make cogent arguments and come across as reasonable people - apply to speak, "we" could be in the majority there. (Where "we" are those who don't like the restrictions the DMCA imposes and "they" are the likes of the RIAA/MPAA/etc.)
"Ok well obviously a singular voice isn't likely to happen, but, should a true singular voice emerge, it would be the ideal situation. The closer a society gets to sharing the same mindset, the better off it is."
I'm sorry, but I must strongly disagree with you on this one. When a society shares the same mindset, that society no longer has individuals capable of seeing other viewpoints, much less thinking about them. This scares me. I want a diversity of mindsets so that any question/problem/idea can be tackled from as many directions as is humanly possible. Makes for much more interesting and fruitful discussion, IMHO.
"And I'm not talking control or limited freedom, I'm talking about a purest form democracy, where the elected (not appointed) leader accurately represents the will of the people."
IMHO, the best possible situation in our current system of government is a leader that, while everyone may not *agree* with, they respect and support their leadership because they know that the leader accurately represents the *interests* of the people, not necessarily their will.
Technically feasible. Hemp, per its "nickname" Weed, grows like one, and produces huge amounts of growth per acre. Take all that, compost it and get the natural gas from it, use that to fuel your VW airbus. Alternative is to convert the bus to use a diesel engine, then press the hemp seeds for their oil, turn it into a methyl or ethyl ester (see http://www.veggievan.org) and run it that way.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sorry, that hasn't been the case for quite some time - they're almost all 4-strokes now. This Link shows that 2-strokes were being phased out under EPA rules as early as 1997. Lawnmower engines are, however, predominately of the flathead or "valve in block" air-cooled style. They have a lower compression ratio than most auto engines and some waste quite a bit of fuel out the exhaust as extra coolant to keep the engine from overheating. The main problem with lawmowers and other small engines, in my opinion, is simple maintenance - or lack thereof. People ignore it so long as it still cuts grass/throws snow/whacks weeds/etc. So it belches a bit of black or blue smoke - still gets the job done and gas is cheaper than a tuneup.
Note, unless it has "OHV" somewhere on the engine it's probably a flathead - overhead valve (OHV) engines are still new enough that they are still worth advertising. Honda makes good ones, and I think Briggs and Tecumseh have at least a few designs on the market. The newer 4-stroke weedwhacker engines are OHV as well, for the better efficiency from the higher compression ratio and better heat rejection.
Have fun,
-cajun
Hello eldavojohn,
Very interesting question. I think I'll ask it at tonight's Ridgedale Socrates Cafe. http://www.socratescafemn.org/
Thanks for the food for thought!
-cajun
Unfortunately, despite the good points you drew, it looked to be a rather spirited response to a literal interpretation of a sarcastic post. I agree that some people espouse Saumas' sarcastic comments as actual beliefs, and I find that horrible. I think he had a nice dry comment, with the tag at the end giving away the sarcasm. I could have modded it flamebait, but for that tag at the end. It looked like you had missed the sarcasm completely, taking it as flamebait. As you didn't really shred him and you did provide several interesting/insightful points, I didn't count you as a troll. Thus I posted, rather than modding.
Catch you later,
-cajunfj40
That was the dilemma, mod or post. I chose to leave the mod alone at "normal" and post a comment, rather than mod one or the other down. Unfortunately, sometimes there just isn't enough choice in the moderation system. There's no "-1 missed the point +1 insightful anyway" mod that I know of, other than not modding and just posting a response.
Thanks for the reminder, though. Not everyone remembers that bit about mod vs. post.
Dilemma. Your post has lots of interesting bits concerning the mass media and how it's whipped a lot of people into a frenzy and how it's "much ado about nothing". It also is written as a response/attack on another post which is insightful in it's dry sarcasm. (Seumas' post)
I'll leave them both modded "Normal" and hope others read both in their entirety. So far neither one of you is a troll, and I don't expect you to be.
"Besides burn it" you ask? Not much, though in Minneapolis, Minnesota the County household hazardous waste collection center took a few half-full old 5-gallon marine gas tanks off my hands. For free. Guess they figure it's better for them to go ahead and take the stuff without charging for it rather than have people dumping it somewhere.
If you can't find a place like that, you'll have to just "burn it". Fortunately, you can still burn it like regular gasoline, in an engine.
In this case, you specified old "marine" gas. That makes me guess that it has 2-stroke oil mixed into it. You'll want to find out how oily it is. Test it in a regular "low-tech" 4-stroke air-cooled lawnmower or similar small engine. Preferably the flathead style Briggs, Tecumseh, Wisconsin, etc. styles. Not the newer OHV styles. Try a small amount mixed half-and half with "fresh" gas. If you get blue smoke, you've got oil in the gas. Add more fresh gas until the smoke level is "acceptable" and you can use it to mow your lawn.
No smoke? Probably no or little oil in it. Use whatever mixture of old gas/fresh gas you like, so long as it starts. You'll probably need at least a small amount of fresh gas mixed in to help get it started - old gas has probably lost most of it's volatiles.
I would not reccomend using this old gas in any 2-stroke engine applications - it might not hold the oil well enough to lubricate the engine, or the varnish in the gas might interfere with lubrication as well.
If you don't use a lawnmower often enough to use up that gas, ask your neighbors if they'd like a little free gas for their lawnmowers. Explain what it is, and show them how it works in your lawn mower, and they'll probably let you add some of your old gas to their lawmower gas. If your old gas has oil in it, remember to make sure you don't add too much or their lawnmower will smoke and they won't be happy. For non-oily gas, 25-50% is likely to have no problems, so long as their lawnmower gas is fresh. If they stored their lawnmower gas all winter (like I sometimes do...) maybe 10% of your old gas can be mixed in. If your gas is oily, and their gas is old, maybe put a splash in the mower fuel tank just before they fill it up from their supply. Be prepared for neighbors who want you to fix whatever happens to their lawnmower while they use your gas, and for a tank or two after that.
If you've got an older non-catalyst carbureted low-tech low-compression vehicle, preferably one that already uses a bit of oil, or a neighbor with same (Old pickups are best for this, due to their large tanks and poor fuel economy) you can get rid of it pretty quick. For any tank that holds at least 20 gallons, you can dump all the old gas into the vehicle's tank right before you fill it up with fresh gas at the gas pump. For smaller tanks, use only half the old gas for each fillup. Might want to get a spare fuel filter in case yours clogs, but it probably needs changing anyway if it's an old beater.
I would not reccomend using it in a newer catalyst-equipped fuel-injected vehicle unless you are certain the gas is new enough that it is unleaded, and then I would dilute it like it was oily gas whether it was or not. The fuel filter in fuel injected vehicles is harder to get to and usually more expensive.
Don't use it in a high-compression engine, unless you are willing to "baby" it and know what detonation/pinging sounds like.
To clean out the old tank, just half-fill it with fresh gas, shake it around a lot in there, top it off and then use the gas the same way you used the old gas to be safe. Do that once or twice and it should be ready for regular use. If you want to store gas in it, use Sta-Bil or something similar to keep it from "getting old", and use the stored gas up every spring and every fall (if you have seasons, in warm sunny places just change it once a year) so you always have the correct fuel stored for the season and it's always fresher.
Good luck!
JT has good points, but I'd like to comment on this snippet:
"Just run the wires through the a/c vents & put the speakers in the vents. It will still sound better and require less work than a wireless setup. Plus..., no visible wires..."
If you go this route, please use the appropriate "plenum rated" cables for anything you run through ductwork. Cable that is rated for plenum use has insulation that burns slowly and emits little smoke - important in case of fire. Better safe than cheap. Not to mention the possibility of an insurance adjuster denying a claim if said cheap cable contributed to any otherwise covered losses...
As for the speakers in the vents, I'm not so keen on that idea from both a safety standpoint (not sure if they make "plenum rated" speakers...) and from the standpoint that they'll block airflow.
Otherwise, have fun!
-cajun
Last bit of lyrics (per link provided, thanks!) should be:
a pig
in a cage
on antibiotics.
Sample looping in background:
[This is the Panic Office, section nine-seventeen may have been hit. Activate the following procedure.]
Now I wonder what that sample loop is from? Never heard the song before...
-cajun
Sure would be nice if Gibson wrote some more stories in that universe/timeline...
GN = Grand National
As in the rather fast turbocharged V-6 powered Buick. Nice ride! IIRC, this was the car that had it's debut ad showing a black car with the text above it reading: "Lord Vader, Your Car Is Ready."
Actually, lead-acid batteries are quite well recycled. One-shot source from a google search:
http://www.ibpstl.com/brind.htm
shows around 98% of all lead-acid batteries being recycled. Lead is *worth* something, and it is much easier to melt down old batteries to make new ones than it is to dig up new lead/lead ore.
-cajun
Hmm. If you mean "overwhelming the resources with a crowd of people directed from the slashdot website" not likely.
However, it's possible that if enough people who are interested in taking out the more nonsensical parts of the DMCA - and can make cogent arguments and come across as reasonable people - apply to speak, "we" could be in the majority there. (Where "we" are those who don't like the restrictions the DMCA imposes and "they" are the likes of the RIAA/MPAA/etc.)
It'd be nice if we got listened to this time.
"Ok well obviously a singular voice isn't likely to happen, but, should a true singular voice emerge, it would be the ideal situation. The closer a society gets to sharing the same mindset, the better off it is."
I'm sorry, but I must strongly disagree with you on this one. When a society shares the same mindset, that society no longer has individuals capable of seeing other viewpoints, much less thinking about them. This scares me. I want a diversity of mindsets so that any question/problem/idea can be tackled from as many directions as is humanly possible. Makes for much more interesting and fruitful discussion, IMHO.
"And I'm not talking control or limited freedom, I'm talking about a purest form democracy, where the elected (not appointed) leader accurately represents the will of the people."
IMHO, the best possible situation in our current system of government is a leader that, while everyone may not *agree* with, they respect and support their leadership because they know that the leader accurately represents the *interests* of the people, not necessarily their will.
Catch y'all later,
-cajunfj40
Technically feasible. Hemp, per its "nickname" Weed, grows like one, and produces huge amounts of growth per acre. Take all that, compost it and get the natural gas from it, use that to fuel your VW airbus. Alternative is to convert the bus to use a diesel engine, then press the hemp seeds for their oil, turn it into a methyl or ethyl ester (see http://www.veggievan.org) and run it that way.
Heads or tails? Grass grows from the bottom up, else if you mowed it once it would stay that length.