"Quadradeuce" (quadradeuce)
12/25/2016 at 20:44 • Filed to: None
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"Quadradeuce" (quadradeuce)
12/25/2016 at 20:44 • Filed to: None | 0
| 11 |
At the beginning of A Christmas Story, the family’s 1937 Oldsmobile “freezes up again”. The Old Man is seen filling a large kettle with hot water. Does anyone know what specifically he would do with it to thaw the car? Anything I could think of would take quite a while and use a lot of water, like pouring hot water over the radiator. Anyone know of there used to be a specific procedure for thawing a car back in the day? And what exactly was frozen? If coolant froze, I would imagine there would be serious damage to the engine.
Oh Fudge for your time.
Image from Hagerty.com
Berang
> Quadradeuce
12/25/2016 at 20:53 |
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Probably pour it directly into the radiator? Before antifreeze it wasn’t uncommon to drain the rad at night and refill it in the morning. I guess filling it with hot water would produce an easier start.
Stephenson Valve Gear
> Quadradeuce
12/25/2016 at 20:56 |
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Carb. The water would be poured over the outside of the carburetor to thaw it out. Although, this is the wrong kind of weather for a carb to freeze up... but, it is a movie, not a documentary. This happens when you have cold, damp weather, but not below 32 degrees F. The vacuum in the venturi of the carb will cause ice to form, disrupting either fuel or air flow, causing the engine to run poorly or not at all. This is the reason that “newer” carburetted cars had a pipe from the air cleaner snorkel that would draw air from over the hot exhaust manifold, plus a flap in the snorkel that let the engine draw cold air in warm weather, and warm air in cold weather. And I feel unbelievably old right now, since I have experienced all of this nonsense on vehicles with carbs.
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Stephenson Valve Gear
> Stephenson Valve Gear
12/25/2016 at 21:02 |
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By the way, it occurs to me that it may not make sense to some people that the carb will freeze when the ambient air is above freezing. This is because the air flowing through the venturi is at a lower pressure than the ambient air. If you Google “Boyle’s Law” you will find out that the temperature, pressure and volume of a gas are all interrelated. When the pressure drops - as it is doing in the venturi - the temperature of the gas will also drop. If the air is relatively humid and just above freezing, then the temp in the venturi will drop below freezing, causing the humidity in the air to condense in the carb and form ice. It is the same principle that makes air conditioning possible, although those typically use Freon as the refrigerant as opposed to air.
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Berang
> Stephenson Valve Gear
12/25/2016 at 21:04 |
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I think they mean the cooling system literally froze up.
interstate366, now In The Industry
> Quadradeuce
12/25/2016 at 21:05 |
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YOU PLATYPUS SNOT $%#@
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Stephenson Valve Gear
> Berang
12/25/2016 at 21:12 |
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Could be. It was a hazard in the days of using alcohol as antifreeze, but I always thought that the movie was set in an era where ethylene glycol was commonly used as antifreeze. Cool ad, by the way...
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Berang
> Stephenson Valve Gear
12/25/2016 at 21:18 |
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“permanent” antifreeze was expensive, if you look at the ad, that’s like $40 a gallon adjusted for inflation. So a lot of people continued to just use alcohol into the 40s.
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Stephenson Valve Gear
> Berang
12/25/2016 at 21:30 |
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Sounds likely to me.
3rd alternative... sleet/ice had the doors frozen shut. Old man was using water to get into the car. I have this happen to my pickup on occasion...
But, I haven’t watched the movie since last year. We are planning on watching it again tomorrow. I’m curious if there are any clues that will give context to it freezing up again.
...and of course, I still need to keep in mind that it is a movie, not a documentary. Logic need not apply.
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Quadradeuce
> Stephenson Valve Gear
12/25/2016 at 21:31 |
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This makes total sense. You could realistically defrost a carb with a bucket of hot water, but I doubt you could thaw a radiator without turning your entire driveway into a skatng rink.
ttyymmnn
> Stephenson Valve Gear
12/25/2016 at 22:45 |
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Fascinating read. Thank you.
Die-Trying
> Quadradeuce
12/26/2016 at 08:07 |
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probably pour it over the water pump, or pull the upper radiator hose, and try to pour it down into the block.
once the water pump is free, and the pump will turn, the engine makes all the heat it needs by itself to thaw the rest of it.