The Motor

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 23

The Motor

BY "AUTOS"

POINTS IN LUBRICATION

Oiling-up and greasing-up is one of the messiest things connected with, the running of a car, and".there is some 'excuse if, in spirit. at ■ least, the average owner-driver is inclined to shirk the business, comments a writer in the ''Manchester Guardian." Happily the majority of motorists have more sense, br they soon develop it, than to leave matters until it is too late and the Working parts have seized up. This is & misfortune that these^ days' seldom happens, perhaps only through sheer forgetfulness, because the car designer and the oil blender have done a great Seal to "make the way of the owner easy. In the result the average owner pays attention, and periodic attention, not only to the engine, but,to all other Joints such as the brake joints, the clutch ball races, the gearbox, and the like. In point of fact he could not overlook the engine, .for that important part, truly described as the heart of the car, yould soon let him know if it was being insufficiently fed with lubricant. Lubrication in motoring is of the first importance, not alone because it is elementary that there should be conic lubricant between two working surfaces. Everthing depends upon the quality of that lubricant, and that quality also connotes other things than mere oiliness. Engine oil, for example, can be too thick or too thin, which is why the oil blenders have gone to some pains to work out chart* of oils suitable for almost every known type of motoriar, suitable, it may be said, for summer and for winter running. That is One of the ways irf' which they ease the path of the motorist. Quality is the thing, not price^ a point that has to be ever bbms in mind. ; The best oil for any engine should have a low factor of. static friction. It should have a low cold test—that ia.

it should "remain fluid and hot thicken

6ven in the coldest Weathei\ The more * fluid-the oil is the quicker its gets to work, a point that makes for feasier starting in cold Weather. It must stand high temperatures, for it has to lubricate the hot cylinder walls, and should , do this without burning up tob quickly and without lbSihg any of its vital qualities of oiliness. And it should last for some time, too; with intelligent driving of the car the best lubricant will last, and all the while it will be performing its function. - The most extravagant metfod of descending hills is merely to close the throttle or swiloh off the ignition and allow the engine to be overrun by the • car. If the throttle setting is of that End practically ' never seen on the modern car, by which closing of the lever really does close the throttle itself, then, of course, with the_ throttle closed and the car overrunning the engine there can be no fuel consumed. But how often is the throttle so set? Almost invariably the modern throttle is so arranged that when the control lever is in the closed position the throttle itself .is a triflle open—in the slow-running position, in fact. ■ Now ;.the albw-rUflmng v is that which" delivers to the engine the richest possible mixture from the car- - buretter, an essential for satisfactory slow running.^ Therefore when descending: a hill with the car overrunning an engine of which the throttle is in the slow-running position we have the phenomenon of an engine being turned over at fairly high speed and drinking the richest possible mixture—so rich that if. it were actually driving the engine it could not do so at the speed at which the engine is now turning over. A rich mixture is necessary for slow running and is never used deliberately for any other purpose. Here we have a rich mixture being literally forced through the engine that does not need ■ it! Anything more extravagant it is difficult to imagine, and yet it is indulged in regularly by many drivers who would be. grievously offended if told that they really knew very little about car handling! As a final blow to the practice it can be said that its objections do not rest solely >nd. entirely-'on motives of economy. The man who cares not whether'his car .costs him one penny or one shilling a mile may. yet abstain from his method of , descending hills with every good reason. '"-.■.':■■ Presumably the man to whom expense is. not consideration still, likes" to get the best out of his car and to have it laid up for, repairs or other attention as lit- - tie.as possible. But this method of descending hills with the engine drinking over-rich mixture also causes more rapid carbonisation, of the pistons and cylinder heads than is inevitable, and sends up oil consumption by leaps and bounds. It is seldom that the piston rings of an engine are absolutely perfect, ahd when they are not, who has not observed the clouds of smoke that issue from the exhaust when the throttle is opened after the completion of a .hill that.has been descended with it closed ? An overrun engine collects oil past and above its pistor ring that'is not cleared away by burning in the ordinary way, : because the engine is doing no real work; it accumulates until the throttle is opened _ again, and the engine called upon to work once more, and then it, either soots up the sparking plugs, so causing delay at the_roadside while they are cleaned, or it rapidly carbonises into deposit that will need earlier decarbonisation for the engine than should have been necessary^ most probably. both. Indeed, there is nothing to be said in favour of this method of getting down a hill, except under one set or" conditions which arise only when the hill is too steep or too long for complete reliance to be placed on the brakes.^ It is absurd to expect brakes to stand up for an hour or two's continuous Avorkirig,. and none in.the world will do it. ' Under such circumstances failure to begin the desoent of a hill that is going, to put really, heavy, demands on the brakes-without previous engagement f *i Iowjfai: is simply ; 'asking for trouble. When necessary the pumpm°through the engine of rich mixture may be regrettable, but it must be done tfith a fair grace; what is'unpardonable is doing it for.nothing.A very remarkable new chassis lay-. out has recently been patented by the Fiat Co. (Italy), In this extremely novel design the. drive from the engine 'is taken to all four wheels, which are coupled to' the steering^gear, and .are fitted with brakes. The " most . unconventional feature of the chassis, however, is the fact, that iusteiid of there" being one single frame to which both the front and bacfc axles, are coupled, two separate frames are .utilised, and these are" hinged so' that one can move relatively to the 'other.

rfWhat may be termed the power-unit frame extends from the front of the car to the rear, but instead of its side members being parallel for the whole distance they are tapered towards each other sharply amidships, whence they rah parallel, and ultimately meet at a point behind the back axle. This frame supports the engine and gear-box, which,

o£ course, is of a special type, and so arranged that it incorporates torque ball joints for the torque tube 3 which run from the front and the back axle, to which the : drive from the' engine is taken through suitably arranged propeller shafts.

The other frame is more or leEs square. "At its -forward end it is' attached to the rest of the chassis through the means-of a vertical hinged arm which takes it* lower bearing on the gear-box mounting, and at the rear it has two semi-elliplic springs which are fitted to the extremities of the rear axle. In the centre of the rear axle i s a single semi-elliptic member which couples the tapered portion of the front frame to the real 1 axle, and the other end the front also has two semi-elliptic members which bear on" the forward axle.

Although no details of tests are yet available it is presumably that the aim and object of this very novel design is to pi'OVide. better insulation ou rough roads for the passengers of the car. The driver presumably would sit on a seat attached to the forward frame, whereas the passenger carrying coach-work would be mounted 1 on the subsidiary oi' rear frame, which, being duly insulated to shook, should be very comfortable indeed. Particularly should this apply when rough roads are being; traversed.

Mr. T. F. Deane-Johns sends an interesting account of a motor trip from Blenheim via Kaikoura. to Christchurch, over roads and bridges as they are after the great floods of a couple of months ago. Noting the magnificent views across the sea. to the North Island, as seen from the Redwood Pass, between the Wairau and Awatere Valleys, the motorist reached his first obstacle at the Clarence River, which Was bridged with speeiallychoseli timbers based on cylindrical con' crete pillars, cased in iron. The bridge W3S washed away by the floods. The party had to leave the car which brought them from Blenheim, and embark on a twelve-foot ferry boat, running across by means of a trolley attached to a wire hawser overhead. On the other side was a car Waiting to carry the travellers into Chrißtchurch. As they crossed the Various rivers under power the party in the car had to submit to a shower bath from the spray thrown up by the motion through the water. Leaving Kaikoura'at 9 a.m., the party cams tc- the Kahutara River, where the bridge had been washed away. All the male passengers crossed as best they could over the broken bridge, and the Car ' I, n-,« low B€ar with racing engine was skilfully piloted through the rush•if ™i aters with -tho reafc of ths Party The road to the Conway is in very bad order and entailed the greatest care in driving. The 'Conway Riter is crossed under power with another shower bath for the passengers, and' from 'there on" the road improves, and from Cheviot to Chmtchurch is good foi- 40 m.p h It Serf Ji"Tv, j°UTy> and' lingers are glad for the rest at the end.