MOTORING

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4808, 10 July 1939, Page 3

MOTORING

EFFECT OF COLD. STARTING TROUBLES. Winter and hard starting are synonymous terms with many motorists, but if a car is kept in good condition there should be no difficulty in getting the engine to fire on the coldest mornings. When the temperature frequently drops below freezing- point during the night, motorists who propose a run should be careful about the way they put their cars away. This is because the water in the cooling system may freeze during the small hours, and when water freezes it expands; hence a cracked cylinder block or shattered radiator core may be the result. If a car must be left in the open all night in these places, it is imperative that the radiator and block be drained, and during the process it is a good plan to run the engine a few revolutions to clear the water out of the pump. In the morning- starting will be helped if the system is filled with fairly hot water, though it should not be boiling, because the contact of it with the icy cold cylinders may have disastrous results. Also, on such a trip a fairly light oil should be .used in the sump. One with a rating of S.A.E. 20 should suit most engines..

If the car can be left in a closed garage, it is not always necessary to drain the water, but the radiator and bonnet should be covered with layers of rugs and heavy wheat bags to keep as much of the engine's heat in as possible. In cold weather, an essential is a good, fully charged battery, because a lot of power is required to turn an engine in which pistons, cylinders', bearings and crankshaft are all thoroughly gummed together by heavily congealed oil. Because the engine is so stiff the clutch should always be held out of engagement when making the first start because this relieves the starter from the additional strain of turning over the gear wheels through the heavy oil in the gearbox. This really makes a perceptible difference to the speed with which the engine can be revolved, but while an elementary tip it is unknown to a surprisingly large number of experienced drivers. When the engine is in good order it should fire almost immediately, but there are occasions when raw petrol finds its way into the manifold owing to condensation, and the engine baulks. When this happens, the throttle pedal must not be pumped. That will simply aggravate the trouble- because it operates the accelerating pump, which sends a stream of raw fuel into the manifold. The thing to do is to press the throttle to the floor boards and hold it there. By doing this the maximum amount of air will be admitted to the cylinders and will offset to some extent the surplus of petrol. The engine will usually start in a few moments. If the battery holds such a poor charge that it will not turn the engine over briskly, recourse will have to be ' had to the starting handle, though in some of the bigger eight cylinder models this has been omitted from the equipment simply because of the great difficulty of swinging those big, high compression units.

When it is fitted, the old trick of getting two people on to the job, one on the handle and the other operating the starter, is still a good one. But if the engine is to be started by hand alone, the starter should beware of backfires. Years ago, there was always a hand ignition control by which the spark could be retarded tion advance mechanism is controlled by automatic mechanism and it is always fairly well advanced when the engine is stopped.

Therefore, before even attempting to swing the engine, the motorist should lift' the bonnet and turn the ignition head to retard, wedging it there with a small piece of wood, which must be removed when the engine is running.

BRITAIN'S MOTOR INDUSTRY. The news that sales of motorvehicles in the United Kingdom for the seven months ending on March 31 of this year show an increase of three per cent., over the same period in the previous financial year, means that an appreciable fillip has been enjoyed by an immense industry, not to mention the Treasury. At the end of 1937 there were 2,938,405 licensed mechanically propelled vehicles on the roads in the United Kingdom, the gross taxation from which considerably exceeded £34,000,000. The actual number of motor cars (which, in Britain ,are taxed on horse-power) was 1,798,105, and the total taxation paid by the owners of these machines was nearly £10,000,000.