just out of curiousity, why is it that right before an engine is about to blow, it has way more power than usual? and its not just with cars, its with almost everything else, its happened on my dirtbike and four wheeler too and i am real curious as to why? sorry if this is in the wrong section, didnt know where else to put it :P

 

I think, if you just turn your question around backwards, you'll find that it answers itself.

The engine blows because it was producing more power than it had in the past, and it reached its threshold of whatever. Not, the engine is producing more power because it's about to blow.

I'm reminded of someone who was trying to prove to me that everybody was to some degree psychic, using as evidence, the question "ever notice that when you're looking for something, the place you find it is the last place you look?" Well duhh.... when you find it, you STOP LOOKING, so of course it's the last place you look. You don't have to invoke "psychic" to explain that. Or, the aviation truism, that when you run out of fuel, you ALWAYS have JUST ENOUGH left to transport you fully to the scene of the crash. Gotta keep your reasoning in a straight line.

See my signature for a simple mental discipline that helps eschew obfuscation.

 

wow thats a good way of looking at it lol thanks!

 

hey my names dustin too

 

I think it's a myth, if an engine is about to blow you usually feel it having severely reduced power, as if the pedal is dead and then it goes.

 

Probably matters most why the engine blew. I've had some demo derby cars that had more power before the engine blew, but that's because we had them running beyond their designed specs, causing them to overheat.

On the other hand, I had a Blazer that started loosing compression on a cylinder right before the motor blew, and I could barely get it to move. It probably had 25% power in that final drive.

 

A racer from back in the day called Smokey Yunick discovered this phenomenon as well. As the motor starts to over heat it starts to atomize and burn fuel much more efficient. Smokey built a car that would heat the fuel to over 400 degrees before it was sent into the combustion chamber. Really interesting stuff. He made an old Fiero that would get 50 mpg and do 0-60 in 6 seconds or less.

http://www.legendarycollectorcars.co...clusive-video/

 

That actually makes a ton of sense if you think about it. So assuming the dying motor is overheating and has not yet had a catastrophic failure, it may seem more powerful for just a bit. And since that is a fairly common scenario, it makes perfect sense why it would appear the motor is running better before it died.

I recall watching a NASCAR race that Jeff Gordon was leading, and his crew claimed the car was running poorly, so they blocked the grill enough to cause the engine to be hot enough it was within a few degrees of blowing and he was leading the field. Eventually the engine gave out...

 

that would definately explain why then. thanks for all the useful info guys!

 

I understand your point, but people usually say "it was in the last place I would have looked", not "it was in the last place I looked".