“STORMIZING” A MOTOR ENGINE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 4000, 21 September 1929, Page 2

“STORMIZING” A MOTOR ENGINE.

AN INTERESTING PROCESS

Every ear owner, although he may have hut little mechanical knowledge, is interested in the results of mechanical processes that provide for him a means of making running costs lighter and depreciation less. In this connection we present to those of our readers whom it concerns the facts of an interview out representative had with Mr. Erie Booth, who is at the present time featuring an advertisement in these pages relative to a new mechanical process he has installed at his Whyte Street garage.

1 Since establishing his business in Foxton some years a go,. Mr. Booth has followed a policy of keeping well in the forefront with equipment and knowledge to deal with every requirement of the motoring public, and lias recently added to bis plant a wonderful electricallydriven “-Storiniizing” machine for the (rejuvenating of engines that have become inefficient through long use.

In explaining the purpose of the now plant, Mr. Booth exhibited as an example the cylinder block of an engine which had done many miles of service, and which in consequence showed a good deal of wear on the ovlinder walls.

Delie,aite measuring, instruments are part of the “Stormizing” equipment, which detect to the minutest fraction inequalities in the surface of the metal which comprises the walls of the'eoinbustion chambers. “It is not generally known,” said Mr, Booth, “that the reciprocating action of the. pistons in their separate cylinders causes wear to take place unequally on the cylinder walls. It would naturally be supposed that the .action of the pistons sliding up and down would cause equal wear all round. This is not so, however, because when the piston ascends on the compression stroke, and again descends with the force of the explosion behind it, the piston is placed under heavy stress. This stress, together with the varying angle of the connecting rod to the crank shaft, tends to force the piston off the vertical to a greater or less degree, causing uneven friction and thereby forming pockets in the cylinder walls, and also wearing the cylinder ‘out of round.’ ”

That, briefly, being the case, the effect, as further explained, is that an engine that lias done, say, 25,000 miles running, is subject to poor < i:repression, with resultant unsatisfactory running. “The common symptoms of cylinder wear,” continued Mr. Booth, “are poor compression, bad starting, poor mileage and lack of pulling power, with heavy oil consumption. Oil works up into the top of the cylinders, the plugs become fouled, and carbon deposits excessively; also the lubricant is adulterated with unconrbusted benzine, which increases general engine wear. The remedy is to have the cylinder walls Stormized, or rebored, and new pistons fitted, when the engine becomes as powerful and sweet running as when new.”

Our representative was.privileged to witness the process of “StormLing” a cylinder block, which, before operations were commenced, was carefully calipered with delicate instruments'which showed the positions and variations of wear or. the cylinder walls. The “StormLing” machine was then placed over each cylinder in turn and an exact amount of metal (removed from the interior to eliminate inequalities and re-align the bore with the crank shaft. After that, the surfaces were honed to a glass finish with revolving carborundum stones, and the new pistons fitted. This made the engine once again in new condition.

“Owing to the rapidity with which the work can be carried out with this special plant,” said. Mr. Booth, “the cost is comparatively moderate, and the actual saving to the owner in benzine and oil will within a reasonable time compensate for the outlay.- Good running performance is a source of satisfaction to any eair owner, and they get it when an engine has been StormLed.”

When re-assembled the engine inspected by our representative functioned perfectly, and had a springy and well-'sustained compression. Upon going into the comparative figures of consumption costs upon a basis of 10,000 miles, and assuming an average car before “StormLing” gives Hi miles to the gallon, and subsequently 20 miles to the gallon, we find the following to lie the facts, with benzine at 2/2 per gallon:— 10,000 miles, at 10 miles per gallon: 025 gals., at 2/2, £O7 14/2. 10,000 utiles,;at 20 miles per gallon: 500 gals., at 1 2/2, £54 3/4.

Nett saving in fuel cost, £l3 10/10, to which should be added a saving of at least half-gallon lubricating oil per 1,000 miles at 7/0 per gallon, £1 17/0, which together would completely cover the cost of StoriTiizing the average engine.

Mir. Booth intimated that he will he pleased to confer with motor owners desirous of making personal investigation into the Stormizing process.