What Did You Smoke Today? (Pipe Edition)

[Tobias Lutz]

Gatlinbulier Valley Vanilla in a Dr. Grabow straight, smooth Patriot

[NeverBend]

Close to finishing a second bowl of 2015 Micawber's Pecuniary Delight.

First in a 1970s Caminetto Business #104 saddle billiard.
Second in a 1963 Barling #6106 sandblast taper billiard.

Accompanied by Ka'anapali Maui Mokha coffee kindly supplied by Wayne (@OnePyroTech).

A couple of ladies (my wife's friends) visited this morning but upon leaving they were unable to start their car. I was called upon only after their battery was starting to run down. Being the great mechanic that I am (I can operated a hand-crank window while driving!), I suggested, pressing the gas pedal to the floor for 5 seconds, releasing and then waiting 5 minutes before trying to start again.

Vroom! It started immediately, just as I had said it would (ok, I said 'might'). The ladies looked at me with puzzlement and admiration. I told them to drive at least 20 minutes, if not more, to give the battery a chance to recharge a bit. They thanked me and drove off.

Of course, if my technique failed, I was SOL because their car blocked the driveway and I wouldn't have been able to give them a jump. As far as what holding the pedal actually does, I just repeated what I'd been told 50 years ago. I think it drains excess gas from the engine (flooded) but cars are a little different these days.

It reminds me of Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law of Prediction;
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

A contemporary Merlin? Not likely as this was my entire bag of trick (singular) but in magic you never tell. Ho-hum.

[Emperor Zurg]

A contemporary Merlin? Not likely as this was my entire bag of trick (singular) but in magic you never tell. Ho-hum.

I'd say you were just lucky. In a modern, fuel injected car pressing the accelerator pedal with the key off does absolutely nothing... save for the (very) off chance that the Throttle Position Sensor is going bad and the brush was in a bad spot on the little carbon resistor strip, thereby putting a cold engine into a false 'clear flood' mode. This is not very likely though. If it's a 'drive by wire' system like most (or all) of the newest vehicles, it even does less than that.

If the engine is actually flooded (even the old carbureted engines) you need to hold the pedal to the floor while attempting to start it in order to clear the flood. Pressing the accelerator doesn't drain anything.

Letting it sit for 5 or 10 minutes sometimes does work though as it can allow some of the flood to weep out of the cylinders past the piston rings.

Prolly not smoking anything today. Still in deer camp recovery mode.

[JimInks]

MacBaren Virginia #1 in a late '90s half smooth/half etched freehand sitter, medium bend Nielsen Viggo. A bottle of Sprite is my drink.

[JimInks]

HU test blend #1 in a 2002 IMP smooth full bend egg shaped meer.

[AlanS]

Montego Bay in my Arthur Leonard Briar

[NeverBend]

I'd say you were just lucky. In a modern, fuel injected car pressing the accelerator pedal with the key off does absolutely nothing... save for the (very) off chance that the Throttle Position Sensor is going bad and the brush was in a bad spot on the little carbon resistor strip, thereby putting a cold engine into a false 'clear flood' mode. This is not very likely though. If it's a 'drive by wire' system like most (or all) of the newest vehicles, it even does less than that.

If the engine is actually flooded (even the old carbureted engines) you need to hold the pedal to the floor while attempting to start it in order to clear the flood. Pressing the accelerator doesn't drain anything.

Letting it sit for 5 or 10 minutes sometimes does work though as it can allow some of the flood to weep out of the cylinders past the piston rings.

Prolly not smoking anything today. Still in deer camp recovery mode.

Bill,

You're giving away the secret!

What did you miss about my lack of acumen in this area?

Actually it was an old car, first car for the daughter, passed on through her family, ~1995. Would that make a difference and make me smarter?

Thanks for the explanation, detailed and, like Law #3, Magic to me .

Pete

[JimInks]

HU test blend #2 in a 1979 medium bend etch relief meerschaum lined TinderBox Arabesque.

[Emperor Zurg]

Bill,

You're giving away the secret!

What did you miss about my lack of acumen in this area?

Actually it was an old car, first car for the daughter, passed on through her family, ~1995. Would that make a difference and make me smarter?

Thanks for the explanation, detailed and, like Law #3, Magic to me .

Pete

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a 1995 with a carburetor but that old, who knows - maybe the throttle position sensor does have a bad spot at closed throttle. A cold engine certainly wouldn't start in clear flood mode since 'clear flood' pretty much shuts off the fuel to the injectors.

[JimInks]

Not far from finishing this bowl of Edgeworth Ready Rubbed Match in a medium bend 2002 MM Legend cob.