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Get the lead ...in?

1K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Slomotion34 
#1 ·
This is a weird question that I was asked, and I figured that I would pass it on to y'all. A friend of mine (no really) has had several farmers pestering him for lead bricks to put in the gas tanks of their tractors. They claim that it puts lead in the gas. If it was one guy asking, it'd be a different story, but since he gave a couple of bricks out, he's getting asked all the time by different folks. We use these 25# bricks for radiation shielding at work.

I guess they just drop them in (?) these are about the size of a regular red brick. I just can't imagine the gas dissolving the brick and "leading" the fuel, but I don't claim to be any kind of chemist. Anyone ever heard of this?
 
#2 ·
There is a big difference between the "lead" that goes into gasoline and the lead in a brick.
Tetraethyl lead is produced by combining some kind of sodium lead alloy with ethylene chloride..(remember "pumping ethyl" ? :mwink:)

The idea was to make the lead soluble enough to dissolve completely and turn back into lead in the heat of the combustion chamber.

I know that plain old lead metal will decompose and slough off into water and certain acids, (the early romans used lead pipes, and lead was used to flavor some wines...that say lead poisioning contributed to the generally absurd behavior of romans during that time.)


But how much lead will make it into the combustion chamber from a lead brick in the gas tank is a good question.

If I wanted to see a rough estimate, , I'd read the plugs and look for signs of lead fouling. Or weigh the brick before and after, with a very accurate scale, and see how much weight it loses.


Also, for more lead to make it into the combustion chamber, I'd think you would use a roll of thin lead sheet, instead of a brick, as there would be more surface area to decompose into the gas.

I'll bet Powderbill could help with this one... :thumbup:


later, mikey
 
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