...like a dose of clap!

Oscar · Post by **Oscar** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:43 pm

Not an April's Fool

A russian company have come up with an engine additive that can significantly lower fuel consumption and increase longevity. It's microscopically ground magnesium silicate (I think), which fills in the cracks in an engine.

It's called Clap - hence the title of the post.

Has anyone seen this or come across it yet? It was supposed to be on sale in December.

M · Post by M » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:54 pm

Hmmm - snake oil? Methinks so.

Economist wrote: ALTHOUGH they need to fire their brand consultants, the inventors of Clap—an additive intended to improve the fuel-efficiency of car engines—seem to be on to something. By pulverising a mineral called serpentine into particles a millionth of a millimetre in diameter, they have come up with an additive which, they claim, can improve the fuel consumption of old car engines by as much as 10%. And, a millionth of a metre being a nanometre, they are also claiming that their product is an example of that much talked of, but little-seen field known as nanotechnology.…

tim leech · Post by **tim leech** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:55 pm

Nice!

M · Post by M » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:57 pm

Serpentine = (Mg,Fe)3Si2O5(OH)4, Magnesium Iron Silicate Hydroxide
many industrial applications, including brake linings and fireproof fabrics and as an ornamental stone.

M · Post by M » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:59 pm

Marty wrote:Serpentine = (Mg,Fe)3Si2O5(OH)4, Magnesium Iron Silicate Hydroxide
many industrial applications, including brake linings and fireproof fabrics and as an ornamental stone.

Hmmm - crushed garden gnome in my fuel tank? Perhaps not!

Way2go · Post by **Way2go** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 6:24 pm

These upper cylinder lubricants seem to be like buses in that there will be a new one along soon. In the days of forecourt attendants there was Redex which was offered as "shots" to go in with your petrol. Then a later diy additive was Moly-slip which I seem to remember claimed to have some similar properties to this new product.

A thought is in the case of this "Clap" if it fills in gaps in the cylinder walls, then if it provides fill-in between the piston and rings restricting their freedom to flex to any deviations of bore size, the result will be that the rings will scrape more material off the bore so you are worse off than when you started.

Geoffrey Gould · Post by **Geoffrey Gould** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 9:02 pm

Quite a long time ago a certain very well known manufacturer of aeroplane engines and cars (Of Merlin / Ghost fame, amongth others.) purchased an car auto box as it had a reputation for being one of the best available, manufactured by GM. They took it apart and found that the gears etc. had a lot of machining marks on them and as they (the gears etc.) fell far short of there standards they modified and improved them to a polished finish. RR (damn that gave the game away,hope they don't mind.) then fitted the box to there car/s and found that they were b++++y horrible, basically didn't work.
By removing the machining marks they destroyed the box lubrication, it relied on the marks to "pick up" and "hold" the lubricant. When they rienstated the marks the box worked and indeed still does in many vehicles.
The point of this perlonged ramble (Sorry.) is that if all the cracks are filled in I would expect that the wear rate would be increased dramatically. The same as a glazed bore and oil burning for example.
I'le shut up now.
Cheers.
Geoff.

DavidRutherford · Post by **DavidRutherford** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:55 am

Geoffrey Gould wrote:I'll shut up now.

Why? Everything you've said is both interesting and accurate. I've heard similarly about oiled surfaces. It's the same reason that pistons are left with machining marks around their circumference.

Another reason why gears in particular are left with machining marks is that when they are first used, the peaks of the machining marks get squashed a bit, which work-hardens the material, giving wear resistance to the component. The troughs then operate as oil channels, and you're left with something far better than a polished component.

My understanding of the situation is that the size of the machining marks, and hence the size of the oil channels left in the surface is one of the determining factors of the required gear oil grade.

And I have to agree... my engine will not be getting a dose of the clap!

Geoffrey Gould · Post by **Geoffrey Gould** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 8:43 am

"Why" Well because I tend to ramble on a bit and can go off course onto something else. As my son has said more than once "EH what are you on about." See what I mean.
Cheers.
Geoff.