When starting my olds 442 with 455ci., there is a lot of condensation coming out rear tips.
It looks a little rusty as well.
It actually is quite messy, and I was wondering if anyone had a fix.
Maybe the Florida climate??
Thanks,
Mike

 

take it for a drive to dryout the mufflers and pipes . worst thing is to start a car and not let it dry out the exhaust that's why the exhausts rot out

 

Any idea on how long? Just up to temp or more,
Thanks, by the way.

 

Mine does this as well, sometimes. If I drive it just down the street to work or fire it up and not let it run for very long, it will spit out a good amount of condensation. After driving it for about 15 minutes, though, it usually stops.

 

Well known tips is to drill a 3/16" hole in the lowest point of your muffler (if it already doesn't have one) to drain the water from the muffler when sitting. It saves the muffler from premature rusting.

 

The engine needs to come up to full operating temp for about 15 minutes to clear it.

 

All cars do this.

How long to warm it up? Until the tips of the exhaust pipes feel hot.

C'mon.

- Eric

 

[QUOTE=RROLDSX;656251]Well known tips is to drill a 3/16" hole in the lowest point of your muffler (if it already doesn't have one) to drain the water from the muffler when sitting. It saves the muffler from premature rusting.


X2 or use a center punch if you don't have a drill. get in er' warm er' up, in this case never put er' away dripin wet

 

ouch!

 

So .. nobody's going to tell him to take his wife's hairdryer to it? You guys are no fun at all.

 

You just need to take it out and drive it for about 40 miles, I've pulled mufflers off of cars that must have had a gallon of water in them, you must do a lot of short trips and the mufflers are full of water because you are not getting the exhaust system hot enough to boil out the water. Old OE mufflers used to have a small hole drilled in the bottom of the muffler to let excess water run out, I'm sure Ralph Nader got rid of that.

 

They only put the holes in the lifetime warranty mufflers. I wonder Y . You could always put your wifes curling iron in and boil it out, Professur now C what you started !!!

 

Actually it mentions it in my owners manual to clear the holes periodically.

 

All cars, especially non daily drivers, naturally have some cold air in there that will form some condensation as we all know but i think its the lower quality of modern fuels + ethanol doesn't help I guess. now if the car still does it noticeably after some miles of drive then there might either be excess water in the muffler, or your not burning right somehow but that's doubtful.

 

You guess wrong.
The amount of water vapor produced by burning gasoline or gasahol, per unit of fuel, is the same.
The amount of water produced per unit of air is more for gasahol, because each molecule of ethanol already contains an oxygen atom, so less oxygen has to come from the air in order to make water.

Overall, though, the energy of the fuel is derived from the number of carbon atoms oxidized to CO2, and so long as the number is the same, it doesn't matter whether they come from ethanol or from medium chain hydrocarbons, and the general formula of CH4 + 2(O2) → CO2 + 2(H20) holds true.

- Eric

 

we're not talking stanley steamer here, are we? if you're getting a lot of steam, you may have another issue.


bill

 

If there isn't any dramatic coolant loss, they've nothing to worry about
Oh, that wasn't nice Those youngtimers have mostly seen cars equipped with catylitic converters. When they get their hands on something without one, it's like a young girl getting frightened to near death when the first period happens.
I ended up having to teach my kids how to use a dial-up phone, because they've only seen them with pushbuttonsRight, Sir. Nobody stops a passenger jet to check the level of coolant, simply because condensation is found in the exhaust

 

Doesn't matter. Catalytic converters do not affect the water content of the exhaust.

A modern car with a catalytic will produce the same amount of water vapor per unit of gasoline burned as an older car.
In fact, I regularly see modern cars pulling away from a stoplight uphill (a particular one on my way to work), pouring about a pint of liquid water out the exhaust and onto the street as they do so.

That's why the snide comment (and I had initially typed "Duh." and thought better of it): EVERY car does this. Water vapor is an inherent product of ALL combustion. This is not new. If you want all of the water out of your exhaust system, you need to heat it up enough to evaporate all of the water. This is extremely basic and has not changed since cars were invented, so it is a bit odd to me how many people post questions on here as though the question were an entirely new phenomenon they've discovered (and, yes, it does recur regularly).

- Eric

 

As the exhaust system cools down, the moisture in the gases found in there will have to go somewhere and will collect on any surrounding object, just like getting a beer out of the fridge, on a humid day, and watching the bottle start to sweat

 

Most people do not think about how much water is in the air unless it is raining! A 25 hp air compressor operating continuously at roughly 100 cfm will produce approximately 18 gallons of water per day:

 

Great illustration! I had to go get a beer out of the fridge to conduct his experiment myself. Like any good scientist I looked for repeatable results. Seems this works every time and with every brand of beer I have tried

 

Nothing better than a science experiment.