At least until it cools. 
While lava is molten rock, the term can also refer to such rock that has cooled and hardened.
Fair. I guess âpumiceâ wouldnât have had the same effect.
Itâs like âhot water heaterâ or âtemporary irregularityâ.
CSA
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The B-52âs made the same error, and they did it with flare, so itâs no biggie.
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or common sense?
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Another term for cooled lava is basalt.
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No electrics on this one.
Ive always heard it told the first Diesel engine ran on Peanut oil⊠Fairly sure that is correct⊠Im not gonna fact check but thats my story and im stickin to it. Lol
And some still run on it, I believe. Two or three years ago I went to a buildersâ supply store and as I got near the entrance I had a hunger attack caused by something in the air.
Near the entrance a guy was loading up a beefy looking diesel pick-up truck that had been left idling.
As I was looking for the source of the delicious air I was smelling, I saw a tank in the bed of the truck and a placard that said (paraphrasing here) âThis truck runs on used restaurant cooking oil.â
I was getting a french fry smell with perhaps a hint of deep fried shrimp and a couple onion rings aroma thrown in. I actually exchanged a few words with the lucky driver before going inside the store.
CSA.
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Yep⊠If you dont recall long ago i shared the conversion of my 99â VW TDi to run on used cooking oilâŠon this forum
A 15 gal round veg oil tank where the spare tire used to beâŠand the stock diesel tank where it always be⊠When cold it started on diesel⊠then id switch to the free stuff⊠before shutdown switch back to diesel.
Id have to refill the diesel tank once every 8-9 months and the full range if both tanks were near emptied was about 1200 miles.
This was back in the day when stores just gave away the used oil⊠that is no more
In fact this reminds me⊠i still have a 55 gal plastic drum full of used oil filtered down to 3 micron. I need to sell that
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I knew a guy that had a 190D 2.5 running on cooking oil
Same idea as your VW . . . started in on diesel, then switched to cooking oil
The cooking oil eventually wreaked havoc on the fuel injectors
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The 300D had a reputation for running on just about any old thing⊠not sure bout the 190D
It helps and is mandatory for some injection pumps to have the veg oil heated to lower its viscosity as much as possible before entering the injection pump and injectors in too thick a format.
Mine had a large coil of copper in the tank that had hot engine coolant running thru itâŠwhen it got hot that is⊠that surely took a while to happen⊠lots of people cant resist switching over to the free stuff⊠but do so too early and wreak havoc on those high pressure injection items. They also forget to switch back over before shut down to purge the veggy stuff out of the system and get it back on diesel⊠big problems that caused. Anyway it was all in good fun⊠cant get away with these Shenanigans with modern Diesel hardware.
Nope⊠you need to go back in time to be able to play around. Kind of like what will happen when modern cars âtechâ us out ot ownership⊠we will all be looking for cars from the good ole days. Lol
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I was watching a history channel episode about early tractor evolution and one tinkerer was fitting a gas powered engine on to a steam powered tractor chassis to drop its weight. They had issues getting it started though (they were literally cranking it). When it failed to start his solution was to use a rifle cartridge going off to get it started. Donât ask how as there wasnât a lot of detail on that part, but if this ignition style could be crossed with a Diesel engine that doesnât require electricity then that could be interesting. Alternatively you could have a steampunk type steam powered engine.
Many WWII era radial engines could be started with a 4 gauge blank shotgun shell.
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B52s can be started with explosive charges too, though if I remember right those explosives are bigger than a shotgun shell.
@B.L.E posted a link to a video above showing this being done:
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Well there ya go. Good link!
That is awesome, thank you for sharing!
FYI, the book is done. Going through edits and submitting to a literary agent. This thread has been so helpful. Thank you!
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A lot of early diesel tractor trailers could be started and run without electricity. They had air starters that used the air tank for the air brakes to spin the starter. If it did not start, the tank could be recharged by using the glad hand of any air brake tractor.
Not all tractor trailers in the old days used air brakes. I drove a Ford tractor in the 60s that used hydraulic brakes on the tractor and vacuum brakes for the trailer that ran off the vacuum from the gasoline engine. In the mid eighties I drove a car hauler that ran hydraulic brakes via a vacuum pump on the diesel engine and hydraulic brakes on the tractor.
In my opinion both systems were so unsafe that they should not have been allowed on the road.
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You havenât lived until you have had to hand crank start a diesel tractor.
My extended family had a farm in Montana and as a boy I spent summers working there. We had a McCormick Deering tractor from the 40âs, diesel engine. There was a 1 gallon gas tank. Since gas is more volatile than diesel, you would shut off the diesel, turn on the gas, and crank the engine on gas until it would sputter and start. You then had a short time to slowly open the diesel feed and slowly close the gas until you were running 100% diesel.
The fun part was the gasoline tank had rusted through and wouldnât hold gas long enough for that process. So one of us would have to stand there filling the gas from a jerry can while another would crank the engine and a third would operate the levers from the driver seat.
The tractor did have an electric starter but that and the batteries were too much of an expense for the little use that machine saw.
Agree 100% with the hydraulic over vacuum when I first started driving in the early 60âs it was the big gas burning Internationals with hydraulics over vacuum it mde for some interesting rides in the mountains be for interstate highways. I also remember the air starters.