Rare “Engine Melt” Demonstration Reminds Drivers to Top-Off Coolant
It doesn’t take an automotive engineer to understand that engine coolant is vital to the comprehensive health of a vehicle. Even so, thousands of car and truck owners every year disregard their coolant, putting their powerplants in danger. Prestone, maker of antifreeze and other automotive products, wanted to demonstrate the importance of coolant to the overall health of an engine. So instead of spending the big bucks on a CGI simulation or a video of how long it takes a car without fluid to go up in smoke, it instead decided to equip a few well-trained pyromaniacs with high-powered blow torches. What did the pyros do with the torches?
Well, they melted the aluminum engine block of one of the best engines to ever come out of General Motors – the coveted high-feature 3.6 liter V6. It took roughly 20 minutes to melt everything except for the crankshaft and cylinder sleeves (those parts are tough!) – but you won’t have to spend nearly as long to watch the engine melt to pieces: Prestone cut the destruction down to a mere three minutes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djKo1al_kY4]
