ENGINE BLOWUP- Smoke

[mach11]

Hey all,

When an F1 car engine blows up why is there white smoke that comes out and not black smoke???

Also, What grade of fuel do they use???

[Ganxxta]

White smoke is because of of burning Oil/Water, has nothing to do with the Fuel...

[dumrick]

Actually, white smoke is water vapour. An oil leak leaves a blueish trail.

Black smoke usually comes from the combustion of something, when an engine blows it just (at first at least) lets the fluids out, nothing burns.

Concerning fuel, there's a nice article on it at one of the best F1 reference sites... F1Technical

[mach11]

yep i was reading an article about f1 engine's spark plugs and in that they had mentioned about the movement of the piston... how much distance it travels (1.2 inches i think...) and the amount of pressure developed in that....

when alonso's engine blewup there was white smoke coming out so is that just the fluids being thrown out of the engine???

[riff_raff]

If the cloud appears white, it's oil or coolant. If the cloud lingers in the air, it's oil smoke. If the cloud dissipates fairly quickly, it's coolant steam.

[autogyro]

If it blocks the intake it is volcanic ash.

[doopie2you]

If it blocks the intake it is volcanic ash.

+1

[mach11]

If it blocks the intake it is volcanic ash.

+1