You Can Make An Engine Run With Wooden Pistons, But It Won't End Well

A Russian YouTube channel managed to make an old Vaz run on wooden pistons, but not for long!
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If you’ve ever wondered whether or not a car could run with wooden pistons, we’ve good news: a rather resourceful Russian YouTube channel called Garage 54 decided to give it a try. The answer? Yes, it works, but not for long.

The initial issue came when the beautifully crafted ash lumber pistons soaked up a load of oil and expanded, seizing the piston rings. After widening the grooves and reinstalling the pistons, the Vaz 2106’s 1.6-litre engine did briefly fire into life, but it wasn’t happy. It misfired badly and even spat out its dipstick. The host noted that they “did at one point sense a strong wooden odour.”

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There’s a good reason why: the pistons had “burned straight through” after an estimated 15-20 seconds of running.

Now this highly important question has been answered, why not find out what happens when you replace your engine oil with cola…?

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Comments

Samuel Prendergast

null

05/02/2018 - 15:15 |
6 | 0
Anonymous

[DELETED]

05/02/2018 - 15:40 |
0 | 8
Anonymous
05/02/2018 - 22:31 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

05/03/2018 - 13:26 |
2 | 0
Mr.JDM

How come nobody has mentioned doing this but with a rotary yet?

05/03/2018 - 02:03 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Mr.JDM

The constant fire would just burn through the rotors

05/03/2018 - 06:39 |
0 | 0
Benjamin Ender Ammann

Wasn’t wood used for heatshields in the early Space age?

05/03/2018 - 05:30 |
4 | 0
DJ N

Oh, the Russians. When Russia and cars gets involved, it’s always good.

05/03/2018 - 07:41 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

This is bark-ing in my ears

05/03/2018 - 09:29 |
2 | 0