Sodium silicate being used to destroy engines in gov't cash-for-clunkersprogram.

A lot of good vehicles are being destroyed by this product, and this
program.

See also:

http://www.castlepackspower.com/Catalog/ClunkerBomb/

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124934376942503053.html

The Killer App for Clunkers Breathes Fresh Life Into 'Liquid Glass'
AUGUST 4, 2009

By KEVIN HELLIKER

Robert Mueller deals in chemicals for a living -- things that can
unstick glue, thin paint, make plastic -- but he'd never seen an order
like the one he got for sodium silicate.

The compound is typically used to repel bugs or seal concrete, but this
buyer's online order form betrayed a whole different intent: "To Kill
Car Engines."

"That worried me a little, so I picked up the phone and called the
gentleman," recalls Mr. Mueller, an owner of chemical-firm CQ Concepts
Inc. in suburban Chicago.

What Mr. Mueller discovered is that sodium silicate is the designated
agent of death for cars surrendered under the federal cash-for-clunkers
program. To receive government reimbursement, auto dealers who offer
rebates on new cars in exchange for so-called clunkers must agree to
"kill" the old models, using a method the government outlines in great
detail in its 136-page manual for dealers: Drain the engine of oil and
replace it with two quarts of a sodium-silicate solution.

"The heat of the operating engine then dehydrates the solution leaving
solid sodium silicate distributed throughout the engine's oiled surfaces
and moving parts," says the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration publication. "These solids quickly abrade the bearings
causing the engine to seize while damaging the moving parts of the
engine and coating all of the oil passages."

In a nation packed with experts on how to keep cars running, the
engine-killing powers of sodium silicate are a well-kept secret. "I,
like, have so not even ever heard of this before," said Robert Lutz, new
marketing chief and renowned "car guy" at General Motors Co., in an
email.

Often called liquid glass, sodium-silicate solution has been better
known for being used to save motors rather than killing them: It is used
to stop leaks in the gaskets that seal cylinder heads to engine blocks.

At dealerships across America, mechanics accustomed to fixing engines
are battling for the chance to ruin them. "Everybody wants to go first,
so I'm probably going to have to make them draw straws," says Jim Burton
of Randy Curnow Buick Pontiac GMC in Kansas City, Kan. As service
manager, however, he might reserve that thrill for himself. "I can't
wait," he says.

Over the weekend, half a dozen mechanics gathered around three clunkers
marked for death at Jim Clark Motors in Lawrence, Kan. As Loris Brubeck
Jr., the dealership's president, held a stopwatch, the sodium-silicate
solution took two minutes flat to kill a 2002 Ford Windstar, and just a
few seconds more to kill a 1999 Jeep. But a 1988 Dodge van lasted more
than six minutes.

"Sometimes those old engines, they're the hardest to kill," says Mr.
Brubeck.

The automotive death sentences are meant to ensure that gas-guzzling old
models make no return to the road. As sodium silicate disables an entire
generation of junkyard-bound cars, the price of used engines will likely
skyrocket, predicts Michael Wilson, executive vice president of the
Automotive Recyclers Association. "It's the law of supply and demand."

Before settling on sodium silicate, the government considered other
methods of execution, including drilling a hole in the engine block and
running the engine without oil. But it concluded that sodium silicate
was safest for mechanics and for the environment. In its instructions to
dealers, the government says that the federal Food and Drug
Administration classifies sodium silicate as GRAS -- "generally regarded
as safe."

To engines, however, its damage is irreversible. "Once that silicate
plugs everything up, it would be virtually impossible to clean that
engine out," says Mr. Burton, the Kansas City service manager.

Consisting largely of ingredients as common as salt and sand, sodium
silicate isn't hard to make. "It is widely available and inexpensive,"
said a spokeswoman for the American Chemical Council. For auto dealers,
a car-killing dose costs about $5.

But while manufacturers have plenty on hand, the government failed to
warn distributors about the impending onslaught of demand from car
dealers.

"It's like the government decided to put every old car in America in
mothballs without giving any heads up to mothball" suppliers, says John
See, owner of the ChemistryStore.com near Columbia, S.C.

Mr. See's business mostly sells ingredients to soap and candle makers,
his largest seller being melt-and-pour soap. But within hours of the
federal government on July 24 releasing the details of the
cash-for-clunkers program, a dealer called Mr. See and asked about
sodium silicate. Up to that point, Mr. See's eight-year-old business had
sold only about 150 gallons of sodium silicate a year, mostly for use to
waterproof masonry.

But within moments of learning about its new purpose, Mr. See ordered
enormous supplies and purchased prime space on Google, so that his
company popped up in searches for sodium silicate. Last week, he sold
4,600 gallons of it, and the rush is continuing. "We're working 16 hour
days, and we've got friends and family helping out filling orders," says
Mr. See.

In Grand Rapids, Mich., a company called Cleaning Solutions Inc.
received a call from a dealer ordering a large supply for the clunkers
program. When an employee recommended investing heavily in inventory and
marketing, owner Ron Balk hesitated. In decades of selling the product,
he'd never heard of it used as an engine-killer. But a few calls to
local dealers convinced him otherwise: They quickly bought out his
existing supply, prompting him to order large amounts of the product.
"We've been working 12-hour shifts ever since," says Mr. Balk.

Back in suburban Chicago, Mr. Mueller says his company sold 15,000
gallons of sodium silicate last week, up from a typical level of 200
gallons a week. "At one point this week I worked 32 hours without a
break," says Mr. Mueller.

His company receives the product in 275-gallon containers and sells it
in smaller amounts, often five-gallon pails. This week, he says, "the
average dealership is ordering one to three pails, and a five-gallon
pail will treat 10 cars."

Long an obscure item in the CQ Concepts catalog, sodium silicate has
become "the best-selling product of the year," says Mr. Mueller.

MoPar Man wrote:
> A lot of good vehicles are being destroyed by this product, and this
> program.
>


Yeah, if you like cars do NOT go looking at the videos on YouTube.
Videos of brain-dead morons at dealership lots, giggling like little
girls as they pour in the silicate and destroy perfectly good engines.
The whole program is an OBSCENE waste of good parts and good money.

What is the gummint going to do when one of those engines throws a rod
right through the brain-pan of the guy running the engine?