Car "spits" water droplets from tailpipes.

[super flat]

Maybe its just me, but I would fix all the external leaks and NOT put antifreeze in an engine that I suspect has an internal leak. Good luck Gary

[Sixseven]

Originally Posted by BillLee/Chandler, TX

Of course, electric cars don't emit.... well .... as far as the car goes. All they do is move the emissions back to the power generating plant. And nobody has bothered to study the effects on the climate by extracting power from the wind. (There ain't no free lunch!)

What you don't see doesn't count does it? I agree with you a 100%. When I was a teenager restoring my old car, I heard that gas was going to go up to $1.00 a gallon and that alternative fuel cars would rule the roads. That was sure discouraging. None the less, while everyone is trying for the free lunch, I will continue to drive the old Fords.

[blueovalbob]

Water is a by-product of combustion.

Here's the Readers Digest version,

Combustion is a sequence of exothermic(heat releasing) chemical reactions between a fuel, most likely a hydrocarbon, and an oxidant, which will always be oxygen.

Water, more specifically water vapor, is formed in a combustion reaction because the reactants (initial compounds/elements) chemically change when energy is added to the equation to form the products of water vapor and often carbon dioxide.

What's dripping from the end of your taipipe is condensation

[66miles]

Jake197000 mentioned that "most" mufflers have a small factory drain hole drilled in the rear of the thing just above the seam. My near-new system seems to have no drain holes at all. I guess that means that all that water which is produced naturally, has no way out except the tailpipes (after who-knows how much of the stuff has sat in there for days, rusting out the system). All this is made worse by the fact that the old girl never gets a decent high-speed drive.

I still like harleynut's suggestion for telling the difference between normal condensate, and leaking coolant.

[Mike51Merc]

Originally Posted by deucemac

If I remember correctly, one gallon of gasoline when burned in an engine will produce eight gallons of water vapor. Which is why we see condensation trails from aircraft at altitude. And the heavier the trail, the more humidity aloft. We don't have that problem on the ground but have all seen a tailpipe steam on less than warm days. Modern mufflers will have a weep hole in them to allow water to escape that condenses and does not flow out the tailpipe. And, yes there are times that water vapor out the tailpipe indicate problems and others have covered that situation already.

How does one measure water vapor in gallons? Seems to me that water vapor is a gas with varying density depending on many different factors.

Which reminds me: If I remember correctly, at one of my first jobs as kitchen help (dishwasher) at a restaurant, we always sent the new guys to the basement to get us a bucket of steam when we needed one. We also sent them to the storage room for wall stretchers when we knew a big crowd was coming.

[dwick01]

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Mike51Merc that reminds me of years ago working on airplanes, driving and bucking rivets, when a problem was found, the new guy was sent to the tool crib for a jar of edge margin.

[66miles]

I sure may not remember the complete guts of it, but I remember enough of my High-school Chemistry and Physics to know that we were taught that burning a hydro-carbon fuel such as petrol (note the word "hydro" in hydro-carbon), will result in the release of carbon compounds plus WATER ! It's the carbon side of things that gets the greeny's all worked up. The water bit is great for the garden.

Strange... But true!