Puzzler Answer, Encore 3

Ray: This is an automotive Puzzler. A fellow came in, a do-it-yourselfer, and said, "Jeez, guys, I have a problem, and I hope you can solve it." "I think I have a faulty part," he said. And I said, "Oh, yeah? What is that?" I think he had something like an 81 or 82 Chevy pickup. It's not important what he had, but he had a late-model vehicle of some kind. He said, "Gee, I had a problem where my car had no power. I couldn't climb hills. And one day while trying to climb a long steep hill, I got out and looked under the car and low and behold my catalytic converter was glowing red. And I said to myself, jeez, it must be all plugged up. I listen to you guys all the time.

Tom: A perfect example for the use of Sonja Henie's tutu.

Ray: So anyway, there he is, out in the middle of nowhere, unable to climb a hill and his converter is glowing red, and what does he do? He says, he goes out and buys a new converter, and spends the whole next weekend busting his knuckles removing the converter and putting on said new converter. Not a junkyard one, but brand new. And guess what?

Tom: Can I guess? He tried to climb the same hill at the same time of day, didn't make it, looked under the car, and low and behold, it was Sonja Henie's red tutu again.

Ray: You are clairvoyant.

Tom: No, I'm Tom, Claire is my sister-in-law.

Ray: Exactly. So he realized that either he misdiagnosed the problem, or, as he suspects, he bought a faulty converter.

Tom: The case of the faulty converter.

Ray: He goes to the parts store, irate. And the guy says, "Unlikely, twirp. You did not buy a faulty converter." Whereupon he comes to our garage, head in hand, empty pockets, weeping, "Help me! Help me!"

Tom: I have fallen down and I can't get up!

Ray: The question is, what's wrong here? Was it really his converter? And why not?

Ray: No, it wasn't the converter, as we told you. What was wrong was that his timing was off. And the reason that his converter was glowing red was that the combustion was actually taking place in that first part of the exhaust system. Because the timing was so far off that he wasn't getting combustion in the cylinders, rather he was getting it where? In the exhaust system.

Tom: And what's right up front there?

Ray: Catalytic converter. That's why he also had no power, because the energy of those explosions was going into turning that pipe and that converter cherry red, and not going into pushing the pistons down.

Tom: Because where there is red, there is fire.