Blown head gasket causes bike-pack case adjournment

A driver involved in an accident with a pack of 50 elite cyclists, including three Olympians, has failed to appear in Waverley Court today, citing mechanical problems with his vehicle. Bakr Hassan, 34, of Claymore, was due to face court today charged over the May 8 incident at Mascot, which involved Olympic cyclists Ben Kersten, Michelle Ferris and Kate Nichols. Hassan was charged by police with having between 6am and 6.15am on Southern Cross Drive at Mascot, failed to give his required particulars, At the time of the crash Kersten was among fifty elite riders on an early morning training run when a Ford Falcon sedan, allegedly driven by Hassan, stalled in a lane close to the group, causing a pile-up among riders. No one was seriously injured in the incident.

But when the matter came before magistrate Christopher Longley, police told the court Hassan was unable to attend due to a mechanical problem with his vehicle. Mr Longley was then handed a note from court staff which said Hassan had phoned seeking an adjournment in his hearing because of problems with his vehicle.
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Head Case - Tuner Tech

Unraveling The Mystery Of Leaking Head Gaskets And How To Solve The Problem. If you are about to replace a leaking head gasket, you may wonder why you almost never see oil or coolant leaking from the gaskets on newer vehicles, even those with plenty of miles on them. After all, that used to make detection of a failed gasket much simpler. You may also be asking yourself what you can do to avoid head gasket problems in the future. Well, it just so happens Bill McKnight has the answers. He's Director of Training for Victor Reinz - the world's largest supplier of head gaskets, a leading supplier of gaskets to European car makers and a supplier of gaskets to the replacement market.

McKnight tells us all OEM head gaskets installed on modern vehicles are multi-layer steel (MLS) construction. They feature the same elements as the MLS gaskets installed on virtually all vehicles in the '90s, but unlike today's MLS gaskets, those early ones are now known to develop premature oil and coolant leaks.
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Don't blow a gasket - Father and son see niche in a job no one wants

When Rick Kaestner came to his son, Adam Kaestner, in August 2005 for his take on a new business venture the elder Kaestner was thinking about buying, it didn't take long to see the value. The business was Gasket Guy, a division of BWGaskets Inc., based in Daytona, Fla., and the concept was that there's money in doing niche work no one else wants to do. Gasket Guy simply replaces the gaskets in restaurant refrigeration equipment. When those gaskets -- such as those around a walk-in freezer door -- go bad, restaurant managers mostly call commercial refrigeration contractors.

Wide open business. "We've never been able to find anyone to (replace gaskets,) and I don't do it well," said Missy Carey, area supervisor for McDonald's Corp. and a Gasket Guy customer. Big contractors "tell you to order the gasket and put it in," Carey said. "What they don't tell you is, they only go in a certain way." Install a gasket improperly, and the doors won't close, she added. Adam Kaestner had spent most of his working life in Louisville restaurants such as Browning's Restaurant and Brewery and Volare Ristorante, so he understood how important gaskets are.
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PTFE Bellows and Diaphragms from FTL Technology

Innovative sealing and engineering solutions provider, FTL Technology, is the leading design and distribution company for providing engineered solutions for sealing, bearing and frictional problems. Available now from FTL Technology are the PTFE ranges of Bellows and Diaphragms - these flexible products are used in a variety of applications and can be developed and manufactured according to you particular application.

With regard to operation and safety for difficult and demanding applications, FTL Technology can offer Finite Element Analysis (FEA), this enables configuration of the best possible shape and advanced calculation of the service life.
PTFE is a material, which is resistant to almostall chemicals, and it can be used at temperatures up to 260°C. Applications for diaphragms and bellows in this material includes: The chemical industry. Pharmaceutical industry. Food industry (FDA approved). Medical engineering. Offshore installations. PTFE diaphragms control, separate, convey and seal aggressive media in valves and pumps. The design can be developed according to the application with regard to stroke length, temperature and pressure, physical dimension etc.
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Heat-Generated PTFE Fumes: A Silent Killer of Birds In Our Care

On Saturday, November 12, 2000, Ron, the owner of eight pet birds, started the self-cleaning oven cycle in preparation for Thanksgiving dinner. His windows were open, in compliance with the oven directions. Two hours later, his son noticed that one of the birds was having trouble standing (all birds were located in a separate room off the kitchen). Four of the birds died quickly in Ron's hands before anything could be done. Opening more windows saved the other birds.

Microscopic lung findings were consistent with the inhalation of toxic chemical fumes. No warnings about release of a toxic gas were found in the oven's directions, but the source of the fumes was the oven's nonstick coating based on PTFE. Confirmed by a necropsy examination, these four pet bird fatalities resulted from normal operation of the cleaning cycle of this PTFE-coated oven (Ramelmeier & Davidson). With their sensitive respiratory systems, birds have been used to protect us by detecting poison gas since early in the industrial age - the legendary canaries in the coal mines.