(repost from fedi with some minor changes and a lot more thoughts)
after having my mom's car shit itself the whole summer vacation and work at a mechanic shop through July
i came to the sudden and somewhat jarring realization today that combustion engines (especially in cars) fucking suck
so with standard piston engines, you’re converting rotational energy to reciprocal energy, this causes a lot of vibration and it only makes power every other stroke
and rotary engines like the Mazda Wankel engines have even more disadvantages, like oil fill issues, rotor sealing and efficiency issues
someone on youtube pointed out a different rotary engine design- the Vane engine design- that used highly tensioned springs to keep the chambers of the engine sealed off from each other and did a whole 4 combustions every 360 degrees of the engine spinning. however, springs will lose tension over time, and would need to be replaced after a while, which will probably be a costly and hard job. the Vane engine is off the table for this one. i also didn't watch all the way through that video
so using direct rotational energy doesn’t really work either
either way with engines
- you’re gonna have mechanical moving parts that require oil/lubricant changes
- which can be Very costly if a part breaks or some other thing goes wrong and it needs to be repaired/replaced
- not to mention shit just wears out over time and is guaranteed to break no matter how much you love it
- they create a fuck ton of heat in the process and it takes a lot to cool
- they emit pretty toxic fumes into the air that’s destroying our planet because of the combustible fuel that they use to run
my best friend has a used Chevy Bolt that costs like nothing to run except charging it every night or two. he’s super happy with it. EVs are much more widespread than just teslas now so you don't have to worry about giving your hard earned money to the guy who's probably the reason you're on cohost anyways. just don’t get a first gen Nissan Leaf they suck
EV people were probably right- is what i would say if having everyone drive an EV didn't just move the pollution up the chain to the manufacturing of said batteries and the production of power to charge them. someone on fedi pointed this out to me
sure, clean energy exists, like solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and nuclear* power, but a good chunk of our energy is still being produced by coal and natural gas burning. the latter isn't really as pollutive as the former iirc but it's still a natural resource
this is the part where i talk about public transport. it's basically inevitable and walking everywhere isn't going to get you anywhere. bikes are the same but a bit faster.
buses are cool and all but they're just adding to the whole car issue. more people on one vehicle doesn't move roads
trains are just COOLER. it's like a huge bus that goes at least 4 times as fast. most trains are electric use grid power from above and some dont even touch the ground which only adds to it's excellent efficiency. if a part on the train goes wrong then the train company just takes it off the tracks for a bit, fixes whatevers wrong, and use another train that they have in scenarios exactly like this
older trains burn coal to make steam, but it's not the 19th century anymore. when was the last time you saw a steam train on commercial or transport railroads?
here in the states rail infra really isn't developed at all because auto manufacturers figured out how to mass produce and grabbed ahold of the lands with roads before trains could have a chance to pick up more steam (haha). i would like to see rail infra see a resurgence here, but the only way that's ever gonna happen is if americans put their brains onto something. which is damn impossible
chances are your 2008 toyota corolla isn't going to be the sole proprietor of this issue and is pretty cheap to maintain but the sheer number of cars just kinda adds up
the overarching point of this rant was originally about how combustion engines suck because of mechanical failures and oversights but i led myself down a rabbithole. uh if you got this far thanks for reading