Original subtitles

[Tory] Bisi.

You thirsty?

We need to see how much an average person,

if they hold it for a long time, can go.

[Bisi exhales] Ah!

[Faye] Ew!

From here, I can't tell where the pee line even went up to.

-[Tory] This is so gross. -[Bisi laughs]

[Tory] Full urine steam ahead.

[Bisi laughs]

[Tory whooping] Do you smell that?

-[both laughing] -Oh, my god.

Starting to warm up.

This is an emergency situation.

Excuse you.

Let's milk this truck. [laughs]

[Bisi] If this exceeds 248, I'm calling it.

[Tory] Oh, this is so nerve-racking.

-Yeah! -Yeah!

[narrator] Meet the team.

[whooping]

There's a potential that I could get electrocuted.

[explosion]

[narrator] With the mechanical expertise...

More oxygen, more fuel that makes more power.

[narrator] ...to test all things automotive.

[both laughing]

[Bisi] It's almost like surgery.

If I make a mistake, we'll blow up the engine.

[narrator] This is Motor MythBusters.

This is our job!

[narrator] Where science, meets the streets.

[Bisi] What happened?

So, I was driving, it started overheating...

-Oh yeah. -...and then all of a sudden steam just started coming out,

so I pulled over, but this radiator is shot.

[Bisi] So, I can top you off.

-[Tory] Thanks for bringing the water. -Yeah, no worries.

-All right I'll see you at the shop. -All right.

-I'll be right behind you, just in case. -Yeah. Yeah.

-She's a classic. -[Bisi] Ha!

-[Tory] Bisi! -Yes?

Our radiators are in for the truck.

You say radiators in plural?

I got inspired. I went online

and I saw there was one guy, he peed in the radiator,

and that was enough to get him 2.5 miles to the gas station until it got fixed.

Huh! Well?

What if all you had was urine?

Could you use that as coolant?

Okay, well, first we have to change the radiator in the car,

in the truck because it's all messed up.

You're liking this myth, I can tell.

-Yeah, kinda sorta. -Here, you want that one?

[narrator] So, the myth is,

urine the middle of nowhere.

Your engine's steaming, radiator leaking.

Don't hesitate to micturate.

[water dripping]

Question is, can pee really be used as an emergency coolant?

I feel like most people think when you fill up your radiator,

you're filling up the entire thing like it's a big tank.

What people don't realize is,

-there's a lot of fluid going through... -Absolutely.

-...each of these layers. -That is correct.

And then most of it is air passing through the veins

-to dissipate that heat. -That's true.

These veins allow for heat exchange to occur from those passage ways

to the atmosphere.

The engine typically has either electric or mechanical water pump,

-takes the coolant that's already warmed up... -Right.

...forces it into the radiator...

-And then it starts going through these little tubes... -It starts going across,

-small channels. And those small channels... -And all that air is

-moving through here... -Mm-hmm.

-...pulling that heat away... -Heat away.

-...from that fluid. -And the coolant

then goes back to the engine and does its job all over again.

Pun intended, that's so cool.

So, if you're in a situation like I was

where radiator has just [bleep] the bed...

[laughs]

I guess I should say wet the bed.

What are the dangers of

not having coolant going through the engine?

Most engines prefer to run in the mid-180s to 212 degrees.

But, hit 250 and you can have some serious engine failure.

I mean, you can everything from rods bending from seizing through the cylinders,

you can have head gaskets blowing.

So, it's always good to have a proper working cooling system.

And the key, the cooling components.

So, what we have here is

a 50-50 mix of an Ethylene Glycol based engine coolant.

So, this is very different from water.

It prevents freezing in the winter,

and it has a higher boiling point, 223 degrees Fahrenheit.

A pressurized radiator cap can help increase that temperature,

which is important in keeping the engine cool.

Question is, how does that compare to pee?

-[Tory] All right. -[laughs] Oh, my god!

-I'm ready to experiment with pee. -Get that away from me.

Oh, my god! Is that yours?

-This is mine. -You need some more water

in your diet.

-I'm gonna go boil this outside... -Okay.

-...and I'll give you the data. -Sounds good.

-You look great by the way. -Oh, thank you.

[laughs]

[Tory] Yeah, we got a little bit of drippage.

You know, being on MythBusters

I'm kinda used to this disgusting stuff.

Right now, we're trying to find out

what the boiling temperature of urine is.

Pee is basically liquid waste.

So far, we're about 195, and the urine hasn't boiled yet.

-[Bisi] Jesus! -[both laugh]

Oh, god!

[Tory] I told you it smells bad!

It got worse.

Is this getting to you?

Yeah, a little bit.

-We have masks. -Okay.

[Tory] Right now, we're at 212...

This might be a better solution than coolant!

-It may be. -To cool your engine?

Yeah, it may be.

[blow torch blaring]

[Bisi] Okay, okay, 217.

-[Tory] So, 217, the urine boiled. -Let me set.

-[Tory] That's exciting. -[Bisi] Yeah.

Are you starting to feel like this is a good engine coolant?

Except for the corrosive properties of urine.

Well, what we should try to do is,

just do a little experiment,

put some steel and aluminum in the urine

-and see how it reacts. -Oh, that's a good one.

[upbeat music playing]

[narrator] Yup, even if using urine when you're in an emergency is possible,

what are the implications for the car's cooling system?

Would pee's potentially corrosive power,

leave the myth done and rusted?

What if you filled your radiator with urine and walked away

and it just sat there for like a month?

-You forgot to, like, flush it back out? -Yes.

So, what we're gonna do, is we are going to take this chunk

-of radiator which is made out of aluminum... -Mm-hmm.

-...we're gonna take this piece of water pump... -Water pump.

...which is made out of iron.

We're gonna dip it into a vat filled with pee.

We're gonna let it sit there for 30 days,

and then see how corrosive urine is on these types of metals.

Oh, God, just thinking about it is so freaking gross.

So, you have the lucky job of helping me...

-No! -...sort out the urine.

-We've been collecting... -Oh god, no.

...urine for months now.

The whole crew have been filling up cups.

-Okay, witness! -I don't wanna look!

[exhales] Okay, here we go.

[Faye] I m just not gonna look.

[Tory] Now, this person's getting hydrated, that's good to see.

Can we just not comment on every single person's pee,

and just put it in there, please! [sighs]

-[Tory] All right. [groans] -Ew!

[Tory] Ah! I feel better already.

[Faye giggles] So gross!

[Tory] Trust me, it's just as gross for me, as it is for you.

Ah, yeah, okay.

So, the urine is in there, we have the aluminum radiator,

we have the iron water pump.

Now, we're just gonna let it sit and see how much corrosion happens.

[narrator] While the cooling system sits back and soaks up the pee,

Tory and Bisi are gathering data by relieving the radiator.

[Tory] That barely made it back.

[Bisi] What a lot of people don't realize is that

even when you have a leak in your radiator system or if it has a fracture,

you want to evacuate all of the cooling liquid out of it.

-Right. -There's still some left to the crankcase, in the...

-Inside the engine... -Yeah.

-...you have a ton of fluid still left. -Absolutely.

[Tory] Well, I guess first things first,

we got to replace the broken radiator.

[Bisi] The one beauty of working on older car is that

there are a lot of bolts that are rusted.

So, I have the last bolt that's holding the radiator in place. Okay.

-Ready? -Ready? Yes.

Wow! This thing's pretty heavy.

-All right, let's put in the new one. -Okay.

[Tory] And then just to find out

how much fluid is in the entire system, we fill it up.

-All filled. -[engine starts]

So, when I filled it up, there are so many crevices

that contain air in the motor.

Now, with the vehicle on, the water pump pumps,

and all that air is evacuated.

-[Tory] Good? -Yeah, you can turn off.

And we're going to use compressed air

to push the rest of the fluid out of the engine cooling system.

Here it comes.

-Measure that. -That's a good idea.

[Tory] And then at least we have a starting point of

what we need.

-Jeez! -Wow!

That's a lot of fluid.

Yeah. That's three gallons.

There has to be a way for us to determine

what was just in the radiator versus

what was in the entire system.

[Tory] Well, you know, we could just fill up the other radiator...

-Okay, here we go. -Stop, stop.

[Tory] ...and then subtract that.

That means another 1.5 gallons is left inside of our engine.

Absolutely. How much can you pee?

Bisi, you thirsty?

Tory, what are you doing?

I was thinking, maybe what we do is

we drink a bunch of water,

and we see how long we can hold it.

As if we're on like a really long road trip,

and you're holding it, till you got to the bathroom.

And then we can see how much urine an average person,

if they hold it for a long time, can go.

[Bisi] Okay.

[upbeat music playing]

[exhales]

[exhales and groans]

[sighs in relief]

How'd you do?

I feel much lighter.

[laughs]

Look what I came up with.

-[Tory] 1.5 quarts. -Yeah.

[Tory] That's not nearly enough for one person

to refill a radiator.

-But, if there was three people in the truck... -Right.

-...you would have a gallon of urine. -Easily.

-This is good news for us. -This is great news.

-This could potentially work. -[laughs] It could be.

But, you know what, there's nothing like going in the real world

and doing it properly, so...

That's right, cheers to that.

Say cheers!

[intense music playing]

[car roaring]

-Well, here we are in Willow Springs. -[laughs]

[Tory] Beautiful Willow Springs.

Does this racetrack bring back memories for you, Bisi?

It does. This is the first place

that I honed my skills as a road racer here.

[Tory] And the vehicle we're gonna be testing this myth in...

-That's right. -[laughs]

All right. So, we are trying to figure out

if urine works as a coolant.

Well, this is a perfect place to test that.

And most vehicles exist between 180 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit,

if we exceed that, let's say 248 degrees Fahrenheit,

we need to call it 'cause that's when engine damage occurs.

Yeah. Do we have sensors in this...

-Oh, plenty of sensors. -...so that we can measure the temperature?

[intense music playing]

-[Bisi exhales] -Okay. So, we have drained

-our radiator completely. -The engine is bone dry.

All right, you ready to do this?

I'm ready, but I wanna mask-up first,

'cause this is gonna be really stinky

and I wanna do this pretty quickly.

[Tory] Okay, so, we sprung a leak,

and if according to our math,

first we fill the system with two gallons of premix coolant.

[Bisi] Okay.

Once we have that, we pour in the gallon of urine.

-This is so gross -[laughs]

Which we determined, if there was three travelers

and they held their pee for a long time...

-[Bisi] They can fill up a gallon. -Yes, absolutely.

[both groan]

-[Tory] Think we're filled up with urine? -We're filled up.

Yes, we're good to go.

All right.

[Tory] I'm gonna keep the window down.

-[Bisi exhales] -[Tory] Yeah, you're gonna wanna

-keep the window down. -[laughs]

All right, heads up. All we need to go

-is 2.5 miles. -Yes.

[Tory] And this myth is confirmed.

[Bisi] But, if we see 248 degrees, I'm calling it.

And the sensor I'll be watching

is the water neck or inlet.

The temperature of the coolant

returning from the engine to the radiator.

[Tory] All right, here we go.

[Bisi] Engage.

[Bisi laughing]

[Bisi] Hey, do you smell that?

-[Tory laughing] -Oh, my god!

[Tory] It's starting to warm up!

We're at 175 degrees right now.

[Bisi] So far so good, you know.

You know, we've made it halfway through our course

and we're still okay temperature wise.

This myth may have some substance to it.

I mean, in an emergency situation!

[rock music playing]

[Tory] At the myth-specified 2.5 mile mark,

the pee-coolant mix is clearly coping.

So, we're doubling down and doubling the distance.

[Bisi laughing]

[Tory] Yeah, it is starting to get a little,,,

[Bisi] Yeah, a little funky!

[Tory] We're like fluctuating

-around 177 to like 180. -Yeah.

So now we are at 3.75 miles

and temperatures still in check.

-This is amazing. -[Tory] Yeah.

-[Bisi] Five miles. -We've done five miles, Bisi.

-And it's still not overheating. -Yeah.

[Tory] This is incredible!

Urine! A motor coolant!

[Bisi] Wow!

[narrator] Pee's coolant properties

have proven to be more than sufficient for an emergency.

-[Tory] This is so gross. -[Bisi laughs] You ready?

[narrator] A top-up by a trio of travelers

will get you five miles home.

-[Bisi] This is amazing. -[Tory] Yeah.

[narrator] And the temperature gauge

won't get close to seeing red.

But, the guys aren't done yet.

[Tory] Now, we're gonna take it to the next level.

We're gonna drain the entire system,

and fill it up with nothing but urine.

Will it work? Maybe.

Is it disgusting? Hell, yeah.

Just another day at the office.

Making my family proud.

What did you do today, honey?

Ah, just filled the radiator with urine,

to see if it'd keep the engine cool.

-Okay. -This is really nasty.

[Tory] Yeah.

Now, this is all, completely urine,

-and nothing else. -100%.

Unadulterated urine.

-[Tory] I think you should drive. -I'll do it.

[Tory] Okay, here we go.

[Bisi] Yes, yes. Okay.

Full urine steam ahead. [laughs]

Get it? Full steam ahead.

[rock music playing]

All right, our temperature's gone up.

We're up to the 172.

Now, we're halfway through the course.

-All right, we are at... -Five miles.

...and our engine did not overheat.

[Bisi] What's crazier than not overheating is the fact that,

it conducted heat better

and gave us a lot of cooling temperature,

than our initial mixture of engine coolant and urine.

[Tory] Yeah. This is a good testament to urine.

I say we have to confirm this one.

[Bisi] I agree with you. You know, it looks like, if you are in a pinch

and you run out of radiator fluid,

you could use your own urine as a substitute.

[Tory] Gross, but it works.

[Bisi] Yeah, it does work.

-[Tory] Confirmed. -Confirmed.

[Tory] Okay, using urine in an emergency, works surprisingly well.

But, even if you can leak enough to top-off the leaky radiator,

are there any corrosive consequences?

Can you smell it from over there?

[Faye] I'm holding my breath.

[Tory groans and coughs] The...

There's definitely some corrosion.

[whooping] That is wicked!

So, the iron water pump

has definitely gotten some corrosion.

So, you don't wanna be leaving urine

-sitting around in your system. -Uh-huh! Okay.

[Tory] All right, now let's take a look at the aluminum.

-You ready, Faye? -Uh, no.

[Tory] Ah, the aluminum doesn't look so bad.

-Ugh! -No!

[Tory] There is like no discoloration whatsoever.

[Faye] Yeah, from here, I can't tell

where like the pee line even went up to it.

-Like, there's no change, you know. -Yeah.

All right.

Turns out, urine doesn't really affect the aluminum so much...

-[Faye] Yeah. -...but iron, it definitely corroded it.

[Faye] Okay.

In case you needed someone to tell you,

don't do this, okay.

Don't pee in your radiator and then leave it.

[Tory] Despite that caveat, the myth remains confirmed.

But, it got me thinking.

What if you had a leaky radiator...

-So, ketchup. -Ah! A non-Newtonian fluid.

[Tory] ...but you didn't have to take a leak.

Milk!

May be you'd just been out to the store.

-Shampoo! -[laughs]

-[Bisi] There we go. -May be we should add some conditioner.

Alcohol.

And using my shopping list as a randomized sample,

I wonder what other weird emergency coolants would get you home.

I mean, theoretically, if you put ketchup in there as the engine's--

-[glass breaking] -[both laughing]

[Bisi] So, it doesn't transfer heat very well.

So, we're not even gonna test ketchup after that test.

Alcohol is gonna be bad on so many levels.

So, the fact that it has such a low boiling temperature...

All right 175.

...and that it's so flammable, so, we're not even gonna try that.

If anything, it's gonna give your radiator a healthy shine.

[Bisi] An engine runs most effectively up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

So, to provide effective heat exchange,

that's the benchmark for potential replacements.

Just a couple of dudes boiling shampoo.

Remember, when we first put it in, it was very thick.

[Bisi] Yeah, it was pretty thick.

-Yeah, we're at 210. -It's completely liquefied.

I see shampoo as a good option.

[Bisi] It's not bad.

-[Tory] We're at 200. -200.

-[Bisi] There is still no boiling. -[Tory] It is still not--

What is this magical juice?

-We're at 212. -212.

[narrator] So, with two viable options,

it's time to hit the track

and test them in the truck

with a freshly-flushed radiator.

Will either of them keep their cool?

[Bisi] All right.

-So, we're gonna test those other fluids. -Yes.

-Did you say udder fluids? -[both laugh]

This engine is completely dry.

-Yes. -All right.

This is an emergency situation.

It's a milk truck.

What if you'd just gone grocery shopping?

Okay. Is it moo-ving through the radiator yet?

[both laughing]

[Tory] We're gonna put three gallons of milk in it.

[Bisi] Oh, that looks good.

-[Tory] All right, we're all topped-up with milk. -All right.

[Tory] You ready to test this?

[Bisi] All right.

-Milk truck ready? -Milk truck ready.

-[Bisi] Okay. -Let's go.

-Let's milk this truck. -[both laugh]

[rock music playing]

[Bisi] You think we'll match the pee's five-mile marathon?

[Tory] My theory is the milk is gonna cook,

and it will clog up the engine.

One-sixty-two.

Doing about 45-miles an hour, that's good.

-[Tory] It's kind of holding. -[Bisi] Yeah.

[Tory] But we're only halfway through the run.

[Bisi] So, we're staying put at 174, maybe 170s.

Ooh! Is that milk I smell? Like a Latte?

-Smells like burnt milk. -Ooh! [laughs]

[Tory] I'm picturing big chunks of cooked milk

-and fat... -[Bisi laughs] Big globs of...

...just clogging the system.

[Bisi] But, nonetheless, so far, we're almost at the finish line.

-[Tory] Bisi, this is like... -The milk is burning.

-[Tory] ...is blowing my mind. -I'm telling you.

But, it's actually working.

[Bisi] So, you know, what that means.

If you are somewhere stranded

and you don't have enough urine,

-you can put milk in your cooling system. -Milk,

-Milk does an engine good. -Sure does.

[Tory] I'm impressed.

-That was crazy! -Milk worked.

-[Bisi] It did. -Yeah, this one's confirmed.

[narrator] Confirmed, but we're not done yet.

Cue Rose and her pit crew to cleanse the cooling system.

[Tory] How's it going, you guys?

-[man 1] We're about to take a milk bath. -[Tory] I'm ready.

[exclaiming] Oh!

[whooping] That is wrecked.

That's not bad.

You know, I expected to see some chunks

and coagulation but

-it held up. -[Tory] That's all inside the engine, Bisi.

[narrator] After the flush, the radiator is replaced,

so Tory and Bisi can repeat the test

with the second of their store-bought liquids.

[Bisi] Let's say you're on your way back from the MegaMarts.

-[Tory] Okay. -You may have a ton of shampoo.

[Tory] All right.

Oh! I don't know about this, Tory.

[Tory laughs] We're gonna be here forever.

[sputtering]

-Excuse you. -Sorry.

[Bisi] Smells good, though.

You know, we've come a long way since urine.

-Thank god! -[laughs]

[Bisi] How do we get it in the radiator,

and how do we get it to flow?

All right, I'm gonna start the engine

-to see if we can get some shampoo to drop in. -Okay.

[engine starts]

-[Tory] Is that helping? [laughs] -Yeah.

And we need three gallons of this stuff.

-Yeah, yeah. -A little agitation is good.

We're blowing bubbles, oh! That's good.

I say we go for it, Bisi. What do you think?

Yeah.

But, this exceeds 248 degrees Fahrenheit

-in the cooling system, I'm calling it. -Yeah.

Mm, the engine smells so fresh.

Here we go.

-[Tory] Temperature's holding. -[Bisi laughs]

-[Tory] It starting to rise up very rapidly. -Yeah, really fast.

-Oh my goodness! -209.

We're at 227, 228.

-Oh we're at 230. -230.

Oh, my god, we haven't even gone halfway. 238.

248 is the number...

-That's my number. -...we need to kill it.

Ooh! This is so nerve-racking.

I don't think we're gonna make it, we're at 245.

Just coast because we're at 247.

If we hit 248,

-we gotta shut this engine off. -That's it, yup.

-[Tory] Yes! -Ah, this is crazy.

[Tory] All right, this is the tricky part.

-Going uphill. -2.3

You're gonna have to hit the gas.

[engine revving]

Oh, no! This could be the end of our trip.

[Bisi] 245.

[Tory] Uh-oh!

-Oh, boy! -We're going up.

[Bisi] I'm trying to get to the next.

-[Tory] 247. -247.

-Oh, the suspense is killing me! -It's holding up at 247.

-249, yeah, we're done. -All right.

-[Bisi] We're done. -I hear bubbling.

-[Bisi] Yup. -I see steam coming from the engine.

-Shampoo... -Shampoo is not a good option.

-Nope. -Smells good.

[Tory] Smells great.

[Bisi groans] So, it's painfully obvious, Tory,

that shampoo is not a good substitute

for proper engine coolant.

I had hopes for it when we saw it melt in the shop.

But, yeah. This is totally busted.

[Bisi] Yeah, I agree.

[narrator] Good luck wrenching that radiator.

The cooling system clearly couldn't cope

with the shampoo goo.

Hot milk and urine proved successful.

Well, Tory, you know what we have to do now to get this back to the shop?

Tow it?

No, we have to pee in it.

Man, I'm fresh out of pee.

[laughing]

[music playing]