"carneyke" wrote in message
oups.com...
Maybe you are right, but when they converted to the catalytic convertor
and raised the operating temperature, the engine compartment through
off much more heat. I guess you are right, putting it in a common sense
way (either the heat went up the tailpipe or given off by the engine
compartment). I didn't take High School Physics, went the electric shop
route with the other "sparkies". Made a damn good living at it too....

Well, that beats what's happened in *my* field lately. g

As a couple of people have intimated, the heat from the cat is just heat (or
unburned fuel) that would have gone straight out the tailpipe, without the
cat. It's true that today's engines burn more inside the engine and less
goes out as heat or as unburned hydrocarbons. But not that much as a
percentage, overall. Some of that which *doesn't* go out the tailpipe goes
off as waste heat from the cat (as you've identified) and some goes off in
engine cooling (as you've also identified). But some very small portion
winds up as power at the wheels -- where it then gets turned into heat of
friction. d8-)

It all goes out as heat, one way or another, or as polluting, unburned
hydrocarbons or products of them (such as carbon monoxide, which will burn).
'Ain't no free lunch.

--
Ed Huntress