Marion firm meeting demand for 'Cash for Clunkers' engine-seizing product

Providing the death serum that kills off discarded clunkers in the federal “Cash for Clunkers” program is keeping a Marion manufacturer busy.

Kwik-Way Products Inc. has for years handled sodium silicate, which it uses to formulate products that save engines by sealing radiator and head gasket leaks. The substance known as liquid glass is a key ingredient in Kwik-Way's Irontite product line.

“We did not know until a week ago last Thursday that sodium silicate was the product designated by the government to disable vehicles in the Cash for Clunkers program,” said Vice President of Sales Dennis Mullarkey.

Kwik-Way suddenly had a red-hot market for a chemical that had only been an ingredient in its other products.

Within a week, Kwik-Way bottled more than 10,000 one-gallon containers of sodium silicate for the Cash for Clunkers market. It is sold under the label CARS Engine Disablement Solution. CARS is the Car Allowance Rebate System, the official name for Cash for Clunkers.

Mullarkey said Kwik-Way had never before sold a product intended to damage an engine. “It's kind of a bittersweet sale, but it's a product that's in high demand right now,” Mullarkey said.

The bottling went on at full blast well into the night last week at Kwik-Way's headquarters in Marion and in El Monte, Calif., where its Irontite by Kwik-Way product lines are based. More than 1,000 bottles per day were packaged at each location, giving Kwik-Way a buffer of inventory just as the government decided to extend Cash for Clunkers.

To destroy an engine, a mechanic must empty out the oil and fill the oil crankcase with a half-gallon of sodium silicate. The substance has no lubricating qualities, and, as the engine runs, the water evaporates, leaving only the sodium silicate, a highly abrasive substance, in the engine. It causes so much friction that the bearings and moving surfaces wear out.

The government may have chosen sodium silicate as the death serum for the gas guzzlers because it's relatively cheap and plentiful. A gallon of sodium silicate typically sells for about $14 and can disable two engines.

Mullarkey said Kwik-Way doesn't expect the market to last long, as the Cash for Clunkers program's success is quickly using up available funding. The opportunity to sell the product came at a good time, though.

The recession had cooled orders for new shop equipment, and summer is typically the slow order period.