Diagnosing misfires can be difficult

Much as we admired the long-stroke vintage sportscar engines, there is no denying that they were incredibly inefficient. For example, in the 1920s even the 4.5-litre Bentley, at one time king of British sportscars, took about 15 seconds to reach 100km/h from a standing start. Today a small-capacity family runabout will have no trouble achieving or bettering that. OK, I admit the Bentley’s weight didn’t help acceleration times.

While long-stroke engines had their admirers, the stresses in the long connecting rods were partly responsible for the low practical engine speeds. This was one of the reasons why later cars had a more square bore/stroke configuration and became higher revving “buzzers” if you like. Added to this, there is no doubt that a small stroke/bore ratio more easily lends itself to higher volumetric efficiency. It’s a matter of space too; the bore size dictates the maximum size of the inlet valve.

Whereas at one time not so long ago, in the quest for power we would fit a sports camshaft, high-compression pistons and a special exhaust, along came exhaust emission controls.

Moves to reduce harmful emissions included reduced compression ratios and changes in combustion chamber and piston-head design.

Close clearance spaces in the combustion chamber, which tend to quench the flame before the fuel/air mixture has been fully burned, have been eliminated.

This quench height reduction has brought a worthwhile reduction in harmful emissions.

Valve overlap (when inlet and exhaust valves are open at the same time) has been increased to bring about some dilution of the air-intake mixture, thereby lowering peak combustion temperatures and reducing emissions.

The introduction of lead-free fuel initially brought rapid wear on valves and valve seats. To overcome this, during engine production exhaust valve seats were heated by induction coils to about 930 deg C and hardened to a depth of 1.27mm to 2.032mm. Other hassles on some cars included (for example, on one of the Volvo models) the fitting of two head gaskets, resetting the ignition timing to seven degrees BTDC at 750rpm with vacuum pipe disconnected. Possible alternatives were the use of higher octane petrol or octane-boosting additives.

All history now, of course; but it does go to show to what lengths we were prepared to go to enable us to breathe easier for a bit longer.

As I have said many times, an intermittent misfire can be difficult to diagnose because unless you get the vehicle when the misfire is present, it is largely a matter of guesswork. For example, a car was left with us with a note asking if a misfire could be cured.

On a test drive, no misfire was found. A phone call to the owner gave us a bit more information; the misfire occurred only after a long run. The plugs, HT leads and other normal suspects proved to be okay, so I suggested that he take the car away and return it when the misfire recurred.

The following afternoon he brought the car back and it was misfiring badly. I reckoned it was something amiss with the ignition amplifier and fitted a replacement. The job took only a couple of minutes and the misfire disappeared.

Extreme weather lands many cars in the shop

Ladies and gentleman, start your engines! Well, maybe not so fast. Extreme swings in West Texas weather have left many engines not exactly purring.

“Lubbock always has extreme, we never have anything in the middle. We’re either real hot, real cold, dirt blowing, and all three of those affect everything as far as cars,” Scott Egert, owner of Scotts Car Care, said.

Stifling heat this past summer proved to be grueling for vehicles.

“The engine, a lot of people don’t pay attention to it, and the next thing you know your engine is running so hot you crack heads, blow head gaskets,” Mitch Walraven, owner of TES Performance, said.

Car owners are then bombarded with the frigid woes of winter. Egert said he’s already seen the effects of the apporaching, chilly weather.

“With this one front coming through we’re already seeing the batteries that were already weak, quitting. We’re seeing water pumps that were already leaking, going out,” Egert said.

Not to mention sandstorms that spin across the plains.

“Well, if you live in west Texas of course air filters, fuel filters, stuff like that is a big issue because the dirt we have is so fine, it gets through everything,” Egert said.

“When you’re in dustier weather, you get dirtier oil. Your air filter needs to be changed more often because you’re filtering dust basically,” Walraven said.

Over the course of a year, our cars experience a wide range of weather elements in Lubbock. Local shop owners gave their advice on how to prepare our vehicles for whatever mother nature throws at us.

“I would say definitely keep an eye on your battery. A lot of time weather is real harsh on them. The cold weather, especially, makes it hard to start,” Walraven said.

Walraven also recommended that you pay close attention to your tires.

“A lot of people don’t understand that as air is cooler it is obviously denser, and so you actually lose tire pressure,” Walraven said.

Having the right amount of anti-freeze is also vital. Taking steps to weather-proof your car now can save you costly repairs down the road.

“It can get up into the thousands and thousands of dollars if you let it go,” Egert said.

That’s local advice to keep your vehicle vital throughout all the weather elements that occur in Lubbock.

Article sourced from:

http://www.myfoxlubbock.com/news/local/story/Vehicle-weather-proofing-Lubbock-Texas/UyZ1ehgt5EKvUEuVoIuwbQ.cspx

Car exhaust smoke and what it means

So you are driving in traffic jam, but the cars from the opposite direction are moving fast. You then see this truck oozing thick smoke from its weirdly placed exhaust pipe coming your way very fast. It hits you that this truck’s fumes are going to blast you in the face, you then hurry to up your windows only to let some in. You then wonder what kind of maintenance this truck is getting or any other car for that matter with lots of smoke coming out of its exhaust.

Smoke from the exhaust is not good news, but does not necessarily mean the engine needs re-building. First, you need to determine what colour of smoke is coming from the exhaust. The three most common colours of smoke include white, blue and black that I’ll look at in more detail. If you have red or yellow smoke, you could be driving a spaceship.

White smoke is caused by water and or coolant entering the cylinder, and the engine trying to burn it with the fuel. The white smoke is steam. There are special gaskets (head gaskets are the primary gaskets) that keep the coolant from entering the cylinder area which could have failed.

Blue smoke is caused by engine oil entering the cylinder area and being burned along with the fuel air mixture. As with the white smoke, just a small drop of oil leaking into the cylinder can produce blue smoke out the exhaust. Blue smoke is more likely in older or higher mileage vehicles than newer cars with fewer miles. You might need replacement of these seals or use oil specially designed for old and high mileage engines.

Black smoke is caused by excess fuel that has entered the cylinder area and cannot be burned completely. Another term for excess fuel is “running rich.” Poor fuel mileage is also a common complaint when black smoke comes out of the exhaust. Black smoke is the least cause for alarm. Excess fuel will usually effect engine performance, reduce fuel economy, and produce a fuel odour. Black smoke is also more common in older diesel engines caused by numerous things, including but not limited to dirty air filters, fuel injectors, a turbocharger malfunction as well as poor fuel quality.

Smoke should be regarded as an opportunity to take measures that will save you money in both the long term and short term. At the least, smoke may be due to a simple problem, which is causing poor combustion efficiency and costing you in excessive fuel bills. At the other end of the scale, though, smoke may be your last chance to act before a catastrophic engine failure occurs.

Article sourced from: http://www.monitor.co.ug/Business/Technology/-/688612/1241858/-/8veuk8z/-/

Jensen Interceptor is to make a comeback

A new-look Jensen Interceptor – an updated version of the iconic West Midland sports car – is due to return to the roads next year.

The GT will be unveiled in 2012 and will be built in the West Midlands from 2014 after CPP Global Holdings was appointed to engineer, develop and build the new car by the brand’s owners, Healey Sports Cars Switzerland Ltd (HSCS).

• See more pictures of the Interceptor in our gallery to your right

While the original Interceptor was built in West Bromwich between 1966 and 1976, CPP, which owns the Spyker brand, will concentrate its operation in Coventry.

The British specialist automotive group will manufacture the car at the former Jaguar production facility at Browns Lane.

A team of Coventry-based design consultants has completed the design of the new Interceptor and it is already attracting “significant customer interest”.

The new Jensen Interceptor – echoing the four-seat grand tourer layout of the much-loved original – is based on an all-new aluminium chassis and handcrafted aluminium body.

http://www.stephensgaskets.co.uk/

Article sourced from:

http://www.expressandstar.com/lifestyle/motors/2011/09/20/jensen-interceptor-is-to-make-a-comeback/

Take care of your car before you take off

If you have a car, chances are you’ve had car trouble.

From running out of gas and dead batteries to blown head gaskets and bad transmissions, there are a million things that can go wrong with a car.

In a state like Texas, owning a car is almost a requirement. Public transportation is too time-consuming and inconvenient to make it a viable option for those with a choice, so we resort to puttering around in our fossil-fuel burning commuter machines.

In a bad economy with gas prices that steadily rose to almost $4 per gallon before they recently dropped somewhat, we can’t afford another car-related expense.

So we skip a few fluid changes here and there, keep the tires on a little longer than our mechanics would like and close our eyes as we turn on the pumps.

But two local car gurus have said that missing maintenance on our vehicles may end up costing us more than we would save in the short term.

We consulted two of the 109’s car repair experts to find out just how costly skipping regularly scheduled maintenance can be. George Salinas, owner of G&M Tire and Service Center, 3524 South Hills Ave. and Tony Aspero, store manager at National Tire & Battery, 5320 Southwest Blvd., run the only two car repair shops in the 109.

Both Aspero and Salinas said that skipping regular maintenance could be a very costly mistake in the long run.

Aspero said most of the time, car owners are pretty good about changing the oil in their cars, but will neglect other services that need to be done less often and are often more costly.

Most often Aspero sees customers who have skipped flushing their fluid systems and replacing their shocks and struts, he said.

“I see a lot of people who come in, they get their oil changes regularly like they should, but they don’t change the other fluids,” Aspero said. “Your other fluids are just as important, they just don’t need to be changed as frequently and they’re usually more expensive, so a lot of those get overlooked.”

Skipping flushing the transmission fluid can cost you the price of a new transmission, which will cost more than $2,000 for most vehicles, he said. The transmission fluid should be flushed every 30,000 miles as a general rule.

“They start having a lot of transmission problems when 140,000 miles comes around, which wouldn’t have happened if they had done their routine maintenance,” Aspero said.

Aspero also referred car owners to an organization called Motorist Assurance Program that evaluates when maintenance should be done for specific models. He said his shop closely follows these guidelines when maintaining cars for his customers.

According to the organization’s website, the Motorist Assurance Program is dedicated to keeping motorists from spending money on unnecessary repairs.
Aspero said, though, that different models of automobiles need different services at different times.

Salinas stressed the importance of regular maintenance to keep our cars running smoothly and prevent the collateral damage that might be caused by allowing a part to wear out rather than replace it before it breaks.

Salinas, who has 35 years of experience under his belt and eight years as owner of his shop, said he has suggested that his customers bring in their vehicles for five services that should never be missed.

Skipping services could leave you stranded beside the road in the 100-degree weather of a Texas summer, he said.

In addition to regular maintenance Salinas also recommends six checks before taking your car out on the open road for that family fun road trip:

1. Check oil, lubrication points and the oil filter
2. Check fluids
3. Check tire tread and pressure
4. Check brakes
5. Check wiper blades
6. Rotate tires.

Each of these is covered in G&M’s summer car care package for $49.99.

For more information contact G&M Tire and Service Center at 817-921-6333.

Salinas also has a list of his top 5 “never skip” services:

1. Oil change:
When to do it: Salinas recommended following your car manufacturer’s suggested mileage between changes. For older vehicles, he recommends a change around every 3,000 miles. He said car owners shouldn’t wait more than 2,000-3,000 miles beyond this recommended mileage.
What could happen if you don’t: Get ready to shell out around $5,000 to replace your motor. Especially if you’re losing oil, skipping oil changes could cost you the down payment for a new car.

2. Tire rotation
When to do it: Every 6,000 miles. (Every second oil change is a good rule of thumb)
What could happen if you don’t: Your tires will wear out far more quickly if they are not rotated and balanced regularly. A new set of four tires will cost you more than $200.

3. Engine coolant change
When to do it: Every 30,000 miles (though like the oil change it depends on the model of the car)
What could happen if you don’t: The coolant is designed to keep the motor and other car parts under a certain temperature so they can operate properly. Low coolant can cause the engine to overheat. Any major engine repair adds up quickly to hundreds or thousands of dollars. The coolant itself, if not flushed regularly, can rust and corrode the coolant system and ruin the water pump, radiator, thermostat and gaskets among other parts.

4. Air/Oil/Fuel Filter
When to do it: The air filter and the fuel filter should be changed every 15,000 miles, the oil filter should be replaced at every oil change.
What could happen if you don’t: Skipping oil and fuel filter changes will cause dirty oil and fuel, which will make the vehicle run less efficiently. This can negatively affect gas mileage and can cause more serious engine problems. The air filter helps get clean air into the engine, which allows it to work properly. A clogged air filter can also cause more serious engine problems as well as cause the vehicle to run less efficiently.

5. Inspecting Belts/hoses
When to do it: The mileage at which belts should be replaced generally depends on the model of the car and the type of belt. For a serpentine, alternator or other external belt, it should be changed at 30,000 miles. For a vehicle with a timing belt, those should be changed around 100,000 miles.
What could happen if you don’t: Not replacing belts will cause them to break and leave you stranded. A broken belt will cost more to replace than if replaced preemptively because of the damage a broken belt can cause when it gives.

Roads pave the way to rage

Road rage is a very serious problem in this country where over 250 million cars and pickup trucks share about four million miles of roads with over eight million trucks and close to seven million motorcycles. There are days when it seems like every last one of them is headed west with me on Route 80.

I admit, in my younger days I was guilty of road rage of a certain kind. Although I resented aggressive drivers who ignored the law and the common rules of courtesy, I never really blew my stack over their dangerous maneuvers. No, my rage was directed exclusively toward the unreliable jalopies I drove back then. The very worst days actually began with driveway rage when the *@*!*# crates refused to start.

I had breakdowns on crowded Manhattan streets and in the middle of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. The hood of one car unhooked and went vertical on the Stickles Bridge in Newark. There were blown head gaskets, misbehaving transmissions, carburetors and voltage regulators and faulty windshield wipers, always on the driver’s side. The Automobile Club, tired of dispatching tow trucks, sent thinly disguised hints that I should buy a horse.

But I was never guilty of genuine uncontrolled rage toward careless drivers. I always hoped the lunatics would be dealt with by the authorities before they hurt someone. I couldn’t understand their reckless attitude. Take one of those drivers out of his car and make him a pedestrian and he will apologize to someone who accidentally bumps into him on a sidewalk or in a supermarket aisle. “Excuse me,” he, as the bumpee, will say, even though the bumper should have been watching where he was going. But back on the highway, any driver who invades his space is vilified, defamed and threatened.

As a retiree, my feelings for commuting drivers have mellowed. I remember what it was like in those pre-superhighway days, inching my way to Harrison over Route 10 and various back roads. Now when I’m out there on a leisurely day trip, cruising in the grandpa lane and watching the frantic weaving maneuvers of the Yuppies, I remember that I’ve been there and done that and I sympathize.

Not long ago on Route 287 I was abruptly cut off by a woman in a red sports car. I hit the brakes and road rage was momentarily a definite option, but then I noticed her vanity license plate:

“IM LATE,” it read, and I thought, oh, in that case, God speed.

One-time leader is left behind

THE FIRST version of the Land Rover Freelander was a rip-roaring success. It was among the first of the small SUVs that was not only stylish, but very useful too, showing itself to be one of the more capable vehicles off road.

Freelander II continued very much in the same vein, but ironed out some of the nasty problems that emerged in the first version. The first generation Freelander was about as reliable as an Irish summer and this needed to be sorted. Things have improved greatly with the second version, but lots of factors have conspired against its success. For a start, with the success of the first generation of the Freelander, all of Land Rover’s rivals – and lots of brands who wouldn’t even be considered rivals – started making vehicles that were similar in flavour.

We have had Volkswagen making a Tiguan, BMW selling an X3, and the Korean brands of Hyundai and Kia making competent rivals too – not to mention Toyota’s ever-clever RAV4.

None of these could match the Freelander’s off-road ability though, and Land Rover even started fitting better diesel and petrol engines that didn’t blow head gaskets like champagne corks. Then we all started caring about emissions. And Land Rover didn’t really know how to respond.

Their Range Rover, Discovery, and Freelander models were all thirsty beasts and once we started getting charged for emissions, sales of these dropped off the charts. This year, we have bought 65 per cent fewer Freelanders in Ireland than we did in 2007. But if you think that is bad, sales of the Range Rover have dropped 97 per cent.

Land Rover has had to respond quickly and they have done so with a new version of the Freelander. And it doesn’t have four-wheel drive.

By removing the four-wheel-drive system from the Freelander, it saves 75kg of weight, thereby consuming a lot less fuel and producing lower emissions. The result is that this Freelander coughs up just 158g/km of carbon dioxide – an 11 per cent improvement in emissions over the outgoing TD4_e. And that’s without any loss in terms of performance.

The resulting drop in emissions means a drop in tax bands, which means a drop in price too. TIt now starts at €29,995, but the test car we were driving is an XE version and it costs €32,995. So far so good, right? There are a couple… okay there are many things that annoy this writer about cars.

One is when you jump into a car that isn’t a sub-€12,000 city car and it has a plastic steering wheel. I know it is a small thing, but since this is the part that you hold all the time you are in the car, if it feels cheap it blights the experience. And at €32,995, we still hadn’t reached the lofty heights of a leather wheel. When we drove this car back in November of last year we noted that this was a great price and in many ways it is. However looking now in the mid-summer of 2011, things have changed a lot. But more on that later.

What is impressive about the Freelander is that it does feel more upmarket than its key rivals. There is a kerbside presence about the Freelander that still isn’t matched by any of the €30,000 SUVs. In its present guise it is handsome and isn’t bulky enough to prompt environmentalists to start vandalising it.

The 2.2-litre diesel really is excellent. With 150bhp and 420Nm of torque, it out-muscles pretty much all of its rivals at this level – most of which are trying to haul along considerable bulk with a measly 110 or 115bhp. It is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox and without the fuss of four-wheel drive, the Freelander moves off quite smartly. There is Stop/Start in this new front-wheel-drive Freelander and it helps to keep emissions down.

You will all be reasonably familiar with Stop/Start at this stage and we have used it in lots of vehicles and are accustomed to the way it operates. However, unless someone in Birmingham forgot to install it in our Freelander, then it wasn’t working as regularly as we would have liked. In fact, over the course of our week, I can’t recall it operating at all.

In terms of driving ability, the Freelander does impress. It has an element of ruggedness to it, but mostly it is refined and sits well on the motorway and is competent enough on the twisty stuff too. It doesn’t feel as car-like as some of its newer rivals, but that is understandable.

Jay Leno Cruising in His 1929 Bentley Speed Six

Jay Leno was recently spotted cruising the streets of Los Angeles in one of his favorite cars, this stunning 1929 Bentley Speed Six. This man is truly blessed in our honest opinion – he already owns a garage full of exotic and classic cars, but automakers also give him the latest performance machines to test out at his leisure.

Let’s turn our attention back to the recent pictures of the Bentley Speed Six. This bulky looking machine originally had a 6-liter engine that was later upgraded to an 8-liter. Back in its glory days, this was a true performance car, but some components had to be changed in order to make this a more usable car.

Three SU carburetors have been added, replacing the 2 that were installed on the smaller engine, while the ignition was upgraded to a more reliable one than the magneto version the Speed Six came with.

This rugged machine has a headless block, so there are no head gaskets to fail, leaving you stranded and covered in oil at the side of a Los Angeles highway. Even though this is a

classic car, the engine features four valves per cylinder and an overhead cam. A Bentley Racing D 4-speed transmission with upgraded Gear Vendors overdrive takes care of the shifting, and judging by Jay’s expression, this is one pleasant to drive automobile.

Driving in one of these bad boys will not only make you look cool as heck, but also make everything else around you look boring. A car like this is normally only seen in a museum or classic car rally, but here’s Jay just driving along and having fun, looking like he’s just going to get some donuts. This is definitely better than spending all that money on a car like this and then locking it away in your personal volt of treasures, where no one can see it.

Chopra eyes Chinese automobile market

A joint venture with German mounting parts and silencer-system-kit manufacturing company, manufactures six million exhaust suspension parts.

A 100% export-oriented company,the business caters to Tier I and Tier II automobile companies across Europe, UK, USA, New Zealand and Australia. Although their original area of specialisation was rubber parts for exhaust systems, the company has now expanded its product range and produces rubber hangers, insulators, gaskets, manifold gaskets, de-couplers, body bands, etc.

”Our next target is the Chinese automobile market, with 10.2 million cars. Indian manufacturing capabilities are at par, if not better, than China,” Chopra said.

 

Air filtration challenges in the power sector

Fouling is costly, either due to the loss of power, the ‘extra’ fuel cost and/or the necessary standstill for water wash or other maintenance work. Peter Sandberg reports.

Traditionally, gas turbines have been used in the power and oil and gas industry, often in remote areas, where the main objective has been to protect the turbine from injection of larger particles, which could cause erosion and wear, jeopardising engine reliability. With the increasing demand of power, gas turbines are increasingly being used as a local power source in combined heat and power (CHP) and combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants in our growing cities.

Pollutions and particles

The urban environment exposes the gas turbine to a new and different manmade environment, with pollutions and particles which is much more challenging to remove. Cars, trucks and other combustion or industrial processes generate a high concentration of small sub-micron hydro carbon particles which, if not removed, will change the shape of the rotating and stationary vanes of the compressor. It results in a reduction of both mass flow and pressure ratio generated by the compressor and is normally called fouling. The net result of fouling is a reduction of power output and an increase in heat rate for a given combustor outlet temperature – conversely if an engine is not running at its temperature limit, a fouled engine has to run hotter to produce a given output. A secondary effect of fouling is an increase in airfoil temperatures in the high pressure turbine, as fouling in the internal vane and blade cooling passages reduces heat transfer effectiveness and ultimately reduces the life of the hot section.

Costly fouling

If not removed by the inlet air filtration system, the particle injection will force the operator to frequently water wash the compressor section either by temporal on-line washing or more efficiently during shut-down. But fouling is costly, either due to the loss of power, the ‘extra’ fuel cost and/or the necessary stand still for water wash or other maintenance work. Operators are now becoming increasingly aware of this situation and tend to request filter systems that better protects their gas turbines and makes sure they can operate at designed efficiency for longer periods without unplanned shutdowns.

Gas turbine inlet filter systems have during the past 10-20 years typically been designed with G4 pre-filtration and F7-9 (EN 779) final stage efficiency in static systems. This has provided an acceptable engine protection for many installations, but with an increasing use of gas turbines in urban environments engine degradation is sometimes rapid and water wash cycles is often reduced to few hundred hours.

Consequently, what is needed is better efficiency in removing small sub-micron particles, which mean minimum F9 efficiency or preferably stepping up to the EPA class range from E10 to E12 (EN 1822), which has a dramatic effect on engine fouling. For example, by going from the typical F8 grade to E12, penetration of 0.4 micron particles is reduced from typically 30 per cent for a F8 filter to less than 0.5per cent in a E12 filter. This is a huge improvement which cuts fouling dramatically.

With E12 efficiency we have taken the step into the “clean-room” world which gives operation periods of 2-3 years between shutdowns. But even taking the step to go from the F8/9 ‘standard’ to the today very common E10 is a huge improvement for the operator.

Higher efficiency, however, also requires a matching pre-filtration and a filter house that makes sure no air is by-passed in flanges, gaskets etc. The previous pre-filter standard of G4 is not adequate protection for an E-class filter, so depending on final efficiency class, pre-filtration of F6 to F9 will be required to make sure pressure drop development and maintenance cycles are keeps at matching levels. Which combination to select is off-course finally depending on local conditions but common filter combinations today are: