Auto air conditioning can easily be changed from old R-12 to new R-134 refrigerant. The new style R-134 refrigerant can be used in R-12 systems as long as the oil is included with the installation of the new refrigerant. No new seals or any other components should need to be replaced. Your car’s system should be completely empty of the old R-12, which is supposed to be contained and removed by a certified refrigerant technician. When doing anything with ac you should first understand that there are two sides of the system. The high pressure side will be the side with the smaller diameter lines, this side is very high pressure and should be avoided. The low pressure side will have the larger diameter lines and will have the condenser. The condenser looks like an aluminum canister of about 4″ in diameter and appx. 6″ long. The fill port will probably have a plastic cap on it. The port is a valve that looks like a air fill on your car tires. You will need a kit composed of an adapter and the hose used to fill the system with. Some types of cars need different adapters.
Jet-ski troubleshooting can be broken down into a few groups. If the ski will not start or run at all, the ignition should be the first place to start. The carburetion or fuel system could also cause this problem if it hasn’t run in awhile. A spark plug check is a good place to start for either problem. Remove the spark plugs and look at them to see if they are wet or dry. If they are dry and light brown color the fueling is correct. If one plug is wet, either that carb has a problem or the ignition on that cylinder isn’t working. Use the starter and spin the engine over with the spark plugs in the plug boots. Lay the plugs on a unpainted metal part of the engine. As the engine spins the plug should be sparking. If the spark looks weak or both plugs are wet and black the plugs may need to be replaced. NGK spark plugs should be used because they work very well for two stroke engines. If one spark plug isn’t sparking the ignition coil may be bad. Refer to the ignition coil story to learn how to check a coil. If both plugs are good but are still wet you may have a carburetion problem.
Nitrous is a cheap way to make a lot of power. Nitrous comes in kits and can increase your power anywhere from 50 hp to 400 hp. The nitrous is limited by the engine’s ability to handle the power. A 200 horsepower engine is not meant to handle 400 hp of nitrous. An engine built correctly can handle massive amounts of nitrous. On a standard engine the ignition will need to be retarded. The fuel will also have to be increased either by the fuel map or a fuel nozzle. Nitrous was first used in aircraft to help the plane gain alot of altitude very quickly. Soon after people realized the potential and set up systems on cars. Unfortunately at this time there were not many good ways to control fueling verses nos being sprayed. Many people blew up there engines because of having a lack of understanding of nitrous. Today kits have come a long ways and have the setup down to a science. Nitrous can be very reliable as long as it’s not used excessively per engine setup.
Small engine timing is completely mechanical. The coil is mounted closely to the flywheel. The flywheel is the large circle with cooling fins. The flywheel is on the opposite side of the engine from the output shaft. The flywheel has magnets mounted in it. As the flywheel magnets pass the coil they induce a current. The coil then discharges to the spark plug. The relationship of where the coil sits and where the flywheel magnets are, dictates the timing. The coil can be moved slightly to change the timing. Move the coil in the direction the flywheel moves and the timing will be retarded and opposite to advance timing. The only other factor that affects the timing is the flywheel. Occasionally the flywheel can shear it’s key on the crankshaft. The key locates the flywheel in the correct rotational spot to insure correct timing. If the key is sheared the timing can be anywhere, and the engine may spark but not run. The key is square and can be viewed from the end of the shaft. The key will have a cutout in the shaft and the flywheel. Offset keys purposely rotate the flywheel to advance timing.
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It is relatively easy to convert a small gasoline engine to propane or natural gas. There are lpg/propane kits designed to make this conversion easy. They generally consist of a simple plate that sits between the carb and the engine. A regulator is usually attached to regulate the propane going to the spacer plate. The regulator is needed to supply more fuel as the load or power demand increases. Instead of the engine bogging down, the regulator supplies more fuel so the engine makes more power. Propane or lpg is already in a gaseous form, which does not have to vaporize and will not leave carbon deposits. Carbon is bad because it is hard and leaves deposits which cause engine wear. Carbon makes your oil black and breaks the oil down faster. Producing less carbon should dramatically increase an engine’s life. Power and fuel consumption are very similar to using gasoline. The power will vary depending on what engine it is being used on. Mileage will be similar, but could be better than a stock carburetted engine. Propane tanks are usually safe and are very resistant to impact. The tanks will vent if the internal pressure gets too high, for safety. Many people like to convert generators to natural gas/ propane. They use the same source as their home’s fuel source for heat. When the power goes out, they have a limitless supply of fuel without having to refill a generator tank up with gas cans. Conversion kits can be reasonably priced and bought online.
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Naturally aspirated engines are simply engines that are not assisted with a turbo or supercharger. Most people that want their car to go faster will chose this way. Large power increases in automotive engines are not hard to get. Four stroke performance can be greatly improved over the mild factory setup. Four stroke tuning can greatly improve the power over stock conditions. The factory tuning is very mild because they need to pass emissions tests from the factory. Many people buy aftermarket computer chips with modified performance maps. This can improve many cars by 5 to 20 horsepower dependant on the vehicle. Aftermarket chips are also an easy install and can be purchased reasonably. As with all engines, moving air into the engine is the way to make power. Another easy bolt on performance modification is to install a high flowing air filter. Large gains can also be made with improved flow through aftermarket carbs or larger diameter throttle bodies. The import tuners usually purchase high performance intake tubes which try to draw in cool air. These kits usually give moderate performance gains. Most of the domestic car tuners do the same and tend to spend money on the actual intake manifold instead. Depending on the vehicle it came off the performance gains can be much larger some up to 40 horsepower on V-8 models.
What happens when an engine gets flooded? Generally this happens to carbureted cars but could happen to fuel injected cars if there is a problem with it. Every engine needs a specific amount of air and fuel to work correctly. If there is too little fuel the engine is lean if the engine has too much fuel it is rich. Flooding can occur when the ignition system is weak and does not start the engine quickly. If the carburetor (gas petal) is pumped too much before starting the engine can become excessively rich to the point where it can’t ignite the fuel. As you continue to rotate the engine, more fuel is added to the already excessive amount of fuel. There are a few methods to start the vehicle first, just let the vehicle sit, the fuel will evaporate out after 20 or 30 minutes. Remove the spark plug which may be fouled out with black carbon any ways. Slightly fouled plugs can be wiped off, severe cases can be burned off with a propane torch. Severe fouled plugs will need to be replaced, make sure the plug is original and hot enough heat range. After the spark plug is out stick it back in the spark plug wire, lay it on a metal part on the engine, spin the engine and verify the plug is firing. This also helps to get air in the engine and excessive fuel out. The third option is to hold the throttle wide open. In a carbureted vehicle, the air moving through the carb won’t suck fuel when held WOT if the engine is not running. In fuel injected vehicles the ecm, ecu, computer won’t send any fuel through the injectors if the gas petal is held wide open. If the ignition is o.k. and the vehicle floods continuously, then the carburetor idle circuit may be too rich.
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Aftermarket pipes will significantly improve a jet ski’s performance, especially two stroke versions. As with other two stroke engines the exhaust system can be the easiest way to gain a good amount of power. Whenever possible look for dyno graphs to decide which pipe that you will want. Compare this pipe to others, and don’t look only for the highest horsepower number that you can find. Many times the highest horsepower pipe has lost all of it’s low end torque, which can reduce acceleration significantly. Instead look for a pipe that keeps the torque or power comparable in the mid-range, yet has better top end power.
The basic outboard marine boat motor is of two stroke design. This is due to the weight of the motor being less. The power of a two stroke motor is also higher versus a comparable weight four stroke motor. As emissions became tighter direct injection two stroke engines have been produced. They still have low weight and alot of power but are very complex. Direct injection two stroke outboards are actually very clean motors and get excellent fuel economy similar to four strokes. As the technology of four strokes evolve, they have become much lighter and have flooded their way into the market. Although pricy four strokes are very popular and are getting closer to the weight and power of two strokes. Outboard motors started as two strokes with lower weight found on much smaller boats than boats produced today. Today it is not uncommon to see a 250 horsepower motor on the back of a bass boat! Many offshore boats may have twin 250 hp or 225 hp outboard motors on the back! Most mid sized ski boats generally use 115 or 150 horsepower outboards. Small john boats generally use 5,15 or 25 hp motors. Small skiffs use anything between 25, 40 and up to 115 hp outboards.
Do you live in an area where you car has to meet inspection requirements? Normally your vehicle will also have to pass emissions requirements also. This article will help explain what emissions are and how to fix a possible problem your vehicle may have. The emissions test is normally done with a probe placed into the exhaust tailpipe. The emission sampler will sniff or sample the contents of the exhaust coming out of the tailpipe. Every road going vehicle produced, has certain clean requirements that it is required to reach. This requirement is specified by EPA to limit the amount of pollutants exiting the vehicle. Most samplers are five gas analyzers simply meaning they “see” or measure five types of gases. The five gases that will be measured are HC, NOX, O2, CO, and CO2. We will start with HC or hydrocarbons. HC’s are simply another term for unburned fuel that makes it through the engine and out the exhaust. HC’s cause smog and and are not good to breath. NOX means oxides of Nitrogen. NOX is a by product of highly heated and compressed air that has nitrogen in it.
