Many people agree with the phrase “there’s no replacement for displacement”. While technology can also accomplish this, having a larger displacement engine can produce a large gain. You may have heard of people saying, I went 60 or 30 over, on my engine’s bore. This is a machining process that is done to enlarge the engines bore to straighten worn out cylinders. While this is fun to say to your buddies it gives very little performance gain. The bore is usually kept as small as possible by your engine builder. Some engines have enough bore to hone out and could gain some power but most don’t. This is why more people are looking at stroking their engine. I would have to say that stroking engines first became popular with drag racers. This whole sport is centered on how much horsepower you can make. Many people were building big block engines then stroking them to make huge displacement engines. Companies then started realizing there was a demand and built several length crankshafts. Probably the most influential engine of all time, the chevy 350 smallblock, is a also a popular stroked engine.
The buick skylark is an often misinterpreted car. When you have an image of musclecars the chevelle is more likely to be remembered. Many don’t realize that the buick skylark gran sport was a machine built to perform. Even back in 1965 it had a 401 “nailhead” engine that produced 325 horsepower and 445 ft/lbs of torque, a car built to go fast with class. In 1967 the skylark gs came out with a new engine and slightly different looking car called the gs 400. The new 400 ci engine produced 340 horsepower and 440 ft/lbs of torque. It also stepped up the acceleration by using a 3 speed turbo 350 transmission. It also came with a smaller 340 engine option that made 260 horsepower and 365 ft/lbs of torque which was respectable for a smaller engine.
There is a current interest in fuel conservation among consumers today as fuel prices have finally soared in the united states. With our heritage of large automobiles and trucks, we have been lucky for some time now as we have evaded high fuel prices for a long time. Eventually this day had to come but what now? Some people say that fuel cell technologies will pave the way. This may be true but this is probably 10 or more years off in the future. Full electric cars would be alot more efficient, but batteries are still costly and heavy for now. Although this can’t be counted out as capacitor technologies may offer an alternative in the near future. Still, what until then? Hybrid technologies make sense and can use the advantages of an engine and motor combination. Hybrids are still a compromise due to the inefficient engine, what can we do to improve it? Many are quick to say the internal combustion engine is at the end of the road, but is it? More than a decade ago engines had been produced that could exceed 100 mpg. Why have these milestones been thrown aside?
The chevy S-10 is in one way to the 80’s and early 90’s, what hot rods were decades ago. A cheap platform in which people customize in multiple ways. As with all custom vehicles first there needs to be a large aftermarket parts following. This could not have be any better as people today still have multiple options. Alot of younger people would purchase these trucks for cheap. They would then put fiberglass ground effects and other body kits on them to give them a sporty look.
JDM engines stand for japanese domestic motors. Many import tuners have already changed to these engines. Many more sport compact enthuaists will look hard at purchasing these engines. Some people buy a jdm engine at rebuild time or simply to increase 10 or more horsepower, depending on the vehicle. JDM engines are generally tuned for a little more power than american engines. This is due to the company choosing to do so or emissions restrictions being tighter here. Most european cars are under the same stipulation. The jdm engines bought are usually used engines shipped over from main land japan with low miles. Beware as the condition of some of these engines may not be good. Purchase from someone reputable that stands behind the engine. Nothing is worse than spending the money to find out you have a bad engine in a month after installing.
American soil is about to be graced with a two seater sports car origionating from it’s own soil! And the solstice is a very stylish car! This from a company that once had a very capable 2 seat sports car called the fiero. Pontiac’s first fieros released were done prematurely and gave the teriffic later cars a bad reputation. Pontiac left the market saying that two seat cars were no longer interesting to the public. Only to have the mazda miata sucessfully enter the market immeadiately after. On a positive note pontiac is ready to re-enter the market with a very capable car. The two seater roadster has a hideaway soft top that manually retracts. The solstice will come standard with a five speed manual transmission with overdrive. The solstice will come equiped with a 2.4 liter four cylinder engine. The engine will have an output of 177 horsepower. With an engine displacement of 2.4 liters the aftermarket is sure to brew up some high performance parts. The solstice is sure to be a hit at it’s salesprice of just under $20,000.
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When Rudolph diesel first set out to build a more efficient engine, he needed to start with compression ignition. A normal spark ignition engine compresses the fuel air mixture then when it’s fully compressed it fires a spark across the spark plug. The spark ignites the mixture and moves the piston turning the engine. The compression of a spark ignition engine is limited by the octane number. If the compression is too high the engine will pre-ignite which is a condition that will destroy the pistons and the rest of the engine. More power and higher efficiency is possible at higher compression levels. That is the reason racers use race gas which is simply higher octane fuel. The race gas doesn’t provide more power (unless oxygenated) the increased compression does.
Troubleshooting engine problems can be a difficult task if you are not familiar with engines. Sometimes problems can be a combination of smaller problems or one problem normally not associated with the specific problem. If your car has not had a tune up in a while it’s always a good place to start. We will start with a generalized analysis and then try to narrow our search. If the car runs rough, jerks or surges as you press the gas more it may be an ignition problem. It may still feel smooth at low speeds or when pressing lightly on the gas. Start with the spark plug wires. Replace them if it’s been awhile (couple years or a lot of miles) or look for any arcing coming off of them. It is easiest to look for arcing at night time away from lights. Remember that a tiny little glow is all it takes to cause problems. Next remove your spark plugs and replace them if they look worn on the electrode corners. Also check or replace the distributor cap and rotor, all of these are part of an engine tune up.
Four stroke valves are what allow air to flow in and out of the cylinder bore. The camshaft in a 4 stroke engine controls the timing of the air flow by the shape of the camshaft lobe. The height of the lobe dictates the lifting of the valves off their valve seats. Engines that spin high rpm’s can control valve float much easier when the valves are light. Valve float happens when the spring can no longer keep the lifter/valves in contact with the cam, power quickly drops off and the cam will be destroyed in a short amount of time.
The Mazda rx-7 and now rx-8 are well known as very capable sports cars. The rx-3 led way to what became the rx-7 powered by a 12b rotary engine. The 12b stands for 1.2 liters of displacement as the 13b stands for 1.3 liters. All rx-7’s came with a rotary engine and were 2 seater cars. The rotary engine works completely different than a conventional piston otto cycle engine.
