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Ferrari California
May 13th, 2008 by Shenron
Just a few days after announcing the new Ferrari California, the Italian brand unveiled a couple of pictures of the successor of the original 60’s 250 GT California.
The new Ferrari California will be the first to include a retractable hard-top, and includes a few details from both the f430 and the 599 GTB Fiorano.
This 4.3 liters engine is able to develop up to 460 hp at 7500 rpm.
Also new is the 7 speed transmission and the multilink rear suspension that allows the vehicle to perform like a Formula 1.
The official launch of the car will be made next September at the Paris Car Show.
Tags: Auto Shows, Car Photos, Car Pictures, Car Reviews, Ferrari
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Tuning Shops
May 9th, 2008 by Shenron
If you are looking to maximize your car’s performance, one of the best ways to do so is by tuning it. Tuning is a great way to make any street legal vehicle perform to much higher standards than a car with ordinary stock specs. Tuning shops are a great resource for almost any person looking to buy tuning parts, enhance their engine, body, transmission or interior.
Tuning Shops are the Best Place to Buy Tuning Parts
Tuning shops are usually the best places to buy tuning parts, because they are usually owned and operated by experienced people and offer tons of products perfect for the tuning enthusiast. While some tuning shops offer a wide selection of tuning parts, if you are interested in specific items for your engine, body, interior, wheels, transmission, etc, you can usually find tuning shops that specialize in a small niche.
One of the ways to increase the overall horsepower, speed or torque of your vehicle is by buying specific types of parts for the engine. These can range from a simple chip that increase the oxygen to fuel ratio, a chip to recalibrate the factory settings, adding engine parts such as cams, blowers and lifters or adding nitrous or supercharged turbos.
Perhaps the most important part on your car is the tires. They are the only part of the car that comes into contact with the road, so having high performance tires that grip the road good at high speeds is extremely important. Rims are also important, helping you to lighten your vehicle and also grab attention.
Another large category of parts that one can find at tuning shops are body parts. For instance, you can purchase ground effects kits that help your vehicle become more streamlined and aero dynamic, carbon fiber hoods to lighten the load and spoilers that help add downward force to your vehicle when driving at high speeds. Body kits usually include an entire kit of parts to maximize air flow, lower the weight and make your car really stand out in the crowd.
If you are looking to modify the interior of your vehicle, you can do so with lots of tuning parts specifically made for this purpose. Usually most tuner enthusiasts swap out their old, heavy car seats, installing instead high tech, lightweight racing seats. These racing seats not only look great, but they are designed to keep you seated when experiencing high G-forces when making tight turns. Racing seats also come in bold colors to give your interior some personality.
Another big tuning part added to interiors are special gauges. If you have a booster, want to have tachometer or view the horsepower of your vehicle in real time, you can add a host of many products all that give you precise information immediately or that can be downloaded to your computer for future analysis.
Tuning shops are the perfect place to shop whether you are a tuning enthusiast, part time mechanic, or just someone looking to maximize performance by adding a few items.
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Tire Changer
May 9th, 2008 by Shenron
Whether you own a business or run a small shop, one of the necessary tools to have on hand is a tire changer. Tire changers have come a long way and today’s tire changer systems are more reliable, quicker and usually more affordable. Whether you are changing a car, light truck or SUV tires, a tire changer is the fastest, most affordable and safest way to change them.
The Simplest Way to Remove a Tire from a Rim
Today’s cars require high quality, precision machinery even for basic tasks such as changing tires. Many rims that are used on vehicles today can cost several hundred to thousands of dollars each. In addition, an unbalanced or insecure tire placed back on a rim can have disastrous effects in both safety and fuel economy. A tire changer is a highly practical machine that will not only save labor costs, but remove and replace brand new tires on rims efficiently.
Tire Changer Products
There are many manufacturers of tire changer products, most include a heavy duty electronic motor, a way to stabilize the wheel while being removed and placed back on and both a mounting mechanism and clamping mechanism. Generally speaking, tire changers are easier to use than ever reducing the amount of labor and ultimately boosting productivity.
While there are many types of tire changers available, most will service general commuter automobiles just fine. Others are specialty built for large rigs, high performance sport wheels and motorcycle wheels.
Since tire changers can cost from several hundred dollars (used) to several thousand, almost any shop can afford this highly practical item. If you ever changed a tire by hand, you already know just how difficult and time consuming the process can be. Some of the top companies that build and sell tire changers include Snap On, Hunter Tire Changers and America’s Pride.
Tags: Car Maintenance, Car Parts
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How to change brake pads - DIY
May 8th, 2008 by Shenron
After the enormous success of the original “How to change brake pads” article, we’ve decided to update it in a different style and with new information, so you can do it yourself (DIY).
If you are a car owner you already know just how important your brakes are. While the brakes on your car are extremely reliable, over time they wear down and need to be replaced. For most car owners, the entire brake assembly doesn’t need to be replaced- just the brake pads. Here is some information on how to change brake pads.
Drum Brakes and Disc Brakes
There are two types of brakes in vehicles today; however the vast majority of vehicles on the road have disc brakes. Drum brakes are the other type of brakes and are usually found on much older vehicles. This article will focus only on changing disc brakes.
How Your Disc Brakes Operate
It is important to understand the principles of how disc brakes work in order to replace them effectively. A disc brake is made up of a few components: A caliper, two brake pads and a rotor. These three components are held together by a few bolts or clips depending on your vehicle and configuration. The calipers main job is to squeeze the brake pad toward a metal plate called the rotor. When the brake pads are squeezed against the rotor- this causes friction and ultimately causes the vehicle to stop. Since brake pads experience lots of heat and friction they are made out of specific types of substances such as ceramics.
Do Your Brakes Need to Be Replaced
Before you go out and change your brake pads, first inspect them to see if they do require replacement. There are a few tell tale signs to alert a car owner to the fact that their brakes need to be replaced. They include: if when depressing the brakes, you hear grinding or a screeching sound. The second way is to visually check your brake pads. You can jack up your vehicles tire and remove it. Then look at the actual brake pads. Usually a brake pad thickness of ΒΌ inch or less means that it should be replaced. In addition, if your brakes are worn unevenly, you should replace them as well. Finally, the front brakes are usually the first set of brakes to go. They account for the majority of your vehicles stopping power. When replacing brakes, you must always replace both sets (e.g. both front brakes or both rear brakes).
Change Your Brake Pads
Before you actually change your brake pads, you should first prepare your car. You will need to lift your vehicles tires off the ground using a jack or stands. Most car owners usually lift both front tires off the ground at once or if you just have a standard jack, lift one tire off the ground at a time. Make sure to use tire blocks to keep your car safe and secure.
Step 1. Gain Access to the Brake Pads
Once your vehicle is securely lifted off the ground and stable, remove the tire or tires gaining access to the brake pads.
Step 2. Remove the Calipers & Check the Pads and Rotor
As stated above the calipers squeeze the brake pads. In order to remove the brake pads, you must first remove the calipers. Calipers are usually held together using simple bolts or clips. They should easily be able to be removed. Once you have access to the brake pads, inspect them to ensure they are worn out and need to be replaced. In addition, check the rotor- the shiny piece of metal. If the rotor looks badly worn out or warped it too needs to be replaced. In some cases, a scored rotor can be shaved down, making them smooth again. This way you just need to do a little maintenance on them instead of replacing them completely.
Step 3. Prep for the Installation of Your New Brake Pads
Once you have the old, worn out brake pads off your vehicle, go down to the auto parts store and buy a replacement. If your rotors were damaged, they should be replaced as well. In addition to buying new pads and or a new rotor, pick up a small tube of brake grease.
Once back at your vehicle, before you place your brake pads back on your car, you will need to reposition the caliper back into place. Moving the caliper back to its full open position is quick and easy, just find the back portion of the caliper and move it back- usually moving it back means moving the caliper toward the center of the vehicle. If you have difficulty, use a vice grip for better hold. Now that the caliper is back to its full open position, prep the brake pads by applying a little brake pad grease to them. The grease goes on the back of the pads.
Step 4. Reassemble the Brake Pad on Your Vehicle
Once you have greased up your brake pad, you can install them back onto your vehicle simply by reversing the steps. First install the brake pads onto your calipers, then clip or bolt your caliper back on and then placing the tire back onto the axle.
Once you lower your vehicle from the jack, ramp or stands, make sure you tighten the wheels. In addition, before you start driving your vehicle normally, make sure your vehicle stops correctly. With new brake pads, you may see some dust or hear screeching noise for the first few days- this is common due to the newness of the pad.
Replacing your brake pads is generally an easy to moderate project. However, if your vehicle has anti-lock brakes or looks complex, one of the best ways to accomplish this task is by buying a car repair book for your specific vehicle. These books generally have lots of diagrams and installation instructions that make the entire process much easier to understand. If you still don’t feel comfortable or are unsure of exactly how to replace your brake pads, consult with your local car mechanic.
Tags: Car Maintenance, Car Parts
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Piston - The Life of your Engine
May 6th, 2008 by Shenron
The piston is a part that no internal combustion engine can do without. Most automobiles and mechanical machineries today use internal combustion engines. This type of engine uses burning fuel to facilitate mechanical energy. And the piston is basically the part which makes it possible. In car engines, the importance of the piston and its maintenance is of primary concern. If the engine is the body that pushed your car on the road, then the piston is its heart.
How Pistons Make Your Car Engine Run
Your car engine is an internal combustion engine. Gasoline or diesel is burned inside the engine, transforming chemical energy to mechanical energy. Inside the engine are cylinders. The number of cylinders depends on the type of engine that your car has. Most car engines have four cylinders. Inside these cylinders is where you find the pistons. The pistons move up and down inside these cylinders through fuel combustion. Fuel is injected into the cylinder and then combusted, forcing the piston to go down. The combustion is done at a very fast interval in all cylinders.
The piston is connected to a connecting rod which is then connected to the crankshaft. The crankshaft is designed to convert the up and down motion of the pistons to a rotating motion. The downward movement of one piston will force another piston to go up, thus, continuing the up and down motion of pistons and then producing the rotating movement of the crankshaft.
The piston goes through four cycles namely; intake, compression, ignition and exhaust. During the intake stage, air or a mixture of fuel and air is admitted in to the cylinder. The air goes through the valve which is opened and closed by the camshaft. Compression happens when the piston goes up, compressing the air or air and fuel mixture. Ignition then follows. Ignition is done in two ways. With a diesel engine, ignition is done by injecting fuel to the heated compressed air in the cylinder. While in a gasoline engine, ignition is achieved through a sparkplug. After ignition, the exhaust stage happens. Burned gases are pushed out by the piston that is going up.
Piston Maintenance
Pistons are generally made with the same material that makes up the engine block. The piston is designed to withstand the whole process of combustion when the engine is running. One important substance that ensures engines health is oil. Engine oil lubricates the moving parts of the engine including the piston. Aside from this the cooling system of your engine is also paramount in maintaining the health of your car engine.
The piston rarely gets damaged, but once it is damaged or cracked, nothing could be done but to replace it. The piston does not come in contact with the engine block. Piston rings are fitted on the piston. These rings seal the combustion chamber, lessen the friction of the piston with the wall and regulate the oil in the cylinder. These rings are the ones that are usually damaged because of wear. Once these rings are damaged, the piston comes in contact with the block, thus, increasing heat and friction. Damaged rings also let combusted energy escape, thus, decreasing the efficiency of the engine. It is also the main cause of dark exhaust smoke which comes from oil that gets through the combustion chamber and getting burned.
Tags: Car Maintenance, Car Parts
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