happenings

Preventative Automobile Maintenance

Preventative maintenance is a phrase we all hear and is misunderstood.
  Let me tell you what I think it is and why I believe in it.  As a
mechanic I am trying to repair or fix problem on the automobile before
it breaks down or starts giving the owner problems.  I have been a
mechanic sense 1959 and have worked on many brands.  I chose early in
my career to work on foreign automobiles.  Much of my information I am
talking about is gained through years of learning and being taught by
good mechanics,  reading, hands on experience and making some of my own mistakes.
    When I first start working on a car I walk around it to check it out. 
The appearance tells me a lot about the car and its owner.  I check out
the tires looking for abnormal wear and tire inflation.  This tells me
if the wheels are out of alignment and I also see it there are matching
brands and sizes.  Many times the owner only changes the two worst
tires in order to save money.  This only complicates maters when it
comes time to rotate tires. Next I check the headlight lens for cracks,
moisture in the bulb area and the condition of the lens.  Many of the
plastic lenses have become dull or cloudy over time.  This last
condition can be repaired by ether polishing with a product made for
cleaning plastic and if they are too bad then treating them with a
restoration kit.  I then check the windshield for cracks and the 
rubber condition of the wipers and their pressure on the windshield.  When I open the
door I am checking the outside door handle and the door hinge, remember
this door is opened every time the car is operated and sometimes more. 
If the outside of the door drops down when it is opened, I assume the
owner leans on the door getting in or out of the drivers seat.  I make
a note of this to talk to the owner when they pick it up.  I then use a
piece of wood between the door and a floor jack to lift up the door by
bending the hinges up to bring the door back to its proper place.
    Well, its time for a test drive to check out the car and verify any
owners list of problems if any.  Usually the list goes like this, "The
steering wheel wobbles when I apply the brakes while making a long
stop".  Or "There is a noise when driving slow and it goes away when I
apply the brakes".  The tough one is," The car makes a clicking noise
when I turn out of the driveway onto the road in the morning".  I ask,
"Does it make the noise any other time? " and the answer is "Only in the
morning"!   So its warm when I test drive the car and I am sure the
noise wont be there.  I leave my drive way and accelerate quickly to
make some tests and then apply the brakes gently to check some thing
out.  I then accelerate with the one foot on the brake and then I take
my foot off the pedal and stop very quickly.  I then go to a dead end
road that has a turnaround area ware I turn the car to the right and go
in circles about four times then go in circles to the left four times. 
Then I drive on the interstate before returning to the shop and start
the maintenance service with the information that I just collected.
    Next article I will explain what I have just learned about the car and
talk about the maintenance system that I believe in and why I have come
to use it.  I hope this will be interesting to you  and give you some
ideas about your car and maybe generate some questions.

Book Review : Kafka On the Shore

Been a while since I have posted a book review but don't think for a second that I have not been reading because I have. Just been lazy about the blogging. My bad.

This book is amazing. This is the 3rd or 4th book I have read by this Haruki Murakami and they are all amazing. I think he is pretty famous in Japan but for sure he is one of the most well known Japanese authors outside of Japan. It is tough to easily describe his books since they are all an amazing blend of what first appears to be stories based in reality but yet are intertwined with a fantasy world so subtle so that one can almost accept it for reality.

I don't like to give away story lines or even give an overview, but I do like to let people know that I have read the book and have thoroughly enjoyed it. As with all the books by Haruki - this one should not be missed.

Kafka On the Shore

So Silly...

I have been using the free wi-fi at the coffee shop near my pad on Soi 8.

Stopped into an internet cafe because I was tempted by the 1 baht per minute sign. So I walked in with my laptop to see if I could plug in. Yes - I can. But I have to pay 20 baht extra for using my own machine and I am not allowed to make any voice calls on my machine. What? Pay extra for my own machine and they monitor what I do? Why does it matter if I use Skype to make a call? It is just a packet. Anyway this is the small minded part of Thailand I just do not get.

crazy...

cya

More free money!

I don't have the time but this looks easy enough.

Fax: +852-301-46168

Greetings,

This is a proposal in context but soliciting for your
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I am robert jenkins account officer of the hsb ltd. You have
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Moussa who was killed in a plane crash on a business trip october
2001 on his way to Novosibirsk Siberia from isreal.

He was a successfull businessman who made a numbered fixed deposit;
when the money was matured several notice was sent to him, even
during the war, with no response. We later found out that the General
and his family had died in a plane crash; kindly refer to the
following links:

http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/10/09/ukraine.plane/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,566382,00.html

After further investigations we noticed that the Gen did not declare
any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his
bank deposit; and he also confided in me the last time he was at my
office that no one except me knew of his deposit in my bank.

No doubt this proposal will make you apprehensive, please I employ you
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I will engage the services of an attorney who will prepare all the
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I will provide you with more details as soon as I hear from you.

kind regards,

Robert Jenkins.
robertjenkins20@hotmail.com

2 Stroke Engines...

This post continues by highlighting the differences between a 2 and 4 stroke engines and discusses some of the issues with 2 stroke motors.

As I mentioned earlier we were discussing the standard internal combustion engine.  There are several engine designs but we discussed the easiest to understand.  I will talk about another engines that come to mind.  The engine I previously talked about is called a four-cycle engine.  But there is a variation of this engine and it looks about the same in physical shape but the way it handles fuel intake and exhaust are very different.  This engine is called a two-cycle engine or sometimes referred to as a two-stroke engine. It is used where weight and size are of primary importance. It is used on chain saws, outboard motors, inexpensive lawnmowers, weed wackers, leafblowers, some motorcycles, snowmobiles, water jet skis and model airplanes motors. 
    Today in the United States most of these usages of the two-stroke motor have been legislated against due to air and water pollution. It is still a standard on chainsaws, leaf blowers and weed wackers.  Even the model plane hobby enthusiast is using small four-cycle engines. The two-stroke engine has more power per pound then four-stroke engines but has two major drawbacks.  First it waste fuel and second is the smoke it produces, which is air pollution.
    I will start by explaining the strokes of this engine.  Remember the four-stroke engine is intake, compression, power and exhaust.  The two-stroke engine has just two cycles, compression and power. We must visualize a piston going up and down in a closed chamber or cylinder. This cylinder must have passages to allow the fuel to get in to the combustion chamber and passages to allow the exhaust to leave the combustion chamber after it has been exploded. 
    On this engine, no cycle can support itself.  While the piston is traveling up it is creating a vacuum under the piston and sucks in fuel and air into a closed crankcase. This mixture is pushed into the combustion chamber when the piston is traveling down by the exploding of fuel in the combustion chamber. While traveling down the piston uncovers holes in the cylinder, which are called ports, to let the exhaust go out.  Now this downward motion of the piston pushes the fuel and air mixture into the combustion chamber where it is exploded again and the cycles continue.
    I could list many ways that the engine controls the opening of the passages that let in the fuel and air mixture and then let the exhaust out.  Some engines have a rotary valve, some have a reed system, while some have matching holes in the piston and cylinder. Some engines have a exhaust valve to let the exhaust out. 
    Now for the reasons that the two stroke engine is not widely used for transportation. The fuel efficiency is poor. In order to push the exhaust out while fuel and air are being pushed in, it is necessary to allow some of the fuel mixture to go out with the exhaust. This is air pollution.  Another reason for its inefficiency is that the two-stroke engine needs to have oil added to the fuel to lubricate the working parts of the engine, such as the bearings and piston. After the oil lubricates the working parts of the engine it is then burned up and the result is smoke and smell.  On outboard motors(such as used on a fishing boat), the oil that does not make it to the combustion chamber to be burned, is collected and pumped in to the water. This creates an oil slick on the water.  Some lakes that are used for drinking water have outlawed the use of two-stroke outboard motors for this reason. This also is true for jet skis and they are now being outlawed on many lakes. 
    Because of the waste of oil and the air pollution, oil to fuel ratios have been improved in two-stroke motors. Early ratios were 16 to 1, that is 16 parts fuel to 1 part oil.  As better oil was invented, the ratio was improved and is now up to 100 to 1. To eliminate owner error, oil was dyed to a red or blue color to allow the user to see that oil was in the fuel. Then oil injection was invented, that is oil is stored in a separate tank and pumped into the engine in a metered amount to help solve operator error and air pollution.
    Oil also came in three varieties, mineral, vegetable and man made. Mineral oil is pumped from the ground and refined. Vegetable is oil extracted from the caster bean and it smells the best. Man made oil, or synthetic oil - lubricates the best and is used in the 100 to 1 ratio. While writing this article I can remember engines that I have worked on - some so small that I could hold the engine in the palm of my hand and some so big that I used a hoist to lift it up to bolt it on the back of a boat.

The Catalytic Converter

While in Asia we got to talking about pollution, 2 stroke versus 4 stroke engines, and the catalytic converter. So I thought the first question to kick off the column would be a brief history and usage of the catalytic converter.

    All internal combustion engine operate on a 15 to 1
air fuel ration.  That is 15 pounds air to 1  pound
fuel.  That is a standard  as long as engine have been
around.  Some engines, called lean burn engines
(Chrysler), use a 17 to 1 air fuel ratio.  For this
topic we will use a simple one cylinder internal
combustion four cycle engine.  This means that the
engine has four cycles. Intake, compression, power and
exhaust.  Intake is when the fuel and air mixture is
introduced into the engine through the intake manifold
as the piston is traveling down.  Compression is when
the fuel and air mixture is being compressed as the
piston is traveling up.  Power is when the mixture is
ignited and the piston is being pushed down.  Exhaust
is when the exploded mixture is pushed out by the
piston being pushed up.  What makes the piston go up
and down is another story that can be answered in
another article.

    Early engines introduced fuel and air into the engine
by controlled suction of fuel through a device called
a carburetor.  Very crude in the beginning but became
so complicated that many could not be understood or
repaired by the average mechanic. A engine can run by
controlled dripping of fuel into the intake manifold.
That's what the carburetor is.  It gave the engine too
much fuel some times and then did not stop giving it
fuel in certain driving conditions such as going down
hill or slowing down.

    Because fuel was cheap and the environment was not a
concern, the carburetor was used.  When air quality
was becoming a issue, the basic fuel management system
was added, modified and compromised.  First we
completely closed all vents of the engine to the
atmosphere.  First by closing the road draft tube that
vented the engine fumes generated by combustion
chamber leakage past the piston rings and vapors from
hot oil.  Then the fuel vapor from the carburetor
float bowl and the gas tank was vented into the intake
manifold while the engine was running.  When the
engine was off the vapors were vented to a canister
filled with carbon to absorb it.  The canister was
also vented to the intake manifold when the motor was
running.

    Now we have a closed system and fuel was still cheap.
Then emissions standards became more strict and fuel
costs started to became more expensive.  Engine
management started controlling the carburetor and
ignition system with more controls to purge the
combustion chamber of unburned fuel by holding the
carburetor open for 3.5 seconds while decelerating and
changing the ignition timing to have more complete
combustion.  While doing this a new pollutant was
created which is called nitrous oxide and then a
device was added to stop this. This device added
exhaust gases back into the intake manifold to spoil
the combustion efficiency. Also a air pump was added
to some cars to pump air into the exhaust to achieve
burning of the unburned fuel that made it past the
efforts of all the controls.

    All this effort was to remove any unburned fuel from
making its way out the exhaust pipe.  Along came the
catalytic converter in 1986.  A device that looks like
a muffler on the exhaust pipe but located as near to
the engine as possible.  It was a metal container
containing a catalyst of platinum, palladium or
rhodium applied to a honeycomb of ceramic material.
One manufacture used little ceramic marbles coated
with the catalyst and the exhaust had to pas through
it. It operates at a high temperature and burns any
unburned hydrocarbons.  This material could not
tolerate the lead that was added to the fuel to
control premature detonation of the fuel air mixture.
Now the fuel was modified by taking out the lead and
we now have unleaded fuel.
    In the early days the catalytic converter was
considered a maintenance item and were sometimes
replaced at 25,000 miles and paid for by the
manufacturer.  They government mandated that emissions
related equipment must last 50,000 miles.  Many failed
and were routinely replaced. They were extremely
expensive and some still are.  Some of the common
problems that are still present today is contaminated
fuel, engines that are not maintained and overwork the
catalyst.  The honeycomb ceramic material can break
down and became loose.  This creates a rattle in the
converter canister and can clog the muffler.

    Today the modern engines have computer controlled
fuel management systems with electronic fuel injectors
to control the fuel delivery.   Engines run well and
produce clean tail pipe emissions.  Some cars have
more then one converter and many exhaust feedback
sensors controlling the fuel mixture and engine
timing.  It is said that the modern engine could not
be invented as a single project,  but is an evolution over many
years of solving one problem at a time.

My New Column - Ask My Dad!

I have lived my entire life knowing that my Dad is one of the smartest guys on the planet. Sure - it is not the college thing or the accolades but just my 34 years on the planet has shown me that there is not much my Dad does not understand when it comes to almost all things mechanical, industrial or construction related. I have always been jealous at his mechanical capabilities but even further so when it comes to his natural ability to fix or diagnose things that he had no previous knowledge of. For most people they have experience working or using the services of my Dad as a mechanic. You name it and he can fix it. Your lawnmower, your new car, your old car, a motorcycle, a boat or some old generator - not much is he presented that he cannot fix or figure who can fix it. Me - I used to be happy if I could change my car's oil by myself.

I have spent countless years listening to talk shows, reading articles and always realizing that my dad possessed the very same knowledge but even more so he could explain a problem in a way that normal people could understand it. Having been on the customer facing side of the tech industry I realized long ago that one of my talents inherited from my Dad was the ability to explain difficult things in a way that normal people could begin to comprehend them or at the very least be talked into buying them - in sales that was all that mattered.

Recently I had the pleasure of spending a few weeks on holiday in Thailand and Vietnam with just my Mom and Dad. What a great time - full of memories I will cherish until my death bed but the time spent reminded me that my Dad is full of an amazing amount of information that I have yet to acquire and more importantly that I needed to archive it in some way for all of us to enjoy. So I am starting to email my Dad questions that I want answers to and that I know he will enjoy talking about. I will post the questions and answers on my blog for all to see. If you have any questions of your own please email me and we shall take a crack at them if possible.

my email: dreampipe@yahoo.com

cya