Car Tech

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Lesson 1: Car Tech

by: a real girl.. wow! so easy to understand.

Tech.. Yea i bet you want to learn more about cars.. or at least pretend to know about cars. well read up.

The Index

Well, it took me about 5 years to fit all this car stuff in my head. But I have lots of fun with cars now. I can change my oil, rotate tires, unbolt stuff.. heck I can probably tell ya how to swap a b16a into a civic. How much do you need to know? maybe you just want to impress a guy? start with the basic car fluff and move higher until you are satisfied. and no i'm not finished yet. it goes on and on.. and guys actually read this too interestingly enough.. they are kind enough to correct me where needed. =D

Girl Basics:

Let’s start from one end to another of the car. First we’ll examine the exterior of the car. The body: Front bumper, hood, fender, door, rear quarter panel, trunk/hatch, rear bumper. The engine: Intake, engine, exhaust.

rims = shiny metal part of wheel.. tire= rubber part of wheel.

How does an Engine Work?

Start the car(the engine is moving and grooving)
Push the gas-opens throttle(like a flap or air door), fuel squirts into engine.
Air taken in by engine through the air intake
Air + fuel = Fire and a whole lotta stuff = Car Moving
air pushed out the back end of the car(exhaust/muffler)

Stopping Tech: Remember.. Hot Brakes Fail. So do bad tires. You won’t stop if you are short on either one.

Tires: tires provide the stopping resistance when you see the red light. Imagine the area of the palm of your hand. This is the contact patch. Tire size is denoted: 205/40/17 the 1st measures the width of the tire.. the second # notes the profile rim to outer edge.. the last # is the size of the rim. keep in mind the larger the rim.. the more costly the tire.. the slower the car accelerates.

Brakes: clamp onto the rotors. Cross-drilled rotors: rotors that have holes in them to help cool brakes down. Slotted rotors: rotors with candy cane stripes in them, also aid in cooling brakes. caliper, pads. Integras have 4 wheel disc brakes. when I press the brakes they grab mostly on the front rotors. when I put on my parking brake I activate the rear drum brakes(drum brakes: brakes that press outwards of a circle).

Cornering: if you’ve got a car that corners.. its gotta have a few things.

	Lowering: "Slammed, Dropped.." often springs that are specially made to lower the car. example: my car has a 2.25inch drop. This lowers the car minimizing the gap between the fender and the tire. (denoted commonly by fingers.. 1 finger gap.) when lowering remember to cut the bumpstops because the shock travel distance is decreased. a properly lowered car has the ability to corner with it's center of gravity lower..for better cornering.
	Shocks and Springs: Do not cut springs!! Danger.. Do not cut springs!! Adjustable Coilovers: replaces the need of changing springs all the time. fits over the shocks. Manual ability to raise and lower the car at the will of the driver at the twist of a lil thingie on the threaded shock.
	Tires: Soft, grippy tires for pavement. Harder ones(durability) for off roading.
	Camber: (negative and positive) camber denotes the angle at which your tire tilts inward or outward at the top (like the tower of pisa!). Lowering a car increases your negative camber tilting the top of your tire inward. If you take a corner more camber gives you more of a contact patch on the corners. but takes away from your straightaway abilities.
	Caster:
	Toe: (toe in and toe out) the angle at which your tire is pidgeon(in) toed..
	Sway Bar: the suspension bar that reaches under your car. the thicker the bar the more rigid your car.
	Strut Bar: the suspension bar that reaches over the back end of the car or reaching from strut to strut(top of the shock) in the trunk or over the engine bay..(did i get them mixed up again?! i should hope not..)
	Bushings: the little stubborn, rubber grommet thingies that sit between metal parts that give a little when you corner. These are replaced when you decide to do 180’s and drift around corners. Stock bushings will tear with constant neighborhood race car driving. Really annoying to replace without a press.

Bolt Ons: a bolt on consists of a car part that a girl with a ratchet and a screwdriver could install. It also means they just bolt on. yuup. These bolt ons create a bigger tube for air to flow through or allow air to flow more efficiently.

	Air intake: tube attached to the intake manifold. commonly routed to the coldest air area for max efficiency(cold air intake).
	Headers: (aka exhaust manifold) piping extending directly from the engine. 4 into 1 header(DC Sports): piping routes 4 pipes into one. 4 to 2 to 1: piping routes four into two into one.
	Exhaust: the muffler. the anu$ of the car. usually shiny and emits carbon monoxide, unless you have an exhaust leak then it comes out other places. he he..

A Whole Bunch of Horsepower: The thing to remember about engines is that the more the air the better. Here are common ways to increase horsepower by multiples of what a dinky air filter would get you.

	Turbo: powered by exhaust gasses forcing more air into the engine. imagine a windmill, one side being blown on.. the other end blowing another fan.
	Supercharger: like a turbo, but powered by pulleys to force more air into the engine
	Nitrous oxide: a car stimulant. Almost like caffeine for your car. Creates more horsepower by cooling air in the engine.
	Simple Necessary "Go" power upgrades: air intake, spark plug wires, exhaust, headers, cams, cam gears, bigger throttle body, Vtec AFC

*you don't need headers if you're going to get turbo. don't waste $.

Engine Tech: engine things in order of their appearance. [Air filter, air intake, throttle body, intake manifold, fuel rail, chambers(rods, pistons, valve springs, head, bottom block), exhaust manifold(headers/downpipe), B pipe, exhaust.]

	Cams: extends across the top of the engine controlling the valves and stuff. aka: "cam shafts".
	Cam Gears: SOHC has one, DOHC has two. often visible on right hand side of engine. on a DOHC such as my Integra one controls intake the other exhaust. Highly modified cars use adjustable cam gears to tune their car.
	Spark Plug Wires: one for each cylinder. run from the distributor to the spark plugs.
	Spark Plug: emit the spark to burn the fuel
	Top End: just plain speed racering, the power of freeway speed and above(the b16a has more top end than a b18c).
	Bottom End: often referred to as torque.. usually the power of lower miles per hour(example: the Gs-r has more bottom end than a Si).
	*other notes: intake valves are bigger than the exhaust.. Integra heads have a P73 stamped on them.. the year is also denoted on the head.. isn't that fun. ITR intake manifolds have shorter piping than that of a Gs-R.

Transmission & Clutch: if you drive stick shift you know that you have a clutch and a transmission. this is one area i'm still learning about.

	Shift Linkage: the two bars that connect your shift knob/shifter to your transmission.(the Type R has a lighter, stronger one.)
	RPM: revolutions per minute. Redline: the red area on the RPM gauge(max rpm you can ride up to before you totally screw the transmission. thus the invention of the rev limiter)
	Gear Ratio: small gear ratio: car revvs up a lot, shifting more. smaller gears = higher revving engine(a b16a). Final drive-the last gear of your car.
	LSD: limited slip differential. a special contraption within the gearbox that distributes power equally to each tire. Comes standard with Integra Type R transmissions.
	Flywheel: the circle of flat donut that your clutch grabs onto when you let go of the clutch pedal.
	Clutch: engages and disengaged to change gears.
	Puck : say you have a 4 puck clutch. yea.. there's a flat, thin, little circle donut with 4 arms. fabric, kevlar.. um sure..
	Diaphram: a type of contraceptive. LoL~

Advanced Stuff:

	Rotary: specifically noted of the Mazda Rx-7. imagine a chamber of a figure 8(or a 2-ball snowman) and a triangle fitted inside it.
	Mandrel Bent: you’ll prob hear this most in exhaust piping. a pipe that is bent with no gathering of metal. completely smooth and symmetric no matter where you measure it.(like a really flat asian girl. flat no matter which side you measure her on.)
	Presilencer: Between the catalytic converter and the exhaust. helps to silence the noise coming from your engine.
	Heavy Mods: remember that when you start to bore, mill.. etc. are permanent changes to your engine. if you do it.. have it done right. Also consider what grade of gasoline your engine will require (knocking). Unless you don't care about your engine going to s@*t.

Terminology.. for racing & other fun stuff

	Heel-toe: commonly found on options videos. it is a technique used to keep the rpms up and the power stable through corners. u basically brake with your toe and rev with your heel at the same time.
	Double-clutch: Type One: rev matching, Type Two: used to gain traction by old skool racers..
	Parking brake u-turn: self explanitory.. fun! say bye bye bushings.
	Downshifting: slowing the car down by use of lower gears.
	Power-shifting: a technique i haven't used since my clutch started slipping..
	O-Shlt handle: that little handle above the door that u hang onto when driver is having lots of fun.

Engine's
The number stamped on the block.. the # notes how big the engine is.. H22... prelude 2.2L, B18c: Integra 1.8L..

	H22, H23.. Prelude engines
	B18c1: Gsr
	B18c5: Integra Type R
	JDM B16a: series one 160hp? series two 170 hp
	B16b: Civic type r

JDM is awesome!
Yes it just is. what more is there to say? Rice is Nice but JDM is forever.

something bad about JDM? is it possible? yes.. two words.. speed limiter.. the fix? chipped ecu!!

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My friend says.."Strut Bars connect the strut towers and go either in your engine bay or your trunk. A sway bar set connects the suspension arms on one end of the car (hence front sway bar and rear sway bar) to help prevent the car from rolling over in a turn. They also decrease traction a little - how much depends on the thickness of the sway bar. Mugen makes a 22mm and Suspension Techniques makes a 19mm. Tie bars also go under your car and improve stability and handling by connecting the lower control arms. Sway bars and strut bars help a lot more than tie bars, but it`s good to have all of them."