Filed under: Technology, Safety, Ownership and Repair, New Car Tips

Today’s cars may seem similar to the cars of the days gone by-4 wheels, an engine and doors. Underneath its skin is another story. Along with the vastly improved fuel economy, safety ratings, and multi-media systems that modern cars are expected to come with, comes the obligatory need for more sensors and electronic gizmos to keep it all working together in a user-friendly package.

Along with all these extra sensors, comes the need for more warning lights on your dashboard or gauge cluster. Some of these warning lights have been around for a very, very long time and are pretty straight-forward; whilst others are fairly new to the market and not exactly self-explanatory.

According to a recent survey done by Schrader International, 43 per cent of the people that took the survey could not recognize the symbol for low tire pressure. Needless to say, a low tire pressure warning is serious business and is a large safety hazard at worst and largely reduced gas mileage at best.

Between the different manufactures, there can be slight differences but for all the major lights, they’re the same. As the long weekend approaches and summer road trips being, take some time to check out the gallery above to find out what some of these essential lights mean.

Warning lights you need to know in your car

Warning lights you need to know in your car originally appeared on Autoblog Canada on Thu, 15 May 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When it comes to extracting every last bit of horsepower from an engine, heat is always the enemy. For years, heat soaked carburetors have made engines struggle to maintain power due to vapor lock, higher intake air temperatures and percolation. Now, with Trans Dapt’s plastic and canvas phenolic carburetor spacers with Swirl-Torque technology, enthusiasts have a way to simultaneously fight back against the effects of excess heat buildup, while significantly boosting torque and horsepower.

Trans Dapt’s insulated carburetor spacers are developed to provide excellent protection from heat soak and power loss caused by vapor lock and percolation. The phenolic materials used to make these carb spacers is a poor conductor of heat and acts as a thermal barrier, isolating the carburetor from the heat of the engine, keeping your fuel mixture cool and dense. Without a thermal barrier, heat builds up in the carburetor and will eventually cause the fuel inside to boil. If this happens while the motor is running, it creates a loss of feed pressure to the carburetor which can then lead to a loss in power or cause the engine to stall (vapor lock). However, when this happens after the engine has been turned off, the fuel can boil over out of the float chamber and leak into the intake manifold (percolation) making it hard, if not impossible, to restart the engine.

Unlike most standard carburetor spacers, Trans Dapt’s spacers with Swirl-Torque Technology are manufactured with a unique, slotted port design that creates a powerful vortex. This vortex atomizes the fuel for a better air/fuel mixture. The result is enhanced low to mid-range torque through improved combustion efficiency, better drivability and throttle response from your vehicle and quicker shift recovery rates.

Trans Dapt’s Swirl-Torque style phenolic carburetor spacers are manufactured in the USA using top of the line thermal resistant plastic or canvas material. Plastic phenolic spacers are available in 1Ž2 inch (Part# 2528), one inch (Part# 2529, 2531) and two inch (Part# 2530, 2532) thicknesses for Holley Square Bore Four Barrel carburetors with or without positive crank case ventilation (PCV). Canvas phenolic spacers are available in a one inch thickness for Holley Aluminum Four Barrel (AFB) carburetors, also with or without a PCV valve (Part # 2550, 2551). All mounting hardware, gaskets and installation instructions are also included with the kit. For more information, visit www.tdperformance.com.

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Nile Cornelison, Jim Cozzie, John Menzler and Fred Offenhauser will receive the industry’s highest honor and be inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame—an elite group of leaders who shaped and inspired the $31 billion automotive specialty-equipment market.

The new members will be recognized as part of the festivities during the SEMA Installation Gala, Friday, July 18, 2014, at the Sheraton Fairplex Hotel & Conference Center in Pomona, California. Those attending the banquet will hear how the four newest Hall of Fame members contributed to the industry and the association that began 50 years ago. The inductees include one of the association’s founding members, along with three former SEMA Person of the Year winners.

Nile Cornelison: Having been involved in the industry as a machinist, racer, retail store owner and warehouse distributor (WD), Cornelison’s diverse background—coupled with his passion and innovativeness—made him uniquely qualified to lead the industry in what was unchartered territory. In 1982, the industry veteran founded Direct Connections Inc., now better known as DCi, bridging the communications gap between the jobber/retailer, WD, manufacturer and consumer. Later he introduced the industry’s first dealer locator service via telephony, paving the way for electronic cataloging and revolutionizing how the industry does business today.

Jim Cozzie: Cozzie served as SEMA chairman of the board in 2008–2009, a period that many describe as one of the industry’s most challenging economic times. The 2004 SEMA Person of the Year winner used his foresight and knowledge to help SEMA do more than simply persevere through the recession. During this time, the association developed its strategic focus on vehicle technology and expanded efforts to help U.S. manufacturers find opportunities in overseas markets. As a key executive at RTM Productions and Brenton Products, Cozzie continues to amplify the industry’s message through the programs they produce.

John Menzler: Described as a person who loves the work but hates the awards, Menzler dedicated his life to his job and the industry. He was among SEMA’s most active and passionate volunteers, having been involved on several SEMA councils and committees, including charity projects to aid abused and chronically ill children. Menzler was instrumental in establishing a number of valuable SEMA programs, including the SEMA Hot Rod Industry Alliance (HRIA) Education Day. He passed away in 2013 at the age of 67. During his prolonged battle with cancer, Menzler continued to inspire and encourage industry colleagues, family and friends. Inspirational thoughts and motivational messages that he called “Mornings With Menzler” were sent out regularly—often from his hospital bed. Such actions were typical of the man who was named 2011 SEMA Person of the Year and 2010 SEMA Mentor of the Year.

Fred C. Offenhauser: Offenhauser began his career in the industry in the ’30s when he went to work for his uncle, who bears the same name—Fred H. Offenhauser. In 1944, Fred C. was inspired to start his own company and launched Offenhauser Sales Corp. He began making aluminum intake manifolds, which were sold in every speed shop and distributed by most major distributors over the years. The mass distribution made it possible for thousands of racers to modify their engines and increase performance in ways that were not available elsewhere.

Fred C. was among the original charter members when SEMA was founded in 1963. Although the innovator passed away in 1992, his company continues to manufacture and sell intake manifolds and operates out of the same building that the company has resided in since the mid-’50s.

The SEMA Hall of Fame’s four newest members join 143 previously inducted industry icons and innovators who have already been enshrined in the SEMA Hall of Fame. For more information about the SEMA Hall of Fame, visit www.sema.org/hof.

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In today’s high tech world of computerized everything, it can be a challenge for even some seasoned engine builders and tuners to get the hang of punching buttons on a keyboard in exchange for twisting a screwdriver.

While nothing about actually tuning the engines has changed much in the past 100 years or so, our ability to measure, monitor and implement changes to the engine’s tune up have greatly improved.

Since most engine builders out there have come into contact with electronic fuel injection (EFI) by now and quite a few have already experienced some kind of tuning on these systems for high performance engines, we thought it might be a good time to offer a few helpful hints to make getting to the next level of overall quality just a bit easier. Here are four helpful hints for dealing with scenarios that commonly rear their ugly heads during tuning an EFI system.

1. Tuning For Economy on the Dyno

With the ever increasing fuel prices, and no sign of dropping in sight, more and more people are talking about re-tuning their engines to get better economy.

One of the major benefits to an EFI system is the ability to have good engine running characteristics in a variety of categories, all at the same time. When the engine is at full power, the calibration can be set to give good performance and reliability, and when cruise situations are entered, the “economy” part of the tune can take over, providing great gas mileage.

While tuning on a dynamometer is an invaluable process for gaining maximum power from an engine, many builders think that is the end of its usefulness. In fact, the best way to gain great fuel economy is also done on the dyno!

At EFI University, we frequently get asked questions like “what is the best A/F ratio for my engine?”

The answer to that question is extremely complicated because of all the factors involved, such as: “What exactly are you trying to accomplish?”

This is important because the right A/F ratio depends on whether you are looking for power, economy or emissions. What is correct for one application will not be right for another.

When it comes to economy, it is important to recognize the fact that when the engine is operated in the range of speeds and loads where economy is important, the engine will not produce enough heat to damage any components, so a much leaner mixture can be used than when under full power. In fact, even leaner than Stoichiometric is desirable in this circumstance!

The question becomes then…”How lean is too lean?”

If you can’t do any real damage to the engine from leaning it out, then why not simply go as lean as you possibly can without getting any misfires?

Part of the answer lies in the fact that you need a certain amount of power to keep your vehicle moving. Typically, there is a large range of A/F ratios that will produce reasonably close to the same power output of the engine, so choosing one to make power is pretty easy. Once you go outside this window, (either too lean or too rich) the power drops significantly.

However, when this happens, the engine may no longer make enough power to sustain the vehicle speed in that same cell location on the fuel map.

2. Tuning Ignition Timing Tables

Whether you are tuning an engine on an engine dyno or a chassis dyno, you should always make sure that it gets tuned to the proper amount of ignition timing.

The best way to do this is to use a steady state holding pattern on the dyno and hold the engine to a specific RPM. Then load the engine to whatever site you wish to tune and record the instantaneous power readings.

While tuning on a dynamometer is an invaluable process for gaining maximum power from an engine, many builders think that is the end of its usefulness. In fact, the best way to gain great fuel economy is also done on the dyno!

When you make a change to add or subtract ignition timing, you will normally see a corresponding change in power output.

Using an onboard or aftermarket knock sensor to check for detonation is the easiest way to find the maximum allowable ignition advance. However, if you do not have access to one, here is another way to get pretty close.

Advance the timing until maximum power is reached and begins to fall off when more timing is added. From there, back off the ignition advance one or two degrees and set it there.

Once you have made a few hard pulls on the engine at this setting, shut it off and remove the spark plugs. Inspect them for obvious signs of detonation or erosion. Pay careful attention to the J-shaped ground strap. You will notice that somewhere on the strap it begins to change color.

Ideally, when the proper timing is set, there will be enough heat in the combustion chamber to make the color change at about the center of the strap. If it changes more out towards the end of the strap, then there is not enough heat, and more advance is needed. Conversely, if the color change is near the bottom where the strap joins the plug, then take some ignition advance out in order to start the burn later and transfer more heat out the exhaust!

3. Using Ignition Timing to Stabilize Idle

When tuning a small displacement engine with very large injectors, you may have trouble establishing a good solid idle.

This can also happen with engines using large duration camshafts with considerable overlap period where the inlet manifold signal strength is erratic and hard to pin down an exact reading. When you run into a situation like this, there are a few things that can make life just a little bit easier.

First, always make sure that your ECU is getting full battery voltage, if not more from the alternator. The ECU will have a much harder time staying consistent if the supply voltage is not up to par. The injector battery voltage offset can also be inconsistent and this makes properly supplying fuel to the engine difficult at best.

Second, use a little more ignition advance at idle than normal to help the engine produce slightly more torque and keep itself running a little better. When the timing values are very low or close to TDC at idle the engine can be a little lazy and this causes a kind of “rolling” idle condition, especially when coupled with a lightweight flywheel with low inertia.

Lastly, when tuning for idle quality using either a stepper motor or an Idle Air Control valve a common mistake is for tuners to either forget to check or to set the throttle stop incorrectly.

If the throttle opening is too large the idle quality will suffer because in order to achieve a particular target idle speed the valve will have a lot of range to open up and increase airflow, but not a lot of ability to close off the air supply and slow down the engine because so much air is already getting past the throttle itself. I like to try and maintain a steady idle at my target speed and have the idle control valve working at about 25-30% of its capability when the engine is fully warmed up. You can play around a little and see what works best for your engine, but typically values under about 10% valve capacity won’t leave enough room to solve an idle overshoot problem.

4. Tuning Forced Induction Engines

Tuning a forced induction engine on a dyno can be a daunting task. Trying to tune an engine that will make lots of boost and a ton of power can be even more challenging. These engines tend to make so much power when they come on to the boost that they often will rip right through the RPM ranges you are trying to tune. This can be very frustrating to a novice tuner.

One thing you can do to help out, is to disconnect the tubes that lead from the turbocharger to the intake manifold. This will prevent any boost from reaching the engine, so that you can tune it as you would a naturally aspirated engine. Just operate the dyno so that it will hold you at a constant engine speed while you adjust the load with movement of the throttle and tune all the sites as best you can.

Once you have tuned all the sites for wide-open throttle in a naturally aspirated form, you can connect the boost tubes again and begin tuning the boost sites. If you have an adjustable waste-gate or boost regulator, turn it down as low as it will go and tune the lower boost sites first and gradually work your way up. If your turbocharger has the ability to use a compressor speed sensor you can pay attention to the speeds reached during the run to make sure you are not exceeding the manufacturer’s recommended maximums. This is rare, but it could happen and it’s worth taking a look to avoid premature turbocharger failure.

When done properly, the shape of the fuel curve under boost should closely match that of the engine while naturally aspirated. It will simply use more fuel, or higher numbers in the map. The reason for this is because the engine’s volumetric efficiency for any given engine speed is determined by the combination of cylinder head, camshaft, displacement, etc.

Some ECUs use different values to represent fuel quantities in their base fuel tables, so always be sure to follow the recommended procedure for your particular system but as a general rule of thumb, the more intake pressure you run the more fuel the engine will consume so the larger the numbers in your fuel tables will need to be. ###

As the founder and senior instructor of EFI University, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Ben Strader manages the quality and flow of information that is taught in the EFI-101 and EFI Advanced classes. He is a specialist in the theory and operation of the internal combustion engine and its related systems including electronic engine management. Ben has more than 18 years of experience tuning and troubleshooting EFI systems, and has published a book “How to Build and Tune Custom EFI Systems” for CarTech.

EFI University has various hands-on opportunities to learn the ropes of tuning engines using electronic fuel injection, as well as some advanced level classes for better understanding the engine blueprinting process and turbocharging concepts. For more information, visit the website at www.efi101.com.

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The list of reclaimed bare engine blocks on the Kenmonth Engine Company website (www.danamotorssac.com) is enough to warm the heart of any vintage vehicle collector. There’s an AMC 401-cid big-block for $800, five 1959 thru 1966 Buick “Nailheads” for $450 each, a 390 for a tail-finned ‘59 Caddy for $450, a 216-cid Chevy “Stovebolt 6” with applications as far back as 1942, a 218/230 Chrysler flathead six that would fit right in a Chrysler Town & Country, and a hot rod classic 1948-1953 Ford flathead V8 will set you back $500.

D.K. Kenmonth says that all blocks listed are cleaned, magnafluxed and inspected. “They are guaranteed to a maximum .040 to .060 bore to available pistons,” he told Engine Builder magazine at the SEMA Show. “It’s our no hassles program: no core charge, no wasting time in wrecking yards, no chargebacks to your customer when his Internet-sourced core junks out.”

Kenmonth’s company has been providing professional automotive machine services for over 50 years. He says that he can even find collectors engines he doesn’t have listed and can sometimes supply “matching-numbers” engines for $200 above regular prices. If you have a car like a Corvette or Mustang where matching numbers increase the vehicle’s value, $200 is a song.

Kenmonth was at the November SEMA Show with a bunch of engine parts in cool-looking old-fashioned boxes. He has been collecting obsolete engine parts for as long as he can remember. He says that it took him decades to accumulate those boxes and the NOS (new old stock) and NORS (new old replacement stock) engine parts inside them. He has parts from the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s and up.

“I spent a long time working as an engine parts specialist and I started keeping the parts that we never sold,” Kenmonth explained. “The parts manufacturers would discontinue an item and I just kept them, rather than throw them away. I moved them off the front line to an obsolete line code. Now, I have a lot of engine parts that collectors and restoration shops need to fix old motors.”

Kenmonth’s grandfather Alton S. “Kenny” Kenmonth worked as a wagon jobber in Los Angeles in the early years of the 20th Century. He sold Vitaloy pistons and Pacific piston rings out of the back of his car. He made face-to-face sales calls on the shop owners there who rebuilt engines. “Alton would pick up the piston/rod assemblies, take them to his garage for cleaning and rebushing, cut the ring grooves for G.I. spacers and return the ready-to-install assemblies.

“In those days the engines were built in the chassis,” D.K. emphasized. “Cylinder boring was done with the engine blocks still sitting in the chassis. The crankshafts were also turned in the chassis.” Alton Kenmonth built his business up during the Great Depression. At the start of World War II, Gen. George S. Patton asked him to be a consultant. He was asked to start up a rebuilding plant for the Army ordinance supply chain to rebuild Willys Jeep engines for the war.

­­­­After WWII, Kenny went back to engine rebuilding with his Piston Supply Co. He and Donald Kenmonth — D.K’s dad — ran things. In the early ‘50s, they linked up with the Dana family. “Dana didn’t want to build engines, so they asked my grandfather and my father to supply engines, crankshafts and cylinder heads for their Sacramento operation. By 1959, Piston Supply owned Dana Motors. “By the early ‘60s, we had nine branch facilities around California and Nevada,” D.K. recalled. “We stocked engines, cylinder heads and engine parts.”

In 1968, following Kenny’s passing, the company split and D.K. and his dad moved to Sacramento to operate as Motor Warehouse. In 1974, D.K got out of college and joined the business. “We continued building engines in Sacramento until 1981,” he recalled. “Then, we focused on machining parts and selling master kits — a kit being a crankshaft, bearings, pistons, rings, cam, lifters, timing, pump, gaskets — everything needed to put a short block together.”

When Donald retired in 1998, D.K. bought the company and ran it until 2012 when he sold distribution at Motor Warehouse and Commercial Warehouse Center (his factory warehouse) to National Performance Warehouse (NPW) of Miami. D.K. was NPW’s VP of Engine Components during the transition. He also kept the Dana Motors corporate. He now runs Kenmonth Engine Co. and California Obsolete Engine Parts (CAOEP). “We supply NPW locations with machine work and discontinued, hard to find internal engine parts,” he said.

D.K. also found another niche selling NOS import parts for vintage Datsuns, Toyotas, Mitsubishis and so on. “I started buying lots of NOS import parts and, with the help of our computer, we were able to catalog them,” he said. “We have designed and built a website to present them to the industry.”

D.K. says he has 165,000 obsolete part numbers in his computer. “We consider maybe 20,000 of those parts active (regular sellers),” he pointed out. “The other stuff is not very active. We may occasionally get a sale every two or three years, but it’s part of our service. With the Internet I’m hoping for exposure overseas. Maybe there are shops in Asia building old Datsun Roadsters?”

Kenmonth feels the Internet has broadened the purchasing power of the consumer. “If you go back 30 years somebody looking for a Fiat part had to visit a machine shop or store and go through distribution channels to reach us because only the store knew we had Fiat parts,” D.K. explained. “Now, all a customer has to do is Google Fiat parts. We couldn’t fight the Internet, so we joined it and designed a shopping cart website with 21st century search technology. You can type in ‘1955 331 Cadillac valves and the search engine will find those valves on my website because of the way we organized our parts.”

California Obsolete Engine Parts has valves reaching back into the 1910’s. “I don’t even have catalogs on some of that stuff,” D.K. admitted. “About the earliest catalog I have is a 1939 Federal-Mogul book that goes back to around 1928 or so. So some of it, believe it or not, is knowing what you’re looking at. There are times when I have to open the box, take the part out of the box and try to figure out what it is by the specs, because there’s no catalog that exists.”

D.K. says he tries to specialize in the “sweet range,” that tends to be 1928-1975 in terms of old parts. “That’s the sweet spot,” he says. “We don’t get very many ‘80s engine builds, but occasionally we do and we have parts for those, also. It’s more by accident that we sometimes get parts for earlier or later applications.” If someone has a current motor, D.K.’s relationship with National Performance Warehouse (NPW) allows him to offer newer parts, as well.

“I am best known as a West Coast distributor of engine parts,” said Kenmonth. “The California Obsolete Engine Parts end of it is very recent. Over the years, we’d see demand for obsolete parts and I found there was a big need for them. Suppliers like Egge Machine and Kanter have moved more into manufacturing, rather than buying lots of NOS engine parts. So, we’re in a good position in a not-so-crowded niche called the obsolete engine parts industry.”

SIDEBAR

Green-Lighting Safety in the Shop

Often, addressing green practices in the shop also make for better safety procedures. For example, using an environmental absorbant to address spills in the shop will result in safer floors and protect against accidents.

The following is a list of some shop-related Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Violations for the fiscal year 2013 (Per its Law and Regulation number) and things to look over in your shop to prevent accidents/injuries:

Hazard Communication (1910.1200) — 6,156 violations

Commonly violated requirements included failure to have a written program, inadequate employee education and training, improper or no labels on containers, and no MSDS’s (SDSs) or lack of access them.

Respiratory Protection (1910.134) — 3,879 violations

Frequent violations were no written respiratory protection program, poor fit test procedures, unsuitable respirator selection process, and lack of procedures for voluntary use of respirators.

Electrical-wiring methods (1910.305) — 3,452 violations

Violations included problems with flexible cords and cables, boxes, and temporary wiring, poor use of extension cords, and using temporary wiring as permanent wiring.

Powered Industrial Trucks/Lifts (1910.178) — 3,340 violations

Common violations were inadequate operator training and refresher training, and poor conditions of PITs when returned to service after repair.

Lockout/Tagout (1910.147) — 3,254 violations

Frequent violations were poor or no energy control procedures, inadequate worker training, and inspections not completed.

Electrical-general requirements (1910.303) — 2,745 violations

Common violations were related to electric shock and electrocution exposures.

Machine/Tooling Guarding (1910.212) — 2,701 violations

Violations included point of operation exposures, inadequate or no anchoring of fixed machinery, and exposure to blades/drills.

Source: http://www.osha.gov

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