10.) Does My Car Really Need The Expensive Gas?

"The engine has higher compression ratios than cars that use 'regular', and also derives its power through a more advanced ignition timing. The higher the octane rating, the more the engine can advance timing. Running lower octane gas in your car will lower both your power output and gas mileage, enough that it will likely cost you about the same as running 93 in it."

9.) Why Do Turn Signals Blink Faster When They're Burnt Out?

"It's a relay that switches the light on and off. It blinks faster when a bulb is burned out because the voltage load drops. Less load on the circuit = easier for it to do its job = blinks faster."

8.) Can An Engine Run In Reverse?

A two stroke engine can, but not a four stroke. So if you've got an old Trabant, go try it at home!

7.) What's The Difference Between A Turbocharger And A Supercharger?

"Both devices "charge" the air in the intake by compressing it, and so force more air into the cylinders, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. The difference is what powers each device. With a supercharger, the compression pump is connected directly to the engine (typically via a belt) This means that you get reliable compression, and you don't have to wait for it to "spin up", since it spins as quickly as the engine does. The downside to this is that if your engine is turning slowly (i.e. at low RPM's) you don't have as much compression, and as such, less power. You don't get maximum power until you reach the highest RPMs (the redline).

In a turbocharger, the compression pump is powered by exhaust gases. Air pressure from the exhaust pushes on a mini-turbine that spins the compressor. This has the advantage of not directly taking power from the engine (it doesn't directly slow down the crankshaft like a supercharger does), but at low RPM's the exhaust doesn't have enough force or pressure to turn the turbine. When the RPM's rise high enough to generate enough pressure on the turbine, the turbine can take a second or two to fully spin up to a speed where it generates significant compression. This second or two of spin up time is known as "turbo lag". However, turbochargers can reach maximum compression at a much earlier point in the RPM range, and so you can have maximum power from a turbo through more of the RPM range than in a supercharger."

6.) How Do Diesel Engines Work?

I know diesels are different than gas engines, but how are they different? They essentially do the same thing, but instead of using spark plugs to ignite the fuel as in a gasoline engine, diesel uses compression to do it.

5.) How Do Pistons Moving In A Jerky Motion Translate Into Smooth Crank Rotation?

"Simply put, you put another weight the opposite side of the crankshaft as the piston, so when the piston is moving up, the opposite weight is moving down. Engines also have a flywheel, which is basically a big heavy disk on the end of the crankshaft. It's difficult to accelerate, so any strong force applied to it will only accelerate or decelerate it a little. If that force was only for a short time (a sharp impulse) the flywheel won't change speed. If the force is over a longer time (you pressed on the accelerator and the piston(s) are consistently applying more force) it will speed up (albeit a bit slower than it would if the flywheel wasn't present).

If you have enough cylinders, you can balance the engine so that you don't need extra balancing weights (like in an inline 6 or V12 engine) but they'll still have a flywheel to smooth out any vibrations."

4.) What's The Difference Between Over And Understeer?

"In the most simple terms possible, oversteer in when the front wheels slip while cornering and oversteer is when the rear wheels slip while cornering."

3.) Which Is Better? FWD, RWD, Or AWD?

Unfortunately there is no definitive answer to this question, but each has it's pros and cons. FWD provides good traction in inclement weather because the weight of the engine is on the front wheels and is often cheaper. Generally, FWD cars don't handle well because the front wheels are tasked with all the engines power and the steering.

RWD remedies that by giving the back wheels all the power, leaving the front wheels just for cornering. It's more balanced in terms of handling but not quite as good in low grip conditions.

AWD is best for low grip situations and has some of RWDs good handling characteristics, but is heavy and complex. None is better than the other, they're all just different.

2.) How Do Automatics Work?

"You have to separate the Automatic into 3 separate systems. The Torque Converter, the Gear box, and the hydraulic controller.

The gearbox is simply planetary gear sets, the selection is done by hydraulic actuators instead of say hand levers. (there are manual Planetary gearboxes that work with a hand lever, circle track and drag cars use them)

The Torque Converter is a fluid coupling. one side spins transmission fluid around (the engine side), and the other half catches that fluid energy and spins (the transmission side) this replaces the clutch in a manual by simply always having a fluid connection that can be overridden by the brakes.

The Hydraulic controller, now that's the hard part, the transmission has a fluid pump on the input shaft, and either another pump or a pressure regulating governor on the output shaft. The difference of pressures along with spring pressure control valves and flow orifices create simple hydraulic logic circuits. these circuits activate or inactivate the hydraulic actuators that control the planetary gear set. More and more this part is being replaced with computers."

1.) What's The Difference Between Torque and HP?

"Torque is not dependent on time. Think of trying to unscrew a big bolt. Torque is how many foot-lbs you have to exert to unscrew the bolt. Horsepower is how fast you can do it. Think of a scrawny guy having to use all his strength to barely turn it once every 9 seconds, while the strong man can do it once every 3 seconds. They are both exerting the same amount of torque on the bolt to make it unscrew, but the strong man is generating 3 times more horsepower."

Source: jalopnik.com

Nice....

Very Brilliant piece OP, a wonderful enlightenment dat shud take to FrontPage for knwledge sake.

AutosBay:
1.) What's The Difference Between Torque and HP?

"Torque is not dependent on time. Think of trying to unscrew a big bolt. Torque is how many foot-lbs you have to exert to unscrew the bolt. Horsepower is how fast you can do it. Think of a scrawny guy having to use all his strength to barely turn it once every 9 seconds, while the strong man can do it once every 3 seconds. They are both exerting the same amount of torque on the bolt to make it unscrew, but the strong man is generating 3 times more horsepower."

From basic physics, torque is represented as Force/time. That is, rate of change of force with respect to time. So what do you mean by torque is not dependent on time? Care to explain further?as force and time are both variables which affect torque.

AutosBay:
7.) What's The Difference Between A Turbocharger And A Supercharger?

"Both devices "charge" the air in the intake by compressing it, and so force more air into the cylinders, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. The difference is what powers each device. With a supercharger, the compression pump is connected directly to the engine (typically via a belt) This means that you get reliable compression, and you don't have to wait for it to "spin up", since it spins as quickly as the engine does. The downside to this is that if your engine is turning slowly (i.e. at low RPM's) you don't have as much compression, and as such, less power. You don't get maximum power until you reach the highest RPMs (the redline).

In a turbocharger, the compression pump is powered by exhaust gases. Air pressure from the exhaust pushes on a mini-turbine that spins the compressor. This has the advantage of not directly taking power from the engine (it doesn't directly slow down the crankshaft like a supercharger does), but at low RPM's the exhaust doesn't have enough force or pressure to turn the turbine. When the RPM's rise high enough to generate enough pressure on the turbine, the turbine can take a second or two to fully spin up to a speed where it generates significant compression. This second or two of spin up time is known as "turbo lag". However, turbochargers can reach maximum compression at a much earlier point in the RPM range, and so you can have maximum power from a turbo through more of the RPM range than in a supercharger."

From what I know, I think you mixed these up. A turbocharger usually only creates enough power at higher RPMs when speed of exhaust gases is strong enough to spin the pump above a threshold, hence, they operate in a narrower range of RPMs, while superchargers operate over a wide range of RPM, as its directly coupled to the engine. Superchargers give boosts even at lower RPM as opposed to turbochargers that provide boosts solely at the upper band of the RPM counter.

AutosBay:
4.) What's The Difference Between Over And Understeer?

"In the most simple terms possible, oversteer in when the front wheels slip while cornering and oversteer is when the rear wheels slip while cornering."

Good information, but I still dont know the difference between oversteer and understeer.

zinaLPF:


Good information, but I still dont know the difference between oversteer and understeer.

Oversteer is a situation particular
to rear-wheel drive vehicles mostly (eg Mercedes Benz n most Super Cars) coz as power comes from behind, n d vehicle tries to shuffle a corner at a relatively gud speed, d front obeys but d rear slides instead in a kind of a drift movement which at a worst case, d car turns totally all d way back (U-turn).

Understeer on d oda hand, is a case for front wheel drive vehicles (eg most Honda, Toyota etc). Power comes frm d front axle as its also responsible for cornering at d same time. D front wheels in dis case slips which means, it appears steered but d car goes more of straight rather.
At worst case, d car goes straight even wit d cornerd-lukin front wheels.

datjohn:


Oversteer is a situation peculiar to rear-wheel drive vehicles mostly (eg Mercedes Benz n most Super Cars) coz as power comes from behind, n d vehicle tries to shuffle a corner at a relatively gud speed, d front obeys but d rear slides instead in a kind of a drift movement which at a worst case, d car turns totally all d way back (U-turn).

Understeer on d oda hand, is a case for front wheel drive vehicles (eg most Honda, Toyota etc). Power comes frm d front axle as its also responsible for cornering at d same time. D front wheels in dis case slips which means, it appears steered but d car goes more of straight rather.
At worst case, d car goes straight even wit d cornerd-lukin front wheels.

I think you defined it right but upside down.

San2ski:


I think you defined it right but upside down.

Dont tink so...
Check dese out http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-physics-of-oversteer-feature

http://www.carthrottle.com/oversteer-vs-understeer-explained-the-top-gear-way/