Archive for the ‘Auto Repair’ category

Reasons to Use Carbon Fiber Wrap on Your Vehicle

January 12th, 2012

Carbon fiber wrap is the modern way to change the appearance of your vehicle. You can use it on cars, trucks, vans and motorcycles. It adds beauty and personality to your vehicle while providing a tough outer coating that protects your original paint from nicks, scrapes and chips that can occur from driving on the highway. Here are a few more excellent reasons to use carbon fiber vinyl on your vehicle.

It’s Affordable

Using carbon wrap to give your vehicle a new look is less expensive than a custom paint job. When done correctly, it looks just as professional as paint but the original color of the vehicle stays in tack. It’s difficult to tell the difference between vinyl wrap and paint because the finished look is so similar. Carbon fiber vinyl is also much cheaper than real carbon fiber and it’s much easier to work with, too

Easy Installation and Removal

If you’re handy with tools, installing fiber vinyl is easy to do and you won’t need any special equipment. If you’re involved in an accident and a section of the vehicle is damaged, you can cut out that portion of the wrap and repair the area much easier and cheaper than it would be to repair paint. The wrap is so easy to work with that matching up the vinyl is no problem at all.

Removing the wrap is also easy. If you decide to restore the vehicle back to its original state, you can do so simply by peeling off the vinyl. Installation or removal of the vinyl won’t damage the surface underneath, provided proper technique is used.

Self-Expression

Using wraps for self-expression is a great way to show off your personality. There are so many different graphics and designs available that being unique is easy. You can even layer the sheets of carbon fiber wrap by placing different colors on top of one another, until you create a one-of-a-kind look.

Variety

Being unique is easy when you use carbon fiber vinyl because there are a wide variety of options available. You can choose plain colors, specialty colors such as Pearl and Matt Black or most any type of design you can imagine. Finding a color or pattern that suits you perfectly, should be easy to do.

Advertisement

One of the oldest reasons to use carbon fiber wrap is to advertise. Big companies have been doing this for years but anyone can take advantage of the benefits it has to offer. Do you own a small business? Advertising your business every time you ride through town, to the grocery store or to the gym can draw in a lot of customers.

One of the great things about using carbon fiber to advertise is that you can make changes when needed. If your phone number or company’s address changes, you can easily make this correction without a huge expense. Using carbon fiber wrap on your vehicle gives you more flexibility to express yourself and show off your unique personality.

Engine Timing Explained

August 3rd, 2011

A majority of the vehicles on the road today with either diesel or petrol engines in them are only able to mechanically work if they are timed properly. Engine timing on a vast majority of today’s vehicles is either done by the use of a synthetic rubber belt or a steel timing chain.

The importance of engine timing is not easy to explain but we will give it a shot to make it easy to understand. Using a four cylinder single overhead cam engine as an example, there are two main rotating assemblies on the engine itself, one being the crankshaft and the other being the cam shaft. The crankshaft has a singular purpose to rotate forcing the piston rods up and down in the cylinder bores throughout the engines four stroke cycles. The camshaft is responsible for opening and closing the valves inside of the head at designated intervals to either allow air into the cylinders or to remove exhaust after the combustion event.

If these two components are not synchronised properly the vehicle, by design, cannot run. When the engines number one cylinder is at top dead centre (the highest point of its travel) there will be a timing mark on the crank pulley or gear which must align with the timing mark built into the engine. When a vehicle is at top dead centre on the number one cylinder, the valves in the head for that cylinder must be in a fully closed state to allow for either the compression stroke or the combustion stroke of the engine on that cylinder. This timing is normally facilitated with the use of another timing mark being present on the camshaft sprocket which would then align with another timing mark on the engine itself to assure everything is properly in line.

If the timing is off by as little as one tooth the vehicle may be able to fire and run but it will not perform as intended, and many vehicles will not even attempt to run if the timing is not perfect. A qualified mechanic would be able to look at the timing components and identify the timing marks to ensure the engine is timed properly before trying to fire it up.

Some vehicles are classed as what is known as an interference engine. If one of these engines has the timing miss set even by as little as a tooth it can cause the valves to open at the wrong time allowing them to actually make contact with the pistons as they are at the top of their travel. If this happens it is common for them to bend the valves which would require removing the cylinder head and replacing the valves before the engine can be fired up again. This is not an easy process on many of today’s vehicles. » Read more: Engine Timing Explained