Response

Praise

I just have saying this website is incredible, you guys do an awesome job i hope it stays online for years to come.

Jamal Boodhoo

Barbados

Try the Fan

Thank you for the articles and so many good information. If I visit Australia I'll definitely visit your recommended shops. I have done some of your DIY articles and it really helps me. My car is a kia pride CD5, I engine swap it for a mazda Z5 efi engine. Right know I will be modding for a CAI, I have an idea of putting a highly reliable fan (40mm Delta fan 12v 1.2amps from computer server) inside the tube of the CAI, drawing air to the air box. I will time it to turn on when the engine turns on. The tubing is plastic and it is just about the size of the fan. What is your opinion in this matter? Have you tried something like that? Again thanks for sharing your experiences, I really appreciated it.

Erwin

Philippines

See The Twin Turbo Zet.

Comparing Engines

In your article The Real Way of Comparing Engine Designs you show a great way of comparing the advancement of various engines and their technologies. One sector I'd like to highlight is the field of high-performance motorcycles engines.

The 2008 Kawasaki ZX10 throws down 14.268 bar (183 bhp @ 11,500 rpm) and does it without a turbo (putting it at the top of your listed naturally-aspired engines and even most turbocharged ones). These are some highly sophisticated engines! The only caveat to their performance is that they aren't able to last as many miles as their larger counterparts. Many of them have valve adjustment services every 15,000 miles.

Chris Katko

United States

The Sound of Knocking

Just read your article on DIY knock detection while on a search for just this sort of information. Great article! It would be of great help if you could upload a sound file. I know what a hard knock sounds like, but when you write about things like the little bit of knocking in third gear during your testing, I always think "I wish I could hear that so I would know for sure that I'm not missing something when listening to my engine." If you could time stamp a wav file and give info on exactly at what time knock starts to occur, I think it would be a good addition to an already good article. I haven't found this type of info anywhere...

Richard

United States

The problem is finding someone who is happy to have their engine detonating for long enough to record the sound...

Shed Update

Hey i was just wondering if your articles on your shed building are going to be updated anytime soon. Its a fantastic read :)

Luke

Australia

The shed has been finished only a few months. We hope no updates are needed for many years...

Biased

Re the speedometer article (see Speedometers)....can't believe it...so biased! What about the US speedo makers early on...Corbin,Jones and the principle of this instrument the governor used in US cars amd motorcycles into 1920s? What about Europe...sure VDO were a maker, but Smiths in the UK would eat them for size and output...French Jaeger...they made speedometers using the governor and chronometric principle in the millions as well as the eddy current versions and later electrical ones.... Sorry, but it wan't really well researched.... Me...I ran a speedometer sales and repair business in Sydney, Australia for over 30 years. I worked on heaps of all forms of instruments. People read what is published and it becomes fact and gospel...your article isn't that... What it said was interesting and in parts factual, but the omissions are glaring...

Dennis Quinlan

Australia

The story is clearly credited to Siemens VDO.

Lightweight Car Safety

Your series on building a lightweight composit car is very interesting (see Building an Ultra Light-Weight Car, Part 1 and Building an Ultra Light-Weight Car, Part 2). My one concern is the vehicles crash worthyness. I see that it has been fitted with a rear rollover bar but how would it fair in NCAP crash testing. If this type of vehicle is to built in large numbers it would have to comply with crash/safety regulations. The reason for much of the weight of modern small cars is safety related.

John Henley

United Kingdom

The university says the car is safer than a motorcycle and sidecar, and that seems a reasonable statement.

Adjustable ESP

I've just finished reading your article on Adjustable stability control (see Adjustable Stability Control!). In it you mention "In fact, we’re not aware of any other company doing anything similar anywhere in the world." Perhaps you've been informed already by now but I believe Lotus have a similar system (complete with "volume" dial) first showcased on the factory ESP, rather than intercepting a signal to the ECU. In which case Whitelines Black Box may well be unique.

Ben Weslake

Australia

Wrong Car

Just a quick note about something stated in the article about adjustible ESP... The article said that the "black box" was fitted to a Commodore SV6, but the car in the pictures was a Commodore V (a base model with sporty styling as a marketing pack - base V6 engine, and 4 speed auto trans). Sorry to be a pedantic Commodore fan, but a Commodore V isn't quite up to the standard of the SV6... ;-)

Danny

Australia

Fixed.

Stability Control and Towing

Hi, just reading the article on Whiteline's black box and stability control systems generally. Do these systems offer the same advantages when towing heavy loads?

Mark Sperling

Australia

We doubt that the Black Box adjustable control system would be advantageous, but we assume that stability control in general could be helpful when towing heavy loads – at least one company calibrated their stability control system for towing.

Over-Run Fuel Cut-Off

I AFAIR last week's response someone asked about the possibility of part throttle injector shut off on overrun. Unless I am missing something this is in practical terms not possible, unless the ECU has the capacity for individual cylinder deactivation.

I conciously use overrun shutoff as much as possible, to the extent of dropping gears in a manual or auto to be above the minimum activation revs which appears to be commonly 1500RPM.

I often have to let the car slow because of the braking effect then speed up a bit. This sytill saves significant fuel compared to maintaining part throttle.

If you introduced partial throttle injector cutoff, the braking effect would ensure that you slowed down the same as if the throttle were closed, or very nearly, unless of course you could shut off 1 or more injectors individually.

I am quite interested in this as it seems one of the most potent fuel economy measures in ECUs.. My BMW fuel usage readout jumps amazingly on long downhill slopes.

Philip Armbruster

Australia

The point is that some cars do not run injector over-run cut-off at all, and others run it only when engine revs are higher than required.