Powder Coating Wheels
Regarding the Powder Coating mentioned in the
Facelifting Alloy Wheels story, you may also want to add an advisary to remove
the powder coating off the wheel hub face, the bit that contacts the cars hub
face. This is may not necessary for "normal road use" what ever that is, but is
essential if you intend to use the wheel in any form of motorsport. In high
brake heat situations, a race track for instance, the powdercoating will melt
and give you a 0.5 - 1.0mm gap between hub face and wheel, this is to say the
least an 'unpleasent feeling'. I would also suggest that powder coating is very
soft {plastic} compared to the wheel alloy face and that it would be advisable
to re-torque your wheel nuts as the powder coating may initially bed down with
use. Given that you wrote this article a while back, now would be a goood time
to check ;-).
Simon Briggs (long time reader still
bemoaning the repeats)
Australia
A very good point – an addition has been made
to the article.
Series Hybrids
Hi, I'm wondering whether anyone from Autospeed
has driven a series hybrid, and what it was like. I'm picturing it being
somewhat like an electric car with extended range, but I can't be sure, not
having driven any kind of hybrid myself. Are there any series hybrids available
in Australia?
Ben
Australia
We know of local electric cars with mobile
petrol generator battery recharge but we’re not aware of any properly integrated
series hybrids.
Intake Tubing
I was reading through your ram air article. Can
you tell me the company that sales the colored flex tubing? I can't seem to find
it. I'm trying to make a ram air system for my g 35.
Brian Crowell
United States
The best bet is to look for major industrial
parts and hose suppliers in your area.
Complex Pulser Interfacing
Re: eLabtronics Pulser. What you have is a cheap
and simple module for driving a load, but this only partially covers your stated
goal of making car electronics modification simpler, interfacing with the
sensors still requires a lot of custom electronics soldering, fiddling, and
mounting. Having previously built and employed your IEBC kit to great success,
I'm not adverse to such things, but I believe what you need to complete the
picture is a generic sensor interface to not only simplify the triggering of the
pusler but open it up to some more complex behaviours.
Ash
Australia
We don’t believe adding just one component – a
pot – to allow the Pulser to be triggered from any voltage outputting car sensor
is “a lot of custom electronics soldering, fiddling, and mounting”.
Unique Intercooling Approach
I have recently discovered your website and have
found your technical articles very interesting and informative. I saw your
article on refrigerated intercooling and that reminded me of a system I came
across a couple of years ago - www.wdlpower.co.uk I
thought you might find it interesting and might be worth an article if you can
wrap your brain around how it works.
Conn Clark
United States
Honda Insight
I have just purchased my first Insight and as an
engineer I am absolutely blown away by the technology that is included in this
tiny car. I was just directed to your EMag and find this to be the best
information I have found yet on the Insight. Much better than what I found on
99MPG.com and equal to if not better than InsightCentral.net.
I just read the article on water injection and
noticed that your objection to continuing the research on the Insight centered
around the amount of water needed to handle the full tank of gas (10hours=10
gallons). But I think you failed to take into account TWO very important things.
First, if traveling with a woman (wife), the female bladder is only good for 2
to 3 hours so you will be stopping that often ANYWAY..or getting a divorce, so
fill up a 3 gallon tank then. The second is that in MOST use the car will only
be used 2 to 3 hours at a time and then you are at a destination....Fill Up
time. So a 3 gallon water tank (21 pounds full, 10 pounds average load) would do
the job. I plan on trying this as I have a trip that is a regular for me, 425
miles one way with a lunch stop in the middle. This along with the series
resistor in the air temp line should be a winner.
Jim Isbell
United States
Of course you’re right - the car would still
have adequate range with a water injection tank providing 2 or 3 hours’ cruise.
It’s just that I really like the idea of filling the 40 litre fuel tank and then
be able to drive for over 1000 kilometres without stopping at a fuel station...
We’d love to hear how you go with the water injection system. - Julian Edgar
DIY Immobiliser
Hey I just read about your DIY car immobiliser. I
was just wondering because there is a constant 12v power supply at the start of
the circuit, wouldnt this mean that there will be power running through the
relays coil holding it to be latched in one it positions. This would then mean
that the cars battery could run dead (after about 2 weeks). If wired it up to a
ignition wire insead of a constant power supply, wouldnt this then deactivate
the immobiliser when the key was turned off?
Thanks for your help.
Jack
Australia
The only current draw when the ignition is
turned off is the flashing LED. You can delete this if you like.
Digital Counter 1
Refer to The $10 Digital Counter, Instead of '1'
'+' '1' '=' to shart the counter from 2, what i suggest is to press '-' '1' '+'
'1' '=' to shart counter from 0.
Gary Ng
Malaysia
Digital Counter 2
Re $10 Digital Counter - great idea! but if you
connect the switch to the M+ button, and enter 1 on the display, every time you
close the switch 1 would be added to the memory. This would mean you wouldn't
lose the data if the calculator was turned off. Also most caclutors without
memory will increment by a given amount if you key in 1++1 instead of 1+1 and
then hit the = button
Mike Constantine
New Zealand
Electric Pre-Warming the Engine
I love your articles, keep up the good work.
Pre-warming the engine indeed reduce emissions and fuel consumption throughout
most of the year.
Here are some interesting and relevant
references:
http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/ajas/ajas43106%2d111.pdf
http://www.scantechab.se/projekt/mv/rapporter/isata.pdf
You might also find interesting the list of fuel
economy related papers I compiled over at ecomodder.com
http://ecomodder.com/forum/19078%2dpost1.html
Martin
Canada
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