https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fBbNKUSvuU&t=901s
Watch the whole tear-down video, or skip to 15:01 for failure modes.
Here's an interesting teardown of a front-wheel-drive 3.7L Cyclone engine from Ford whose water pump emptied its contents into the crankcase. It's from the channel I Do Cars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnhnvkb7KUc&t=159s I'm glad I have the external water pump in my cars. Why you would ever put a water pump inside the engine is beyond me. A few people have mentioned full-size Taurus's and having this potential issue.
This video by Engineering Explained was inspired by the GM 6.2L engine recall, but I'm posting it here because I found it to be a very elucidating explanation about engine oils.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0VoEhW2I-E
@imperator I saw that pop up in my suggested videos last night. The algorithm must be working. I pretty much only get on YouTube from cars and music. Haha.
Why Does Ethanol Make So Much Power? (Versus Gasoline)
Ever since I started running my truck on E85 a month ago, I found out that Engineering Explained did a video on E100 vs pure gasoline a couple years ago. He does some more analyses based on different gasoline to ethanol ratios that I thought was pretty interesting. One thing that caught my attention is running on E85 produces a slightly more thermally efficient engine as opposed to gasoline. With E85's greater ability to absorb heat from the surrounding engine as it evaporates, it lowers the engine's temperature more than with gasoline. I noticed this on my thermostat a few days ago. Running E85, the engine runs slightly cooler than with gasoline.
We learned in Thermodynamics I a couple years ago that the greater the temperature difference between the "cold" and "warm" side of the engine is, the more thermally efficient the engine will be. A higher compression ratio can be used before the fuel detonates with E85 vs regular gas.
That explains why my engine has slightly more power when running on E85 vs gas; it's more thermally efficient.
@justin-shepherd the bigger injectors help too
The Bendix "Electrojector", the first electronic fuel injection system for cars:
https://macsmotorcitygarage.com/the-first-electonic-fuel-injection-1957-bendix-electrojector/
@chucktobias wow I had no idea there were cars with vacuum tubes in them.
@imperator - That was just the prototypes. When Bendix first started work on the system power transistors were too expensive. The production system used transistors but still had too many problems. (Chrysler found that out the hard way. AMC dodged a bullet.)
There were other fuel injection systems at the time of course but they were mechanical, not electronic.
@chucktobias Did you know about the Saab Trionic engine management system (fuel injection, ignition, and boost). It actually uses the spark plugs as sensors in between combustion events.
https://rumble.com/v732dnc-engine-management.html
@imperator - Yes, that's what I have on my car. It was a very sophisticated system for its time and still holds up well today. I saw that video a long time ago and as it says the Trionic system can actually clean up the emissions from high polluting cars. That was the first release of Trionic. It was further refined and updated through the years until Saab went under.
How brake pads and rotors are manufactured - videos show how carefully selected materials and state-of-the-art production facilities and techniques come together to produce these important safety items:
@chucktobias it's amazing how far technology has come. Human ingenuity at its finest. Looks like these parts are being made for Jaguar and Land Rover.
@imperator Only the finest for those storied marques!
(1) The Story Of Fuel Injection - YouTube Here's a video about fuel injection. I read today that the later models of the B-29, specifically the B-29s which dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had crude forms of fuel injection.
Interesting teardown and review of a GM Ecotec engine, including failure analysis and explanation of weak spots.
Don't let your oil get low, or the valves and pistons will be kissing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBQgTo86QO0
Some interesting videos explain power and torque
https://youtu.be/NkIO08dlg_s?si=Pt4N9ZpHnpYSjY3u
https://youtu.be/a3LYCsG02IM?si=p8p2Spm_2VkmgFnk
https://youtu.be/ajDw_NNN8Qw?si=gGiNr5t3dalX8msg
https://youtu.be/u-MH4sf5xkY?si=-7rzIDHuGjj3l_uj
Internal view and principle of operation of a Toyota hybrid synergy drive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIYNAroYEk0
@chucktobias Cool! This is automobile mass manufacturing being born. I wonder what it was like to work at a Ford factory.
Belt-less CVT (continuously or infinitely variable transmission) concept
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWJHI7UHuys
How an A/C compressor works. It's a 400 year old design!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnpSHo6iip4
I randomly thought about engine oil coolers, and I didn't really know how they work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAvKyJvRAAw This explains it pretty well.
Think front and rear strut suspensions are a relatively recent development? Think again...
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/tech/cc-tech-the-origins-of-the-macpherson-strut-suspension/
This article explains why it's bad for you to put motor oil into a modern engine that is heavier than the manufacturer's specification: https://www.jalopnik.com/2023603/thicker-oil-downsides-for-engine/
So you want to rebuild an engine...
This video, albeit for a pushrod diesel engine from a RAM pickup. takes you through the steps to successfully rebuild an engine from reconditioning the block through final assembly:
https://youtu.be/oThYVmDKz2w?t=140
@chucktobias That's for nerds. I'm just going to dump some engine restore into it, and call it a day. 😆
@chucktobias How much would a job like this cost? I'm going to say in the neighborhood of $40k
@imperator - Amazing that those "overhaul pellets" are still around! What a scam! (They were a mainstay of the J.C. Whitney catalog decades ago.)
Hard to imagine what that job cost, but your estimate is probably not far off. Those guys have some incredible (and extremely expensive) equipment. What happened in that situation is that another shop changed the oil but apparently forgot to put oil back into the engine before running it. Oops.
How Volvo and Bosch solved the auto emissions problem - the technology is taken for granted today, but here is where it started:
The world's first automatic transmission is usually considered to be the GM Hydramatic for the 1940 Oldsmobile. However, the first automatic trans was a dual-clutch unit developed by the Sturtevant Mill Company in 1904:
Sturtevant is still in business!
For decades now those cars that came with manual transmissions had synchronized gears so no double-clutching was needed for gear changes. Probably something that the few driving manual transmissions today even think about. However that was not always the case:
(Looking at them now it's hard to believe that General Motors was at one time on the bleeding edge of what then was advanced automotive technology. How the mighty have fallen!)
Why modern engines fail prematurely:
What's the deal with rear brakes these days?
(The electronic parking brake is one of the stupidest "features" ever.)
@chucktobias those are really tiny brakes for a 4,500lb vehicle
@imperator Well, it is a Nissan.
Why gasoline has detergents and why more isn't necessarily better: