All About Engine

Sparkplug Wires

2010-07-19T05:05:00.000-07:00

The spark plug wires in your vehicle are designed to be strong and last for a long period of time. However, you should always keep an eye on the condition of the wires to make sure that your vehicle is receiving the correct amount of spark that it needs for proper functioning.

The wires are insulated and this is where the problems can occur. The insulation will keep the spark inside the engine and not outside where it can cause problems. Cracks in the insulation of the spark plug wires are an indication that the wires should be changed. A crack or break in the insulation will cause the spark to arc onto another metal area under your hood. The spark from the plugs will arc to these other areas and keep it from the engine where it belongs.

The cylinder that has a bad spark plug wire will receive a weak spark or in some cases, no spark. This will affect the way that your vehicle runs and you will notice that your car is running a bit rougher than normal. It will also affect the amount of fuel that your car is using. In some extreme cases, fuel can get into the exhaust system and affect the pollution control devices like the catalytic converter. Your spark plug wires that are arcing under the hood of your car can also be a dangerous situation if there is fuel in its vicinity.

Performing your own vehicle maintenance is a good way to ensure that your spark plug wires are thoroughly inspected. When it is time to change the spark plugs during a routine tune up, you should make sure that you give the spark plug wires a good inspection. This will save you a great deal of trouble down the road.

While you are under the hood of your car, begin at the distributor cap and follow the wire all the way back to the spark plug. Look for cracks and damage in the insulation of the spark plug wires. Turn the wires over and bend them slightly to expose any cracks that might not be visible on a first inspection. The part of the spark plug wires on the distributor end should be inspected as well for cracks and tears. Take the wire off of the spark plug to give the wires a good inspection. There may also be a burnt look to the wires that indicate damage as well.

Any damage that is found on your spark plug wires indicates that it is time to replace the wires. You will have to buy your wires in a set and they are usually pretty inexpensive to replace. Some wires may cost you more than others, but the savings that you will realize and the problems that are avoided make the higher cost on some wires very cost effective.

Performing routine maintenance on your vehicle, such as checking the spark plug wires, is an important part of making sure that your car is running as efficiently as possible. You can do most of these maintenance tasks on your own and save some money on auto repair bills. If you are not familiar with how to perform a tune up on your vehicle, there are many resources available to you online where you can learn how to give your car a tune up and take care of all the routine maintenance without having to set foot inside a repair shop.

Keeping your car running at its optimal performance will keep it running longer and also save you a great deal of money on fuel costs.

Ignition Coil

2010-07-19T05:01:00.000-07:00

If you are an adult, chances are you own a car and drive it to work, the store, the shopping mall, grandma’s house, and many other places from day to day. Unless you are a mechanic or especially car minded, you probably do not think about all the processes that go into something as seemingly simple as starting your car up for all those long and short trips. In fact, probably the only time you think about the process of starting your car is in the rare and frustrating event that it doesn’t start up for you. Even if you don’t spend too much time thinking about how your car cranks, you probably should. Quite a bit of modern technology went into making the parts that start your car, and one of the main parts used in that process is the ignition coil.

Back before ignition coils were in common usage, cars started in what we today would see as a strange and alien way – they were started when the driver, standing outside, turned on the engine by turning a hand crank. Have you ever wondered why turning a car on is so often called “cranking the car?” Well, that is the reason. “Cranking the car” is one of the English language’s many antiquated terms that has happened to stick around long after actually manually cranking our cars fell by the wayside as a victim to newer and smarter technology.

Ignition coils, those handy devices that in part mean we no longer have to stand outside our cars and turn a hand crank when we are ready to drive to the corner store or shopping mall, are also called spark coils, because they help the power from the battery amplify into the thousands of volts of power that are needed to spark the spark plugs. The need for the ignition coil is simple. Car batteries only have 12 volts of power. (In fact, older car batteries may only have 6 volts.) But, a car’s spark plugs, the small devices that fit into the cylinder head of some internal combustion engines and cause the spark that lights the gasoline and causes internal combustion, need many thousands of volts of power in order to start (not crank, keep in mind) the car. The ignition coil’s job is to convert low voltage from the battery (remember, 12 or even as low as 6 volts) into those thousands of volts needed to start the car.

Even though ignition coils represent admittedly newer technology than those old hand cranks, they have been used in different ways in the past. Until recently, a car had only one ignition coil. That coil worked through a distributor, which, true to its name, distributed the volts amplified by the ignition coil to all the spark plugs. Newer car models though, eliminated the middle man so to speak, in that they eliminated the distributer. Instead, newer, distributor-less car models use many, much smaller ignition coils. These ignition coils server either one or two spark plugs and are electronically controlled. In modern cars, the ignition coils may be either remote mounted or placed on top of and in direct contact with the spark plug.

One important thing to know about modern ignition coils is that they put into motion the “wasted spark” system. When one ignition coil serves two spark plugs that single coil generates two sparks for each cycle it is powered. The only fuel that is ignited is the fuel in the cylinder that is nearing the end of its compression stroke. The other spark, then, is “wasted,” hence the name “wasted spark” system.

Distributor cap

2010-07-19T04:54:00.000-07:00

The distributor cap is a critical device within you vehicle’s ignition system. Effectively, its purpose it to transfer the charge created by the rotating of the distributor shaft and the rest of the motor. The distributor cap takes that energy and uses it to power the engine’s cylinders at the appropriate time and order. As a critical portion of your ignition, it should be inspected whenever you’re having problems with the ignition, as well as on the pre-scheduled maintenance times, which can be found in your car’s manual. Distributor caps are pieces of your car that need to be fixed at certain times, and even if you find a problem in other components of the ignition system, there is a chance that your cap will need changing too.

hanging your distributor cap is a fairly easy job, and it can be done by somebody with even a low understanding of car parts or tool aptitude. It’s not as easy as unscrewing and re-screwing the cap, unfortunately, but it is a job that can be done with the most basic tool set, and one that can be completed in around an hour.

If you’re trying to check, remove or change your distributor cap (or the spark plugs), you’ll find it attached to any of the spark plug wires. These wires are located all around your engine, and should be easy enough to find. One end will be connected into the engine, and the other into the distributor cap, but it should look like it simply goes into a hole that is located near the engine. This is because you usually can’t just get to the distributor cap in most vehicles – normally, the air intake system will be in the way. You’ll probably have to remove the air intakes system, or at least some part of it, in order to get to the distributor cap.

Now, you probably won’t have to take off the entire air intake system, as the cap is fairly small, and should only be underneath one part of it. Nonetheless, removing any part of the air intake is going to be fairly easy, as it is bolted down. As long as you have a decent wrench, getting the bolts on should be no problem, although you’ll want to memorize what order you take the out in just in case. Once you unbolt the intake, it should pop right off, leaving the distributor cap uncovered. The plugs should be connected directly to it. In any case, it will be circular, facing sideways, and probably colored differently than the rest of your engine.

Before you detach the spark plugs, you’ll need to find some way of memorizing their appropriate spots. Each spark plug is attached to a cylinder on one end, and a corresponding slot on the distributor cap; whether you’re replacing a plug or the cap, you’ll need to make sure that the plugs maintain the same cylinder to cap position, otherwise, the cylinders that you’ve misplaced will no longer work.

Next, you’ll need to remove the spark plug wires and ignition cables. In some cars, you’ll have to remove other pieces of the engine in order to get to the ignition cables properly, but it shouldn’t be very hard to find out what that is and remove it. To remove the plugs, just twist and then pull them out. Remember to twist first! Otherwise you can damage the rubber cable, as it can stick to the plastic.

To remove the distributor cap, just unbolt it (or unscrew or unclip, as the case may be), take off any remaining wires, and slide the cap off the engine carefully (some parts of the engine that the cap is connected to are very fragile). To install a new cap, simply replace the rotor an cap, and then reverse your steps.

How to Install an Ignition Distributor

2010-07-19T04:39:00.000-07:00

Mark the position of the rotor prior to removal of the distributor. This will aid in installing the replacement unit into the proper position.
Install the replacement distributor so the rotor points in the same place.
Compare the original distributor to the replacement unit. Pay special attention to the area below the flange. Check all dimensions!
Lubricate the o-ring before inserting the distributor into the engine to prevent bent pins.
Be sure not to force the distributor into the engine or use a bolt to pull it into the block! Damage to the distributor and/or engine may occur.
Inspect all components (spark plugs, wires, etc) in the ignition system for wear and/or corrosion. Replace as necessary.

The Ignition distributor is basically the heart of the ignition/spark system. The PCM,ECM, or vehicle computer is the brain and controls the distributor. The distributor is being removed form most late model vehicles and a direct ignition system is being installed. The direct ignition system basically supplies spark direclty to the spark plug rather then going through a distributor to distribute the spark. The distributor has many parts including moving mechanical parts and several electrical components that are subject to extreme engine conditions such as heat and extreme voltage that the ignition coil produces. Most late model vehicles that still use a distributor, can have 20-50,000 volts running through it. This voltage has to move from the coil, into and through the distributor and out through the spark plug wire and through the spark until it ignites inside the cylinder. Many times worn spark plugs and wires can back this voltage up into the distribtuor and/or ignition coil and cause it to short out and fail. Performing a tune up often(every few years) can prevent this from happening and can save or preserve the life of a distributor. Many other factors can cause a distributor to fail. These other factors include:
- Worn or excessive play in the timing belt or chain
  
  Inserts,Gauges, Taps, Tools, Kits, Specialist Stockist / Distributor
  Leaking o-ring at the base of the distributor
- High resistance in the spark plug wires or spark plugs
- Worn Distributor cap, rotor, or other worn ignition components.
If you have a failed distributor or ignition coil, it is strongly recommended to replace the other related tune up components. Putting a brand new distributor or coil on a vehicle with old or worn spark plug wires and old/worn spark plugs is simply silly and will most likely cause you to replace the same parts over again. Look closely at the ignition system as a whole and most likely a good tune up is due when a distributor or coil failure happens.

Top Dead Centre (TDC) and ignition timing

2010-07-19T04:32:00.000-07:00

When a piston in an engine reaches the top of its travel, that point is known as Top Dead Centre or TDC. This is important to know because I don't think any engine actually fires the spark plug with the pistons at TDC. More often than not, they fire slightly before TDC. So how does your ignition system work, and what is ignition timing all about?

Well generating the spark is the easy part. The electrical system in your car supplies voltage to your coil and ignition unit. The engine will have a trigger for each cylinder, be it a mechanical trigger (points), electronic module or crank trigger. Whatever it is, at that point, the engine effectively sends a signal to the coil to discharge into the high voltage system. That charge travels into the distributor cap and is routed to the relevant spark plug where it is turned into a spark. The key to this, though, is the timing of the spark in relation to the position of the piston in the cylinder. Hence ignition timing. Having the spark ignite the fuel-air mixture too soon is basically the same as detonation and is bad for all the mechanical components of your engine. Having the spark come along too late will cause it to try to ignite the fuel-air mixture after the piston has already started to recede down the cylinder, which is inefficient and loses power.
Timing the spark nowadays is usually done with the engine management system. It measures airflow, ambient temperature, takes input from knock sensors and literally dozens of sensors all over the engine. It then has an ignition timing map built into its memory and it cross references the input from all the sensors to determine the precise time that it should fire the spark plug, based on the ignition timing map. At 3000rpm, in a 4 cylinder engine, it does this about 100 times a second. In older systems, the spark timing was done using simple mechanical systems which had nowhere near the ability to compensate for the all the variables involved in a running combustion engine.
Typically as an engine revs quicker, the ignition timing needs to advance because the spark needs to get to the cylinder more quickly. Why? Well the fuel-air mix takes a finite amount of time to combust. It won't burn any quicker or slower for any given engine speed. So for higher speeds, the mixture needs to be ignited earlier in the cycle to ensure that it begins to burn at the optimum timing point. In modern systems, this is all taken account of in the ignition timing map. On older mechanical system, they used mechanical or vacuum advance systems, so that the more vacuum generated in the intake manifold (due to the engine running quicker), the more advanced the timing became.

Checking ignition timing

Despite the speed that an engine turns, it is possible for mere mortals like you and me to be able to check the ignition timing or an engine using (and you'd have never guessed this) an ignition timing light. Timing lights are typically strobe lights. They work by being connected to the battery directly and then having an induction coil clamped around one of the spark plug leads - normally the first or last cylinder in the engine depending on the manufacturer. When the engine fires the spark plug for that cylinder, the inductive loop detects the current in the wire and flashes the strobe in the timing light once. So if the engine is ticking over at 1100rpm, the strobe will flash 550 times a minute (4 stroke engine, remember?). Fantastic. So you're now holding a portable rave lighting rig but how does this help you see the timing of an engine? Well it's simple. You must have seen strobe lights working somewhere - a rave, a stage show - they're used to effectively freeze the position of something in time and space by illuminating it only at a certain point and for a fraction of a second. Shooting a strobe at someone walking in a dark room will result in you seeing them walk as if they were a flip-book animation on a reel of film. This effect is what's used to visualise the timing of your engine. Somewhere on the front of the engine there will be a notch near one of the timing belt pulleys and stamped into the metal next to it will be timing marks in degrees. On the pulley itself there will be a bump, recess or white-painted blob. When you point the timing light down towards the timing belt pulley, remember it fires once for each firing of the cylinders? Each time it fires, the white blob on the pulley should be at the same position in its rotation - the strobe fires once for each ignition spark at which point the mark should be in the same place, and the effect to you is that the whole pulley, timing mark and all, are now standing still in the strobe light. The mark on the pulley will line up with one of the degree marks stamped on the engine, so for example if the white dot always aligns with the 10° mark, it means your engine is firing at 10 degrees before TDC. When you rev the engine, the timing will change so the mark will move closer or further away from the TDC mark depending on how fast the engine is spinning.
Note that in some engines, the two marks are simply painted or stamped, and there are no degree markings. In this case, the marks align when the first piston is exactly at TDC.

Check the timing marks first

After all that, it's worth pointing out that crank timing marks can be way off so it's worth confirming that your TDC marker is actually TDC before pratting about with the timing. It's not as bad now as it used to be, but in the bad old days, Rover V8's were particularly bad for this, with some being as much as 12° off! So how you do confirm your TDC really is TDC? Small cameras, a good set of feeler gauges, some cash and someone who knows what they're doing.

Timing marks on cam belt pulleys

The same timing marks exist stamped into the metal near, and on the pulley on the end the cam. Essentially these marks are used to line up the cam to the correct position when you're changing the timing belt. You have to make sure the engine is rotated to TDC and that the cams are properly aligned too. If you don't, the cams will spin permanently out-of-synch with the engine crank and the engine will run badly, if at all.

2010-06-28T04:15:00.000-07:00

Engine characteristics

Engine is a mechanical type. The change of heat energy used to power the drive. , Called the heat engine. This is with several types

The heat engine is a 2.
1, internal combustion engines.
2, the combustion of automotive exterior.
2-engine and can be separated by the table below:

Engines used in cars. Must be small and lightweight. Because of the need to install a limited The capacity to produce a motorcycle and drive around to the other high-use And less noisy. With this engine gas engine petrol or diesel and Rock Lee. An internal combustion engine is the engine currently used in most cars.
Gas engine gasoline engine or Rock Lee.
Major.

1st shirt smoking (CYLINDER BLOCK).

Structure made of metal or alloy. Usually have the edge on the edge of the outer wall it helps to increase strength and cooling. Shirt pump includes a cylinder, piston set multiple mobile. And down inside. Top of the cylinder seal was a pump lid. Hermetical, with a pump lid gasket between Smoking and smoking rooms Shirt Cap crankshaft is the lower part of the shirt around the pump cylinder is found by evening.
Cold water and will be found through the channels with the internal lubricant pump shirt also includes a cylinder, piston move up. Mix fuel with air will not leak. And resistance of friction. Between the cylinder piston. Must be low as possible. Therefore, cylinders must be produced efficiently.

2, pump lid (CYLINDER HEAD).

Scum pump is installed above the pump shirt. The hidden room is burning. Cylinder wall and the tongue and swallow. Must be able to tolerate temperatures. And most are to come. From the operation of this engine with pump lid. Is made from cast iron or alloy Aluminum & ???? Pluto The evening performance is better than cast iron sculpture. Cap also includes pump. Cast cold water. Which articulate with cast cold water on the shirt smoking It also cast a cold pump lid. Also cast cold spark plugs.

3-cylinder (PISTON).
– Structure
Mobile piston up and down within cylinder To the duty charged on tempo ID. Compress the explosive mix. And spit out the most important functions of the exhaust cylinder is receiving pressure from the ignition, and this is sent to the crankshaft through the pump shaft. Cylinder was high-temperature heating and always do the most and Must be durable to run around the high over long periods of time. Typically made from cylindrical.
Aluminum alloy. This lightweight and efficient cooling better than other types of materials the name of spare parts. The piston is shown in the illustration below.

– Length of cylinder gap. (Distance between the piston cylinders).
When the piston is heated humid. It will expand slightly. The diameter is increased with this expansion in every period there is a gap between the cylinder piston in place at room temperature (25 g ?, 77, ?) now called the gap length cylinder This gap cylindrical phase shift depending on the type of engine. Period but will usually start from 0.02 to 0.12 mm (0.0008 to 0.0047 inch) cylinder is similar to a slender, small portfolio. Twist, center stage is a split cylinder head is smaller than the bottom of the cylinder slightly. Therefore phase space The piston is the most wide cylinder head. And most narrow at the bottom of the cylinder.

Major
Phase spaces of the piston is measured different This depends on the type of engine repair manual view point to find a measure of gap cylindrical phase.

Period gap is very important plunger. Engine to run correctly and performance is better. If the gap distance is less. Gives no phase gap between the cylinder when the cylinder piston will cause the heating cylinder adjacent to the cylinder. The result can cause the engine to deteriorate. If the gap distance too. In contrast is the pressure caused by the ignition And pressure of gas
The burn is OK. Cause reduced engine performance.

– Piston ring (PISTON RING).
Ring customers will be the bow of the piston ring groove. Outside diameter size of the piston ring is slightly larger than the piston own when combined with the piston in the extended properties of the contractile ring, and it grew to a close attachment to the cylinder wall. Cylindrical metal ring to a high resistance to wear a special kind cast iron plate Projec Emie Pluto That will not scrape the piston ring is a trace amount of cylinder piston ring to vary by type of engine. The number is usually three to four balls, one ring per cylinder.

Piston ring has three major functions is The act prevents air leakage from the fuel and the gap between the piston cylinder. Rooms with crankshaft Rhythm during the implosion and explosion are two functions that prevent the lubricating oil on the side of the piston cylinder. Not to leak out into the room survived burn. The last page is Heat transfer from piston to cylinder wall. To piston cooling.

1) ring compression
This ring prevents leakage of compressed air and fuel mix and the gas generated by burning room packed between strokes. Point and not to explode into the room number of the crankshaft ring is compressed depends on the type of engine. Generally a child will have a piston ring which pumped two “ring on the recorder” and “ring-packed second” ring is compressed, the portfolio characteristics. Therefore, the lower edge of it touched the cylinder wall.
Design such as this to occur as close to the touch. Between ring and cylinder. It is also a sweep oil from the cylinder walls effectively.

Major
Piston ring is the number “1″ or “2″ on it the number “1″ means that Ring and on the number “2″ is the second ring assembly, so this number must face up to the top

2) sweep the oil ring.
Oil ring sweep sweep Cause a film of oil needed to lubricate the surface between piston And cylinder wall. And sweep the excess oil. To prevent the oil drop to ring in the room burn oil sometimes called a sweep for the third ring are two types together. Oil-ring sweep includes the three-piece This three-piece is used.

(2.1) Total
Oil-ring sweep includes the known oil provide feedback. That size is around. And oil is known to be in accordance with this sweeping oil ring groove section that is sweeping over the ring by the fluid into the scourge known these And flow back into the interior of the cylinder.

(2.2), three-piece
Three-piece oil ring sweep includes. Sweeping side plates. To sweep out the excess oil, and the pressure plate to sweep close to the side.
Ring ring groove and cylinder oil sweep a three-piece. To act as a total

(2.3) spaces mouth ring
Piston ring to grow in the same manner as when the hot cylinder With this piston ring has a cut mouth. And when combined within the cylinder will be the appropriate spaces, called gap mouth ring Phase spaces will vary depending on the type of machine. But typically in the range of 0.2 to 0.5 mm (0.008 to 0.020 inch) at normal temperature.

Major
If the gap distance is too large mouth ring. Will cause the engine is pumped out of phase if the mouth is too narrow ring. Engine can be made. Will be late because of the ring. Because of heat expansion. Make ring bent. Walls made out of cylinders.

4, pump shaft (CONNECTING ROD).
Shaft with piston pump with crankshaft And are transmitted to the crankshaft end of the pump shaft with a small cylinder called a late end to the remaining crankshaft called late in the crankshaft to rotate at speeds in the end. Cause high temperatures. To prevent. ? deterioration caused by heat by the end of it consists of large bearings. The oil and some
This surge of oil from known oil to the piston within the cylinder to cool.
Major
Assembly to be coupled to pump shaft. Otherwise the oil will make caulk (the side of the piston. RIM draw ?? bound directly to the prevention of errors. Pump shaft is marked in each set, the operation is that different types of machines so as to make inspection Repair Guide for detailed

5th crankshaft (CRANKSHAFT).
Drive to drive wheels of the vehicle. By drawing down the shaft of the pump and the rotation of the crankshaft crankshaft receive power from the shaft and piston pump spin speeds for this reason it is made from carbon steel, high-mix tips. a high resistance to wear.

Structure of the crankshaft of the illustrations below.

Future, the woman is supported by bearings crankshaft crankshaft’s room and crankshaft rotate around the Future is the Future, woman, each woman has the arm of the crankshaft. The crankshaft is installed on the crankshaft to the center axis of the skew axis in the form of encumbrance. To reduce the unbalanced force of the crankshaft rotation. While working on the engine crankshaft is known for a lubricant oil to the Future girl. Pump shaft bearings. Pump shaft and fasteners.

6 wheel power assist (FLY WHEEL).
Momentum wheels do help with the heavy cast iron with ?? Doc, late, with the crankshaft. Transmission for vehicles that are used in a regular rhythm of the engine explosion point. The piston is transmitted to the crankshaft only single strokes. Perry that the addition of the tempo, rhythm this other is lost due to friction wheel inertia force will continue to help force rotation (Inertia) during the other strokes apart from the explosion strokes. Rotate the crankshaft to continue to also make the engine work smoothly with the surrounding teeth fertility cycle the edges of the wheel idle wind power will help tackle the teeth of the drive motor start fertility. While starting up the engine. Gears used in automotive automatic power assist wheel is changed, a textile, Convergent Counsel

REFERENCES
“The loss of inertia” refers to the loss is especially resonant in the compressed This occurs while the piston is moved up pressure compressed air and fuel mix.
Crankshaft bearings.
1, General Chapter lecture.
Crankshaft has been doing serious strength. (Gas caused by the ignition, piston And rotate at high speeds. For this reason, bearings needed to support the use of the crankshaft and woman, and Future oil to prevent stickiness death and loss of stiffness.
2 types of bearings.
Crankshaft and other parts that rotate at speeds and under a weighty burden to use support-bearings. The bearings-this Features good tolerance to wear. Performance and prevent contamination death. Bearings cortex consists of a metal. And surfaces of bearings made of metal type. Experience with a crankshaft for a block of metal shell to protect bearings from rotating bearings.
This has produced a many – Each type of meat is the material surface with different functions around the other to a metal white metal Clevestig fat Or aluminum.

Major
Bearings each number is set bearings. To change the bearings will need to change the bearings to match the number of numbers that are changing the way the original number selected bearings. To study the repair manual.
1) the white metal.
Metal white metal ????????? zinc coated with tin or lead coated materials. It is seized of the island. But because it has less strength. Therefore often be used in engines has been not much
2) metal Clevestig fat
UK, fat metal surface is coated with copper metal. And lead, which is mixed with more strength and resistance to hunting as well as the white metal. But the island has been confiscated poor. Metal, UK, with a fat engine crafty And heavy load.
3) aluminum metal.
Surface aluminum metal which has a surface aluminum Tin and mixed mantle. Effective resistance to wear. And cooling better than the white metal and the metal Clevestig fat which are used with gasoline engines.

3, the gap of the oil bearings.
Face contact between the bearings on the crankshaft to rotate the need to send a sufficient amount of oil to lubricate the polish to prevent direct metal to metal ???. Therefore need a suitable gap between the bearings on crankshaft Enough oil to create a film of oil. Gap is called Oil gap. The size will vary according to type of engine but the way around.

Size is from 0.02 to 0.06 mm (0.0008 to 0.0024 inch)

Mechanisms tongue

4 strokes engine coupled with packed strokes strokes strokes suck explosive spitting exhaust strokes. But work is only 2 strokes of the tongue is attached rhythm and spew exhaust steam. Therefore, the mechanism design tongue To such work is 1 Rotate the cam shaft to run word of ID. Tongue and exhaust cam shaft to the second round will be 1 full duty work.
Flywheel ?? Times cherished possession. Will be combined in one end of the crankshaft. The flywheel ?? Times cherished possession of the cam shaft will seize on the end of the cam shaft. Exhaust cam shaft with the crankshaft is driving the belt. ID is the cam shaft drive gear that is the stickiness with ID and exhaust cam shaft (note from the picture above) the number of flywheel teeth ?? Times cherished possession cam shaft. Are many.
2 times the flywheel ?? Times cherished possession crankshaft cam shaft is rotated around the crankshaft rotate 1 Round 2 of the tongue will work balance And correct the rhythm of work. Will make the engine run efficiently. Tongue mechanism will vary depending on the engine in the system. We will illustrate the following
1st gear-independent and cherished possession.

Tongue-gear drive mechanism Times cherished possession. Used engine with a mechanical pump lid tongue beyond the cam shaft, however, the use of gear pump shirt Times cherished possession. The work will take more than noise-chain Times cherished possession by this method is not a word driver is used in modern gasoline engines.

2-chain Times cherished possession.

Mechanism driving tongue-chain, Tai cherished possession. This in-use engines over the cam shaft wall and pump cam shaft wall above the double pump. The cam shaft drive chain will be cherished possession Times. And is a lubricating oil. Tenseness of the chain will be adapted by the chains and set. The chains help reduce the pressure pulsation of the chain. Cam shaft to a chain drive is quieter than a gear and really cherished possession. Making are used when
Not too long ago.

3-belt, really cherished possession.

Belt drive mechanism, a tongue-Times, cherished possession. A cam shaft drive belt is a tooth replacement using chain Times cherished possession. Belt is quieter running chain. And do not require lubrication. Or adjust the belt tenseness also has less weight. How to drive a different word for this reason the engine is currently used in most

7th to sink oil ?? Stores (OILPAN).
Basin oil mentioned in a final order of the parts of a machine.

The bottom of the shirt called pump crankshaft The basin is an oil and stickiness is coordinating with liquid gasket or rubber gasket or packing paper. Basin oil to a steel plate. Block plan, and act ??? oil. Sink to the bottom when the car is not on the level and ??? speak out when the brake pedal in the immediate The gas station can be made to send oil to lubricate at all times. The oil will be filmed in the movie section of the basin bottom.
Basic principles of the engine 4 strokes

Resonant charge ID.
The rhythmic cadence of the air. And fuel into the cylinders, which are pulling tongues ID exhaust opening while closing word. As the piston moved down. Vacuum will occur in the cylinder and the mix of air and fuel is driven into the cylinder by atmospheric pressure.
Tempo jam
This is the rhythm, tempo of air and fuel is pumped. Both tongue and palate exhaust vapor tight engine while moving from bottom dead center to dead center will be pumped on the mix makes the pressure and temperature are increased to the point of explosion crankshaft one full rotation. when moving it around to center on death.
Cadency point explosion.
This rhythm is the rhythm engine powered car in production is due before the piston is moving to zero in on death strokes recorder will spark the spark plugs fire to the mix of air and fuel resulting in burn insurgency quickly. cause the gas pressure cylinder pressure to force a draw down.
This is the machine is motoring!
Spew exhaust strokes.
The rhythm of this gas will be burned exclusion from cylinders. Exhaust open and tongue out from the piston is moved up dead center to bottom dead center. Driving exhaust gases from the cylinder when the piston top dead center and moving it will start to charge ID rhythm again. Described from this point until the crankshaft rotate twice. And the engine will be a fully working routine. Quaternary cadency Cadency ID is attached packed ingredients. Explode and spit out the exhaust. This is the basic work of the four engine strokes.
Lubrication system.
Engine consists of a moving metal parts in many parts, each of which will combine the decidedly Those parts include pump shaft and crankshaft parts
Mechanisms tongue
When the engine starting rotation. Friction between these parts causes are job losses erode As well as the stickiness of the engine. Due to heat from the grate. Therefore, lubrication is sent to those parts. To prevent unwanted symptoms of them. The lubricant was sent pay.
The engine’s lubrication system that Picture below shows the mechanism of lubrication while the spin axis.

Role of lubricant
1) will create a coating of lubricant oil over the surface of metal joint To prevent exposure. Direct metal It also reduces traction to occur least And to prevent wear. And the heat.
2) allows parts of the engine oil cooling.
3) enables the prevention of oil leakage between the piston And a cylinder.
4) bring oil from the engine grime.
5) oil prevent parts from corrosion.

Type of lubrication system.
Oil is sent to pay the moving parts of the engine such as a multiple-pressure-??? as a whip and sprinkle with a pressure ??? together. The only way a pressure is applied to the motor current. In-pressure lubrication system. Oil pressure is caused by a gas station and send forces to the movement of engine parts.

The flow path of a lubricating system pressure as shown in the illustration below.

Gas Stations.
Station suck up oil from oil basin. Make the oil pressure up and down to the movement of engine parts. Sometimes ??? will be driving the crankshaft and the sometimes eccentric shaft or belt to get a rude filter will be installed at the entrance of the petrol station to filter out dirt, oil
Gear-pump-pump and call Soi? Pump is a two-to

2010-06-28T04:14:00.001-07:00

Basic Understanding Why Your Car’s Engine Misfires

Your vehicle’s engine goes through a combustion process thousands of times each minute. Air and fuel are sent to each cylinder’s combustion chamber where the mixture is compressed. Coil voltage travels through a spark plug that is located at the top of each chamber. The spark plug ignites the compressed mixture, which provides the necessary energy to move your vehicle down the road. When a misfire occurs, the event affects your car’s performance, efficiency, and overall drivability.

This article will explore the reasons your engine might suffer a misfire. We’ll take a look at problems involving a loss of spark, unbalanced air-fuel mixture, and compression leaks. I’ll explain the factors that can contribute to each of these issues.

Loss Of Spark

A loss of spark can be due to fouled spark plugs, bad wires, or a distributor cap that has developed a crack. Plugs should normally be replaced every 40,000 miles. Even those that are advertised as being capable of lasting 100,000 miles should be replaced long before that marker arrives. Besides expiring due to normal use, oil deposits can build on the electrodes, preventing voltage from jumping the gap.

Spark plug wires are critical because a fouled wire will prevent voltage from reaching the plug. If that happens, the plug will be unable to ignite the compressed air-fuel mix in the associated cylinder’s combustion chamber.

If the distributor cap is cracked, the voltage may be unable to travel properly between the rotor tip and the terminals. Here too, this can prevent the plug from receiving the voltage necessary for ignition.

Unbalanced Air-Fuel Mixture

For several reasons, the air-fuel mixture within the combustion chamber can be too lean. When this occurs, there is an insufficient amount of gasoline to provide an efficient burn. This might be due to a fuel pump that is failing, a fuel injector that has formed an obstruction in the nozzle, or even a leaking exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve. Each can prevent sufficient fuel from reaching the cylinder’s combustion chamber.

There may be also be cases in which the mixture is too rich. Rather than an insufficient amount of gasoline preventing an efficient burn, there is too much in the chamber. This problem is far less common than a lean mix. When it occurs, it is usually due to a leaking injector.

Compression Leak

If a given cylinder’s chamber is suffering from a loss of compression, that means it is losing a portion of the air-fuel mixture before it can be ignited. This problem can usually be narrowed down to two potential root causes: an exhaust valve that has formed a leak or a blown head gasket. If you’re able to identify misfiring within multiple cylinders (and you have confirmed your spark plugs are fine), the issue is likely the head gasket.

A loss of compression can be confirmed by performing a leakdown test. It is a simple test that will help you identify whether compression is being lost through an exhaust valve with a deteriorating ring. This is a test you can do on your own rather than hiring a mechanic for the job. Most auto supply stores sell a special gauge that is inserted into the suspected cylinder’s spark plug hole.

Misfires can be serious. If you’re driving a small 4-cylinder car, a single misfiring cylinder can reduce your engine’s power by 25 percent. You’ll feel it shaking at idle. If the problem is severe, your engine may even stall. Even if your engine has eight or more cylinders, a steady misfire can reduce its fuel efficiency and impact its overall performance. Moreover, your car will fail an emissions test.

If your engine is misfiring, test the spark, air-fuel mixture, and perform a leakdown test for compression leaks. With a little time and effort, you can successfully narrow down and fix the root cause.

2010-06-28T04:13:00.000-07:00

An Introduction to Inductive Ignition Systems

Inductive ignition systems have existed since 1908, developed by Charles Kettering who also developed the first practical engine driven generator.

The design has been improved over the years but the most significant recent development has been the introduction of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT); these have allowed the design of extremely accurate, high spark energy inductive ignition systems.

A single operation is carried out by a transistor turning on the current to the ignition coils primary winding. This ‘charging’ stores energy in the coils magnetic circuit. The current is then switched off. As the magnetic field begins to collapse the coil tries to resist the drop in current causing the voltage in the secondary winding to rise rapidly, this high voltage breaks down the air/fuel mixture in the spark gap allowing a spark to pass, causing ignition of the air/fuel mixture.

The most significant advantage of inductive ignition systems is that inductive coils are generally more efficient than capacitive discharge coils as they can provide longer spark duration that can ensure complete combustion, especially on lean burn and turbo charged engines. The ability to provide longer spark duration is because inductive coils only provide enough energy to cross the spark gap; the remaining energy from the ignition coil is used to maintain the spark. Capacitive discharge coils release almost all of their energy instantaneously, therefore considerably reducing the amount of energy available to maintain the spark.

With inductive ignition systems more energy can be delivered to the secondary winding of the coil than in a capacitive ignition system. In fact, with the same power supply current draw, up to five times more energy can be delivered to the secondary winding of an inductive ignition coil than to a capacitive discharge coil. Typically a capacitive discharge system will deliver a maximum of 10 millijoules of energy compared to an inductive ignition system delivering more like 50 millijoules of energy and potentially in excess of 100 millijoules. This large difference in supplied energies will mean an inductive system can provide spark duration of 2000 microseconds or more in a single spark, compared to 600 microseconds for a capacitive system.

With inductive ignition systems the time taken to charge the ignition coil is called the ‘Dwell’. This dwell can be increased or decreased for differing engine applications. If longer spark duration is required to improve combustion of lean mixtures or engines with large cylinders the dwell time is increased, inputting more energy into the primary coil. Dwell time is decreased when there is more than enough spark energy to combust the mixture, this decrease will reduce spark plug wear, therefore increase spark plug life.

The high energy and long, programmable spark durations are a considerable advantage since they provide better ignition of lean or non-homogenous air/fuel mixtures. In many cases engines that are unable to meet emission standards with capacitive discharge systems can be bought into compliance with electronic inductive ignition systems such as those manufactured by Gill Instruments.

2010-06-28T04:10:00.000-07:00

How to test a car spark plug

Spark plugs are important components in system of a car. Spark plugs enable the proper functioning of a car engine and perform the function of compressing fuels by the use of an electric spark. Although spark plugs wear out gradually, the user should ensure that the spark plug is of high quality in order to ensure longevity in performance. A car user is advised to take his vehicle for regular engine servicing. Regular engine servicing enables the mechanic to detect on any impending irregularities in the car. The car user is also advised to replace their car spark plugs after every two years.

So here is what you do.

Spark plugs are important components in system of a car.

A clear indicator that the car has a faulty spark plug is when the engine slows down on its performance. This is an obvious sign that the spark plug is worn out. Before the user replaces the worn out car spark plug, they should first check the manufacturer’s description of the car spark plug. The manufacturer’s description gives the exact specifications on the original car spark plug and alternative ones in case the user does not find the original type. In order to ensure that the spark plug is completely worn out, the user should test it first. Testing is normally done by the use of a spark plug gauge. Other areas to check on include spark plug cables which indicate any splits, cracks, rust in the engine as well as any other damaged area of the engine.

The car owner or the mechanic should take precautions against the risk of shock by wearing rubber gloves before they start on the task. The mechanic is also advised not to lean against the vehicle while the engine is still running. The owner/ mechanic can then start by testing the car spark plug functionality by dismantling each plug from the car engine. Dismantling of the car spark plug is done by the use of a ratchet wrench. With the use of the ratchet wrench, the user is advised to turn the spark plugs in an anti- clockwise direction. This is done while the engine is still running. When the engine starts to slow down, then the owner of the vehicle should know that the spark plug is still in good condition. If the engine does not react in any way after the spark plugs have been disconnected, then the spark plugs need immediate replacing.

The next step is removing the spark plug wires. This is done after the engine has cooled down. The owner of the vehicle can then test to see if the spark plug ignition is working. He can do this by exposing the spark plug wire to a metal surface. The spark plug will then emit a spark. This is an indication that the spark plug is in good condition. This action should be repeated for every other spark plug wire. Spark plugs should be also be cleaned regularly so as not to hinder on their performance. The owner/ mechanic of the vehicle should check to ensure that the spark plugs work well and then do another test on the same.

2010-06-28T04:08:00.000-07:00

How To Test A Car Spark Plug

One of the important components in the system of a car is the spark plugs. They are basically a high voltage bridge for electricity, when the electricity crosses the bridge that is actually a gap between two contact points inside the engine; the spark is made by it that ignites gas vapors which makes the engine to roar.

Spark plugs enable the car to function properly and also perform the function of compressing fuels by the use of an electric spark. Although the efficiency of the spark plugs decrease gradually, it must be ensured that the plug is of high quality to guarantee its better performance. The vehicle’s user must ensure its regular engine servicing. When an engine is regularly serviced, the mechanic can detect any faults in it. It is recommended that spark plugs must be replaced after every two years or even earlier if needed.

Following is what can be done.

Spark plugs are vital components of the car’s system. When a car’s engine slows down in its performance, it is a clear indication that the plug has become faulty. This means that the plugs are worn out. Before the worn out plugs are replaced, the manufacturer’s description they should be checked first. That description gives the exact specifications of the original car spark plug and also suggesting alternative ones if the original ones cannot be found. For ensuring that the plug is completely worn out, it needs to be tested first. A spark plug gauge is generally used for testing the spark plugs. Other areas for checking include plug cables as they indicate any cracks, splits and rust in the engine as well as any other damaged area of the engine.

Precautions must always be taken by the car owner or mechanic against risks of shock by wearing rubber gloves before starting the task. The mechanic must not lean against the vehicle while in a running condition. The functionality of the spark plugs can be tested by removing each plug from the car’s engine. A ratchet wrench can be used to remove the plugs. The user should turn the plugs in an anti- clockwise direction by using the ratchet wrench. This has to be done while the engine is still running. The owner of the vehicle will know that the plugs are still in good condition when the engine with start to slow down. If there is no reaction in the engine in any way when the plugs have been removed, then the plugs need to be immediately replaced.

The next step is to remove the wires of the spark plugs. This has to be done only when the engine has cooled down. The spark plugs can be tested if their ignition is working. It can be done by exposing the plug wire to a metal surface. If the plug emits a spark than this is an indication that the spark plug is in good condition. This procedure has to be repeated for every spark plug wire. It is necessary to clean the spark plugs regularly so their performance is not hindered. It can be further endured if the spark plugs work and another test can also be done on the same.

2010-06-28T04:07:00.000-07:00

How To Test Ignition Coils

Preparation for Ignition Coil Test

The first thing you want to do is always take the necessary precautions. When working near or around a running engine one must exercise great caution. You should be aware of any loose clothing. If you have long hair you want be careful that it does not make contact with any part of your car’s engine and its moving parts.

Testing the ignition coil on your car is one of the fairly easier tasks to perform. It’s not that complex nor does it require any special tools or equipment. One thing to keep in mind is that your ignition system produces a great amount of electricity. Should anything go wrong, the result could be very dangerous. Proceed cautiously.

If your coil has already been removed from your vehicle and you need data that is more specific about your ignition coil, you can perform what is called a bench test. Set up the bench test by removing the one spark plug wire from its plug. Then remove the spark plug with a plug socket. Now you want to connect that spark plug back to the spark plug wire. Do this with great care; you don not want anything to fall into the empty spark plug opening or you’ll have a problem.

Testing the Ignition Coil: The Bench Test:

Grab a pair of insulated pliers. Hold your plug wire with insulated pliers. Now, you need a grounding point so look around your engine for one. You want a spot that is easy to access and that has exposed metal. You could even use the car’s engine for this.

Hold the spark plug wire with your insulated pliers and make contact with your chosen grounding spot with the threaded part of your spark plug. Have some one start your car’s engine and pay attention to the spark plug gap. You are looking for a bright blue spark to jump across the gap – the electricity. If you can observe this blue spark clearly, even in daylight, then your spark plug is working just fine.

Testing the Ignition Coil: The Multimeter Test

There are a number of other tests you can perform for your ignition coil. However, if you want accurate information on the status of your ignition coil then you should perform a multimeter test. This test is far more accurate in determining whether you need to replace the coil or not. It is considered the only proper test for a coil.

You could rely to an extent on the bright blue spark you see in your bench test but if that spark is somewhat weak and your eyes can’t really tell, using this spark plug can cause your vehicle to run rough or incorrectly which is the last thing you want.

Let go inside the ignition coil for a moment. The ignition coil contains two coils of wire that are right on top of each other. We refer to these coils as windings. There is a primary winding, the first wire, and a secondary winding, the second wire. The primary winding collects the electricity to create the spark. The secondary winding sends it out to the distributor. It is possible for either of these windings to malfunction causing your vehicle’s ignition coil to fail. Sometimes an ignition coil can completely fail meaning it makes absolutely no spark whatsoever.

A multimeter test is performed with the ignition coil completely disconnected. This meter provides numbers to help you determine the status of the coil – far more reliable than a visual assessment. There are different types of digital multimeters and they can be found online or at your local auto repair retailer.

Of course, to use the multimeter, you will have to know the resistance specifications for your ignition coil. If you don’t know what they are then refer to your vehicle’s service or repair manual for that information.

Testing the Windings

To test the primary winding of your ignition coil:

As mentioned above, the primary winding of the ignition coil first collects the electricity or voltage from the car’s battery. Have you found the resistance specification for your ignition coil? You will need this before performing the multimeter test. If you do not have them take a moment to locate you service or repair manual for that information.

Once you have found the resistance specifications, locate your digital multimeter. If you have a traditional round coil, you will need to use the multimeter and place the leads on the small, outside poles of your ignition coil. If you have one of the newer enclosed units, then place the leads on indicated or marked poles of your coil.

Observe the reading you get on the multimeter. If the multimeter reads within the range according to the specification in your service manual, then your primary winding is functioning well and you can go on to check the secondary winding. If you find the reading to be even slightly out of the range then you should replace the ignition coil.

To test the secondary winding of your ignition coil:

The secondary winding of your ignition coil sends the spark to your distributor and then to the spark plugs. A weak spark or no spark at all is an indication that the coil needs to be replaced.

To test your ignition coil’s secondary winding, attach the probes to the outer 12V pole and the center pole of your ignition coil. The center pole is the spot where the main wire is located that connects to the distributor. Again, check the reading to make sure they fall within the specified range as indicated in your car’s service manual. If your coil falls within that range all is well. If the reading should fall even slightly out of the specified range, then you should replace your ignition coil. Remember a failing ignition coil will cause your engine to run rough and can cause other problems as well.

2010-06-28T04:02:00.000-07:00

Spark Plug Troubleshooting Methods

There are two methods to troubleshooting spark plug wires. The first is the backyard mechanic technique, which is simple and only requires basic hand tools, while the other is a more sophisticated method that requires a multimeter.

Quick Troubleshooting

If you don't have a multimeter, follow this method. Begin by removing the spark plug cover on the valve cover. Then pull the spark plug wire off the spark plug with a spark plug puller or needle nose pliers. Be sure to pull from the base of the wire, because they tend to seize onto the spark plug. If you don't pull from the base of the wire, you risk breaking the wire and getting it stuck on the plug, which then becomes very difficult to remove. Next, connect an extension and spark plug socket to your ratchet, and remove the spark plug. Then place the spark plug back in the wire and place it next to a good engine ground. An engine ground is any metallic object connected to the chassis of your vehicle. Next, have a helper crank the vehicle while you observe the spark arcing from the spark plug to the engine ground. If the spark is dark blue, then you know the wires are good. If the spark is faint and yellow, you could have a faulty spark plug wire. However, this technique isn't very accurate for pinpointing the problem that might be affecting your vehicle. A more consistent and accurate method is to use a multimeter.

Multimeter Troubleshooting

If you don't have a multimeter, it is highly advisable to purchase one as it comes in handy for electrical troubleshooting. To check if the wire is faulty, set the multimeter to the "Ohms" setting and connect the black lead to one side of the spark plug wire and the red lead to the other side of the wire. You should see about 5,000 Ohms of resistance per foot of wire. This is a general rule of thumb, and will vary from vehicle to vehicle. But what is important and what you really need to look for is for an Ohm reading out of the ordinary. If the multimeter reads "Infinite" or "Ouch," then it is telling you that there is a break in the wire and that it should be replaced. If the multimeter reads an excessive Ohm reading, more than the specifications for your car, the wire should also be replaced in this scenario.

2010-06-28T03:48:00.000-07:00

How to Check the Resistance of a Spark Plug Wire

When your car engine isn't running right, or misfires, start by diagnosing the spark plug wires. Too much resistance in the wire leads to less electrical current getting to the plug. Reduced electricity results in not enough spark to ignite the gasoline mixture that fires the engine. With a multimeter, it takes just a few minutes to measure the resistance of each plug wire.

Instructions

Step 1
Remove both ends of the spark plug wire--from its connection with the plug and its connection with the ignition coil.

Step 2
Check a repair manual for your make and model to find your spark plug wire resistance range. The measurement will be in kilohms.

Step 3

Place the multimeter dial setting on "ohms (Ω)" for auto-range multimeters. Turn dial to the "ohmmeter (Ω)" section of manual range multimeters, then choose the closest setting that is greater than your plug wire's correct resistance. For example: For a 15-19k resistance range, turn the dial to "20k." For a 21-25k range, turn the dial to "200k."

Step 4

Touch one lead from the multimeter to the metal center of one of the spark plug wire connectors. Start with either end, as the wires are not polarity-sensitive.

Step 5

Connect the second lead to the other end of the plug wire, once again touching metal to metal. Hold in place.

Step 6

Take a reading in kilohms (1 kilohm=1,000 ohms). If it falls within the manufacturer's measurement range in your repair manual, the plug wire is not your problem. Higher readings indicate too much resistance, possibly because of rusting or faults in the wire. A broken wire allows no electricity reading at all, which will cause the multimeter to register resistance as "over limit."

Setting up clutch system

2010-04-05T00:01:00.001-07:00

Flywheel

The flywheel provides a friction surface for the clutch disc, a torque buffering mass, a mounting surface for the pressure plate, a mounting for the starter driven gear, and on some engines the flywheel is a factor in engine balance.

The condition of the friction surface of the flywheel is important for proper clutch function. The surface should be smooth and free of burned spots and surface cracks. Used flywheels can be resurfaced. This should be done by grinding rather than lathe turning as less material is removed. The amount of material removed from the face can affect which clutch release bearing should be used. A flywheel should always be checked for runout on the engine it will

Pressure Plate

This is the other half of the driving friction surface. It mounts on the flywheel. It consists of four main parts and is more correctly called a clutch cover assembly. These parts are the pressure plate itself, the springs (or spring, if a diaphragm type), the clutch cover, and the release arms. There are two basic designs of clutches usually referred to by the spring type.

These are the Rockford™ (diaphragm spring type) and the Borg and Beck™ (coil spring type). The coil spring type is also called a three-finger type, referring to the three release arms this style requires to compress the coil springs.

The "softest" clutch is the diaphragm type. It also requires the least amount of travel to release. The diaphragm type clutch works good in lightweight, low geared vehicles. It is not the best clutch for high RPM use as the diaphragm spring will stay "flat" or released from the centrifugal force generated by the RPM. A variation of the diaphragm type was used for a while by GM, that to some extent helped this problem. This was called the Hi-Cone diaphragm type and was designed so the spring - instead of being flat when released - still had a slight bevel. These Hi-Cone units were not bad but still won't hold like the Borg and Beck coil spring type. Aftermarket units like the Centerforce®, use centrifugal weights to counteract this high-rpm flattening and subsequent loosening. It should be noted that this is not typically a concern of the Jeep enthusiast as high RPM horsepower is not as much an interest as low-RPM torque. It should be pointed out that the spring itself is the "release arms" of a diaphragm type clutch. Note that when interchanging from one type to the other, you will require a different throwout bearing. The three-finger style requires a longer throwout vs. the diaphram type, which uses a shorter throwout bearing. More on this later...

The fourth part of the pressure plate assembly is the cover. The pressure plate, spring (or springs) and release arms are attached to the cover in such a manner that, when the release bearing pushes on the three arms or the diaphragm spring, it causes a leveraged action to take place. This counteracts the spring pressure and lifts the pressure plate off the clutch disc, releasing the clutch.

As stated above, the diaphragm type clutch takes slightly less travel to release and requires about .030 total air gap when released. The coil spring type requires about .040 to .050 total air gap when released. Air gap is the clearance between the clutch disc, flywheel, and pressure plate with the clutch released. A total air gap of .050 will measure .025 between each side of the disc.

Clutch Disc

This is the "driven" part of the clutch. It has a friction material riveted to each side of a wavy spring (called a marcel). This is attached to a splined hub that the transmission input gear protrudes into.

There are basically two common types of friction material used for clutch lining. These are organic and metallic. The organic is best for all around use. The metallic is preferred by some for severe duty applications but requires high spring pressures and is hard on the flywheel and pressure plate friction surfaces. Avoid solid hub clutches and clutches without marcel as they will always chatter when used in vehicles with a rear differential mounted on springs (as opposed to a transaxle design).

Pilot Bushing
In most cases, this is a porous bronze, pre-lubed bushing rather than an actual bearing, as it is often called. A few applications still use an actual bearing and others use a needle roller type bearing, but by far, the most common type is bronze. You cannot use a roller bearing on a transmission shaft originally designed for a bronze bushing due to different type of heat treatment on the shafts

The pilot bushing is seldom thought of as a part of the clutch system but it is one of the most vital parts of the system. It pilots the end of the transmission input gear in the crankshaft. If it is worn or not running "true", it can cause serious clutch problems or transmission failure. Pilot bushing bore runout should always be checked with a dial indicator and should be within .002 total. The bronze bushing type should be a press fit in the crankshaft bore. It must be installed carefully. It should have between .002 and .003 clearance on the transmission shaft when installed. The pilot bushing is only functional when the clutch is disengaged but it is a factor in input gear alignment at ALL times.

Most people have no idea what an important part the pilot bushing plays in the life of the transmission and clutch. The job of the pilot bushing is to support the end of the transmission input (main drive) gear in the crankshaft and it only acts as a bushing when the clutch is depressed. This pilot bushing should be a light drive fit into the crank bore. Care should be taken when installing any pilot bushing as they are soft and easily damaged by crude installation techniques. A damaged pilot bushing can bind on the input gear giving symptoms of clutch drag. Transmission damage and early failure can be caused by a pilot bushing or crankshaft bore that "runs out" in relation to the transmission locating bore in the bellhousing. It is advisable to check the bore of the crank with a dial indicator before installing the pilot bushing (see below). If the bore runs out more than .003 total, the crank should be set up in a lathe and the bore trued up OR a special pilot bushing should be made that runs out the same amount as the crank bore. The run out in the bore of a pilot bushing is put 180 degrees off from the crank bore run out and the pilot bushing installed. If properly done, this can put the bore of the pilot bushing well within the .003 required. We have used this method to save engine disassembly many times. A disadvantage of this method shows up at pilot bushing replacement time as a special pilot bushing will have to be reproduced.

It is always a good idea to use an input gear (of the proper diameter) or clutch aligning tool when installing the clutch on any engine. With the clutch disc aligned on the pilot bushing it becomes a simple matter when installing the transmission to engage the splines and bolt up the transmission . If this simple procedure is not done, the transmission shaft won't line up and the temptation will be great to "pull it up with the bolts" which damages the front transmission bearing, pilot bushing, and more than likely will break an ear off the transmission or adapter. The transmission should slip in freely to mate up with the face of the bellhousing.

Clutch alignment is critical to installation. Otherwise, expect the transmission to not line up with the pilot bushing.

Clutch Release Bearing
As its name implies, this is the bearing that releases the clutch. It is often referred to as a "throw-out" bearing. They come on a number of different style carriers. The carriers, in some cases, vary considerably with the particular engine. In the GM line, for example, the bearings are all the same but there are several different carriers that vary about 1/2" between the shortest and longest. Which to use usually depends on the style of pressure plate being used, but substituting one length for another can often be used to the installer's great advantage. AMC, Ford & Mopar and others are far less generous with the variety of lengths available. This will be covered in more detail later in this article.

Because the release bearing only works when the clutch is being released it usually lasts quite a long time. However, improper linkage adjustment or riding the clutch with your foot when driving can wear the bearing prematurely. Normally there should be a minimum of 1/16" clearance between the face of the bearing and the three release fingers or diaphragm spring of the pressure plate when the clutch is engaged. This fact is important and will be discussed further when we get to the part about setting up the clutch linkage

Clutch Release Fork

This is the arm or lever that the linkage operates that moves the release bearing. There are several different styles of release arm. The most common in automotive use is the fork type that pivots on a rocker. This type requires a rearward force to move the release bearing forward. Note now that the following is key to your understanding of the clutch system: The ratio of the arm is the difference in length between the pivot point and the release bearing centerline divided by the length from the pivot point to where the linkage attaches. The ratio of the fork is important and will be used in the linkage setup section later in this article.

GM, Ford, and AMC all use a pivot type release arm as their most common type. Some late GM, Pinto, Jeep and a few others use a non-rocker arm. This style pivots on the passenger side of center and is direct acting. That is, it takes a forward movement of the linkage to move the release bearing forward. This is not as suitable as the rocker system as it usually complicates the linkage requirements.

Regarding GM clutch forks, there are two basic types of manufacture used for the pivot type forks. These are stamped steel and forged steel. The stamped steel type uses a flat steel retainer spring that is riveted to the fork. These forks must be used with mushroom-head type pivots. The forged steel forks must use the ball-head type pivot. (This is different than the ball-on-pedestal AMC type.) These forged forks are retained on the pivot by a spring-wire retainer that fits in a groove machined in the ball pocket in the fork.

Release Arm Pivot

As its name implies, this is the support that the release arm pivots on. There are basically two types. One pivots on a ball-ended stud that screws into the bellhousing. The other type is an actual bearing ball that sits in a pedestal type socket that is part of the bellhousing. GM, Ford, and early AMC use the screw-in type. Late AMC favors the ball type.

There is an adjustable length pivot (shown) with an adjustment range of 1-3/8 to 1-1/2 inches available for GM engines that can sometimes be used to compensate for variations in flywheel, clutch disc, and release bearing thickness. More about this in the troubleshooting section.

Both ball and mushroom-head GM pivots are available in 1-3/8 and 1-1/2" length (overall length when not [this is important] installed in the bellhousing). It is very important to use the correct style of pivot in relation to the type of arm being used.

Transmission Front Bearing Retainer

This great device has three critical functions. This first is as its name implies. The second is to provide a register on which the bellhousing must center. This is feature is sometimes overlooked with expensive consequences. Thirdly, its tubular snout is the surface on which the throwout bearing rides on its way in to depress the springs of the pressure plate. Conversions often require special and modified retainers to acheive compatibility.

Bellhousing
This provides a mounting place for the transmission, as well as a means of aligning the transmission to the engine. In some applications it also has a structural mounting function.

The alignment function is extremely important. Unfortunately, this is the most often overlooked and least understood part about the bellhousing.

Most people who have worked on these parts realize there are aligning pins in the engine block that register with holes in the bellhousing. What they do not realize is, there can be a variation in the location of these holes and this variation can affect clutch and transmission life. How to check bellhousing alignment will be covered in its own section further on in this article.

Clutch Linkage
This consists of everything between your foot and the clutch release arm. The linkags is the method of transferring the force of your left foot into the bellhousing and pressure plate release. The linkage can be mechanical, cable type or hydraulic. Note here that problems tend to show up because there are usually several choices of release arms and bearings for any particular family of engines. Choosing the wrong parts can get the linkage out of relationship and cause problems that can only be solved by removing the parts and starting over with other parts. The linkage cannot be made to compensate incorrect choice of release bearing or fork.

Cable Style Linkage
Cable linkages may seem appealing because it is easy to understand and simple to hook up. However, once past this, the installer may discover that it has high friction, stretches, sticks, rusts, freezes, frays and breaks. A cable type clutch should probably be the last choice of the three types of linkages.

Cable linkages work fine in smaller applications such as motorbikes and light cars, but they have an unsustainable record in light and heavy truck applications.

Some CJ & Commando Jeeps from 1972-1974 used a cable release, with subpar results as evidenced by the duration of their implementation.

Mechanical Style Linkage
Next is the mechanical linkage which is, with a few exceptions, the type

found on the majority of Jeeps® built prior to 1987.

There are several basic styles of Jeep mechanical linkage but all are used in nearly their original configuration when doing an engine conversion. They usually consists of a pushrod at the pedal, a bellcrank and an additional pushrod actuating the fork. Earlier systems use pullrods, bellcranks and cables in lieu of pushrods, effectively reversing the way the systems works.

The mechanical linkage is largely a successful method of clutch release. One drawback obvious to many off-roaders is the tendency of some of these to bind during frame and powertrain flex and differentiation.

Hydraulic Style Linkage
Hydraulic clutch linkage systems have moved into dominance in the past two decades, and generally with good reason.

The most common rendition of this linkage consists of the pedal pushrod against a master piston / cylinder, a high-pressure tube or line and a slave piston / cylinder whose pushrod pushes the clutch release arm.

A less common style of hydraulic release is the internal hydraulic release bearing. This design combines the piston and bearing into one unit, eliminating the pivot, fork (or release arm) and separate throwout bearing.

2008-10-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

We take brake repair very seriously here at Axle and Wheel! The brake system must function properly every time you use them. If your vehicle needs repair it has to be done right however if something is not needed then it shouldn't be sold. Before we give you an estimate on your brakes, it is our policy to thoroughly inspect your brake system so we can give you a more accurate estimate of repairs. This would include a road test to understand the complaint and wheel removal to diagnose linings, rotors, drums & hydraulic system. Sometimes complaints like brake noise & a low pedal may be a simple repair! Don't assume a brake job is needed until it is inspected. We are here to help!

Most vehicles on the road today use hydraulic braking systems, usually with disc brakes in the front and drum brakes in the rear. With disc brakes, hydraulic fluid operates a caliper, which presses the brake pad against the brake disc (rotor). In drum brakes, fluid pressure through the cylinders presses the brake shoes against the inside wall of the brake drum. In either case, the hydraulic pressure and friction causes your vehicle to stop.

At the first sign of brake trouble, you need to take your car to a certified brake specialist. Only an experienced professional has the training to provide high quality brake work and the knowledge to answer specific questions about your brake system.

For routine inspection, bring your car in every eight to ten thousand miles for a thorough check of all the braking components. It'll protect you against avoidable brake failure in the future.

Heed the Warning Signs
Chances are you'll be the first to know if you have brake problems. Be alert. These are some of the common warning signs that indicate you should have your brakes inspected:

Grab -- brakes that grab with the least amount of pressure.

Low Pedal -- the brake pedal almost touches the floor before activating.

Pull -- the car pulls to one side when the brakes are applied.

Vibration -- any vibration you feel when the brakes are applied.

Hard Pedal -- extreme pressure is needed to make the brakes function.

Noise -- some noise is normal, but excessive grinding, squeal, chatter or screeching is not.

Mileage -- have your brakes checked every eight to ten thousand miles.

Brakes

Protect yourself and your vehicle by taking good care of your brakes.

It's time to check and/or service your brakes when :

• The red "brake" lamp on the dash lights up.
• Your "ABS" or "Anti-lock" dash indicator is lit while you are driving.
• You can hear a grinding sound or squealing coming from the wheel area.
• The brake system feels different, such as a vibration, softer brake pedal or pulling to one side when stopping.

A qualified Brake-O technician can thoroughly inspect and service these parts of your brake system:

1) Master cylinder
The heart of your brake system, the master cylinder pumps brake fluid to the wheel cylinder or calipers when you push down on the brake pedal. The fluid reservoir level of the brake system should be visually inspected from time to time. It is recommended that brake fluid should be replaced about every 30,000 miles.

2) Calipers and wheel cylinders
The function of the calipers (for disc brakes) and wheel cylinders (for drum brakes) is to convert the energy of the pressurized brake fluid into pressure to operate the brakes. A periodic inspection for leaks around the rubber seals should be carried out to maintain good working order.

3) ABS sensors and controller
Your ABS system is electronically controlled. This system detects problems of which, some can be self-corrected, while others will shut down the ABS system, which causes the ABS light on the dash to be illuminated. Some problems are recorded in the vehicles computer for the technician's reference when servicing the braking system.

4) Brake pads and shoes
An inspection will determine if you need to replace the linings of your brake pads and shoes. This procedure is referred to as a "brake job", should be carried out frequently for maximum performance.

5) Parking brake
Use your parking brake to keep the system properly adjusted. If the parking brake is not used it may not function when it is needed and it will fail the annual Texas state inspection.

Engine Maintenance

Take care or your car's engine and you can expect it to last 200,000 miles or more. Change the oil every 3000 miles. Repair oil leaks immediately. Have the coolant/antifreeze serviced regularly, and do not drive your car if it's overheating.

Tire Maintenance

Check the air pressure monthly. Low tire pressure can cause premature tire wear, poor handling/steering, and reduce gas mileage. Rotate tires every 6000 to 10,000 miles. Brake-O will rotate tires and check air pressure free of charge during brake repair or any other service or repair.

2008-09-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

Injected Diesel Engines: Diagnosing Fueling Problems

Diesel engines are real misers when it comes to sipping fuel. They're also known for their pulling power and rugged durability. That's why diesels continue to be a popular option in many pickup trucks today. But diesels are also known for their idle clatter, black smoke and cold-weather starting difficulties.

When temperatures drop, several things happen that can make a diesel hard to start. First, the oil in the crankcase thickens. At the same time, battery output drops, reducing the number of amps available to crank the engine. The 15W-40 multi-viscosity motor oil, a popular warm weather choice with many diesel owners these days, may become too thick when temperatures go below freezing or plunge to zero or below. Straight 30- or 40-weight oils would definitely be too thick. The increased drag created by the cold oil can reduce cranking speed to the point where the engine may not generate enough cranking compression and/or fuel pressure to light the fire.

One of the first things you should check when diagnosing a "hard to start" complaint, therefore, is the dipstick. If the oil is thick and globby, it may not be the correct viscosity for winter driving. Ask the customer what kind of oil he's been using and when it was last changed. Switching to a lighter oil such as a 10W-30 (never anything lighter in a conventional oil!) may be all that's needed to improve cold cranking. For really cold weather, you might recommend a CG-4 rated synthetic motor oil.

The next thing that needs to be checked is minimum cranking speed. The rpm needed to light the fire will vary according to the application, but General Motors says its 6.2L and 6.5L diesels with Stanadyne rotary injection pumps need at least 100 rpm when cold, and 180 rpm when hot.

If the engine isn't cranking fast enough, check battery charge and condition, as well as the cable connections and the starter's amp draw. Problems in any of these areas can make any engine hard to start. If the battery is low, recharge it and check the output of the charging system, too.

GLOW PLUGS & DIESEL STARTING PROBLEMS

If slow cranking isn't the problem, perhaps there's something wrong with the glow plug system. Most passenger car and light truck diesels have glow plugs to assist cold starts. The glow plugs are powered by a relay and timer that routes voltage to the plugs for the prescribed number of seconds. When the timer runs out, the relay is supposed to turn off the voltage. But relays sometime stick and continue to feed voltage to the glow plugs causing them to burn out.

One or two bad glow plugs on a V8 engine might not cause a noticeable starting problem during warm weather, but it can when temperatures drop.

Glow plugs can be checked by measuring their resistance or continuity. Excessive resistance or a lack of continuity would tell you the plug is bad.

If one or more glow plugs have burned out, are heavily coated with carbon or are not receiving their usual dose of start-up voltage, the engine will become progressively harder to start as temperatures drop, and will idle roughly and produce white smoke in the exhaust for several minutes once it finally starts. If all the glow plugs are burned on the end, you'd better check the injection timing because it is probably overadvanced.

To see if the glow plug module is providing power to the glow plugs, use a voltmeter to check each plug for the specified voltage when the ignition key is turned on. No voltage? Check the glow plug control module connections, ground and wiring harness. The glow plugs themselves can be checked by measuring their resistance. Replace any plugs that read out of specifications.

Hard starting can sometimes be caused by a glow plug module that fails to turn the glow plugs on or doesn't keep the plugs on long enough when the weather is cold. On GM 6.2/6.5L diesels, there have been reports of heat from a still-warm engine causing the 125-degree inhibit switch inside the controller to shut off making the engine hard to restart. The cure here is to relocate the control module away from the engine. On Ford 7.3L diesels, the control module can cut off early if there are two or more bad glow plugs. We have also heard of control modules that do not keep the glow plugs on long enough for easy cold weather starting. The on-time is sufficient for warm weather, but not cold weather.

DIESEL FUEL PROBLEMS

Unlike gasoline, diesel oil is adversely affected by cold temperatures. Diesel is made of heavier hydrocarbons that turn to wax when temperatures drop. The "cloud point" or point at which wax starts to form for ordinary summer-grade No. 2 diesel fuel can range from 10 to 40 degrees. If the fuel tank contains summer grade fuel and temperatures drop, wax crystals can form in the water/fuel separator, causing a blockage.

The cure here is to pull the vehicle into a warm garage so it can thaw out, replace the water/fuel separator as needed, then add an approved "fuel conditioner" additive to the tank (some manufacturers do not approve any additives or prohibit the use of specific ingredients such as alcohol that are found in some additives), or drain the tank and refill it with No. 1 diesel fuel. To prevent the same thing from happening again, you might recommend the installation of an aftermarket fuel heater.

Water in the fuel is another problem that can cause starting and performance problems. Condensation that forms during cold weather is the primary source of contamination. Water that gets into the fuel tank usually settles to the bottom because water and oil don't mix. The water is sucked into the fuel line and goes to the filter or water/fuel separator (if the vehicle has one). Here it can freeze, causing a blockage that stops the flow of fuel to the engine. So if the filter or separator is iced up, the fuel tank needs to be drained to get rid of the water.

DIESEL FUEL CONTAMINATION

Another difference with diesel fuel is that it tastes good to certain microbes, especially if there's water in the tank. Certain bacteria can actually thrive inside a diesel fuel tank, forming slime, acids and other creepy stuff that can gum up fuel lines, filters, injection pumps and injectors. Infected fuel often has a "rotten egg" odor, and leaves a black or green coating on the inside of fuel system components. The growth rate of most organisms increases with warmer temperatures, but some can thrive down to freezing temperatures.

To get rid of a bug infestation, the fuel tank needs to be drained and cleaned. A biocide approved for this type of use should also be used to kill the organisms and to prevent their reappearance. The cleaning process should be followed by a fresh tank of fuel treated with a preventative dose of biocide. If the fuel lines and injection pump have also been contaminated, they will also have to be cleaned.

DIESEL FUEL DELIVERY PROBLEMS

To start and run properly, injector timing has to be accurate. A quick visual inspection will tell you if the timing marks are lined up. Refer to the vehicle manufacturer's timing procedure if you suspect timing is off or the pump has been replaced recently. On newer diesels with electronic injection pumps or direct injection, you'll need a scan tool to make any changes.

Air in the fuel can also be a cause of hard starting or a no start condition. Air can make the engine die after it starts, and make restarting difficult. Air can enter the system through any break in the fuel line or via a bleedback condition.

To determine if air is the problem, install a clear return hose on the return side of the injection pump. Crank the engine and observe the line. Air bubbles in the fuel would tell you air is entering the inlet side of the pump. The injection pump itself is usually not the source of the air leak, so check the fuel lines and pump.

A worn or clogged pump can also make an engine hard to start. If the condition has been getting steadily worse accompanied by a loss of power, and the engine has a lot of miles on it (more than 75,000), the underlying cause may be a pump that needs to be replaced.

Before condemning the pump, though, check the fuel filters. Clogged filters can cause fuel restrictions that prevent the pump from doing its job properly. The primary water separator/fuel filter usually needs to be changed about every 30,000 to 40,000 miles, and the secondary filter about every 20,000 to 30,000 miles. Newer fuel systems with a single filter usually require service about once a year. If the filter has been neglected, chances are it may be restricted or plugged.

DIESEL ENGINE WON'T START

A diesel engine that cranks normally but won't start regardless of the outside temperature either has low compression or a fuel delivery problem. If compression is okay, check the fuel gauge (out of fuel?). Then check the fuel filters and lines for obstructions.

If the injection pump isn't pushing fuel through the lines to the injectors, it may have a faulty solenoid. Listen for a "click" inside the pump when the ignition switch is turned on. No click means the solenoid and/or pump need to be replaced. If it clicks but there's no fuel coming through the injector lines (and the filter and lines are not obstructed), the pump is probably bad and needs to be replaced.

DIESEL INJECTOR PROBLEMS

Diesel injectors can suffer from the same kinds of ailments as gasoline injectors, including varnish deposits, clogging, wear and leakage. Today's low sulfur diesel fuels are more likely to leave varnish and gum deposits on injectors, and also provide less lubrication so you might recommend an additive to keep things flowing smoothly.

Diesel injectors operate at much higher pressures than gasoline injectors. Over time, their opening pressure can drop. Up to 300 psi is considered acceptable but more than 300 psi means the injectors should be replaced or reset back to their original operating specs. You'll need some type of pop tester to check the opening pressure of the injectors if you suspect this kind of problem.

Dirty injectors will lean out the air/fuel mixture, causing a loss of power, rough idle and sometimes white smoke in the exhaust. Leaky injectors will richen the air/fuel mixture and cause black smoke.

There are a couple of ways to find a bad injector on a diesel engine. One is to use a digital pyrometer to check the operating temperature of each cylinder. A temperature reading that's lower than the rest would indicate a weak cylinder. If compression is okay, the problem is restricted fuel delivery. Another quick check is to use an ohmmeter that reads tenths of ohms to measure the resistance of the glow plugs while the engine is running. The resistance of the plug goes up with temperature, so if one or two cylinders read low, you've found the problem. For example, if a glow plug normally reads 1.8 to 3.4 ohms on a hot, running engine, a reading of 1.2 to 1.3 ohms on a glow plug would tell you that cylinder isn't producing any heat.

DIESEL TROUBLESHOOTING BLACK SMOKE

Black smoke is usually a signal that there's too much fuel, not enough air or injector pump timing is off. One of the most common causes of this condition is an air inlet restriction. The cause may be a dirty air filter, a collapsed intake hose or even an exhaust restriction. Diesels are unthrottled so there is no intake vacuum to measure.

DIESEL TROUBLESHOOTING WHITE SMOKE

White smoke usually occurs when there is not enough heat to burn the fuel. The unburned fuel particles go out the tailpipe and typically produce a rich fuel smell. It's not unusual to see white smoke in the exhaust during cold weather until the engine warms up.

As mentioned earlier, bad glow plugs or a faulty glow plug control module can cause white smoke on engine start up. Low engine cranking speed may also produce white smoke.

If white smoke is still visible after the engine has warmed up, the engine may have one or more bad injectors, retarded injection timing or a worn injection pump. Low compression can also be a source of white smoke. Air in the fuel system can also cause white smoke.

DIESEL STALLING PROBLEMS

If a diesel stalls when decelerating, it may indicate a lubrication problem in the injector pump. The first thing that should be checked is the idle speed. If low, it could prevent the pump governor from recovering quickly enough during deceleration to prevent the engine from stalling.

Water in the fuel can also cause stalling by making the metering valve or plungers inside the pump stick. Use of a lubricating additive may help cure this condition. If an additive doesn't help, the pump may have to be cleaned or replaced.

How the PowerStroke injection system works

Understanding how the injectors work on the PowerStroke engine can help in diagnosing a concern with this engine. Older diesels used a hydraulic injection system in which fuel pressurized by the injection pump would actuate the injector. The drawback to this system is that any air which enters the fuel lines will affect the operation of the injectors, or even prevent them from operating. Also, the amount of fuel injected is dependent on the mechanical operation of the injection pump governor, which adjusts volume based on engine load/RPM.
Gasoline engines with electronic injection use a pressurized fuel system and the computer varies the actuation of the injector based on input from various sensors in order to control the amount of fuel to the cylinders. Since gasoline engines have an ignition system to ignite the air/fuel mixture in the cylinders, fuel pressure only needs to be sufficient to supply the injectors and provide an adequate spray pattern to ensure efficient combustion. But a diesel engine uses heat from compression to ignite the air fuel mixture, and this high compression requires high injection pressures.

What has been done on the PowerStroke is both of these systems are used in conjuntion with each other. Fuel is supplied to the injectors through fuel rails inside the cylinder heads. Also supplied to the injectors is high pressure engine oil. As the computer determines that a cylinder should fire it signals the Injector Driver Module. The IDM sends a 110 volt pulse-width modulated signal to the injector solenoid. When the injector solenoid is actuated, it opens a poppet valve which allows high pressure oil to flow into the intensifier piston. The intensifier piston is forced down, pressurizing the fuel inside the injector. When fuel pressure inside the injector reaches approximatly 2700 psi, it causes the injector pintle to rise off its seat and fuel is injected into the cylinder from the nozzel. As long as the poppet valve is open and oil is flowing into the injector, fuel will be injected.

The computer controls how long the injector solenoid is energized (pulse-width, or time on in milliseconds), but it also determines the pressure of the fuel being injected by controlling the pressure of the oil (IPR duty-cycle, or the percentage of time on vs. off--AKA dwell) in the cylinder heads. The computer determines this based on engine load and driver demand by monitoring various sensors. Since the cavity at the top of the intensifier piston is seven times the size of the fuel cavity at the bottom, fuel is injected at a pressure seven times that of the computer-controlled oil pressure--oil pressure 3000 psi = injected fuel pressure 21000 psi. Due to the high oil system pressures, the spring which closes the poppet valve once the injector solenoid is deactivated has to be very strong--and because of this, the solenoid needs to be 110 volts. Once the poppet valve is closed, spring pressure returns the injector to its normal state and the oil is exhausted into the valve cover area to return to the sump.

Because of the nature of how this system operates, air in the fuel is not as great of a concern as air in the oil. The PowerStroke requires a special anti-foaming agent in its oil to prevent this aeration. Oils with an API service rating of CF-4 or CG-4 already have this agent, but it becomes depleated as the oil breaks down, so regular oil changes (3000-5000 miles depending on vehicle use) are necessary. The anti-foaming agent can also be depleated by interaction with some silicone sealers.

Split-Shot Injector

Split-Shot Operation

Split-shot injectors were originally installed on 1996 and 97 model/year trucks with California emissions, and are used in engines from 98.5 on. These injectors prolong the injection time to decrease emissions without reducing power. Fuel is delivered to the injector (green) past a check valve in the same manner as in the standard injectors. As the intensifier piston is forced down the fuel is pressurized (orange) and the check ball (blue) is lifted off its seat and fuel injection begins. Cut into the piston is a land (yellow) which receives fuel through bleed holes (red) as it is pressurized. As the piston travels down the land aligns with a port in the injector. When this happens, pressure drops below the piston and the check ball reseats and injection is suspended. As the piston travels further, the port in the injector is covered and fuel injection recommences.

Make your own biodiesel

2008-07-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

Make your own biodiesel

Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen -- and it's better fuel than the petro-diesel the oil companies sell you.

Your diesel motor will run better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner -- better for the environment and better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not only cheap but you'll be recycling a troublesome waste product that too often ends up in sewers and landfills instead of being recycled.

Best of all is the GREAT feeling of freedom, independence and empowerment making your own fuel will give you.

Here's how to do it -- everything you need to know.

Three choices

There are at least three ways to run a diesel engine on biofuel using vegetable oils, animal fats or both. All three are used with both fresh and used oils.

Use the oil just as it is -- usually called SVO fuel (straight vegetable oil) or PPO fuel (pure plant oil);
Mix it with kerosene (paraffin) or petro-diesel fuel, or with biodiesel, or blend it with a solvent, or with gasoline;
Convert it to biodiesel.

The first two methods sound easiest, but, as so often in life, it's not quite that simple.

1. Mixing it

Vegetable oil is much more viscous (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The purpose of mixing straight vegetable oil (SVO) or blending it with other fuels and solvents is to lower the viscosity to make it thinner so that it flows more freely through the fuel system into the combustion chamber.

If you're mixing SVO with petro-diesel or kerosene you're still using fossil-fuel -- cleaner than most, but still not clean enough, many would say. Still, for every gallon of SVO you use, that's one gallon of fossil-fuel saved, and that much less climate-changing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

People use various mixes, ranging from 10% SVO and 90% petro-diesel to 90% SVO and 10% petro-diesel. Some people just use it that way, start up and go, without pre-heating it (which makes veg-oil much thinner). Some even use pure vegetable oil without pre-heating it.

You might get away with it in summer time with something like an older '80s Mercedes 5-cylinder IDI diesel, which is a very tough and tolerant motor -- it won't like it but you probably won't wreck it. Otherwise, it's not wise.

To do it properly you'll need what amounts to a proper SVO system with fuel pre-heating. (See next.) In which case there's no need for mixes.

Blends of SVO with various solvents, magical "secret" ingredients (turpentine, mothballs, paint-stripper) or with unleaded gasoline are "experimental at best" -- little or nothing is known about their effects on the combustion characteristics of the fuel or their long-term effects on the engine. Not recommended -- use such blends at your own risk.

Higher viscosity is not the only problem with using vegetable oil as fuel. Veg-oil has different chemical properties and combustion characteristics from the petro-diesel fuel that diesel engines and their fuel systems are designed to use. Diesel engines, especially the more modern, cleaner-burning diesels, are high-tech machines with precise fuel requirements (see The TDI-SVO controversy). They're tough but they'll only take so much abuse.

There's no guarantee of it, but using a blend of up to 20% veg-oil of good quality with 80% petro-diesel is said to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summer. Otherwise using veg-oil as fuel requires a professional SVO solution -- or convert it biodiesel.

Mixes and blends are generally a poor compromise. But mixes can have one advantage in cold weather. As with biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel mixed with straight vegetable oil lowers the temperature at which the SVO starts to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter)

More about fuel mixing and blends.

2. Straight vegetable oil

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and economical option.

Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The best way is to fit a professional single-tank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, as well as fuel heating. With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for instance you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just start up and go, stop and switch off, like any other car. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van has an Elsbett single-tank SVO system.

There are also two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You have to start the engine on ordinary petro-diesel (or biodiesel) in one tank and then switch to SVO in the other tank when the veg-oil is hot enough, and switch back again to the petro-diesel tank before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More information on straight vegetable oil systems here.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it works in any diesel, without any conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system -- just put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather properties than SVO (but not as good as petro-diesel -- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO, it's backed by many long-term tests in many countries, including millions of miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that many SVO systems are still experimental and need further development.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more expensive, depending how much you make, what you make it from and whether you're comparing it with new oil or used oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has to be processed first.

But the large and rapidly growing worldwide band of biodiesel homebrewers don't mind that -- they make a supply every week or once a month and soon get used to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, cooked oil, also called UCO, used cooking oil), which many people with SVO systems use because it's cheap or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water must be removed, and it probably should be deacidified too.

Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might as well make biodiesel instead." But SVO types scoff at that -- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say.

To each his own.

x	Needs processing	Guaranteed trouble-free	Engine conversion	Cost
Biodiesel	Yes	Yes*	No	Smaller outlay
SVO/WVO	Less	No	Yes	Cheaper in the long-run
* Fuel filters might need changing in the first couple of weeks; fuel hoses or seals on some older diesels might need changing. See Biodiesel and your vehicle

Costs and prices: Biodieselers using waste oil feedstock make biodiesel for 50 cents to US$1 per US gallon.

Most people in the US use about 600 gallons of fuel a year (about 10 gallons a week), costing about US$1,800 a year (mid-'07). Petro-diesel costs about three times more in the other industrialised countries (in the UK in mid-'07 it cost the equivalent of US$7.37 for a US gallon of petro-diesel) but those countries generally use less fuel than the US.

Biodieselers will be paying $300-360 for their fuel, while a good processor can be set up for around $100 up. An SVO system costs from about $500 to $1,200 or more. So with an SVO system you'll be ahead of fossil-fuel prices within a year, not a long time in the life of a diesel motor, but you're probably still behind the biodieselers.

Will the engine last as long with SVO? Yes, if you use a good system. Recommendations, and much more, here.

(Note: Small quantities of methanol can cost the equivalent of US$8 to $10 per US gallon, but experienced biodieselers invariably buy it in bulk for about $2-3 per gallon.)

Biodiesel

Converting the oil to biodiesel is probably the best all-round solution of the three options (or we think so anyway).

You could simply buy your biodiesel. Most major European vehicle manufacturers now provide vehicle warranties covering the use of pure biodiesel -- though that might not be just any biodiesel. Some insist on "RME", rapeseed methyl esters, and won't cover use of soy biodiesel (which isn't covered by the Euro biodiesel standard). Germany has thousands of filling stations supplying biodiesel, and it's cheaper there than ordinary diesel fuel. All fossil diesel fuel sold in France contains between 2% and 5% biodiesel. New EU laws will soon require this Europe-wide. Some states in the US are legislating similar requirements. There's a growing number of US suppliers and sales are rising fast, though biodiesel is more expensive than ordinary diesel in the US. In the UK biodiesel is taxed less than petrodiesel and it's available commercially.

But there's a lot to be said for the GREAT feeling of independence you'll get from making your own fuel!

If you want to make it yourself, there are several good recipes available for making high-quality biodiesel, and they say what we also say: some of these chemicals are dangerous, take full safety precautions, and if you burn/maim/blind/kill yourself or anyone else, that will make us very sad, but not liable -- we don't recommend anything, it's nobody's responsibility but your own.

On the other hand, nobody has yet burned/maimed/blinded/killed themselves or anyone else making homebrewed biodiesel. Large numbers of ordinary people all over the world are making their own biodiesel, it's been going on for years, and so far there have been NO serious accidents. It's safe if you're careful and sensible.

"Sensible" also means not over-reacting, as some people do: "I'd like to make biodiesel but I'm frightened of all those terrible poisons." In fact they're common enough household chemicals. Lye is sold in supermarkets and hardware stores as a drain-cleaner, there's probably a can of it under the sink in most households. Methanol is the main or only ingredient in barbecue fuel or fondue fuel, often sold in supermarkets and chain stores as "stove fuel" and used at the dinner table; it's also the main ingredient in the fuel kids use in their model aero engines. So get it in perspective, there's no need to be frightened. See Safety and More about methanol for further information.

Learn as much as you can first -- lots of information is available. Make small test batches before you try large batches (see also Test-batch mini-processor). Make it with fresh oil before you try waste oil -- see next.

Where do I start?

Start with the process, NOT with the processor. The processor comes later.

Start with fresh unused oil, NOT with waste vegetable oil (WVO), that also comes later.

Start by making a small, 1-litre test batch of biodiesel using fresh new oil. You can use a spare blender, or, better, make a simple Test-batch mini-processor.

Keep going, step by step. Study everything on this page and the next page and at the links in the text. There are checks and tests along the way so you won't go wrong.

Go on, do it! Thousands and thousands of others have done it, so can you. Get some methanol, some lye and some new oil at the supermarket and go ahead -- it's a real thrill!

Here's the recipe. Or just keep reading, you'll get to the recipe in a minute anyway.

What's next?

Learn, one step at a time. It's all quite simple really, very few biodiesel homebrewers are chemists or technicians, there's nothing a layman can't understand, and do, and do it well. But there is a lot to learn.

You'll find everything you need to know right here. It's not just us who say so, it's largely the result of a collaborative effort over nine years involving thousands of people worldwide, it's what works.

We've made it as easy for you as possible. You start off with the simplest process that has the best chance of success and move on step by step in a logical progression, adding more advanced features as you go.

"I am a pipe welder who knew nothing about chemistry but I have learned a lot from this website. It's set up for someone who has never had a chemistry class (me). If I can understand this anyone can." -- Marty, Biofuel mailing list, 23 Oct 2005
"For anyone starting out or still in the R&D phase of scaling up and tweaking the process to improve quality, disregard anything other than the tried and tested directions at JtF. Print them out. Read them and then re-read them. Follow the instructions, don't add or subtract anything and you will be making quality biodiesel." -- Tom, Biofuel mailing list, 5 Nov 2005
"My best advice is to follow explicitly the instructions on the J2F website starting from the begining and you will do just fine. In my own journey of discovery I learned this. You cannot afford to cut corners. Don't be tempted to use less than accurate measures and think that it will be alright. There is no cheating." -- Joe, Biofuel mailing list, 4 Jan 2006

Thousands of ordinary people have done this without any other help, and so can you. You don't need anyone to show you how, and you don't need to find another biodieseler in your area first so you can see their set-up in action. Not all biodiesel brewers are the same, not all make quality fuel (though they might think they do). There's a fair chance you'd just be picking up someone else's bad habits.

Comment from a visitor to our site: "We got hold of two gentlemen who are running seminars on making biodiesel. Neither of them is making quality biodiesel, in fact they are teaching everyone else how to make poor-quality biodiesel. One didn't even know what the methanol test was. It is certainly a poor picture of what's going on with biodiesel here..."

It's not unusual.

Do it yourself, you'll be just fine.

This is a standard hyperlinked Web document. This is how it works (comment from a Biofuel list member):

"Your website is very well done. I appreciate the layers of technical complexity. You have progressively more technical information layered in an escalating and logical fashion. I like the links as each new item is introduced, the user can click for more specific information on a topic and it opens in a new window. This eliminates the tediousness of having to constantly backtrack to where the new concept was introduced."

Close the new window when you're finished with it and you're back where you were. Keep going.

The process

Vegetable and animal fats and oils are triglycerides, containing glycerine. The biodiesel process turns the oils and fats into esters, separating out the glycerine. The glycerine sinks to the bottom and the biodiesel floats on top and can be syphoned off.

The process is called transesterification, which substitutes alcohol for the glycerine in a chemical reaction, using lye as a catalyst. See How the process works

Chemicals needed

The alcohol used can be either methanol, which makes methyl esters, or ethanol (ethyl esters). Methanol can be made from biomass, such as wood, but nearly all methanol is made from natural gas, which is a fossil fuel. Most ethanol is plant-based (though some is also made from petroleum) and you can distill it yourself. There is as yet no "backyard" method of producing methanol, it's an industrial process. But making biodiesel with ethanol is much more difficult than making it with methanol, ethanol biodiesel is not for beginners. (See Ethyl esters.)

Ethanol (or ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol -- EtOH, C2H5OH) also goes by various other well-known names, such as whisky, vodka, gin, and so on, but methanol is a poison. Actually they're both poisons, it's just a matter of degree, methanol is more poisonous, it doesn't take much to kill you if you drink it.

But don't be put off -- methanol is not dangerous if you're careful, it's easy to do this safely. Safety is built-in to everything you'll read here. See Safety. See M o re about methanol.

Methanol is also called methyl alcohol, wood alcohol, wood naphtha, wood spirits, methyl hydrate (or "stove fuel"), carbinol, colonial spirits, Columbian spirits, Manhattan spirits, methylol, methyl hydroxide, hydroxymethane, monohydroxymethane, pyroxylic spirit, or MeOH (CH3OH or CH4O) -- all the same thing. (But, confusingly, "methylcarbinol" or "methyl carbinol" is used for both methanol and ethanol.)

You can usually get methanol from bulk liquid fuels distributors; in the US try getting it at race tracks. With a bit of patience, most people in most countries manage to track down a source of methanol for about US$2-3 per US gallon.

For small amounts, you can use "DriGas" fuel antifreeze, one type is pure methanol (eg "HEET" in the yellow container), another is isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol, rubbing alcohol), make sure to get the methanol one.

Methanol is also sold in supermarkets and chain stores as "stove fuel" for barbecues and fondues, but check the contents -- not all "stove fuel" is methanol, it could also be "white gas", basically gasoline. It must be pure methanol or it won't work for making biodiesel. See Methanol suppliers

Methylated spirits (denatured ethanol) doesn't work; isopropanol also doesn't work.

The lye catalyst can be either potassium hydroxide (KOH) or sodium hydroxide (caustic soda, NaOH).

Either KOH or NaOH can be used in all of the various biodiesel methods, whether it's the basic single-stage base method, the two-stage base-base method, or the two-stage acid-base method.

NaOH is often easier to get and it's cheaper to use.

KOH is easier to use, and it does a better job. Experienced biodieselers making top-quality fuel usually use KOH, and so do the commercial producers. (KOH can also provide potash fertiliser as a by-product of the biodiesel process.)

We recommend KOH especially for beginners.

With KOH, the process is the same, but you need to use 1.4 times as much (1.4025). It's a little more complicated than that -- see More about lye and Using KOH.

You can get both KOH and NaOH from soapmakers' suppliers and from chemicals suppliers.

NaOH is used as drain-cleaner and you can also get it from hardware stores. It has to be pure NaOH. Shake the container to check it hasn't absorbed moisture and coagulated into a useless mass, and make sure to keep it airtight.

The Red Devil-brand NaOH lye drain-cleaner previously sold in the US is no longer made. Don't use Drano or ZEP drain-cleaners or equivalents with blue or purple granules or any-coloured granules, it's only about half NaOH and it contains aluminium -- it won't work for biodiesel.

CAUTION:
Lye (both NaOH and KOH) is dangerous -- don't get it on your skin or in your eyes, don't breathe any fumes, keep the whole process away from food, and right away from children. Lye reacts with aluminium, tin and zinc. Use HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene), glass, enamel or stainless steel containers for methoxide. (See Identifying plastics.) See Safety

See also Making lye from wood ash.

Chemicals for WVO

Isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol, rubbing alcohol) used for titration is available from chemicals suppliers. Some people have used the other kind of Dri-Gas, which is isopropanol, but they found that it's unreliable. Best get 99% pure isopropanol from a chemicals supplier. 70% pure isopropanol is also said to work, but we found it didn't give satisfactory results.

Contrary to rumour, "phenol red", sold by pool supply stores and used for checking water, won't work for titrating WVO, its pH range isn't broad enough. Use phenolphthalein indicator, specifically 1% phenolphthalein solution (1.0w/v%) with 95% ethanol. Phenolphthalein lasts about a year. It's sensitive to light, store it in a cool, dark place. You can get it from chemicals suppliers. See: Phenolphthalein

Make your first test batch

Here's what you need:

1 litre of new vegetable oil, whatever the supermarket sells as ordinary cooking oil
200 ml of methanol, 99+% pure
lye catalyst -- either potassium hydroxide (KOH) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) can be used, but we recommend KOH
blender or preferably a mini-processor
scales accurate to 0.1 grams, preferably less -- 0.01 grams is best
measuring beakers for methanol and oil
half-litre translucent white HDPE (#2 plastic) container with bung and screw-on cap
2 funnels to fit the HDPE container, one for methanol, the other for lye
2-litre PET bottle (water or soft-drinks bottle) for settling
two 2-litre PET bottles for washing
duct tape
thermometer

See Accurate measurements

All equipment should be clean and dry.

For methanol, you can use "DriGas" fuel antifreeze from an automotive store. One type of DriGas is methanol, another is isopropanol, make sure to get the methanol one. Also try "stove fuel" from hardware stores or home centres (but check the contents to make sure it's pure methanol, it could also be "white gas", which is gasoline and doesn't work), or try a chemicals supply company. See Methanol suppliers

You can get lye at hardware stores, or from soapmakers' suppliers (try online). KOH lye (potassium hydroxide) works better than NaOH (sodium hydroxide). "Red Devil" NaOH lye drain-cleaner is no longer made. Don't use Drano or ZEP drain-cleaners or equivalents with blue or purple granules or any-coloured granules, it's only about half NaOH and it contains aluminium, it won't work for biodiesel. Shake the container to check it hasn't absorbed moisture and coagulated into a useless mass, and make sure to keep it airtight.

1. Safety

Read and observe the Safety instructions below.

2. Lye

You need to be quick when measuring out the lye because it very rapidly absorbs water from the atmosphere and water interferes with the biodiesel reaction.

Measure the lye out into a handy-sized lightweight plastic bag on the scales (or even do the whole thing entirely inside a big clear plastic bag), then close the lid of the container firmly and close the plastic bag, winding it up so there's not much air in it with the lye and no more air can get in. Have exactly the same kind of bag on the other side of the scale to balance the weight, or adjust the scale for the weight of the bag.

How much to use. NaOH must be at least 97% pure, use exactly 3.5 grams.

With KOH it depends on the strength. If it's 99% pure (rare) use exactly 4.9 grams (4.90875). If it's 92% pure (more common) use 5.3 grams (5.33), with 90% pure use 5.5 grams (5.454), with 85% pure use 5.8 grams (5.775). Any strength of KOH from 85% or stronger will work.

3. Mixing the methoxide

Use the "Methoxide the easy way" method -- it's also the safe way. Here's how to do it.

Measure out 200 ml of methanol and pour it into the half-litre HDPE container via the funnel. Methanol also absorbs water from the atmosphere so do it quickly and replace the lid of the methanol container tightly. Don't be too frightened of methanol, if you're working at ordinary room temperature and you keep it at arm's length you won't be exposed to dangerous fumes. See More about methanol.

Carefully add the lye to the HDPE container via the second funnel. Replace the bung and screw on the cap tightly.

Shake the container a few times -- swirl it round rather than shaking it up and down. The mixture gets hot from the reaction. If you swirl it thoroughly for a minute or so five or six times over a period of time the lye will completely dissolve in the methanol, forming sodium methoxide or potassium methoxide. As soon as the liquid is clear with no undissolved particles you can begin the process.

The more you swirl the container the faster the lye will dissolve. With NaOH it can take from overnight to a few hours to as little as half-an-hour with lots of swirling (but don't be impatient, wait for ALL the lye to dissolve). Mixing KOH is much faster, it dissolves in the methanol more easily than NaOH and can be ready for use in 10 minutes, with five or six shakes it takes about half an hour.

4. The process

Using a blender. Use a spare blender you don't need or get a cheap second-hand one -- cheap because it might not last very long, but it will get you going until you build something better.

Check that the blender seals are in good order. Make sure all parts of the blender are clean and dry and that the blender components are tightly fitted.

Pre-heat the oil to 55 deg C (130 deg F) and pour it into the blender.

With the blender still switched off, carefully pour the prepared methoxide from the HDPE container into the oil.

Secure the blender lid tightly and switch on. Lower speeds should be enough. Mix for 20-30 minutes, or longer.

Using a mini-processor. Follow the instructions here and improvise where necessary -- there are many ways of building a processor like this.

Proceed with processing as above, maintain temperature at 55 deg C (130 deg F), process for one hour or longer.

4. Transfer

As soon as the process is completed, pour the mixture from the blender or the mini-processor into the 2-litre PET bottle for settling and screw on the lid tightly. (As the mixture cools it will contract and you might have to let some more air into the bottle later.)

5. Settling

Freshly made biodiesel, 20 minutes after processing

Allow to settle for 12-24 hours (longer is better).

Darker-coloured glycerine by-product will collect in a distinct layer at the bottom of the bottle, with a clear line of separation from the paler liquid above, which is the biodiesel. The biodiesel varies somewhat in colour according to the oil used (and so does the by-product layer at the bottom) but usually it's pale and yellowish (used-oil biodiesel can be darker and more amber). The biodiesel might be quite clear or it might still be cloudy, which is not a problem. It will clear eventually but there's no need to wait.

After setlling, carefully decant the top layer of biodiesel into a clean jar or PET bottle, taking care not to get any of the glycerine layer mixed up with the biodiesel. If you do, re-settle and try again.

6. Quality

Proceed to the wash-test and the methanol test to check the quality of your biodiesel.

If the biodiesel doesn't pass the tests, first, don't be despondent! If your test sample "split" and the glycerine formed at the bottom, you have already succeeded in making biodiesel.

It often takes several attempts to pass the quality tests. For instance, different blenders and mini-processors have different shapes and different rates of agitation, and the processing time required for good process completion can vary accordingly. You might have to adjust it.

More likely you just need a little more practice, especially with accurate measurements. Make sure the chemicals you're using are top-quality.

Here's what to do if your test batch fails the tests.

7. Washing

If the test sample passes the quality tests then wash the rest of the biodiesel. See Washing. For washing use the two 2-litre PET bottles in succession, with half a litre of tap water added for each of the three or four washes required. Pierce a small 2mm hole in the bottom corner of each of the two bottles and cover the hole securely with duct tape.

Pour the biodiesel into one of the wash bottles. Add the half-litre of fresh water.

Stir-washing. See instructions here. If you have a small enough paint stirrer and a variable-speed drill, cut the threaded lids off the wash bottles to accommodate the stirrer. Stir until oil and water are well mixed and appear homogenous. Settle for three hours or more. Then drain off the water from the bottom of the bottle by removing the duct tape from the hole. Block it again with your finger when it reaches the biodiesel. Transfer the biodiesel to the second wash bottle, add fresh water and wash again. Clean the first bottle and replace the duct tape. Repeat until finished.

If you don't have a stirrer, don't cut the lids off the wash bottles. Add the biodiesel and the water as above. Screw the cap on tightly. Turn the bottle on its side and roll it about with your hands until oil and water are well mixed and homogenous. Settle, drain as above, repeat until finished.

8. Drying

When it's clear (not colourless but translucent) it's dry and ready to use. It might clear quickly, or it might take a few days. If you're in a hurry, heat it gently to 48 deg C (120 deg F) and allow to cool -- this evaporates the remaining water, so let it ventilate.

9. Congratulations! You have just made high-quality diesel fuel. Say goodbye to ExxonMobil & Co., you don't need them anymore.

10. Read on!

Next step

Our first biodiesel

This was just an investigative project for us when we made our first biodiesel more than seven years ago in Hong Kong. Most of the equipment was rough and improvised. Apart from chemicals and some beakers, syringes and so on, the only thing we bought was a set of scales.

We got some sodium lye draincleaner from a hardware store and about 60 litres of used cooking oil from Lantau Island's local McDonald's. There were four 16-litre cans of it, a mix of used cooking oil and residual beef and chicken fats. Two of the tins were solidified, the other two held a gloppy semi-liquid. We warmed it up a bit on the stove (to about 50 deg C, 122 deg F) and filtered it through a fine mesh filter, and then again through coffee filter papers, but it was fairly clean -- very little food residue was left in the filters.

Used cooking oil from McDonald's.

We'd also bought 10 litres of the cheapest new cooking oil we could find -- we don't know what kind of oil it was, the tins only said "Cooking Oil" -- and we used this for our first experiment.

It worked, though two of our first six batches failed. We've learnt a lot since then. Now it's easy to make high-quality biodiesel every time without fail. And we don't use open containers for processing now, and neither should you (see Safety, see Processors) -- and mix the methanol in closed containers too.

Simple, safe, efficient biodiesel processors you can build cheaply and easily

Practices, knowledge, technology, equipment and safety measures have all improved tremendously in the years since we brewed our first batch, thanks mainly to the collaborative work of thousands of biofuellers worldwide at the Biofuel mailing list and other Internet forums, using the growing body of information at our website and others.

As a Biofuel list member said in 2002: "I just want to say how important what you all are doing here is. Closed-system fuel production, on a local or small regional scale, tied to local resources, using accessible technologies, and dependent on entrepreneurial innovation combined with open-source information exchange -- it's AWESOME. Keep up the good work everyone, before the planet fries."

Biodiesel from new oil

Make your first test-batch using one litre of new oil (fresh, uncooked). Follow the instructions above. Check the quality of your biodiesel with this basic quality test.

We had difficulty finding pure methanol in Hong Kong, and eventually paid the very high price of US$10 per litre for 5 litres from a wholesale chemical supply company. It has to be 99% pure or better. (See Methanol suppliers)

We used sodium lye drain-cleaner (NaOH, sodium hydroxide) bought in small plastic containers at a local hardware store, not always very fresh. (We recommend using potassium hydroxide, KOH, instead of NaOH. See More about lye.)

We used 2 litres of methanol to 10 litres of vegetable oil, and 3.5 grams of NaOH per litre of oil -- 35 grams for 10 litres. (It's better to start with smaller one-litre test batches.)

We had to be quick measuring out the 35 grams of lye required. Lye is very hygroscopic, it absorbs moisture from the air; summer humidity in Hong Kong is usually about 80% at 30 deg C or more, and the lye rapidly got wet, making it less effective. (See More about lye.)

We mixed the lye with the 2 litres of methanol in a strong, heatproof glass bottle with a narrow neck to prevent splashing. It fumed and got hot, and took about 15 minutes to mix. (Use closed containers for mixing methoxide! See above, Mixing the methoxide.)

This mixture is sodium methoxide, a powerful corrosive base -- take full safety precautions when working with sodium methoxide, have a source of running water handy.

Midori checks the temperature of the oil.

Meanwhile we'd warmed the 10 litres of new oil in a 20-litre steel oil drum to about 40 deg C (104 deg F) to thin it so it mixed better (55 deg C, 131 deg F, is a better processing temperature). Don't let it get too hot or the methanol will evaporate. (Methanol boils at 64.7 deg C, 148.5 deg F.)

We'd made a wooden jig with a portable vice clamped to it holding a power drill fitted with a paint mixer to stir the contents of the oil drum. This did a good job without splashing. (Not advised, it's dangerous to use sparking electric motors such as those in drills for processing with open containers. See "Simple 5-gallon processor" for a much better way.)

Stirring well, we carefully added the sodium methoxide to the oil. The reaction started immediately, the mixture rapidly transforming into a clear, golden liquid. We kept stirring for an hour, keeping the temperature constant. Then we let it settle overnight.

The next day we syphoned off 10 litres of biodiesel, leaving two litres of glycerine by-product in the bottom of the drum.

Biodiesel from waste oil

This is more appealing than using new oil, but it's also more complicated.

First, check for water content. Used oil often has some water in it, and it has to be removed before processing. See Removing the water, below.

Refined fats and oils have a Free Fatty Acid (FFA) content of less than 0.1%. FFAs are formed in cooking the oil, the longer and hotter the oil has been cooked the more FFAs it will contain. FFAs interfere with the transesterification process for making biodiesel. With waste oil you have to use more lye catalyst to neutralise the FFAs. The extra lye turns the FFAs into soap which drops out of the reaction along with the glycerine by-product.

It's essential to titrate the oil to find out how much FFA it contains so you can calculate exactly how much extra lye will be required to neutralise it. This means determining the pH -- the acid-alkaline level (pH7 is neutral, lower values are increasingly acidic, higher than 7 is alkaline). An electronic pH meter is best, but you can also use pH test strips (or litmus paper), or, better than test strips, phenolphthalein solution (from a chemicals supplier).

You can also use red cabbage juice, which changes from red in a strong acid, to pink, purple, blue, and finally green in a strong alkali, or one of the other plant-based pH indicators. See Natural test papers -- Cabbage, Brazil, Dahlia, Elderberry, Indigo, Litmus, Rose, Rhubarb, Turmeric.

We didn't have a pH meter when we started making biodiesel in 1999 so we used phenolphthalein solution. Phenolphthalein is colourless up to pH 8.3, then it turns pink (or rather magenta), and red at pH 10.4. When it just starts to turn pink and stays that way for 15 seconds it's reading pH 8.5, which is the measure you want.

Phenolphthalein lasts about a year. It's sensitive to light, store it in a cool, dark place.

Don't be put off or frightened away by titration. It's not difficult, thousands of non-chemist biodiesel makers have learnt how to do it without difficulty and use it every time they make biodiesel. Just follow the directions, step by step. See also:

Titration

Keith checks the pH of the waste oil.

Dissolve 1 gm of lye (KOH or NaOH) in 1 litre of distilled water to make 0.1% w/v lye solution (weight-to-volume).

In a smaller beaker, dissolve 1 ml of the oil in 10 ml of pure isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol). Warm the beaker gently by standing it in some hot water, stir until all the oil dissolves in the alcohol and turns clear. (Chopsticks make good stirrers for titration.)

Add 2 drops of phenolphthalein solution.

Using a graduated syringe or a pipette, add 0.1% lye solution drop by drop to the oil-alcohol-phenolphthalein mixture, stirring all the time. It might turn a bit cloudy, keep stirring. Keep on carefully adding the lye solution until the mixture just starts to turn pink (magenta) and stays that way for 15 seconds.

Take the number of millilitres of 0.1% lye solution you used and add the basic amount of lye needed to process fresh oil -- 3.5 grams for NaOH or 4.9 grams for (pure) KOH. This is the number of grams of lye you'll need per litre of the oil you titrated. (Don't worry that you seem to be adding millilitres to grams, that's the way it works.)

Our first titration took 6 ml of 0.1% NaOH solution (not very good oil), so we used 6 + 3.5 = 9.5 grams of NaOH per litre of oil: 95 grams for 10 litres.

NOTE: Novices should avoid poor-quality oil like this for their first test-batches with used oil. Find a source of oil that titrates at 2 to 2.5 ml of 0.1% NaOH solution, not more than 3 ml. Leave overcooked oils with high titration levels for later when you have more experience. Again, make small one-litre test batches before attempting larger batches of WVO.

Proceed as with new oil, see above: measure out the lye and mix it with the methanol to make sodium methoxide or potassium hydroxide -- it will get slightly hotter and take a little longer to mix as there's more NaOH this time. Make sure the NaOH is completely dissolved in the methanol. (See above, Mixing the methoxide.)

Carefully add the methoxide to the warmed oil while stirring, and mix for an hour. Settle for 12-24 hours, then syphon or decant off the biodiesel.

Check the quality of your biodiesel with these quality tests.

The first five times we did this, using 10 litres of waste oil each time, we got biodiesel (a bit darker than the new oil product) and glycerine three times, and twice we got jelly. The answer is to be more careful with the titration: do it two or three times, just to be sure. With poor-quality oils that have high titration levels do bracket tests as well. Do everything you can to improve the accuracy of your measurements so you get consistent results. Read on, and you'll learn how to make high-quality biodiesel every time, without fail. (It's a LONG time since we made jelly!)

The production rate was less than with new oil, ending with 8-9 litres of biodiesel instead of 10. With care and experience the production rate improves.

Moving on to bigger things

When you're confident that you can get good results every time, even using oil from different sources, then it's time to scale up the process to provide your fuel needs. Now that you have a feel for the process and know what to expect, you'll have a much better idea of what sort of processor you want than if you'd started off building the processor (as many do) rather than learning the process first.

"Understanding of the process is vital to operate the plant." -- Prof. P.V. Pannir Selvam, Technology Center, Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Brazil, Biofuel mailing list, 15 Apr 2007

See Biodiesel processors.

However, one-litre test batches are not just something for beginners. It's a basic technique you'll always use. Many experienced biodiesel makers do test batches with each batch of oil. Many not only titrate the oil every time to calculate the right amount of lye to use, they also do "bracket" tests in sequence, followed by wash tests. You learn a lot that way, your fuel gets better, life gets easier.

In fact life is already easier -- people who start off making 40-gallon batches often never learn the accuracy and discipline that comes from making one-litre test batches first. Their fuel quality suffers for it, and when they encounter that inevitable "problem batch", they suffer for it too.

But if you've followed the instructions here carefully, you'll be familiar with all the variables, you'll have good methodology, and you'll be in a much better position to trouble-shoot a problem batch successfully.

Keep a Biodiesel Journal -- make notes, keep records. Get some small glass jars and keep samples of all your batches, clearly labelled and cross-referenced to the notes in your journal. You won't regret it.

When scaling up from small test-batches to a full-sized processor, be aware that the process will probably need some adjusting. All the various processing methods use averages and approximations because processors and conditions vary so widely. Blenders especially agitate much faster than any full-scale processor, a real processor will probably take longer to achieve the same result. Use the fuel quality tests to fine-tune the process to your particular processor. See Scaling up.

Removing the water

Water in the oil interferes with the lye catalyst, especially if you use too much lye, and you can end up with a batch of jelly.

Test first for water content -- heat half a litre or so of the oil in a saucepan on the stove and monitor the temperature with a thermometer. If there's water in it it will start to "snap, crackle and pop" by 50 deg C (120 deg F) or so. If it's still not crackling by 60-65 deg C (140-149 deg F) there should be no need to dewater it.

See Mike Pelly's recommendations: Removing the water.

Here's another way, from Aleks Kac -- it uses less energy and doesn't risk forming more Free Fatty Acids (see below) by overheating. Heat the oil to 60 deg C (140 deg F), maintain the temperature for 15 minutes and then pour the oil into a settling tank. Let it settle for at least 24 hours (or for a week or two). Pump the oil out from the top, leave the bottom 90% for removal later and re-settling.

Here's what Biofuel mailing list member Dale Scroggins says about water removal:

Water in vegetable oil can exist as free water, which will eventually settle to the bottom of a vessel; as suspended droplets, which may settle if the oil is heated, or the droplets are coalesced; and as water in solution with other impurities in the oil. Free water is the easiest to remove. The droplets are removed most efficiently by coalescing and draining. Suspended droplets that cannot be coalesced and water in solution are more problematic.

Boiling off the water is more difficult than it appears on the surface. Colligative properties of solutions (and some mixtures) can make removal of the last traces of water almost impossible. Water mixed with oil will not boil at the same temperature and pressure as pure water. As water is removed, more heat or lower pressure will be required to remove more water. If the oil contains salts or semi-soluble fatty acids, distillation is even more difficult.

As the percentage of water in the solution decreases (its molar fraction) its vapor pressure will continue to drop. Lowering pressure in the system alone may be insufficient to sustain vaporization when the solution becomes concentrated (the molar fraction of the solute greatly exceeds that of the solvent). Results will vary depending upon the nature of the water-soluble impurities in the oil. Few solutions are ideal, in terms of Raoult's law, and in used vegetable oil, there is no way to know what solutes are in the oil.

The important thing is how well-used, or overused, the oil is. Titration will tell you that. The higher the titration result and the more acidic the oil, the more water it's likely to contain, and the more difficult it will probably be to remove the water.

Biofuel list member Joe Street adds:

Although Dale's points about unknown solutes in waste vegetable oil and their ability to lock up water are true I have found that practically speaking oil (even terrible oil) can be reliably dried to the point of being reacted without problems by the process of heat and vacuum.

Heating the oil to reaction temperature (I use 58 deg C, 136 deg F) and pulling a vacuum to 27 inches of mercury immediately before the reaction has allowed me to remove water beyond what falls out by heating alone.

I estimate that oil at 55-60 deg C can contain as much as 10,000 PPM (that's 1%) water. I have experimented with some extremely saturated oils (titrations up to 11 ml with 0.1% KOH) which require ridiculous amounts of catalyst when attempting base-only conversions. Although I cannot get complete conversions in these cases, drying the oil by heating and vacuum has allowed me to do this and still avoid problems with soap formation. (I am also very careful with my caustic and methanol.) Using a known temperature and a vacuum gauge is a very repeatable way of drying oil.

(See: Joe Street's processor)

Short of vacuum, start with heating the oil to 60 deg C and settling it, as Aleks Kac recommends, and if that doesn't give satisfactory results, try boiling the water off, as Mike Pelly recommends. Then try a small 1-litre test batch first.

If you still have difficulties, try to find a source of better-quality oil.

Or try using a glycerine pre-wash to lower the Free Fatty Acid level and dry the oil (see below, Glycerine pre-wash).

Or try this: Deacidifying WVO.

Filtering WVO

Many people filter their WVO before making biodiesel, but filtering takes time and energy, and there's really no need to filter it.

Settling the oil works just as well or better, and if it contains any water the water will settle out too.

If it's poor quality oil with a high titration level, heat it first, as in de-watering (above), and then let it settle.

If you don't have time to wait for the oil to settle, usually 1-2 weeks, it could be worth increasing the WVO supply and reserves to make the time.

If in collection you keep ahead of your processing rate, oil has a chance to settle. I have found that oil that has been sitting for several weeks is very dry if carefully decanted. Settling also results usually in oil which is spectacularly clear when observed in a glass container (you can read fine print through it) which means it is quite clean, perhaps cleaner than filtering may give you.
-- Joe Street, Biofuel mailing list, July 2006

I recently helped someone get off the ground making biodiesel. He's a tinkerer, and came up with an elaborate filtering/dewatering system. I repeatedly suggested that he trust gravity. He was away for about 10 days and when he came back he called to tell me that he couldn't distinguish the oil from the top half of an unfiltered cubie from his filtered oil. Getting rid of his filtering setup has made room for a settling tank.
-- Tom Kelly, Biofuel mailing list, April 2006

This is how Tom does it:

I allow the WVO to settle in cubies for a week. (A cubie is the 4.5 gal (17.7L) plastic container that veg oil is delivered to restaurants in.) I then pour the top 80% of each cubie into a 55 gal drum and consolidate the bottom 20% of 5 cubies into 1. Most of this will be ready for the barrel the next week. I have 4 WVO barrels. One is settled, two are settling, and one is being filled. I pump WVO out of the settled barrel from the top 3/4. This oil is very clear and requires very little drying.

We do it much the same way, settling the WVO first in the 18-litre metal cans it's supplied in here, then pouring it from the top. What's left at the bottom is re-settled.

We use a 55-gal (200-litre) steel drum for storage, but we don't pump the WVO out from the top. The drum has a bottom drain fitted with a 6"-high 3/4" standpipe (15cm-high x 1.9cm), which leaves any sediment on the bottom of the drum undisturbed.

Every now and then we drain the drum to the top of the standpipe, then remove the standpipe and drain the drum completely, sediment and all. The "bottoms" are resettled the same way, first in 18-litre metal cans.

The final sediment can be used as fire-starter, or added to the compost pile.

Simple gravity settling works well with oils titrating up to 3.5 ml NaOH solution and more.

The higher the titration level, the more water, impurities and suspensions the oil is likely to contain and the longer it will take to settle. For higher titration levels, heat the oil to 60 deg C (140 deg F), maintain the temperature for 15 minutes, then allow to cool, and let it settle.

Filtering biodiesel

There's no need to filter your biodiesel before using it either.

If you make the biodiesel properly, everything that a filter might remove will be in the by-product layer, not the biodiesel.

The biodiesel should be ready for instant consumption if it's clear and bright and without sediments.
-- Jan Warnqvist, Biofuel mailing list, Aug 2005

If the WVO has been filtered or settled to clear, any solid particles that get as far as the processor are small and won't affect the processing. During processing and settling, all unfiltered solids drop out into the glycerine by-product layer.

Settle it properly, separate the by-product carefully, wash, dry, and use. No need to filter it.

Badly processed biodiesel with poor conversion and too much soap might contain sediments in suspension, but if it's properly made it will be without sediments. Keep your processing fine-tuned by making test batches and using the quality tests.

People often want to "speed up" the process in the hopes of making it more efficient, and that often means taking short-cuts with settling times.

Don't do it -- life is easier with longer settling times, for the WVO, for the by-product to separate, and for the wash-water to separate, especially after the final wash.

Actually what people speeding up the process often want isn't more efficiency, it's more production. Probably they need a bigger processor, or two processors in parallel, rather than trying to make gravity hurry.

Glycerine pre-wash

From Biofuel mailing list member Chris Tan: "Good use for your glycerine cocktail", 6 Oct 2007:

Here's a good use for your glycerine cocktail before finally giving it away. My father came up with the idea that you can use the glycerine cocktail to dry your waste vegetable oil. And it works. Glycerine is hygroscopic enough to pull moisture out as it settles down so you don't have to heat or boil the oil to dry it. And as a bonus, most of the catalyst ends up in the glycerine cocktail so it neutralizes the Free Fatty Acids (FFAs) in the waste oil.

What we do is use at least 10/90 weight ratio: 10kg of glycerine for 90kg of waste oil. It is possible to bring the FFA level to zero if you use large amounts of glycerine (if you happen to have accumulated large amounts).

We use an ordinary 1/2 hp clear water pump with two inlet pipes to suck in glycerine and wvo. I adjust the inlet openings to regulate the mixing. We let it settle in a dedicated separate tank for about the same time as you would settle glycerine from biodiesel, though longer is better because of the viscosity of wvo.

We pump both glycerine cocktail and oil at the same time into a separate container. The glycerine will flow at a lower rate and the the inlet opening should be adjusted so that it finishes at the same time as the oil.

You can also mix it in the processor (just make sure to drain the water-rich glycerine and soap residue afterwards). Cycle the glycerine cocktail and oil mixture twice. The time it takes will depend on the gallons per minute rate of your pump, which is not the same for viscous oil, so measure and compute the time required for one or two cycles.

If the weather is cold, warming the oil first helps for mixing as well as settling: pre-heat to about 30 deg C (86 deg F).

-- Chris Tan

Washing

Biodiesel must be washed before use to remove soaps, excess methanol, residual lye, free glycerine and other contaminants. Some people (fewer and fewer of them) say washing isn't necessary, arguing that the small amounts of contaminants cause no engine damage.

Read what the Fuel Injection Equipment (FIE) Manufacturers (Delphi, Stanadyne, Denso, Bosch) have to say about these contaminants:
Summary -- html
Full document -- Acrobat file, 104kb

See also: Determining the Influence of Contaminants on Biodiesel Properties, Jon H. Van Gerpen et al., Iowa State University, July 31, 1996 -- 12,000-word report on contaminants and their effects. Acrobat file, 2.1Mb:
http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/reportsdatabase/reports/gen/gen014.pdf

Myth:

> I did notice that a lot of the chemistry in the book was wrong.
> His main argument seemed to be against losing the energy in
> the methanol that was washed out.

The "energy" does you no good if your particular thermodynamic cycle can't take advantage of it. What is the cetane rating of methanol?
-- Ken Provost, Biofuel mailing list, "Re: washing?"

Quite so. The cetane rating of methanol is only 3, very low. Low cetane-number fuel in a diesel causes ignition delay and makes the engine knock. The high-speed diesel engines in cars and trucks are designed to use fuels with cetane numbers of about 50. The US biodiesel standard specifies a cetane number higher than 47, the EU standard specifies higher than 51. The methanol in unwashed biodiesel doesn't "make a great fuel anyway". It's also very corrosive. The EU biodiesel standard specifies less than 0.2% methanol content.

Quality biodiesel is well-washed biodiesel. Filtering it is no use, and letting it settle for a few weeks won't help much either. Anyway washing the fuel is easy.

See Washing

Using biodiesel

You don't have to convert the engine to run it on biodiesel, but you might need to make some adjustments and you should check a few things.

Petroleum diesel leaves a lot of dirt in the tank and the fuel system. Biodiesel is a good solvent -- it tends to free the dirt and clean it out. Be sure to check the fuel filters regularly at first. Start off with a new fuel filter.

If a car has been left standing for a long time with petroleum diesel fuel in the tank the inside of the tank may have rusted (water content is a common problem with petro-diesel fuel). Biodiesel will free up the rust, and it could clog the particle filter inside the tank. At worst the car simply stops, starved of fuel. It's not a very common problem, but it happens. See: Biodiesel and your vehicle -- Compatability: Filters.

A common warning is that biodiesel, especially 100% biodiesel, will rot any natural or butyl rubber parts in the fuel system, whether fuel lines or injector pump seals, and that they must first be replaced with resistant parts made of Viton. But rubber parts in diesel engine fuel systems have been rare or non-existent since the early 1980s -- it seldom happens, and when it does happen it's not catastrophic, you have plenty of warning and it's easily fixed. See: Biodiesel and your vehicle -- Compatability: Rubber.

See Biodiesel and your vehicle

Safety

Please read this whole section right to the end.

Wear proper protective gloves, apron, and eye protection and do not inhale any vapours. Methanol can cause blindness and death, and you don't even have to drink it, it's absorbed through the skin. Sodium hydroxide can cause severe burns and death. Together these two chemicals form sodium methoxide. This is an extremely caustic chemical.

These are dangerous chemicals -- treat them as such! Gloves should be chemical-proof with cuffs that can be pulled up over long sleeves -- no shorts or sandals. Always have running water handy when working with them. The workspace must be thoroughly ventilated. No children or pets allowed.

Organic vapor cartridge respirators are more or less useless against methanol vapors. Professional advice is not to use organic vapor cartridges for longer than a few hours maximum, or not to use them at all. Only a supplied-air system will do (SCBA -- Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus).

The best advice is not to expose yourself to the fumes in the first place. The main danger is when the methanol is hot -- when it's cold or at "room temperature" it fumes very little if at all and it's easily avoided, just keep it at arm's length whenever you open the container. Don't use "open" reactors -- biodiesel processors should be closed to the atmosphere, with no fumes escaping. All methanol containers should be kept tightly closed anyway to prevent water absorption from the air.

We transfer methanol from its container to the methoxide mixing container by pumping it, with no exposure. This is easily arranged, and an ordinary small aquarium air-pump will do. The methoxide is mixed like this -- Methoxide the easy way, which also happens to be the safe way. The mixture gets quite hot at first, but the container is kept closed and no fumes escape. When mixed, the methoxide is again pumped into the (closed) biodiesel processor with the aquarium air-pump -- there's no exposure to fumes, and it's added slowly, which is optimal for the process and also for safety. See Adding the methoxide.

Once again, making biodiesel is safe if you're careful and sensible -- nothing about life is safe if you're not careful and sensible! "Sensible" also mean not over-reacting, as some people do: "I'd like to make biodiesel but I'm frightened of all those terrible poisons." In fact they're common enough household chemicals. Lye is sold in supermarkets and hardware stores as a drain-cleaner, there's probably a can of it under the sink in most households. Methanol is the main or only ingredient in barbecue fuel or fondue fuel, sold in supermarkets and chain stores as "stove fuel" and used at the dinner table. It's also the main ingredient in the fuel kids use in their model aero engines. So get it in perspective: be careful with these chemicals -- be careful with ALL chemicals -- but there's no need to be frightened of them.

For fire risks, see Hazards

More about methanol

Question: Just how dangerous is methanol?

Fact: Methanol is a poisonous chemical that can blind you or kill you, and as well as drinking it you can absorb it through the skin and breathe in the fumes.

Question: How much does it take to kill you?

Short answer: Anything from five teaspoons to more than half a pint, but nobody really knows.

Fact: Human susceptibility to the acute effects of methanol intoxication is extremely variable. The minimum dose of methanol causing permanent visual defects is unknown. The lethal dose of methanol for humans is not known for certain. The minimum lethal dose of methanol in the absence of medical treatment is put at between 0.3 and 1 g/kg.

That means it's thought to take at least 20 grams of methanol to kill an average-sized person, or 25 ml, five teaspoonsful. Or it might need more than three times as much, 66 grams, 17 teaspoonsful, or maybe more, and even then it'll only kill you if you can't reach a doctor within a day or two, and maybe it still won't kill you.

But it definitely can kill you. If you drink five teaspoonsful of pure methanol you'll need medical treatment even if it doesn't kill you. Yet people have survived doses of 10 times as much -- a quarter of a litre, half a pint -- without any permanent harm. But others haven't survived much lower doses. Getting rapid medical attention is crucial, though the poisoning effects can be slow to develop.

Authorities advise that swallowing up to 1.3 grams or 1.7 ml of methanol or inhaling methanol vapour concentrations below 200 ppm should be harmless for most people. No severe effects have been reported in humans of methanol vapour exposures well above 200 ppm.

Out of 1,601 methanol poisonings reported in the US in 1987 the death rate was 0.375%, or 1 in 267 cases. It might have been only 1 in more than a thousand cases because most cases weren't reported. Most cases were caused by drinking badly made moonshine, which is a worldwide problem.

Fiction: "Methanol is ... a very active chemical against which the human body has no means of defence. It is absorbed easily through the skin and there is no means of elimination from the body, so levels of methanol dissolved in the blood accumulate."

That's from a British website trying to sell Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) solvent additives by frightening people with the alleged perils of biodiesel. See The SVO vs biodiesel argument

Fact: 30 litres of fruit juice will probably contain up to 20 grams of methanol, near the official minimum lethal dose. Methanol is in the food we eat, in fresh fruit and vegetables, beer and wine, diet drinks, artificial sweeteners.

Not only that, methanol occurs naturally in humans. It's a natural component of blood, urine, saliva and the air you breathe out. It's there anyway even if you've never been exposed to chemical methanol or its fumes.

Methanol is eliminated from the body as a normal matter of course via the urine and exhaled air and by metabolism. Getting rid of it takes from a few hours for low doses to a day or two for higher doses. Some proportion of a dose of methanol just goes straight through, excreted by the lungs and kidneys unchanged. The normal background-level quantities of methanol in humans are eliminated and replenished all the time as a matter of course.

Fiction: It's largely biodiesel's methanol content that's being blamed when the same British SVO website charges that biodiesel is wasteful and environmentally irresponsible.

Fact: Methanol is readily biodegradable in the environment under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions (with and without oxygen) in a wide variety of conditions.

Generally 80% of methanol in sewage systems is biodegraded within 5 days.

Methanol is a normal growth substrate for many soil microorganisms, which completely degrade methanol to carbon dioxide and water.

Methanol is of low toxicity to aquatic and terrestrial organisms and it is not bioaccumulated. (It's toxic mainly to humans and monkeys.)

Environmental effects due to exposure to methanol are unlikely. Unless released in high concentrations, methanol would not be expected to persist or bioaccumulate in the environment. Low levels of release would not be expected to result in adverse environmental effects.

Fiction: A European SVO fuel website using similar anti-biodiesel tactics claims: "Biodiesel is a chemically altered plant oil. However the process to chemically change the structure of Pure Plant Oil is a very costly operation and requires a lot of energy, as it removes the glycerine substituting it by methanol as well as adding other chemicals, making the end-product poisonous and equally hazardous as fossil diesel fuel."

Fact: There is no free methanol in washed biodiesel. All the national standards require washing. According to US EPA studies methyl esters biodiesel is less toxic than table salt and more biodegradable than sugar. It has none of the toxic or environmental hazards of fossil diesel fuel.

To put it all in some perspective, methanol is the main or only ingredient in barbecue fuel or fondue fuel, sold in supermarkets and chain stores as "stove fuel" and used at the dinner table. It's also the main ingredient in the fuel kids use in their model aero engines.

Yes, methanol is a dangerous chemical, but quite how dangerous it may be is a little hard to say, and it causes surprisingly little harm. If you're careful and sensible and treat it with caution it won't harm you either. Many thousands of biodiesel homebrewers worldwide have been using it for years without serious mishap.

In our view, the difference between methanol and the really dangerous chemicals is that although methanol is poisonous, it's a natural chemical, you'd find it in the Garden of Eden too. It's not something nature's simply never heard of before and has no way of handling and neither do you, unlike too many of the 100,000-odd "new" chemicals now in use which aren't readily biodegradable and do accumulate, and spread, and keep being implicated in cancer clusters and bizarre sexual distortions of frogs and so on and on and on.

There are no reports of carcinogenic, genotoxic, reproductive or developmental effects in humans due to methanol exposure. Its environmental effects if any are minimal and short-lived.

Biodieselers can and do use methanol safely and the biodiesel fuel we make from it is safe and clean.

-- With information from: United Nations Environment Programme / International Labour Organisation / World Health Organization: International Programme On Chemical Safety, Environmental Health Criteria 196 - Methanol, from IPCS INCHEM, "Chemical Safety Information from Intergovernmental Organizations", in cooperation with the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)
http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc196.htm

See also:

Safety (MSDS) data for methyl alcohol
http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/ME/methyl_alcohol.html

Methanol MSDS
http://www.bu.edu/es/labsafety/ESMSDSs/MSMethanol.html

Methanol as a plant nutrient

"Methanol is a fixed-carbon nutrient source for plants." -- From "Agriculture and Methanol", Chapter 7, Methanol Production and Use, ed. Wu-Hsun Cheng and Harold H. Kung, ISBN 0-8247-9223-8, 1994 (10th printing)

"Methanol treatments of C3 plants [most food crops] have been found to result in growth improvement... As a plant source of carbon, methanol is a liquid concentrate: 1 cc of methanol provides the equivalent fixed-carbon substrate of over 2,000,000 cc of ambient air... Methanol treatments are a means of placing carbon directly into the foliage... The application of 10-100% methanol to some crops increased photosynthetic productivity... The uptake of methanol by plants in light leaves no significant residual methanol above baseline as detectable by chromotography within 15-30 minutes of penetration. Treatment with methanol is therefore an inexpensive, safe, and effective means of providing plants with a source of fixed carbon and carbon dioxide... An economical means of inhibition of photorespiration has been sought for decades, and methanol may well provide the solution... The control of photorespiration across the food crops of the world could double yields." -- Greg Harbican and Peter G., Biofuel mailing list, 8 Sep 2004. For discussion see:
http://snipurl.com/j94f
Methanol and Plants
http://snipurl.com/j94e
Use for wash water - methanol

Note however that the authors of Methanol Production and Use caution that the application of methanol to crops still requires further study before we all "rush out to spray methanol".

Most of the excess methanol used in the biodiesel process ends up in the glycerine by-product layer, and the rest stays in the biodiesel. If you don't reclaim it for re-use (you should!) the portion that's in the biodiesel gets washed out when you wash the fuel, mostly with the first wash. The first wash-water probably won't contain more than 5-6% methanol (as well as some sodium or potassium lye and some soap). You could try spraying it on half a small patch of weeds and don't spray the other half to see what happens. Choose a bright sunny day.

source:http://journeytoforever.org/

Make your first test batch of biodiesel

2008-07-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

Biodiesel

"We turned our kitchen into a sort of illicit still and made a hell of a mess in there brewing biodiesel fuel out of about 60 litres of yukky waste cooking oil we got from behind McDonald's one night (they were happy to give it to us once we told them we didn't want to eat it). We were sure it would work, but we had to make it ourselves first -- we're not chemists, and if we can make it anyone can.

"And it works! Amazing! Last night we put the stuff in Midori's old diesel Land Rover and it ran like a dream and smelt like a bunch of roses! Well, French fried roses anyway. Now it runs clean, on waste Big Mac residues we brewed up in a bucket in the kitchen, and we're very tickled!"

Make your first test batch of biodiesel

Start here -- What you need, what to do, how to do it, everything you need to know -- step-by-step instructions for making high-quality biodiesel fuel, from novice to advanced level.

Biodiesel facts

The raw material -- used cooking oil.

Biodiesel is much cleaner than fossil-fuel diesel ("dinodiesel"). It can be used in any diesel engine with no need for modifications -- in fact diesel engines run better and last longer with biodiesel. And it can easily be made from a common waste product -- used cooking oil.

Biodiesel burns up to 75% cleaner than conventional petroleum diesel fuel.
Biodiesel reduces unburned hydrocarbons (-93%), carbon monoxide (-50%) and particulate matter (-30%) in exhaust fumes, as well as cancer-causing PAH (-80%) and nitrited PAH compounds (-90%). (US Environmental Protection Agency)
Sulphur dioxide emissions are eliminated (biodiesel contains no sulphur).
Biodiesel is plant-based and using it adds no extra CO2 to the atmosphere.
The ozone-forming (smog) potential of biodiesel emissions is nearly 50% less than petro-diesel emissions.
Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions may increase or decrease but can be reduced to well below petro-diesel fuel levels.
Biodiesel exhaust is not offensive and doesn't cause eye irritation (it smells like French fries!).
Biodiesel is environmentally friendly: it is renewable, "more biodegradable than sugar and less toxic than table salt" (US National Biodiesel Board, based on US Environmental Protection Agency studies).
Biodiesel is a much better lubricant than petro-diesel and extends engine life -- even a small amount of biodiesel means cleaner emissions and better engine lubrication: 1% biodiesel added to petro-diesel will increase lubricity by 65%.
Biodiesel can be mixed with petro-diesel in any proportion, with no need for a mixing additive.
Biodiesel has a higher cetane number than petroleum diesel because of its oxygen content. The higher the cetane number, the more efficient the fuel -- the engine starts more easily, runs better and burns cleaner.
With slight variations depending on the vehicle, performance and fuel economy with biodiesel is the same as with petro-diesel.
Biodiesel can be used in any diesel engine without modification.

See the US National Biodiesel Board's summary of biodiesel emissions and potential health effects, according to "the most stringent emissions testing protocols ever required by the US EPA" (Acrobat file, 40 kb):
http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/emissions.pdf

Diesel emissions and cancer

A U.S. Department of Energy study at the University of California at Davis found that using pure biodiesel instead of petro-diesel reduced cancer risks from exhaust emissions by 93.6%.

The study, Chemical and Bioassay Analyses of Diesel and Biodiesel Particulate Matter, 1996, used a 1995 Dodge 3/4 ton pickup truck with a 5.9-litre Cummins B Turbo diesel and tested 100% biodiesel (ethyl ester of rapeseed oil -- REE), 100% diesel 2-D low-sulfur fuel and blends of 20% REE and 50% REE with the 2-D diesel fuel. In test after test the study found the highest risk came from 100% diesel fuel, followed by the 20% REE blend, the 50% REE blend and, lowest risk, the pure biodiesel.

"Use of the 100% REE fuel produced the lowest genotoxic (DNA-damaging) activity in the tests. Blended fuels in the non-catalyst-equipped engine produced less emissions than emissions than the 100% diesel fuel... The use of the 100% REE fuel resulted in the lowest emissions compared to the REE blends and 100% diesel fuels.

"The highest relative specific mass mutagenic activity collected during either the hot or cold test cycles was the particulate matter collected from the 100% diesel fuel emissions... The lowest relative specific mass mutagenic activity was from the particulate matter collected from emissions of l00% REE fuel."

NOTE: There's nothing special about ethyl ester of rapeseed oil biodiesel, other types of biodiesel have similar characteristics.

Chemical and Bioassay Analyses of Diesel and Biodiesel Particulate Matter: Pilot Study -- Final Report by Norman Y. Kado, Robert A. Okamoto and Paul A. Kuzmicky, Department of Environmental Toxicology, University of California, Davis, California, November 1996. Acrobat file, 3.1Mb.
UC Davis biodiesel study -- summary: the Summary, Results and Discussion sections of the report, in html format.

Greenhouse gases and global warming

Human-caused global warming is one of the greatest and most urgent challenges facing humanity and life on earth today.

The main culprit is the enormous amount of the potent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels (petroleum, coal, natural gas).

Burning fossil fuels releases more than 6 billion tons of CO2 per year, twice as much as the biosphere can absorb. The excess CO2 is clogging the atmosphere, with the result that less solar heat is reflected away, more heat reaches the earth's surface, and global temperatures rise.

Using vegetable oils or animal fats as fuel for motor vehicles is in effect running them on solar energy.

All biofuels (including fuel ethanol) depend on the conversion of sunlight to energy (carbohydrates) that takes place in the green leaves of plants.

Plants use water and CO2 from the atmosphere as the raw materials for making carbohydrates. Burning plant (or animal) products in an engine releases the CO2 back into the atmosphere, to be taken up again by other plants. The CO2 is recycled.

Natural mechanisms work to hold the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere at a stable level, maintaining a balance between the CO2 removed from the atmosphere to be "fixed" into growing organic matter and the CO2 released back into the atmosphere when the organic matter burns or dies and decays. The net amount of CO2 in the atmosphere stays the same.

Activitities that don't disrupt this balance are described as carbon-neutral.

In fact, there's no actual reduction in the amount of CO2 produced when biodiesel is burned instead of petro-diesel -- the same amount of CO2 will come out of the exhaust pipe with either fuel.

But the CO2 released by burning biodiesel is part of the current natural cycle, it does not raise the level of CO2 in the atmosphere and does not act as a greenhouse gas. Biodiesel is carbon-neutral and does not increase global warming.

Petro-diesel is not carbon-neutral. Burning petro-diesel unleashes CO2 that has been trapped beneath the earth for millions of years, upsetting the natural balance and raising the level of CO2 in the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to rise. Fossil-fuel CO2 is an active greenhouse gas.

In practice however, not all biodiesel is carbon-neutral. It depends how it's produced. "Life-cycle" studies of the whole production process from sowing the seed to filling the fuel tank can show a different picture.

Industrialised agricultural production of oil crops like soy or rapeseed depends heavily on fossil-fuel inputs which must be included in the equation, and biodiesel made from these crops is not carbon-neutral. But petro-diesel is a lot worse.

Organic farms don't use fossil-fuel-based chemical fertilizers and their fossil-fuel inputs are much lower, shrinking to zero when they produce their own fuel and energy on-farm, as a growing number of organic farmers are doing.

Biodiesel made from used cooking oil (WVO -- waste vegetable oil) should also qualify. Most WVO ends up in the sewers and landfills where it does no good and doesn't offset any fossil-fuel use. Converting it to biodiesel is a much better option, a social service. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

The US produces an estimated 4.5 billion gallons a year of used cooking oil, and most of it goes to waste. By comparison, US commercial production of biodiesel in 2006 was only 250 million gallons, most of it made from new soy oil, very little from used oil.

Biodiesel homebrewers, small-scale local projects and local coops nearly always use WVO, seldom new oil.

World carbon dioxide levels highest for 650,000 years, says US report, by David Adam, environment correspondent, The Guardian, Tuesday May 13 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/
2008/may/13/carbonemissions.climatechange

Carbon dioxide emissions accelerating rapidly, Earth Policy Institute, April 9, 2008
http://www.precaution.org/lib/08/prn_co2_emissions_
accelerating.080410.htm

Energy efficiency

According to a comparative life-cycle study by the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, biodiesel requires only 0.31 units of fossil energy to make 1 unit of fuel.
An Overview of Biodiesel and Petroleum Diesel Life Cycles
http://www.ott.doe.gov/biofuels/docs/lifecycle.html

"By contrast, it takes 1.2 units of fossil resources to produce 1 unit of petroleum diesel," the study says.

We wonder what the true energy efficiency figures for biodiesel would be if fossil fuels were eliminated from the equation and the entire production process powered by biofuels produced on the farm, from planting the seeds to filling the tank. If it's an an organic farm the fossil-fuel based chemical fertilizers are eliminated as well. And why waste energy trucking energy crops to a distant large-scale central processing unit and then waste even more energy trucking the finished fuel all the way back again, instead of processing it and using it right there where it was grown?

Grow your own

For a range of small-scale oilseed presses see Oilseed presses at our Biofuels supplies and suppliers page.

Rapeseed (Brassica napus), or canola, produces about 2,000 pounds of seed per acre, yielding about 100 gallons of vegetable oil for fuel, as well as 1,200 pounds of high-protein meal (seedcake) which can be used for livestock feed, or composted, or added to a biogas digester to produce methane for cooking and heating, or used to make ethanol.

Yields from soybeans are about 60 gallons per acre, from coconuts more than 200 gallons per acre, and from oil palms more than 500 gallons per acre. (See Vegetable oil yields.)

On the small scale, one bushel of rapeseed (canola) produces about 3 gallons of biodiesel.

The Sunflower Seed Huller and Oil Press -- by Jeff Cox (from Organic Gardening, April 1979, Rodale Press): Vegetable oils used to be one of those items you just HAD to buy. Now here's how to make your own. In 2,500 square feet, a family of four can grow each year enough sunflower seed to produce three gallons of homemade vegetable oil suitable for salads or cooking and 20 pounds of nutritious, dehulled seed -- with enough broken seeds left over to feed a winter's worth of birds. Online at the Journey to Forever Biofuels Library.

Briquette Presses for Alternate Fuel Use, by Jason Dahlman with Charlie Forst, 2001 -- Design for a simple briquette press that can also be used as an oil press for seeds. Acrobat file, 2.8Mb
http://www.echotech.org/technical/
technotes/Briquete.pdf

"The Manual Screw Press for Small-Scale Oil Extraction" by Kathryn H. Potts, Keith MacHell, 1993, Practical Action, ISBN 1853391980
Manual oil extraction from peanuts or other soft oilseeds can be a viable enterprise for small businesses. Describes small-scale processes of oil extraction for use in rural areas, as well as ways to market and distribute the oilcake. From the Development Bookshop:
http://developmentbookshop.com/product_info.php?
ref=13&products_id=172&affiliate_banner_id=1

"Small-scale Vegetable Oil Extraction", S W Head, A A Swetman, T W Hammonds, A Gordon, K H Southwell and R V Harris, Natural Resources Institute, 1994, ISBN 0 85954 387-0 -- Covers a basic understanding of the science and composition of oils and economic and marketing considerations, principles of oil extraction, basic oilseed processing methods, the major oil sources with specific small and intermediate technologies for each. Results from actual third world situations are used. For example, the discussion of obtaining oil from sesame seed covers a hot water flotation method used in Uganda and Sudan, the bridge press (laboratory only), the ram press in Tanzania, the ghani process in Sudan, and a small-scale expeller in the Gambia. Technical details for each are summarized in a few paragraphs, including oil yields. Includes many drawings that are helpful in understanding each process, with a 14-page appendix listing suppliers of small-scale equipment. From the Development Bookshop:
http://developmentbookshop.com/product_info.php?
ref=13&products_id=919&affiliate_banner_id=1

Understanding Pressure Extraction of Vegetable Oils, VITA Technical Paper #40, by VITA Volunteers James William Casten and Harry E. Snyder. Full text online at CD3WD 3rd World Development online library:
http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/vita/vegoilex/en/vegoilex.htm

Understanding Solvent Extraction of Vegetable Oils, VITA Technical Paper # 41, by VITA Volunteer Nathan Kessler. Full text online at CD3WD 3rd World Development online library:
http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/vita/vegoilse/en/vegoilse.htm

Small-Scale Oil Extraction from Groundnuts and Copra (ILO - WEP, 1983, 128 p.), full text online at CD3WD 3rd World Development online library:
http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/
cd3wd/foodproc/h2384e/en/b989.htm

Small Scale Vegetable Oil Extraction (NRI, 1995, 105 p.) -- Coconuts, groundnuts, oil palm, palm kernels, rapeseed/mustard seed, sesame, shea nuts, soya, sunflower seed, minor oilseeds (reference list). Full text online at CD3WD 3rd World Development online library:
http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/
cd3wd/foodproc/nr18se/en/b981.htm

"Small-scale Oilseed Processing" by Janet Bachmann, NCAT Agriculture Specialist, Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) -- Basic processes involved in small-scale oilseed processing, includes a low-tech method for raw material preparation using sunflower seeds as an example; information on methods and equipment used for oil extraction; notes on clarification, packaging, and storage. Sources for additional information and a list of suitable raw material.
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/oilseed.html

Official

Biodiesel is recognized by both the US Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy as an alternative fuel, and qualifies for mandated programs under the Clean Air Act Amendments and the Environmental Protection Act of 1992 (EPAct). In California, biodiesel has been approved for use in remediation of petroleum oil spills.

US Department of Energy approval: "Vehicle fleets currently required to purchase light duty alternative fueled vehicles under the Energy Policy Act of 1992 will be now allowed to purchase biodiesel fuel as an alternative, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Then-Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham has approved a final rule allowing biodiesel fuel to qualify as an alternative fuel for automobile fleets under the Energy Policy Act." -- U.S. Department of Energy, April 30, 2001. "The continued use of biomass products like biodiesel in our vehicle fleets, for power generation and for other products and materials will help the environment and help diversify our energy resources," said Abraham.

USDA Clears Air with Biodiesel: Buses and other diesel-burning vehicles run cleaner if they mix biodiesel with regular diesel fuel, said the US Department of Agriculture at a biodiesel fuel seminar at a USDA research center. "The program is part of a federal effort to reduce reliance on petroleum and create new markets for US crops," said Floyd P. Horn, administrator of the Agricultural Research Service, USDA's chief scientific agency. "Crop-based diesel burns cleaner, less sooty. One of our goals is to increase the federal government's purchases of bio-based fuel and other products by 10% per year over the next 5 years. We want to encourage the private sector and local governments to do the same." (January 13, 2000)
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2000/000113.htm

Europe leads the way in biodiesel production and consumption. Germany has more than 1,900 filling stations selling biodiesel at the pump. France is the world's largest producer: all French diesel fuel contains between 2% and 5% biodiesel, and that will soon apply to the whole of Europe, and to other countries.

Meanwhile biodiesel production in the US is growing rapidly, from only half a million gallons in 2000 to 250 million gallons in 2006, with more than 80 new large-scale plants due to come online in 2008.

China, India and Brazil are rapidly becoming major producers and many other countries are following. One report forecast that by the year 2020 as much as 20% of all on-road diesel fuel used in Europe, Brazil, China and India could be biodiesel.

Unofficial

At the local level, Journey to Forever has been at the forefront of the development of cheap, effective and safe small-scale production methods that produce high-quality fuel and that anyone can use.

Worldwide, many thousands of small, independent, local operations are now producing and using millions and millions of gallons of biodiesel a year, with millions of dollars in petro-diesel sales lost to ExxonMobil & Co.

Most of it goes right under the official radar. Nobody has any clear idea of quite who these people are or how much fuel they produce, mainly because the individual quantities are so small it's considered insignificant. But the grassroots biodiesel movement is growing fast and spreading like a weed, it's suitably out of control.

And it's not destroying rainforests and forcing up food prices so poor people can't afford to eat. It's industrialised "agrofuels" production that does that -- true biofuels production is small-scale, local and sustainable.

source:http://journeytoforever.org/

How to Convert a Car to Run on Vegetable Oil

2008-07-16T05:09:00.000-07:00

How to Convert a Car to Run on Vegetable Oil

By Lilia Scott

Diesel engines can run on three basic types of fuel: petroleum diesel, biodiesel, and straight vegetable oil (SVO). Diesel fuel produces carbon dioxide, pollution, particulates and sulfur emissions and increases reliance on foreign oil because it comes from petroleum. Any diesel engine can run on biodiesel. Biodiesel is a clean-burning fuel made from domestic, renewable plant sources, such as oils from vegetables, peanuts, soy beans, canola/rape seeds, hemp seeds and some grains. It has undergone the process of transesterification, a simple chemical modification of ordinary vegetable oil that makes the fuel usable in diesel engines and keeps it from thickening at colder temperatures.

Instructions

Step1

Start with a modern diesel engine. Nearly any newer diesel engine can be converted to run on vegetable oil as long as it doesn’t have rubber seals in its fuel system (only older diesels use rubber seals). The rubber seals will deteriorate when exposed to vegetable oil over time because vegetable oil acts as a solvent.

Step2

Install a vegetable oil fuel conversion kit or have a mechanic do it. You should keep the original gas tank to hold regular diesel or biodiesel fuel for cold weather. Install a second tank for vegetable oil; these sometimes go in the trunk. The conversion kit should include hoses from the car's radiator to the vegetable oil tank to heat the oil via a heat exchanger before it enters the final fuel filter and injectors inside the engine compartment.

Step3

Get vegetable oil. New vegetable oil is easiest to acquire but very expensive. Restaurants will often give you their waste oil for free. Chinese and Japanese restaurants are best because their oils comes out cleanest. The oil should be amber in color. Oil from other types of restaurants may also be suitable but could require more filtering to remove food particles. You will need a few containers for transferring the oil from the source to your filtering destination. The five gallon jugs that the restaurants receive the fresh oil in work fine. Restaurants are usually happy to give you these containers since it saves them disposal fees.

Step4

Filter the oil. Use filter bags that are rated to 0.5 microns thick. To increase the life of your filter bags, first allow the oil to sit in a barrel for about a week to let particulate matter settle to the bottom. Then, pump or scoop the oil into a filter bag suspended above a fresh empty barrel from the top of the barrel (since most of the food particles matter and possible water is at the bottom). Start your engine using regular diesel or biodiesel fuel from the normal gas tank. Once the engine and vegetable oil are warm (after about 15 minutes depending on weather), switch to allow the vegetable oil to flow into the fuel source.

Step5

Switch back to diesel or biodiesel a few minutes before you stop your engine for any time (about 10 minutes depending on the temperature) to make sure the vegetable oil is purged from the fuel line and injectors so that they don't become clogged when the engine cools.

Tips & Warnings

In warm weather, the car can be started and run completely on vegetable oil.
Make sure to keep your regular diesel tank just in case you may run out of vegetable oil or want to travel to a cooler climate.
Purge the fuel line and fuel pump/injector with biodiesel or regular diesel every time you stop your engine just in case the weather turns cold unexpectedly.
It’s possible to change the rubber seals on older diesel vehicles so that they too can be converted to run on vegetable oil.
Consider using a fuel injector/piston cleaner every six months to remove any accumulated carbon deposits. To do this, just pour the 12-ounce bottle into the tank before you drive.
Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that has been tested completely for health effects based on the requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.
Biodiesel is sometimes combined with standard diesel and sold under the label “biodiese.l” However, its benefits are relevant to the portion of pure biodiesel used.
Straight vegetable oil (SVO) is any vegetable oil that can power diesel engines but has not undergone the transesterification process. The major constraint of using SVO is that it thickens at colder temperatures (below 25 degrees Fahrenheit), but it can be warmed up before reaching the engine's fuel injectors.
It’s expensive to buy and use fresh cooking oil, but restaurants are often willing to donate their used cooking oil, which is commonly called Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO). Vegetable oil engine conversion kits include a heating system and usually a second gas tank to get around the cold weather issues. Like Biodiesel, SVO produces very low emissions. However, raw vegetable oil does not meet biodiesel fuel specifications and is not registered with the EPA, nor is it a legal motor fuel.
Converting your car to run on vegetable oil can void any warranty you have on your car. Contact your dealer or manufacturer to find out.

Source: Ehow.com

A Modern Sequel

2008-07-08T04:29:00.000-07:00

Nagging Questions

In 1985 the Science Museum in London set out to construct a working Difference Engine No. 2 built faithfully to Babbage's original designs dating from 1847-9. The project was led by the then Curator of Computing, Doron Swade. The purpose of the project was both to memorialize Babbage's work in time for 200^th anniversary, in 1991, of Babbage's birth, and at the same time to resolve two nagging questions: could Babbage have built his engine, and had he done so, would it have worked?

Authenticity

Babbage left twenty large design drawings which depict the Engine's mechanisms. Detailed as they are, they are insufficiently detailed to serve as manufacturing drawings. Tolerances, methods of manufacture, choice of materials and finish are not specified. New drawings were made specifying each of the 8,000 parts with sufficient detail for manufacture. Modern manufacturing methods were used but uncompromising care was taken to ensure that the precision achievable by Babbage was nowhere exceeded. Composition analysis on materials used by Babbage was carried out to ensure the best materials match.

Final Vindication

The project took seventeen years to complete. The calculating section was finished in 1991 in time for the bicentenary of Babbage's birth, and the printing and stereotyping apparatus was completed in 2002. The project had a drama worthy of Babbage - funding crises, manufacturing challenges, impossible deadlines, and technical puzzles.

The completed machine works as Babbage intended. Its 8,000 parts are equally split between the calculating section and the output apparatus. It weighs five tons and measures seven feet high, eleven feet long and is eighteen inches deep at its narrowest. As a static object it is a sight to behold - a sumptuous piece of engineering sculpture. In operation it is an arresting spectacle.

The project confirms Babbage's standing as a designer of formidable ingenuity. It also demonstrates that achievable precision was not a limiting consideration in Babbage's failures. It appears that the 19^th century outcome had as much to do with politics, economics, and personalities, as with technology. We can say with some confidence that had Babbage built his engine, it would have worked.

The complete working Babbage engine is on public display at the Science Museum in London. A duplicate engine and printer, a 'second original', was recently completed for a private benefactor of the project, Nathan Myhrvold, formerly chief technology officer and Group VP at Microsoft. Myhrvold has generously agreed to delay delivery of the Engine to him and lend it to the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California, where it will be displayed and demonstrated until May 2009.

Source:http://www.computerhistory.org/

How it Works

2008-07-08T04:25:00.000-07:00

Principle of the Difference Engines

Difference engines are so called because of the mathematical principle on which they are based, namely, the method of finite differences. In general, calculating the value of a polynomial can require any or all of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

An advantage of the method of finite differences is that it eliminates the need for multiplication and division, and allows the values of a polynomial to be calculated using simple addition only. Adding two numbers using gearwheels is easier to implement than multiplication or division and so the method simplifies an otherwise complex mechanism.

If the first few values of a polynomial are known, the rest may be calculated using simple repeated addition. The method is illustrated in the diagram above for the function F(x) = x² + 4. The values of x are shown in the first column incrementing by 1 each time (x = 1, 2, 3, 4 . . .). The values of the function x² + 4 are shown in the second column with the first four values calculated by mental arithmetic or by hand (5, 8, 13, 20).

The next step is to calculate the first and second differences. The first differences are shown in the third column and are calculated by subtracting successive values from the previous column as shown by the solid arrows flowing from left to right (8-5=3, 13-8=5 etc.). The second differences are calculated by subtracting first difference pairs and these are shown in the last column.

With these initial values calculated the rest of the values of the function can calculated by reversing the process. The values we wish to calculate are shown below the upper dotted line. For this polynomial, the second difference is a constant (2). To calculate the value of the function for x=5 the constant difference (2) is added to the first difference (7) to obtain the next first difference (9) (red arrow), which can then be added to the last function value (blue arrow) to yield F(5) = 29. This is the desired result, achieved without performing multiplication.

The process can then be repeated to yield the next first difference (11) which may be added to the last function value to get F(6) = 40, etc. Using this method, any second-degree polynomial can be computed this way and, more generally any n^th degree polynomial can be computed, using only addition, starting with the n^th difference.

Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 has 'registers' to hold one number from each of the columns in the table (for example 20, 7, 2). It would add the second difference to the first, then add that result to the function value to compute the next entry in the table. There were enough 'registers' for seven differences, allowing it to compute 31-digit values for polynomials with terms up to x⁷.

The Engines

2008-07-08T04:22:00.000-07:00

The Engines

Charles Babbage (1791-1871), computer pioneer, designed two classes of engine, Difference Engines, and Analytical Engines. Difference engines are so called because of the mathematical principle on which they are based, namely, the method of finite differences. The beauty of the method is that it uses only arithmetical addition and removes the need for multiplication and division which are more difficult to implement mechanically.

Difference engines are strictly calculators. They crunch numbers the only way they know how - by repeated addition according to the method of finite differences. They cannot be used for general arithmetical calculation. The Analytical Engine is much more than a calculator and marks the progression from the mechanized arithmetic of calculation to fully-fledged general-purpose computation. There were at least three designs at different stages of the evolution of his ideas. So it is strictly correct to refer to the Analytical Engines in the plural.

Binary, Decimal and Error Detection

Babbage's calculating engines are decimal digital machines. They are decimal in that they use the familiar ten numbers '0' to '9' and they are digital in the sense that only whole numbers are recognized as valid. Number values are represented by gear wheels and each digit of a number has its own wheel. If a wheel comes to rest in a position intermediate between whole number values, the value is regarded as indeterminate and the engine is designed to jam to indicate that the integrity of the calculation has been compromised. Jamming is a form of error-detection.

Babbage considered using number systems other than decimal including binary as well as number bases 3, 4, 5, 12, 16 and 100. He settled for decimal out of engineering efficiency - to reduce the number of moving parts - as well as for their everyday familiarity.

Difference Engine No. 1

Babbage began in 1821 with Difference Engine No. 1, designed to calculate and tabulate polynomial functions. The design describes a machine to calculate a series of values and print results automatically in a table. Integral to the concept of the design is a printing apparatus mechanically coupled to the calculating section and integral to it. Difference Engine No. 1 is the first complete design for an automatic calculating engine.

From time to time Babbage changed the capacity of the Engine. The 1830 design shows a machine calculating with sixteen digits and six orders of difference. The Engine called for some 25,000 parts shared equally between the calculating section and the printer. Had it been built it would have weighed an estimated fifteen tons and stood about eight feet high. Work was halted on the construction of the Engine in 1832 following a dispute with the engineer, Joseph Clement. Government funding was finally axed in 1842.

The Analytical Engine

With the construction project stalled, and freed from the nuts and bolts of detailed construction, Babbage conceived, in 1834, a more ambitious machine, later called Analytical Engine, a general-purpose programmable computing engine.

The Analytical Engine has many essential features found in the modern digital computer. It was programmable using punched cards, an idea borrowed from the Jacquard loom used for weaving complex patterns in textiles. The Engine had a 'Store' where numbers and intermediate results could be held, and a separate 'Mill' where the arithmetic processing was performed. It had an internal repertoire of the four arithmetical functions and could perform direct multiplication and division. It was also capable of functions for which we have modern names: conditional branching, looping (iteration), microprogramming, parallel processing, iteration, latching, polling, and pulse-shaping, amongst others, though Babbage nowhere used these terms. It had a variety of outputs including hardcopy printout, punched cards, graph plotting and the automatic production of stereotypes - trays of soft material into which results were impressed that could be used as molds for making printing plates.

The logical structure of the Analytical Engine was essentially the same as that which has dominated computer design in the electronic era - the separation of the memory (the 'Store') from the central processor (the 'Mill'), serial operation using a 'fetch-execute cycle', and facilities for inputting and outputting data and instructions. Calling Babbage 'the first computer pioneer' is not a casual tribute.

A New Difference Engine

With the groundbreaking work on the Analytical Engine largely complete by 1840, Babbage began to consider a new difference engine. Between 1847 and 1849 he completed the design of Difference Engine No. 2, an improved version of the original. This Engine calculates with numbers thirty-one digits long and can tabulate any polynomial up to the seventh order. The design was elegantly simple and required three times fewer parts than No. 1 for similar computing power.

Difference Engine No. 2 and the Analytical Engine share the same design for the printer - an output device with remarkable features. It not only produces hardcopy inked printout on paper as a checking copy, but also automatically stereotypes results, that is, impresses the results on soft material, Plaster of Paris for example, which could be used as a mold from which a printing plate could be made. The apparatus typesets results automatically and allows programmable formatting i.e. allows the operator to preset the layout of results on the page. User-alterable features include variable line height, variable numbers of columns, variable column margins, automatic line wrapping or column wrapping, and leaving blank lines every several lines for ease of reading.

Physical Legacy

Aside from a few partially complete mechanical assemblies and test models of small working sections, none of Babbage's designs was physically realized in its entirety in his lifetime. The major assembly he did complete was one-seventh of Difference Engine No. 1, a demonstration piece consisting of about 2,000 parts assembled in 1832. This works impeccably to this day and is the first successful automatic calculating device to embody mathematical rule in mechanism. A small experimental piece of the Analytical Engine was under construction at the time of Babbage's death in 1871. Many of the small experimental assemblies survived, as does a comprehensive archive of his drawings and notebooks.

The designs for Babbage's vast mechanical computing engines rank as one of the startling intellectual achievements of the 19^th century. It is only in recent decades that his work has been studied in detail and that the extent of what he accomplished becomes increasingly evident.

A Brief History

2008-07-08T04:21:00.000-07:00

The Age of Machinery

The middle decades of the 19th century were times of unprecedented engineering ambition. Engineering, transport, communications, architecture, science and manufacture were in a state of feverish change. Inventors and engineers exploited new materials and processes and there seemed no end to invention and innovation. Steam engines slowly replaced animals as a source of motive power. Iron ships began to compete with sail, railway networks rapidly expanded, and the electric telegraph began to revolutionize communications. Science, engineering, and flourishing new technologies held limitless promise.

Engineers, architects, mathematicians, astronomers, bankers, actuaries, journeymen, insurance brokers, statisticians, navigators - anyone with a need for calculation - relied on printed numerical tables for anything more than trivial calculations. Printed tables were calculated, copied, checked and typeset by hand. Humans are notoriously fallible and some feared that undetected errors were disasters in waiting.

Infallible Machines

In the 1821 vignette of Babbage and his friend, the astronomer, John Herschel, checking manually calculated tables, Babbage, finding error after error, was driven to exclaim 'I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam'. The grindingly tedious labor of manually checking tables was one thing. Worse was their unreliability. Babbage embarked on an ambitious venture to design and build mechanical calculating engines - vast machines of unprecedented size and intricacy - to eliminate the risk of human error. The infallibility of machinery would eliminate the risk of error from calculation and transcription (copying the results). Automatic typesetting would banish the risk of error when manually setting results in loose type. Stereotyping - a process that automatically impressed results on soft material for the manufacture of printing plates - would eliminate errors in repeated printing. Special security devices would ensure the integrity of the results. The outcome would be flawless. This was the intention, but one that he failed to realize.

Difference Engine No. 1 - A Fateful Start

His first machine, Difference Engine No. 1, was designed to automatically calculate and tabulate mathematical functions called polynomials which have powerful general applications in mathematics and engineering. Babbage worked closely with Joseph Clement, a master toolmaker and draftsman who was tasked with making the parts. Difference Engine No. 1 called for 25,000 parts and would have weighed an estimated fifteen tons.

Construction was abruptly halted in 1833 when Clement downed tools and fired his workmen following a dispute with Babbage over compensation for moving Clement's workshop closer to Babbage's house. The Engine was never built. Some 12,000 unused precision parts were later melted down for scrap. For the British Government that had bankrolled the venture, the project was a costly failure. When the final bills were paid the Treasury had spent £17,500 - the cost of twenty-two brand new steam locomotives from Robert Stephenson's factory in 1831 - a formidable sum.

The Finished Portion of the Unfinished Engine

A small demonstration assembly was built and delivered to Babbage by Clement in 1832. This 'beautiful fragment', one seventh of the calculating section, was all Babbage had to show after a decade of investment. Babbage used the piece to develop his ideas on computation and also for dramatic demonstrations to savants, guests, dignitaries, scientists, and friends. The device proved the soundness of the design and supported the feasibility of a full machine. It was the first successful automatic calculator and one of the finest examples of precision engineering of the time. It remains amongst the most celebrated icons in the prehistory of automatic computation.

The Analytical Engine

In 1834, with the Difference Engine project stalled, Babbage conceived of a new more ambitious machine, later called the Analytical Engine - a general-purpose programmable computing machine. The Analytical Engine was a quantum leap in logical conception and physical size, and its design ranks as one of the startling intellectual achievements of the century.

The Analytical Engine features many essential principles found in the modern digital computer and its conception marks the transition from mechanized arithmetic to fully-fledged general purpose computation. Had the Engine been built, it would have dwarfed even the vast Difference Engine and cranking it by hand would have been beyond the strongest operator. 'Calculating by steam' would have been more than a figure of speech. It is on the Analytical Engine that Babbage's standing as 'the first computer pioneer' largely rests.

Ada Lovelace

In 1833 Babbage met Ada Lovelace, daughter of the notorious British poet Lord Byron, at a party. Lovelace, just seventeen, had some mathematical training which was unusual for a woman at that time. She was entranced by the small working section of the machine and in time became an enthusiastic supporter of Babbage's work.

In 1843 Lovelace published an article by the Italian engineer Luigi Menabrea that she translated from French. In it she appended extensive notes of her own that ran to three times the length of the host article. The Notes included a description of the steps the engine would take in solving certain mathematical problems - procedures we would now call programs - the first published descriptions of the kind.

Lovelace speculated that the machine might go beyond numbers and more generally manipulate symbols in accordance with rules. She saw that numbers could represent entities other than quantity - letters of the alphabet, notes of music - and that by manipulating numbers, computing machines could extend their powers beyond the world of mathematics. In the light of developments in the 20^th century, this notion is prophetic and one that Babbage appears not to have envisioned with any clarity.

The Second Difference Engine

As Babbage refined the mechanisms of the Analytical Engine he saw how he could simplify the design of the Difference Engine. Between 1847 and 1849 he designed a new engine, Difference Engine No. 2. The new design benefited from many of the techniques developed for the more demanding Analytical Engine.

The new design was elegant and efficient requiring three times fewer parts than Difference Engine No. 1 for similar computing power. With 8,000 parts, the Engine would weigh five tons and measure eleven feet long and seven feet high. Babbage made no attempt to construct the machine. It is this design that was finally built and completed in 2002, and is the first of Babbage's engine designs to be realized in its entirety.

Two Inspired Swedes

Others attempted to build difference engines in Babbage's time, all with dismal outcomes. Inspired by an account of Babbage's first engine, published in 1834, a Swedish father-and-son team, Georg and Edvard Scheutz, built a working prototype, completed in 1843. Two fully engineered versions in metal followed, the first in 1853 in Stockholm, the second in 1859 in London for the General Register Office.

Neither was much of a success. The hoped-for economies of automatic tabulation by machinery did not materialize. Worse still, the machine, made in London, lacked Babbage's security devices, tended to derangement, and required constant care. Both father and son died bankrupt. Building difference engines contributed to their ruin. The three engines now reside in museums, handsome testaments to dashed hopes and financial disaster.

Why Babbage Failed

Babbage failed to build a complete machine despite independent wealth, social position, government funding, a decade of design and development, and the best of British engineering. The reasons are still debated and the cocktail of considerations is a rich one. Babbage was a prickly character, highly principled, easily offended and given to virulent public criticism of those he took to be his enemies. Runaway costs, high precision, a disastrous dispute with his engineer, fitful financing, political instability, accusations of personal vendettas, delays, failing credibility and the cultural divide between pure and applied science, were all factors.

Babbage was also a rotten publicist. He disdained to lecture on his work and neither proclaimed nor promoted the mathematical potential of his engines. As a result the engines were judged largely on their practical utility to produce error-free tables, and experts of the day did not agree that there was any real need for new tables. Some argued that existing tables were already sufficiently accurate and that there was no economic justification for the large capital costs of building his huge machines. Others questioned whether the twenty, thirty and fifty figures of accuracy insisted upon by Babbage were justified when measurements could be made to no more than a few decimal places.

False Dawn

The 19^th century movement to automate computation failed and the movement largely died with Babbage in 1871. There is no continuous line of development from Babbage to present times, and many of the principles embodied in his work were reinvented by the pioneers of the electronics era, largely in ignorance of his work. Though the legend of his work was never lost it was only in the 1970s that his designs were studied in any detail and the scale of his accomplishments emerged more clearly.

Overview

2008-07-08T04:20:00.001-07:00

An Appeal to Steam

London, Summer 1821. Charles Babbage (1791-1871), inventor and mathematician, is poring over a set of astronomical tables calculated by hand. Finding error after error he finally exclaims 'I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam'. His appeal to machinery, in one of the most resonant utterances of the 19th century, was the start of a new era of automatic computation.

The Tables 'Crisis'

It was not only the grindingly tedious labor of verifying a sea of figures that exasperated Babbage, but their daunting unreliability. Engineering, astronomy, construction, finance, banking and insurance depended on printed tables for calculation. Ships navigating by the stars relied on printed tables to find their position at sea. The stakes were high. Capital and life were thought to be at risk.

Infallible Machines

Babbage embarked on an ambitious venture to design and build mechanical calculating engines to eliminate the risk of human error in the production of printed tables. The 'unerring certainty of machinery' would solve the problem of human fallibility. His work on the engines led him from mechanized arithmetic to the entirely new realm of automatic computation. Tabular errors provided a practical stimulus. But this was not his only motive. He also saw his engines as a new technology of mathematics.

Final Vindication

Babbage himself failed to build a complete calculating engine and his designs remained an historical curiosity for over 150 years. Finally, in 2002, the first full-size Babbage Engine (Difference Engine No. 2), built faithfully to the original designs, was completed at the Science Museum in London, the culmination of a seventeen year project. The Engine consists of 8,000 parts, weighs 5 tons and measures eleven feet long and seven feet high. It works as Babbage intended, and brings to a close an anguished chapter in the prehistory of computing.

A duplicate engine is on display and demonstrated at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. It is a sumptuous piece of engineering sculpture and an arresting sight in operation.

Welcome

2008-07-08T04:14:00.000-07:00

Charles Babbage (1791-1871), computer pioneer, designed the first automatic computing engines. He invented computers but failed to build them. The first complete Babbage Engine was completed in London in 2002, 153 years after it was designed. Difference Engine No. 2, built faithfully to the original drawings, consists of 8,000 parts, weighs five tons, and measures 11 feet long.

We invite you to learn more about this extraordinary object, its designer Charles Babbage and the team of people who undertook to build it. Discover the wonder of a future already passed. A sight no Victorian ever saw.

An identical Engine completed in March 2008 is on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California until May 2009

Automobile Engines

2007-11-19T02:30:00.000-08:00

A Short Course on
Automobile Engines
by: Charles ofria

Internal combustion gasoline engines run on a mixture of gasoline and air. The ideal mixture is 14.7 parts of air to one part of gasoline (by weight.) Since gas weighs much more than air, we are talking about a whole lot of air and a tiny bit of gas. One part of gas that is completely vaporized into 14.7 parts of air can produce tremendous power when ignited inside an engine.

Let's see how the modern engine uses that energy to make the wheels turn.

Air enters the engine through the air cleaner and proceeds to the throttle plate. You control the amount of air that passes through the throttle plate and into the engine with the gas pedal. It is then distributed through a series of passages called the intake manifold, to each cylinder. At some point after the air cleaner, depending on the engine, fuel is added to the air-stream by either a fuel injection system or, in older vehicles, by the carburetor.

Once the fuel is vaporized into the air stream, the mixture is drawn into each cylinder as that cylinder begins its intake stroke. When the piston reaches the bottom of the cylinder, the intake valve closes and the piston begins moving up in the cylinder compressing the charge. When the piston reaches the top, the spark plug ignites the fuel-air mixture causing a powerful expansion of the gas, which pushes the piston back down with great force against the crankshaft, just like a bicycle rider pushing against the pedals to make the bike go.

Let's take a closer look at this process.

Engine Types

The majority of engines in motor vehicles today are four-stroke, spark-ignition internal combustion engines. The exceptions like the diesel and rotary engines will not be covered in this article.

There are several engine types which are identified by the number of cylinders and the way the cylinders are laid out. Motor vehicles will have from 3 to 12 cylinders which are arranged in the engine block in several configurations. The most popular of them are shown on the left. In-line engines have their cylinders arranged in a row. 3, 4, 5 and 6 cylinder engines commonly use this arrangement. The "V" arrangement uses two banks of cylinders side-by-side and is commonly used in V-6, V-8, V-10 and V-12 configurations. Flat engines use two opposing banks of cylinders and are less common than the other two designs. They are used in engines from Subaru and Porsche in 4 and 6 cylinder arrangements as well as in the old VW beetles with 4 cylinders. Flat engines are also used in some Ferraris with 12 cylinders

Most engine blocks are made of cast iron or cast aluminum..

Each cylinder contains a piston that travels up and down inside the cylinder bore. All the pistons in the engine are connected through individual connecting rods to a common crankshaft.

The crankshaft is located below the cylinders on an in-line engine, at the base of the V on a V-type engine and between the cylinder banks on a flat engine. As the pistons move up and down, they turn the crankshaft just like your legs pump up and down to turn the crank that is connected to the pedals of a bicycle.

A cylinder head is bolted to the top of each bank of cylinders to seal the individual cylinders and contain the combustion process that takes place inside the cylinder. Most cylinder heads are made of cast aluminum or cast iron. The cylinder head contains at least one intake valve and one exhaust valve for each cylinder. This allows the air-fuel mixture to enter the cylinder and the burned exhaust gas to exit the cylinder. Engines have at least two valves per cylinder, one intake valve and one exhaust valve. Many newer engines are using multiple intake and exhaust valves per cylinder for increased engine power and efficiency. These engines are sometimes named for the number of valves that they have such as "24 Valve V6" which indicates a V-6 engine with four valves per cylinder. Modern engine designs can use anywhere from 2 to 5 valves per cylinder.

The valves are opened and closed by means of a camshaft. A camshaft is a rotating shaft that has individual lobes for each valve. The lobe is a "bump" on one side of the shaft that pushes against a valve lifter moving it up and down. When the lobe pushes against the lifter, the lifter in turn pushes the valve open. When the lobe rotates away from the lifter, the valve is closed by a spring that is attached to the valve. A common configuration is to have one camshaft located in the engine block with the lifters connecting to the valves through a series of linkages. The camshaft must be synchronized with the crankshaft so that the camshaft makes one revolution for every two revolutions of the crankshaft. In most engines, this is done by a "Timing Chain" (similar to a bicycle chain) that connects the camshaft with the crankshaft. Newer engines have the camshaft located in the cylinder head directly over the valves. This design is more efficient but it is more costly to manufacture and requires multiple camshafts on Flat and V-type engines. It also requires much longer timing chains or timing belts which are prone to wear. Some engines have two camshafts on each head, one for the intake valves and one for the exhaust valves. These engines are called Double Overhead Camshaft (D.O.H.C.) Engines while the other type is called Single Overhead Camshaft (S.O.H.C.) Engines. Engines with the camshaft in the block are called Overhead Valve (O.H.V) Engines.

Now when you see "DOHC 24 Valve V6", you'll know what it means.

How an Engine Works

Since the same process occurs in each cylinder, we will take a look at one cylinder to see how the four stroke process works.

The four strokes are Intake, Compression, Power and Exhaust. The piston travels down on the Intake stroke, up on the Compression stroke, down on the Power stroke and up on the Exhaust stroke.

Intake
As the piston starts down on the Intake stroke, the intake valve opens and the fuel-air mixture is drawn into the cylinder (similar to drawing back the plunger on a hypodermic needle to allow fluid to be drawn into the chamber.)
When the piston reaches the bottom of the intake stroke, the intake valve closes, trapping the air-fuel mixture in the cylinder.
Compression
The piston moves up and compresses the trapped air fuel mixture that was brought in by the intake stroke. The amount that the mixture is compressed is determined by the compression ratio of the engine. The compression ratio on the average engine is in the range of 8:1 to 10:1.
This means that when the piston reaches the top of the cylinder, the air-fuel mixture is squeezed to about one tenth of its original volume.
Power
The spark plug fires, igniting the compressed air-fuel mixture which produces a powerful expansion of the vapor. The combustion process pushes the piston down the cylinder with great force turning the crankshaft to provide the power to propel the vehicle. Each piston fires at a different time, determined by the engine firing order. By the time the crankshaft completes two revolutions, each cylinder in the engine will have gone through one power stroke.
Exhaust
With the piston at the bottom of the cylinder, the exhaust valve opens to allow the burned exhaust gas to be expelled to the exhaust system. Since the cylinder contains so much pressure, when the valve opens, the gas is expelled with a violent force (that is why a vehicle without a muffler sounds so loud.) The piston travels up to the top of the cylinder pushing all the exhaust out before closing the exhaust valve in preparation for starting the four stroke process over again.

Oiling System

Oil is the life-blood of the engine. An engine running without oil will last about as long as a human without blood. Oil is pumped under pressure to all the moving parts of the engine by an oil pump. The oil pump is mounted at the bottom of the engine in the oil pan and is connected by a gear to either the crankshaft or the camshaft. This way, when the engine is turning, the oil pump is pumping. There is an oil pressure sensor near the oil pump that monitors pressure and sends this information to a warning light or a gauge on the dashboard. When you turn the ignition key on, but before you start the car, the oil light should light, indicating that there is no oil pressure yet, but also letting you know that the warning system is working. As soon as you start cranking the engine to start it, the light should go out indicating that there is oil pressure.

Engine Cooling

Internal combustion engines must maintain a stable operating temperature, not too hot and not too cold. With the massive amounts of heat that is generated from the combustion process, if the engine did not have a method for cooling itself, it would quickly self-destruct. Major engine parts can warp causing oil and water leaks and the oil will boil and become useless.

While some engines are air-cooled, the vast majority of engines are liquid cooled. The water pump circulates coolant throughout the engine, hitting the hot areas around the cylinders and heads and then sends the hot coolant to the radiator to be cooled off. For more information on the cooling system, click here.

Engine Balance

Flywheel A 4 cylinder engine produces a power stroke every half crankshaft revolution, an 8 cylinder, every quarter revolution. This means that a V8 will be smother running than a 4. To keep the combustion pulses from generating a vibration, a flywheel is attached to the back of the crankshaft. The flywheel is a disk that is about 12 to 15 inches in diameter. On a standard transmission car, the flywheel is a heavy iron disk that doubles as part of the clutch system. On automatic equipped vehicles, the flywheel is a stamped steel plate that mounts the heavy torque converter. The flywheel uses inertia to smooth out the normal engine pulses.

Balance Shaft Some engines have an inherent rocking motion that produces an annoying vibration while running. To combat this, engineers employ one or more balance shafts. A balance shaft is a heavy shaft that runs through the engine parallel to the crankshaft. This shaft has large weights that, while spinning, offset the rocking motion of the engine by creating an opposite rocking motion of their own.

By: http://www.familycar.com/Engine.htm

2007-11-15T01:30:00.000-08:00

The Diesel Engine

by Vincent Ciulla

The Diesel Engine

In 1892 Rudolf Diesel developed and obtained the German patent for the diesel engine. His goal was to create an engine that was highly efficient. Much more efficient than the gasoline engine that was invented in 1876 and was not very efficient at all. Especially at that point in time.

There are two main differences between a diesel engine and a gasoline engine.

A gasoline engine intakes a mixture of gas and air, compresses it and ignites the mixture with a spark. A diesel engine takes in just air, compresses it and then injects fuel into the compressed air. The heat of the compressed air lights the fuel spontaneously.
A gasoline engine compresses at a ratio of 8:1 to 12:1, while a diesel engine compresses at a ratio of 14:1 to as high as 25:1. The higher compression ratio of the diesel engine leads to better efficiency.

Gasoline engines use either a carburetor or a fuel injection system to deliver the fuel to the cylinder. With a carburetor the fuel is mixed as it enters the intake manifold, long before it gets to the cylinders. In a fuel injection system the fuel is injected just before the intake stroke at the intake valve

Diesel engines use direct fuel injection (DI), that is to say the diesel fuel is injected directly into the cylinder. The diesel engine has no spark plugs. The air it takes in is compressed and the fuel is injected directly into the cylinder where the heat caused by the air compression ignites the fuel. In the old days this meant that it exploded and expanded very quickly, making a noisy engine. This is why most diesel cars were IDI (indirect injection); the rough behavior was fixed by injecting the fuel into a small pre-combustion chamber that is connected to the cylinder by a narrow passage.

This slows down the explosion, as the gasses have to escape from through the narrow passage into the cylinder. This gives a softer bang and a smoother engine, but the gasses have to work harder, which lowers the efficiency a little. However the newer breed of DI engines use other techniques to tame the behavior of the engine, such as two stage injection, electronic control, and acoustic shrouds and shock absorbing engine mounts to mask the rattle.

The injector on a diesel engine is its most complex component and has been the subject of a great deal of development and innovation. On any specific engine it may be located in a variety of places. The injector has to be able to withstand the temperature and pressure inside the cylinder and still deliver the fuel in a fine mist. Getting the mist circulated in the cylinder so that it is evenly distributed is also a problem, so some diesel engines employ special induction valves, pre-combustion chambers or other devices to swirl the air in the combustion chamber or otherwise improve the ignition and combustion process.

One major difference between a gas engine and a diesel engine is in the injection process. Most car engines use port injection or a carburetor rather than direct injection. In a car engine all of the fuel is loaded into the cylinder during the intake stroke and then compressed. The compression of the fuel/air mixture limits the compression ratio of the engine. If it compresses the air too much, the fuel/air mixture spontaneously ignites and causes knocking. A diesel compresses only air, so the compression ratio can be much higher. The higher the compression ratio, the more power is generated.

In the United States and Canada, diesel engines are most commonly found in trucks and buses. In Europe, where fuel prices fluctuate around $3.00 to $4.00 per gallon, the fuel efficiency of the diesel has made it a popular choice for cars, and most European-market cars are available with a diesel or a turbo-diesel engine.

Compared to gasoline-powered vehicles, diesels are more fuel efficient, and they can travel significantly farther on a tank of fuel than their gasoline counterparts. Diesel engines produce more torque, and they tend to be more durable. They don't need an electric ignition system, which reduces their complexity. However, they also create more noise, they can be difficult to start in extremely cold weather and they sometimes require more frequent routine maintenance than gasoline engines.

Most passenger car diesel engines have a glow plug of some type. When a diesel engine is cold, the air compression may not raise the air to a high enough temperature to ignite the fuel. The glow plug is an electric heater that glows red-hot and helps to ignite the fuel when the engine is cold so that the engine can start