Brakes

by Charles Ofria The modern automotive brake system has been refined for over 100 years and has become extremely dependable and efficient.

Coherent Perfect Absorbers

Recently, our group has been investigating the concept of a "time-reversed laser".

A laser is an optical system that supports purely-outgoing radiation patterns. Above the lasing threshold, it is inherently non-linear (click here for our research on nonlinearity in random lasers). However, a laser at threshold can be described using a simple linear wave equation, with an amplifying refractive index (i.e. complex, with a negative imaginary part).

Cars Engines

The engine is always referred to as the heart of a vehicle. It is connoted with the term heart because it is the most important part of a vehicle. An engine is a machine which converts energy to mechanical motion. It is the engine that converts the flow of a fluid into mechanical energy. 

Most of the modern cars today are incorporated with an internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine ignites a fuel along with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. The high temperature and pressure produced by the combustion process directly applies force to the movable part of the engine which could be the piston or the turbine blades to generate mechanical energy or to enable the vehicle to move.

Heat Stove Fabrication (using an original hot air choke carb on an aftermarket intake)

To utilize an original hot air type automatic choke on an engine with no hot air provisions, it is first necessary to understand how and why the choke is designed to function. This LINK will help.

One must fabricate a “heat stove” to provide heat to the automatic choke. This may be done as follows:

(1)   Take the carburetor to your local auto parts store. Have the clerk determine the thread size of the male threaded extension on the choke housing (assuming your automatic choke has the connection on the housing, and not in the center of the choke).

Automatic chokes

History

Automatic chokes were introduced at least by the early 1930’s. These early chokes were of the “divorced” or remote style, so named because the choke unit usually resided on the exhaust manifold and was remote from or divorced from the carburetor. These units consisted of a metal box that contained a coil of bimetallic strip which would expand/contract with heat/cool and which was connected to a rod that also connected to the choke arm on the carburetor. These units were not overly reliable, and in fact, most manufacturers build a manual override into the carburetor so that the operator has positive control over the choke. One issue with the divorced chokes was the choke had to move the mass of the connecting rod as well as operate the choke plate.

Carburetor fuel valves (a.k.a. needle and seat assembly)

There are a number of different designs of fuel valves that the enthusiast will encounter when working on carburetors. This article will describe the ones most commonly found in older vehicles.

Conventional pointed valve with brass seat

This valve is the valve of choice for virtually all original applications. There are a number of variations of the valve: monel steel tipped solid valve, monel steel tipped valve with spring and plunger, neopreme tipped solid valve, neopreme tipped valve with spring and plunger, plastic solid valve, and brass or monel steel solid valve, with neopreme washer encapsulated in the seat.