"Ensure that the gasket is in good condition" is a phrase commonly found in the workshop manual. Anyone rebuilding an engine or transmission with the assistance of such wise words will probably recognise the phrase, but while we often spend much hard-earned cash buying new internals, the temptation as far as the gaskets are concerned is to try wherever possible to use the old ones. We know it's wrong, evidence of a cheapskate or even a miser, but nevertheless we still do it -...
At present, exhausts occupy a strange position in Formula One engine development and are treated very differently in the regulations from most components that make up these highly specialised engines. Along with the snorkel (air horn), they are the only components able to influence engine performance that are not deemed to fall within the 'sealed engine', inside which no development or design changes are allowed, except for clearly defined reasons such as cost-cutting or reliability....
When we look at bespoke engine studs, which are generally designed in such a way that engineering is given far more thought than cost, many of them will have a larger diameter and coarser thread at the 'metal end' - the end installed in the casting. Studs for mass production very often carry the same thread at both ends, or have a continuous thread over the whole length of the fastener. Have you ever wondered why this is so? It is quite often the case that studs are installed into a...
Now don't get me wrong, I like to think of myself as open to new ideas and suggestions as the next man, and indeed throughout my working life the programmes and projects I have been associated with would at least demonstrate that fact. But if you had told me even 10 years ago that a diesel engine would be used to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans every year from 2006 then I am sure I would have taken some convincing. There was a time in the early 1990s of course, when, because of the...
Many fundamental decisions have to be made when it comes to cooling an engine in the chassis. Do we have one radiator or perhaps two? Do we place them at the front of the car or at the side - or possibly, if more weight is required over the rear wheels, can we get adequate cooling by placing it at the rear? To those assigned with cooling the engine and students of vehicle design, these decisions are no doubt all too familiar. But when it comes to the oil system, however, especially...