| Cold Air Induction; |
| basically to go faster you want more oxygen/air + fuel in your engine. Cold air is denser than hot air .. and so has more oxygen .. so the CAI moves where the air comes into the engine to a position in front of the car where it gets cold air rather than the original spot where it gets clean but warm air. There are additional features like the fact that higher flow air filters are used which can pass more air due to having less restriction and the 'ram air' effect where the air the car pushes against as it moves along (air static, car moving) is directed into the air intake to increase the air flow. (11/99) |
| CAI = Cold Air Induction and uses cold air injected directly to the air box (as opposed to warm air in the engine compartment) to boost power. Jackson racing do a system I believe. (11/99) |
| The concept of Cold Air induction is that 1. Cold air is more dense than warm air. 2.The more dense your air is, the more efficiently it will aid combustion. The N2 and O2 molecules are moving at a significantly lower rate of speed allowing more O2 to be utilised. Also because the air is more dense, of coarse more pressure exists within the cylinder and forces the piston down with greater force once combustion occurs. Last, in every combustion cycle, not all of the fuel is burned, however, ifyou can provide more O2 molecules, the fuel is burned more efficiently. In theory, one might even expect a small increase in gas mileage. There are those who say that for every 7 degrees F. the intake air is lowered, 1bhp is gained. (11/99) |
| - black box (containing microprocessor .. like your gamesboy.) that controls your engine's ignition/spark and fuel injection by monitoring the air volume, temperatures, engine speed and others...and creating sparks at the right time and injecting the correct amount of fuel. (11/99) |
| ECU = Engine Control Unit and is the brains behind the ignition and fuel injection system. It ensures you get a spark in each cylinder at the right time and the fuel/air ratio is correct for all throttle openings and atmospheric conditions. (11/99) |
| TSI = Turn Signal Indicator |
| also Turn Signal Inductor - the vent for CAI built into the indicator housing. (11/99) |
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Roll bar = a bar which provides protection to the passenger compartment should the car overturn (12/99) |
| Anti roll bar (UK)/sway bar (US) = a suspension stiffener which prevents the car "rolling" as it corners (12/99) |
| STHT = Soft Top Hard Top. The MX5 Owners Club magazine. You get them free when you join. |
| PCD = Pitch Circle Diameter - the diameter of the circle described by the holes in the wheel for the studs/wheel nuts (1/00) |
| RGEM = Rod Grainger's Enthusiast's Manual (1/00) |
| ISC = Idle Speed Control(ler) It sits underneath the throttle body and it's what the ECU uses to tweak the idle when you are off the throttle. You'll see a 3/4" black pipe fork away from the intake and dive down to the ISC. This is air bypassing the throttle. Maybe think of the ISC as the ECU's own little throttle. :-) (1/00) |
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Baffle plate = Baffle shroud .....alt. Radiator Cover......alt. Capital Cooling Plate (Yes..that's for me!) They are the plates that fill in the gap at the top of the front of the radiator - early cars were not fitted, but apparently they do make quite a difference to the cooling in high temps, which is why they were fitted to later cars. They direct the air through the rad rather than letting it spill over the top - but you need a hole if you've got CAI that collects up there. Mine collects from the grill area, of course (smug smile ;-) ) (See www.robpickering.co.uk for details of the Cookson CAI (2/00) |
| Dark current = how much current (i.e. power) the car consumes when everything is off .. as it is when parked ... original specification is 12mA max .. I recorded 8mA. (2/00) |
| OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer (2/00) |
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Torque is the "twisting" force exerted on the crankshaft by the pistons/connecting rods. It depends on all sorts of things - amount of fuel burned, wasted energy due to back pressure from the exhaust or friction, both of the fuel mixture as it moves and engine friction, the physical arrangement of the cylinders, bore versus stroke, etc etc. Obviously different amounts of torque are produced at different engine speeds, depending on the engine design. Power is basically a measure of the work done by the engine and is proportional to Torque x Revs/minute (there are some constants involved for our familiar units). So once you have a torque curve, you can derive a power curve. Note that it is possible for a high torque engine to produce relatively low power (if it produces its maximum torque at low revs - eg diesels) and for a low torque engine to produce high power, if it produces its maximum torque at high revs - eg many sporty 16 valve engines (2/00) |
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There are two similar things .. pre-combustion and pinging/pinking/knocking/detonation. The easy one to understand is pre-combustion .. which
leads you on to understand pinking.. This leads onto pinking... slightly more complex. |
| SVA= Single Vehicle Approval, a sort of Super-MOT which needs more work to pass. For example, Japanese (don't know about US) cars don't have the restricted petrol filler neck that modern UK cars should have so that stupid people can't accidentally put the wrong fuel into their cars. This (actually quite simple) conversion is required for SVA, but not for MOT. (5/00) |