:Article Marketing At Its Best

Are you a tuner? A true tuner that is…or, are you a rice boy? Yeah, you know what I mean. Serious tuners bring out the power in their cars while rice boys slap on every imaginable part to make their car look like a racer when in fact they are not. So, what does it take to bring out the power in your engine? Not a whole lot! Let’s examine some helpful performance enhancing parts for your vehicle to give it a truly tuned edge.

Sorry for the pejorative term. Enhancing one’s car is a very personal thing and no everyone’s tastes vary. Still, some enhancements add little to the car’s value and can, in fact, take away from its performance. So, here are a few things you can do to add some zap to your engine:

Go Green — Yep. Environmentally sound air filters are where it’s at. For between 40 and 65 bucks you can get the last air filter your car will ever need. Reusable, green air filters like those made by K&N bring out the performance in your car. Made of cotton gauze material, performance air filters increase acceleration and power as it provides excellent filtration. You’ll never have to buy another air filter again!

Chips ‘n Tuners — Get the most out of your engine’s performance by swapping out the power chip that came with your car for one that is truly enhanced. Jet Chips can go a long way to tune your car while a Hypertech tuner can do the same thing. With the latter product, you simply plug the device into your car’s under dash diagnostic connector and follow the instructions on the unit to raise performance. Later, if you want, you can detune your car quickly. Both products are street legal in all fifty U.S. states and will not void new car warranties.

Cold Air Intake — Installing this product will allow your engine to “eat” the air that it wants to eat. Cold air is thicker and denser and just what your engine needs to perform optimally. Install a cold air intake and your car will be “tuned” to accelerate and perform with much more freedom. You’ll like the improvement in looks too as cold air intakes are a real “stand out” in any car’s engine bay. Oh, yeah, get a load of its cool intake sound too!

Amazing Exhaust Systems — A crowd favorite are some of the performance exhaust systems on the market. Borla, for one, offers cat-back exhaust systems and headers made of aircraft durable A-304 stainless steel. This product will help free up your engine’s performance resulting in horsepower gains from 5-15%! Yeah, you’ll have a real edge on the road now! Check out the cool exhaust sound too.

Best of all, all four products I mentioned not only give your car more power, but they will help to increase fuel mileage. That’s right a poorly performing engine actually acts as a drain on fuel economy, so you are actually helping to jack up fuel mileage by installing parts that really can make a difference!

Copyright 2006 - Matt Keegan is The Auto Writer covering topics from replacement auto parts to accessories to protect your vehicle. To find quality K&N products or a cold air intake and K&N air filter products shop with the Auto Parts Warehouse today!

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Through time, your car’s interior could be accumulating more and more dirt inside. In fact, you may never notice, however your interior could be suffering from too much baggage - dirt, sand, grime, food crumbs, wrappers, spills, and other things. And if everything accumulates, you might be finding a car interior that smells funny but also an interior that does not look nice. At all.

Cleaning can be something that you may not want to do. However, keep in mind that it would cost you a couple hundred in cash to have everything cleaned up by a professional service center. Remember, though, that you can actually do it yourself and just sacrifice a couple of hours to do this type of work. You will not need anything sophisticated or high technology. Just get out your vacuum cleaner and a couple of other household products and you will be on to a start to cleaning up your car’s interior.

You should first remove the floor mats from your car. Then, once outside, shake them off. Try to remove any kind of debris that could have stuck itself on them. Your car’s carpets are one of the most likely things where dirt gets accumulated.

After that task, use your vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment. Use this to vacuum any dirt on all the seats of your car. Pay close attention to the crevices and the spaces between the cushions. Dirt also likes to hide there. You would also need to carefully vacuum the bottom of your seats as well as the back. Be sure that before you do any vacuuming, your seats are free from trash and coins. These could clog up your vacuum and delay your interior cleaning duties. After that, it is time to turn your vacuuming to your car’s floor as well as the floor mats. When clean, put the floor mats back in.

Check your car seat cushions. If you see any stains, you can use a damp towel to apply carpet shampoo. However, make sure that you use only a small amount and work it up into a light lather. And when done, you can wipe the shampoo away. Let it dry.

As per your car’s windows and glass, you can use a window cleaner. A newspaper would do the best job in cleaning these.

And the best of it all, let the air in. This would throw away any kind of funny smell out of your car.

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Aside from the usual making sure that your car is in working order before you do venture out and drive to the streets and roads, there are other things that you should do so as to make sure that your trusted vehicle would be working fine through a long period of time. By making sure that you do take the effort to do monthly check ups on your car, you also are making sure that your car gets to receive the right kind of maintenance that it needs so as to keep it working as if you just bought it right out of the dealer.

The basic importance of doing monthly check ups is that you are saving yourself and your pocket from extravagant expenses because of great damages on your car. You see, by checking your car monthly, you get to notice any kind of situations which may lead to greater problems. Once you notice them, you can immediately take action and fix them up before it gets any worse. You need not worry about these monthly check ups because they are so simple that you can do them yourself.

One of the things that you should remember to check would be the oil level. If there is a need to add some, then go ahead and do so. Do not let it go on empty. Another fluid level to check is the coolant. If necessary, go ahead and add antifreeze and water. The break fluid level of your car should also be checked and should be added if need be. Do the same for other fluids in your car like the power steering fluid, clutch reservoir, automatic transmission fluid, and the windshield washer fluid reservoir.

You should also take the effort to go and check the belts of your car for any signs of age and cracks. If you see such, it is time to replace them. Also make sure that they do have the proper amount of tension or your car may also slack up on its job. The hoses of your car should also be checked for leaks, cracks, or aging and in these cases, replacement would be the solution.

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The step from reading about building motorcycle kits and
watching bike builds on television to the real thing is a little
more difficult than it looks…

So you want to be a custom bike builder? Well friend, before you
rush out and buy that motorcycle kit, the one that will set you
on the road to riches and fame, stop and think about the level
of expertise and artistry the top builders have attained. More
importantly think about how long it has taken them to attain it!
Let’s look at a few key issues…

Education You’d be surprised how well educated a lot of today’s
top bike builders are. Several of them have degrees (some more
than one!) ranging from mechanical engineering to business and
marketing management. Billy Lane, the founder of Chopper Inc,
has several patents relating to motorcycle technology in his
name for example. What about someone a little more “old school”
like Dave Perewitz? Dave has accumulated close to forty years of
mechanical, metalworking and painting experience. Not
theoretical, but genuine hands on, early morning late night kind
of experience. Could you put that kind of time in? Matt Hotch is
still only young, but has gained an incredible amount of
practical experience customizing first bicycles, then VW’s
before moving on to custom bike building.

Facilities These guys are building choppers and custom bikes
that are state of the art. They don’t get thrown together in the
yard; the motorcycle shops have all the tools and equipment
required to produce almost anything out of metal, not just
bikes. Just as important are the other services these builders
use; the local chrome platers, machinists, painters and so on.
These guys have just as important a part to play in the
construction of these one off bikes as the designer builders
themselves.

Desire All the top custom bike builders live for one thing;
building the best bikes they can. They literally live eat even
dream about custom bikes (and looking at some of the more way
out creations you can totally believe this from the designs they
produce!) They are constantly striving to build bikes better.
Its not about money for the top guys, I am convinced of that.

So where does that leave Average Joes like you and me? Actually,
I don’t think we are too badly off; in fact if you want to build
a custom bike, it has probably never been easier. Here’s my take
on it….

Education There is an unbelievable amount of information for the
guys who want to start down the road to custom bike building.
Videos, books websites, all of them help to flatten the learning
curve for a novice. Most of the material out there relates to
motorcycle kits, and for the beginner, building a motorcycle kit
is definitely the best way to go if you want to get real hands
on experience. After that there are motorcycle maintenance
courses, which again will allow you to get up to speed as fast
as possible in your quest to become the next Arlen Ness!

Facilities To put together a shop like the ones you see on
television costs thousands of dollars. But you don’t need all
that stuff if you start with a motorcycle kit. Motorcycle kits
can be put together with some pretty basic tools, providing they
are of good quality. Two things that are an absolute must in my
opinion though are a torque wrench and a basic lift. With these
two tools, you can tighten the motorcycle kits fittings
correctly, and not break your back while you are doing it!

Desire Well this is one area where you can match the pros, no
question. If you really want to be a custom bike builder, start
doing it for fun and put your motorcycle kit together.

We can’t all be Billy Lane, Eddie Trotta or Russell Mitchell,
but we can have a lot of fun trying!

Copyright Michael Holmes 2005 Permission is granted to reproduce
this article provided a live link is provided to
http://www.motorcycleparts-accessories-andmore.com

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In recent times, some car manufacturers are opting to replace historically dowelled and interlocking arrangements of con-rod big ends, with physical breaks. There are many mechanics looking at these today, with bewilderment.

Instead of machined faces, stress points are engineered and the casting is then broken. When bolted together, the big end bore or the conrod can be machined to finished size.

By sheer coincidence only, can these parts be inter-changeable, thereafter.
In other words, the semi-circular caps that enclose one half of the plain white metal bearing, will only correctly fit its mating section of the original casting.

Some old school mechanics whose eyesight may be compromised, are in a difficult position, and even have issues with the disassembling procedures. The “crack” or “break” can be hard to notice, especially when it is not expected, and partially due to the fact that the “unit” was machined post-breaking.

The un-machined area of the casting has a rough texture as is normal, but masks to some extent, the true configuration of the assembly.

It gets a little more confusing. Instead of the historical physical “bend” or tab (out-turned section of the plain bearing, that use to stop them from spinning), these new types are in two halves, with no obvious means to prevent such spinning.

They rely on each half of the plain bearing, being the correct length, with respect to their circumference.

Those who still believe heavily on mechanical fastening opposed to modern glues for example may find it difficult to comprehend. And it is often these same people that cannot see the sense of it all.

The theory is that if each bearing half, when together, are slightly larger in diameter than the big-end bore of the connecting rod (con rod)in its correctly “torqued” state, then the outward force should be enough to drive the bearing. It actually makes sense too. If there happened to be more frictional force, inside the bearing (crankshaft diameter), then something is wrong anyway. Bear in mind that some lubricant should be there, as well as a lower frictional coefficient material that lines the big end bearings.

What is it all about?

Cost, speed or efficiencies!!

Each bearing half can be rolled to the correct length and wall-thickness, with one less folding operation for the tab.

The con-rod can be cast in one complete piece.

Mating halves will be less likely to be confused, but this will happen through human error, as many things do. The less number of operations, the simpler the process, and invariably the cost will come down. Whether profit margins increase, is another story.

An example of deliberate stress point incidence, to ensure that the fracture is within a certain area, has been around for years. It is with the fitting of a relatively large diameter “ball” if you like, within the relatively smaller outer-race bore of a “rose bush” or rose bearing. Common applications of these bushes/bearings are large angle, high-load, low speed, pivot points. Tractors, quarry equipment, fork-lifts, dumpers or any machinery with low precision, self alignment, high “swivel ability”, and low cost rugged requirements.

Seamus Dolly and some mechanical articles are at http://www.countcontrol.com/conrod.html

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There is currently worldwide scrutiny of Driver Training activities and regulations as respective Governments and Transport Ministries finally realise that learner Drivers are not magically going to transform themselves into competent, safe and conscientious drivers! Parents can play a major role in preventing serious and fatal accidents long before the Rule of Law takes over.

Learning how to behave in a car as a child is the very first step in Driver Education and unless a Parent sets the rules of engagement and boundaries that cannot be breached they will inadvertently be encouraging disruptive behaviour long before the first learners permit or Provisional License. Any disruptive behaviour in a car should be met with the pausing of the journey to read the riot act!

Many accidents are caused by too much high spirits and by too many passengers in a car driven by a Learner Driver, particularly at night. Even an experienced Driver will not be able to concentrate fully on the job at hand if there is a commotion going on in the car.

Virtually every State in the America is evaluating its’ licensing laws and regulations at the moment as more and more young drivers take to the road and then obliterate themselves and their passengers, often at night after celebrations.

In Australia and New Zealand tougher measures are being rolled out to control reckless and Drink Driving which clearly is a global problem! In Ireland it is estimated that alcohol plays a part in one third of all fatal accidents!

The European Union is bringing in continual changes to Driver Education regulations and the format of Driving Tests. In fact in Europe currently, mandatory Tuition before sitting a Driving Test is the norm as is the Regulation, Monitoring and Testing of Driving Instructors and Schools.

The recent announcement of the Regulation of Driving Instructors in Ireland is to be welcomed but it is long overdue and is only now being recognised as an integral part of the solution to the ever increasing level of accidents and road fatalities!

The cost of accidents to the Irish Exchequer is reckoned to be around 1Billion per Annum. You don’t need to be an Einstein to realise that a fraction of this figure, if spent on Driver Education (and re-education for miscreants) would pay handsome dividends.

However the improvement of Road accident statistics can easily begin with a change in attitude of all existing Drivers. It is too late for a Parent to complain of the lack of Government Regulations after a Son or Daughter has been killed!

Parents have a responsibility to guide their offspring to sensible decisions regarding Driving Lessons, choice of cars and certain other critical motoring standards, such as restricting the number of passengers carried until the Driver is competent. Late night Driving is a recipe for disaster where Learner Drivers are concerned.

We will wait anxiously to see exactly how the new Driving Instructor and Driving License proposals are enacted and what means of enforcement are employed.

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DONATING USED CARS FOR A CAUSE

Modern technology has produced a surplus of goods which we find
difficult to dispose of. While many of us are sensibly reaping
the fruits of our contemporary development and affluence, it is
not a bad idea to share some of our blessings to financially
disadvantaged people.

What to donate?

There are hundreds of things to donate, as there are various
ways to do it. As more and more people suffer from financial
burden, increasing numbers of people are incapacitated to reach
out to different places and are an impediment from the many
opportunities waiting for them in the outside world.

Cars are considered to be one of our primary needs in this
modern time. While more than 80% of most American adults own
cars or at least renting their own cars, there are still some
who cannot finance the purchase of their own automobiles.

This can isolate individuals and discriminate against them due
to their financial situation. This is such a sad fact, yet, the
good news is that you can do something to stop it or at least,
be part of the cause in solving this part of this global
dilemma.

Statistics

Just exactly how many individuals are getting into this
humanitarian cause? From 1992 to present alone, institutions
catering for car donations services have estimated to receive
more than 35,000 cars a month within that period.

If you are planning to buy a new car and replace an existing one
and have not come up with an idea where to put it, either
selling it or rebuilding it, perhaps donating it to a charitable
institution could solve your problem and potentially make a big
difference in the lives of others.

How Can I donate my car?

Car donation centers usually offer services that including
picking up the automobile you would like to donate (free of
charge for most car charity institutions), prepare the title
transfer requirements, and all legal documents related to the
clearing of ownership of the car.

Most charitable donation centers who accept automobiles, provide
a tax-deductible donation receipt to the donor in due
consideration for donated cars.

Determining Eligibility for Car Assistance

Members of the board of charitable institutions choose among the
list of applicants requesting a vehicle. Together, they
determine the eligibility and proof of financial incapacity
among applicants to purchase automobiles.

Preference will be awarded to individuals who have clear credit
standing showing inability to purchase automobile machines. The
car beneficiary will undergo the same legal process of transfer
requirements to legitimately take its title of ownership.

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