General Tech Articles

Articles not necessarily pertaining to swaps or forced induction. Suspension, brakes, engine building, general how-to's and so forth.
Introduction to Auto Insurance This article clarifies the auto insurance industry and terminology as a whole. There is a lot of misinformation that keeps appearing on the forum. Coverage Types Bodily Injury - BI - Bodily Injury coverage protects you when you are legally liable for injury or death to others caused by your vehicle. Some of these expenses include medical treatment, lost wages and compensation for pain and suffering. Your own legal fees, bail bonds and court costs are also covered. In the event of a serious accident these costs can become very substantial and if you do not carry a sufficient limit of insurance, the person you injure may pursue compensation from your personal assets and earnings. In most states, in...
editors note: Originally posted by Adam P and edited for cleanliness.. How to Chip a Honda OBD1 ECU Saved here in the forums for preservation USDM OBD1 ECU Chipping So, you want to chip your obd1 usdm ecu. You didn't listen to me tell you to get a Hondata, or if you did listen and you are reading this... good job. On a scale of 1-10, the difficulty of chipping an ECU is a 3. Just follow these simple instructions and you should be revving past your stock rev limiter using your stock valve train and floating valves in no time, because chances you also didn't listen to me when I told you that your stock cams don't make power over 8000 rpm and your stock valve springs and retainers also can't handle the revs. So sit back, chip your ECU...
Tire Sizes and Ratings Explained Tire sizes have gotten more complex over the past couple years. Most of us know what a 205/40/17 is, but what the hell is P205/50R15 87S?? We'll take a look at all these numbers and explain what they all designate. Since 205/40/17 is really a short hand, we are going to take a look at this later tire size: P205/50R15 87S. Let's start our way from left to right P The P is easy. It simply designates that the tire is a passenger car tire. 205 This number designates the width of the tire in mm. This is the actual contact patch that sees the road. 50 This number is the profile or aspect ratio of the tire. This number is a percentage, and is never a static number. It is based on the width of the tire...
How many valve reliefs are in D15B6 pistons? Q: Why does anyone care? A: If you're going to swap the head on an HF engine to a 16 valve D series head, you might need a set of pistons with 4 valve reliefs each. So here we go- courtesy of ryan89crx, who pulled the head on his 89 CRX HF just to see how many valve reliefs he had in his pistons. There are only 2 reliefs per piston. Thanks Ryan!
This is an article I wrote for Civicland way back at the beginning of the year, and have just refreshed for general consumption. If you actually need this to change out your headlights and corner lenses, god help you when you try to perform an engine swap. Aside from that, this might be useful for you, so here it is. ---------- DIY: How to install new headlights and corner lenses in a 5th gen Civic; stock vs Hiper bulbs What you'll need:10mm socket, ratchet, driver Medium sized Phillips screwdriver Your new headlights Your new corner lenses Some towels or newspapers An hour or two Note: If you're only replacing your corner lenses, only follow steps 2 and 6. Here we go... 1. Get your bumper off First, pop your hood...
Creating an HF All-Motor Monster By: chet Creating an HF All-Motor Monster Overview: This is dedicated to everyone driving around in an 88-91 CRX HF getting 50 miles to the gallon. Honda’s little 8-valve motor is great for fuel economy, but as you HF drivers will attest lacks the power to chirp the tires when driving spiritedly. For those wanting a very inexpensive solution, keep reading. For fewer than 500 dollars you can transform your CRX HF into an all-motor beast that’s capable of running high 14’s. The Setup: For starters, you’ll want to find a DX head off of any Honda motor. Newer heads are better for the obvious reasons and they can be found everywhere. Look to spend no more than 50 dollars on a clean...
This article assumes you have your factory engine. So, for the hybrids, I wouldn't abide by this unless you were running an engine with moderate compression and no type of forced induction. Courtesy of the FTC.. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/autos/octane.htm The Low-Down on High Octane Gasoline Are you tempted to buy a high octane gasoline for your car because you want to improve its performance? If so, take note: the recommended gasoline for most cars is regular octane. In fact, in most cases, using a higher octane gasoline than your owner’s manual recommends offers absolutely no benefit. It won’t make your car perform better, go faster, get better mileage or run cleaner. Your best bet: listen to your owner’s manual...
Spark Plug Reading Get help learning if your car is running too rich, too lean, too cold or too hot. There is a great website with a load of pictures for each event located here: http://www.dansmc.com/sparkplugs1.htm There's a link on the page to additional 30 images of plug conditions. Spark Plugs While this is a motorcycle site, spark plugs react the same ways in cars.
How to: Leakdown and Compression Tests There is some confusion between the leakdown and compression test. They are two different tests that test two different things. In this article, we will explain the basics of how to do each test, and what the results mean. Compression Test: To do a compression test, you remove the spark plug and put in the gauge. Remove all the spark plug wires from the dist or just undo the coil if so equipped. Now turn the key with the throttle wide open and keep cranking the car until the gauge reading rises as high as it seems it is going to go. Repeat those steps for all the cylinders. You want all the numbers to be somewhat close of each other. If some are way low, you know you're losing compression...
Originally posted on the now defunct: http://www.geocities.com/chipman_13/AN-NPT.html AN and NPT Fittings Chart "AN" Thread Sizes AN sizes, originally developed for use by the U.S. Armed Forces ("A" for Army and "N" for Navy), describe the outside diameter (O.D.) of tubing in 1/16-inch increments. For example, an AN 2 fitting will fit a tube with an O.D. of 2/16", or 1/8", while an AN 8 fitting will fit a tube with an O.D. of 8/16", or 1/2". Because the actual thickness of tube walls can vary from brand to brand, the inside diameter of a tube is not used as a reference. You will also find the dash (-) symbol or the word "dash" itself used in conjunction with AN sizes. A "dash six" fitting translates to AN-6. AN fittings and JIC...
There are many things you can do to increase the power of your engine. I'll briefly list and explain just a few ways. 1) Decrease air intake temperature --Decreasing the air intake temp causes more oxygen molecules to fit into your combustion chamber, which then requires more fuel for combustion. This causes the combustion reaction to explode with more pressure, and more power. Hot air intake would not allow as many oxygen molecules to enter combustion, hence making a weaker air/fuel combustion reaction. 2) Increase the intake flow --It is very important to let the combustion chambers of your cylinders recieve as much air as possible. With a restricted air flow into the cylinders, it creates more resistance when the crank has to...
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