What causes a vehicle to hesitate on acceleration after stopping at a stop sign?
hesitation can occur when your engine is starved for something it needs. When stopped fully, accelerating to pull away uses more power than cruising or just driving at constant speeds. Your car will need more power which it gets from air, fuel, and properly timed and delivered spark, the combustion trio. It could be getting just enough to run OK at cruising but not enough when under hard acceleration.At higher than normal demands, any of these can be reduced by the following:dirty or corroded or worn out spark plugs, bad spark plug cables or improper engine computer timingplugged fuel filters or dirty or plugged fuel injectorsdirty air filter, dirty throttle body (see throttle tip hesitation)Bad sensors for air flow, fuel flow or exhaust or engine timing or position.
Am I looking for a new exhaust or a new muffler?
I have a 2011 Mustang V6 and It has been my first car for a few years now. Recently I have been wanting to make it sound better, it still has the same stock exhaust. I'm pretty confused on whether I need to buy a new exhaust system or just a new muffler. I have no desire to increase the performance of the car, only to make it sound like a GT. So I'm looking for a nice deep grumble when it's idling and a nice deep tone when I'm driving. Not too crazy loud but definitely loud. So my main question is, should I look into buying a new exhaust system or a new muffler when I am only trying to make it sound nice? (I already looked at straight piping and I definitely don't want to do that). Also if anyone can recommend some good mufflers or exhausts that will give the car the sound I want, that'd be great! Thanks!
Fuel gauge on 1984 ST141 Toyota corona?
Toyota introduced this little 'feature' in nearly all models from 84 - 87. The fuel gauge reads as normal with ignition on and stays in place once the ignition is switched off. The gauge is constructed differently (it has a worm drive) so the needle won't bounce around. Don't worry, your gauge isn't using any power when ignition is off. Car thieves like it so they can see how much fuel is available before they take a car.
Is it possible to install a turbo into a non turbo engine?
It is possible, and people do it all the time, with widely varying results.The easy way is generally to just replace the exhaust manifold (or manifolds, on V- engines) with one that will hold a turbo (or two) and then fabricate the minimum amount of intake and exhaust plumbing to get the engine running again.However this won’t give much additional power, and side-effects include broken engines. For better results you’ll want to do a bunch more. In no particular order:You’ll want to retune the engine control unit (ECU) to adjust the air-fuel mixture (AFR) and the ignition timing.You’ll want a way to control the amount of boost you get from the turbocharger. You might get 6–10psi from the turbocharger by default, but with a boost controller you can bring that up much higher. (Preferably, your boost controller includes a throttle position sensor. You can get by without one, but you’ll run into part-throttle-full-boost behavior, which is kind of annoying.)You’ll want an intercooler, because the air coming out of a turbocharger’s compressor gets hot, and hot air is less dense and more prone to detonation, so cooling gets more air into the combustion chamber and allows better ignition timing. But this requires finding a place for the intercooler (a place with lots of cool airflow) and running intake tubing from the air filter to the intercooler and from the intercooler to the intake manifold.You’ll want pistons that give you lower compression ratio. Naturally aspirated cars are often in the neighborhood of 9:1 or higher (possibly much higher), turbocharged engines are generally happier with 8:5:1 or perhaps lower.You’ll want pistons that can withstand the heat and pressure of your newfound horsepower. Cast pistons are typical on production cars (even production cars with turbochargers) but forged pistons are significantly stronger.You might also want connecting rods that can take more power.You’ll almost certainly want a clutch that can hold more power. The clutch that worked fine with your stock naturally-aspirated motor will start slipping when subjected to the torque from your new force-induction setup.You might end up wanting a stronger transmission and a stronger differential.If the car in question was available from the factory with a turbocharger, or with a larger naturally-aspirated motor, you’re almost certainly better off switching to the stronger car model before adding a turbocharger.
Is it possible to change a manual gear box to an automatic gearbox?
As easy as your level of mechanical, welding, electrical etc ability goes.There’s a lot to be said for automatic boxes, especially if you’re going up levels in installed power.It’s actually easier, in some cases to go to automatic, than from. It all depends on whether the vehicle already has an auto variant. Some do not, in which case there will be cutting and welding.You’ll usually need a donor vehicle really, if you want to do it the easy way, or you’ll have to make up, as you go along, all of the linkages and what-not.Watch out for surprises as well, as quite often the vehicles structure might not support the (possibly) bigger auto box, and you might want to check out the braking system, that tend to be a little bit more substantial in auto cars than manual. (depending on the generation)You’ll definitely need to know how to measure things, a lot.Cutting and shutting is going to be an important part of your life too, as invariably you’ll get the desire to do it differently, especially when you find that the manual box exhaust system does not fit the auto box installation.If you are going to do a project like this, you need to remember about cooling radiators that are attached to the auto box, as one of our projects “forgot” all about the radiator for the auto box, as it came with the out and in pipe joined together, ok, we were young and inexperienced. We “smoked” the box.It’s a fun project, but you need to know what you’re doing in mechanical stuff.I can highly recommend the Youtube Channel MT (motorTrend) and specifically Roadkill. There are some fun tutorials on how to do things and how not to. (No affiliation)They do show you, how even some of the most awful abuses of the mechanical rules, can work quite well.
What was your first car? What would it be worth now?
My first car was a very, Very, VERY pre-owned late-1960s Toyota Corona - probably a 1968 - which looked something like this (although without the side-view mirrors over the front wheels)It had three colors: rust, bare metal, and primer-gray. But everything worked on it, and it cost $800 in 1984.It looked like crap, but was surprisingly loaded with a radio and casette player, working air-conditioner and automatic transmission. It also got decent gas mileage: I could drive from Berkeley to LA on one tank of gas…I drove it in college for two years. As an extreme “beater”, it was a good car for learning to drive - and parallel-park - in Berkeley.Just after I graduated from college, it decided its time had come. The timing-chain snapped, machine-gunning the engine block. It was either $1500 for a new engine or sell it to the junkyard for $50. I took the $50.I almost bought a Ford Galaxie station-wagon, which was more comfortable, but whose engine would have weighed more than this entire car. I’m glad I didn’t - parallel-parking that beast in Berkeley wouldn’t have been fun…A quick check of the net shows that this car has progressed into the “classic” phase of life, with restored versions in good shape getting $10K or more.
Can a modern car engine fit inside an old car? If it does, can it work?
Fitting the engine in won’t be a problem. As you noted, older cars are larger with plenty of space in the engine bay. The problem you’ll have is making the newer engine work in the older car. Newer cars have multiple sensors, computers, and subsystems for traction and stability controls, transmission controls, anti-lock braking, and in some Cadillacs, even electronic controls for the shock absorbers.The bummer part is that if you remove some or all of these subsystems, the engine management system may not function properly to run the engine normally.A better option for your purpose would be to buy what is called a “crate motor”, which is a motor specifically designed to be used in multiple types of vehicles. GM makes crate motors, and sells them through Chevrolet dealerships. Here’s one that might interest you:LSA Crate Engine - Race EngineThe LSA V8 is the same motor used in the Cadillac CTS-V, and if you add the “connect and cruise” option, it would be relatively easy to drop this motor into an older car.
What should you do if the car's coolant is boiling?
Find the cause and fix itThe water is cooled by passing through the radiator.The radiator is fed with a stream of air by a fan which in turn is driven by a belt attached to the engine.If the water is boiling it means there is a problem in the system.It could simply be that the water level is too low, it does require topping up on occasion.The fan belt may be broken, or loose and slipping. The water pump may have 'blown' a seal and be leaking water, or have failed completely!There could be a more serious problem like a cracked or distorted head.This could be caused by an overheated engine.It's also possible to have an engine so far out of tune that it runs hot and overheats, although this is unlikely to be the cause.You should be aware that the water will be super heated! Being under pressure, the temperature of the water will be well above the normal boiling point of the water at 'normal' pressure.Removing the radiator cap while the engine is in a boiling condition can be a life changing disaster, literally!