does anyone know the longevity of a nissan240sx's ka24de? just want to know so i can submit an offer to someone

This is for general questions, not specific applications. You'd be better off doing some research or asking on a Nissan or 240 forum.

I can fill up in Stowmarket (small town) for 89.9p for "normal" or I can fill up at Tesco Ipswich for 90.9p for the Tesco Super 99 - Case closed :P

Quote from tristancliffe :

Use V-Power for a month or two and compare your cost per mile (the bottom line) with 'cheap' fuels. Then you won't ever use cheap fuels again if you can possibly avoid it.

It's different fuel in the US though, isn't it? I heard the formulation is different in Europe. Here the octane ratings are 87, 89 and 93 with most cars designed for 87. Shell isn't really any more expensive than normal and their grades are the same as all the others.

Unleaded is 86.9/l and Diesel is now 98.9/l, Where I live. Like driving to Loughbourough today you notice that the fuel prices go up the further south you go.

Quote from BlueFlame :

Like driving to Loughbourough today you notice that the fuel prices go up the further south you go.

Eh? Then that must mean my town (SOUTHend) must actually be in scotland not essex, cause unleaded is 83.9 here.

Quote from robt :

Eh? Then that must mean my town (SOUTHend) must actually be in scotland not essex, cause unleaded is 83.9 here.

Well, I wasn't trying to state a fact, I was just saying that's what it seemed like.

How can you stop or minimise the amount of understeer a front wheel drive car produces (e.g XFG) ?

Quote from hannah :

How can you stop or minimise the amount of understeer a front wheel drive car produces (e.g XFG) ?

In LFS or in the real world?

One or more of the following may help (or others not included here), depending on what is the cause of the understeer.

Less throttle.
Lower front roll stiffness
Lower CoG
More steeply inclined roll axis
Softer compound front tyres
Larger track at the front
Different driving technique
Altered suspension geometry (camber, castor, toe, ackermann, bumpsteer etc).
Accept it as part of the compomise of a particular circuit
Buy a RWD car
Move CoG position in car towards rear
And so on and so forth.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Buy a RWD car
And so on and so forth.

She asked how to dial out understeer, not dial out her car!

But its the best soloution

Quote from robt :

But its the best soloution

Says a Capri driver

Simplest way is to put on a larger/stiffer rear anti-roll bar. BUT BE CAREFUL, too big/stiff and you will get snap oversteer.

What is it about diesel engines that doesn't allow one to simply put some fuel in the tank and start 'er up if one runs out of fuel while driving?

If the diesel engine runs out of fuel, air gets into the system and you must bleed it out, otherwise the engine won't start because all that is being injected is air.

It doesn't work like a regular gasoline engine where you can inject the fuel with the air, compress it and ingite it with the spark plug. Instead you have to compress the air and raise its temperature and its pressure. Then fuel is added after the temperature is raised and ignites from the higher temperature, not from the spark plug (a diesel engine would not have any).

Now this is the part I'm unsure about. It's more like an educated guess. Assuming that both cars have air in their system, I think with modern computers a regular gasoline car would spray air until it gets some fuel out in an attempt to get the right air-fuel mixture. It will probably be enough to get the air out of the system and get the car starting quickly. With a diesel, I think the fuel gets injected at the moment the temperature is high enough for the diesel fuel to burn. It should not inject much air (from the fuel lines) because it does not need a lot of power, especially when starting and bringing the engine to idle. Now the diesel takes forever to start because the air is not coming out fast enough for the fuel to go in. Diesels usually run very lean until more power is needed and that's when the air-fuel ratio gets close to stoichiometric (ideal ratio for maximum power and burn). If it ran richer, then you would get visual soot and smoke and that's not good.

this is about my bigbros mx bike, honda cr 125. it has came from repair, they changed piston kit. when it came, we built it back to phase where it should run, it ran about 5 min and stopped. now, wewe found out it gets gas, it gets a spark, the carb is clant,so is air filther and i think its not about the pistons anymore. so what you think, where could the problem be?
sry for my ba english, might be that i didnt know the right words for everything above

Say my wheel bearings are whinning


is it something i need to get fixed ASAP, is it okay to drive on it for a while, or is it say...really uber bad? lol

You'll be fine on it for a while. The noise doesn't actually matter, it's the play in the bearing that matters.
Jack up the car with the wheels on and push/pull at the top/bottom of the wheel to see if there is any play. Bear in mind that any found might be in the suspension linkages, rather than the wheel bearing.

In the UK MoT test (an annual safety check of sorts all cars over three years old require) wheel bearing play is a failure, whereas wheel bearing noise isn't even an advisory.

Wheel bearing wear/noise can be accelerated by the use of wider wheels, wheels with the wrong offset, using packing plates to increase the track, or running at a camber the suspension wasn't designed for (which could be via lowered of the car via the springs). Or it could just be that they're getting old and have worn out normally.

stock susp + wheels

its an 84 rx7, so yeah, probably just old wear/tear

Yeah, just wear 'n' tear then.

Check the play. If it's okay then the bearings will go a bit longer. Personally I'd find the noise irritating and do them or get them done anyway.

Quote from BAMBO :

cold-air intake

Mostly a gimmick, on a dyno, the air feeding into the engine can get hot, especially if the hood is closed. In a real world driving situation, there's enough flow into the engine compartment that a cold air intake won't help much.

Ram air intakes, such as the ones used on some motorcycles, don't help much at normal speeds, but help a bit at high speeds.

Quote from GTR_Yuni :

engine with insanely high horsepower ... engine with very high torque.

As tristancliffe explained earlier it's the power that counts. The main advantage of a higher torque engine with the same power is that it runs at a lower rate of revolutions, reducing vibration and/or sound.

For a given amount of peak power, a wider power band can be beneficial if gear shifts take a long time, allowing the gearing ratios to be spaced further apart, and also more convenient in terms of reasonable acceleration without having to downshift. In the case of Formula 1 race cars with near instant shifting, the 7 gears can be closely spaced, allowing for peak horsepower with a narrow powerband.