Questions your afraid to ask/cos you think its DUMB

I know we have a Technical Thread but if theres any questions we like to ask and was afraid to cos they are so simple I thought this thread would be good and all you dealers and Fcar gurus can give us guys the answers...

I was gonna start with :-

Q. How does Antifreeze stop are cars from freezing???

Anyone know....A wise old guy told me the answer to this one!!!!!

 

Joe,

There is no such thing as a stupid question. The only stupid man is the man who is too scared to ask....

Antifreeze acts by lowering the temperature that the water in your cooling system freezes at. Normally this is zero centigrade, but with addition of chemicals such as Methanol and ethane-1,2-diol has the effect of reucing this by some quite considerable margin. The more of these chemicals added to the water in your coolant, the lower the freezing point.

It's a bit like putting salt on the road in the winter; it has the effect of reducing the freezing point of water so the roads should stay ice-free down to about -6 degrees.

It's either this, or the antifreeze (or Austrian wine as it is sometimes known) intoxicates the ice pixies in your engine, and they cant gather in gangs and block up your waterways.....

Dr Stigggggggleeee

 

What is lift off oversteer??

 

Its oversteer caused by taking your foot off the throttle, which changes the balance and therefore the Polar moment of inertia of the vehicle, causing you to spin

 

Ok guys,

Hope you don't mind someone from across the pond chiming in with a really basic question or two for you experienced owners...

I have seen many references to people saying that they've removed the "cats" in favor of test pipes to put in a Tubi or Capristo exhaust, etc., but here's my question. Am I correct in assuming that "cats" in this context refers to the catalytic converters ? I (obviously) don't know that much about this, but I'm surprised that these can be removed like this. Over here at least, I thought that catalytic converters are required in all vehicles to help reduce emissions - with a pretty hefty penalty/fine if they are removed. Is there something about these other exhaust systems that somehow makes this not an illegal act ? Perhaps there's something in these new exhaust systems that achieves the same results? Yes, I realize this may just be a US question, but this *did* seem like a the right thread...? By the way, what are "test pipes" anyway (when compared with Tubis, etc.) ?

Thanks from Atlanta everyone,

Mark

 

From what I understand, when I had my 355 the teast pipes were simply used in place of the cats , they are just straight pipes that go to the back box of the car. Test pipes are used in place of the cats, thats when you get the flames.....

 

in the UK cats became compulsory after 93 and then are only realy required when your car goes in for its yearly Test. whilst our emissions controlls aren't as strict as the US the rest of the test is far stricter (besides as most car engines in the UK are far smaller and more efficent than in the US we use less fossill fuel and therefore less emissions (ish!) and thats the only benefit of $7 a gallon fuel!)

 

Hi Andrew it's 92,sorry about that,
Joe, i aksed last month i think it was what you guy's do when you get a punture(on the f-cars)got the answers i wanted,i post stuff all over f-chat tech section and im no ferrari tech,
joe when ive got to repaint the workshop floor you will get pm,

My question is can somone teach a 3yr old how to reduce the size of there
pictures in there comp,

Dale.

 

Well I guess I should weigh in with a question.

What is torque steer?

What exactly does double declutching do, and is it something you can use on the upshift as well as the downshift?

 

From what I under stand:

Torque steer: A trait of high power front wheel drive cars (e.g Volvo T5), when you try to boot it round a corner, cos' of the big power the car wants to go straight on and not round the corner. Or more generally the car wants to go straight on whatever direction you might want it to go!

Double de-clutch: Used in older racing cars with straight cut gearboxes, as there is no snycromesh (sp?) its not easy to change gear by disengaging the clutch and changing from one gear to the next. So, you depress the clutch and move the box into neutral, renegage the clutch for a split second, then depress it again and then engage the next gear, and release the pedal and accelerate. I think this technique is used mainly on changing down the gears.

Hopefully a racing f-chatter will clarify this!

HTH

MOD.

 

.......refer: "Women Drivers"......how do i upload a jpg file onto a message posting ?
cheers, d

 

Torque steer is as Mod says. It is caused by the steering wheels also being the driven wheels. The grip under the front wheels inevitably differs and under hard acceleration, the car will be pulled toward whichever side has the most grip. In a powerful front drive car, the steering wheel and car will weave noticeably.

You can double declutch on both up and downshifts, but it is most useful on downshifts. My father's 1929 Austin 7 has a non-syncro box, and to change down you'd do as folllows: clutch in, change to neutral, clutch out, rev the engine, clutch in, and then put the car into the next gear, exactly matching the revs for the next gear. Sounds harder than it actually is as you can feel what's going on. Dunno exactly what it does, but I think it is something to do with matching the various gear speeds.

Robert.

 

How do you heel & toe, and why should I want to learn?

 

Heel and toeing is when you use one foot to brake and blip the throttle on downshifts as you would if you are double declutching.It generally saves time on the race track because you are braking and blipping at the same time instead of braking and then blipping for the downshift.It is very rewarding when you get it right.As they say practice makes perfect.

 

Cheers Dale,

Ive only got a bottle in the boot and the tyre shreds im f**ked

Pm my mate and ill get you a good deal...the stuff that lasts.

 

The point of double de clutching is that when you change down the speed that the lower gear turns will be faster that the previous one. By rengaging the engine and blipping the throttle you pick up the speed of the gearbox to enable the lower gear to be engaged without a large mechanical crunch.

This was neccesary with all cars until syncromesh was invented in the fifties I think, and many cars still had no syncromesh into first gear until the early '70's

 

Do you guy's check your tyre pressures,oil,water between servicing intervals,
once a week twice a week monthly or dont do it,
do 355's and 360 spiders have electric roof's or manual,if electric are they
quick working,slow or just ok and has your's ever leaked,

cheers
Dale.

 

Roof is great, has only being iffy once, check oil with engine running as this pumps oil round from dry sump??Once a whenever....Do V8,s burn a lot of Oil??

What oil goes in Fully Synthetic???

What should my oil pressure be as on idle it goes low on gauge???

Whats a good paint for my headers and exhaust??