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What is "turbo lag"? When does it happen and how can it be prevented? Turbo chargers use wasted energy to create even more energy. Instead of the exhaust exiting the car, it is directed instead through the turbo’s impeller which needs to spin at a tremendous speed to compress the air going into the motor. The more compressed air causes greater combustion and leads to more power. The important point here is this: turbos need enough exhaust gas in order to spin at those incredible speeds. Which means, if you don’t have sufficient quantities of exhaust gas to turn the impeller, you don’t create the boost. Which leads us to Turbo Lag. Say you’re cruising along at about 2000 rpm and you suddenly floor the throttle. The exhaust gets directed through your turbo but the problem is, at that speed, there isn’t much exhaust coming out – definitely not enough to get your turbo spinning madly to create the boost you want. So a few engine revs have to go by for you to raise enough exhaust for the turbo to spool or spin up to speed. That moment or two of waiting time between hitting the throttle and the creation of appreciable boost is what is known as turbo lag. How to prevent it? Just make sure to give your turbo enough exhaust when it needs it. Some engine factors can affect turbo lag. Such as air ducting and intercoolers. As far the driver factor is concerned, if you feel that there may soon be a sudden need for serious thrust, downshift until your engine speed is at least 3000 rpm. This way there will be noticeable boost almost as soon as you hit full throttle. What is the difference between a turbocharger and a supercharger? Both compress the air flowing into the engine and are called forced induction systems. Why compress the air? Because the more air that goes in, the more fuel you can burn and the more power you can make. So a turbo or supercharged engine produces more power overall than the same engine without the charging. The big difference between a turbocharger and a supercharger is the power supply. Something has to supply the power to run the air compressor. A turbocharger is exhaust-driven. It is powered by the amount of exhaust gas that runs through the turbine. A supercharger, on the other hand, is belt-driven because it is connected directly to the crankshaft with a belt. Both systems have their pros and cons. In theory, a turbocharger is more efficient because it is using the "wasted" energy in the exhaust stream for its power source. But it does have a boost threshold. Meaning below a certain rpm, there just won't be enough exhaust gases to create the boost you want. A supercharger already injects air into the system, even at extremely low rpm. The dynamics behind setting up a supercharger are also much simpler, but it also costs a little more. But the thing going for current turbo kits is that they have more options and more room for expansion. What's the bottom line? Either a turbo or a supercharger would be a great way to add bolt-on power. The one you use solely depends on your preference, how much money you have to spend, and how much time you have to spare. What is the correct way to routinely warm up a car engine? It’s estimated that about 50 per cent of all engine wear occurs in the first few seconds after you start the car. That’s when the oil is still cold and thick and hasn’t spread around thoroughly to all the places it’s supposed to protect. One bad practice many drivers have is revving the engine as soon as it starts. As soon as they hear the engine turn they step on the gas. That is the worst thing they can do because that is the time when their engine is least prepared to handle such a strain. Another bad practice some drivers have is sitting in their car with the motor running for about five minutes to warm it up. Or worse, they may start the engine and go back in the house to finish getting dressed which could take even longer! With today’s computer controlled, fuel-injected engines, coupled with higher-quality motor oils, your car is all set to start up and go, so forget about those five-minute warm ups of the past. Leaving your car on idle while it warms up is a bad idea. It wastes gas, adds to the pollution and it doesn’t do your engine any good. Unnecessary car idling has been identified as a significant contributor to global warming. Believe it or not, the engine warms up more efficiently while it’s being driven, not while it’s idling. The best way to warm your car up is to drive it. After all, things like wheel bearings, steering, suspension, transmission and tires only warm up when your car is moving. Drive gently for the first five minutes until the car gets warmed up. This reduces fuel consumption and polluting emissions. And if you want to warm up your engine as quickly as possible, leave the air conditioning off until the engine warms up. The only exception is if you sometimes go abroad and you need to drive in winter temperatures. That’s when you may have to warm up for about thirty seconds to a couple of minutes. But in our climate, you shouldn’t need any time to warm up. So if you start your car and drive off then it stalls, you may have a problem, and it's worth getting the car checked out. How do we treat dried "raindrop marks" on our vehicle's paint? Those raindrop marks you have on your paint could either be water spots or water stains. A water spot is a mineral deposit left behind on the surface of the paint. As rain water evaporates, anything that is not water -- such as dissolved minerals and trace elements -- will remain on the car. With the water gone, the remaining material will leave a spot that sits on top of the surface of the paint. If these spots haven’t been there for very long, they can be washed off quite easily with a regular car shampoo. If the spots prove to be stubborn, they can still be removed with some white or distilled vinegar on a soft cotton towel. If the spots are mild, you can dilute the vinegar 2:1 with water. For heavy spots, you can use pure vinegar. Either way, the vinegar shouldn’t harm you or your car. Vinegar is a very mild acid which should dissolve the alkaline-based mineral deposits with ease. You can also use the same treatment for water spots on your windshield but it’s best to dry that off with some newspaper. Unlike towels, newspaper does not leave behind lint and the ink actually acts as a glass polish. Now, if the water spots are left on your car for more than a week or two, they may turn into stains that penetrate into the paint or even etch the glass. So, even though you have removed the minerals causing the water spots, the spots remain as damage to your car’s exterior. In these cases, it is necessary to polish the paint and the glass. There are a number of commercially available products that promise to remove water spots and even protect your car from them in the future. But whatever you do, do not use household detergents to clean up the spots or stains. These detergents are designed to cut through the grease of pots and pans, and they’re bound to strip off the wax and luster of your car. How do I preserve my car’s shine? One word: Wax. Generally speaking, all new cars come with a clear coat on top of the base layer of paint. Think of waxes as a protective coating for the topcoat finish. Or like a removable clear coat that you can apply repeatedly every couple of weeks. It’s advisable to use a clear coat paste wax, usually the carnouba wax. Now, some people confuse the wax with the polish. Polish is there to actually clean the paint first, and even out the paint to give it a nice, smooth, glossy finish. A wax simply seals in all that shine and protect it from the elements like an invisible layer of paint. A disposable layer, that is. On your next car wash, the soap solution will remove the waxes completely. Do note that wax is not capable of removing any paint surface defects. It cannot remove scratches or flaws in your paint finish. The only thing that it can do, besides providing a protective coating, is that it literally "fills in" those defects and "hides" them from view – until your next car wash when those scratches inevitably reappear. As eager as you may be to "lock in" the shine of that new washover (hilamos) of yours, resist it. Never wax newly painted panels. A paint job that’s less than one-month old is still considered newly painted. Also, never apply wax under direct sunlight. Another way to preserve your car’s shine is to avoid parking it under trees that produce sap, and keep it away from the elements as much as possible. When it’s raining, keep your cars as clean as possible. Completely ignore the myth that says: if it’s going to rain, forget about washing the car. It’s probably the best time to keep your car clean because you are preventing the buildup of all that grime from the street that could just stick onto your car beneath a layer of more grime deposited by the rain. What does ps mean? I’m used to the US standard of using bhp for brake horsepower. How do I convert ps values to bhp? First of all bhp and ps are slightly different animals. Bhp or brake horsepower is a calculation where the engine horsepower is measured with no load from a chassis or any accessories attached to the engine whatsoever. It’s also called gross horsepower. PS, on the other hand, is a measurement of net horsepower. It’s horsepower calculated with the engine installed in the vehicle, complete with accessories and ductwork. So you can’t really convert one measurement to the other with a simple formula. However, just to give you a better idea on what "ps" stands for, we can talk a little more about horsepower. Just as there are different ways of measuring temperature, as in Centigrade or Fahrenheit, you can measure the power of your engine in several ways, too. Horsepower is simply your engine’s ability to move mass over a certain amount of time. If you want to be technical about it: one horsepower can lift 33,000 pounds up one foot in one minute. And that’s the measure of horsepower you’re familiar with, the one used in the U.S., and it’s the standard set by the Society of Automobile Engineers, which is why it’s also called SAE horsepower. The ps you’re asking about is short for the German word Pferdestarke, the term for metric horsepower, also known as DIN horsepower. DIN is short for Deutsche Industrie Normen which simply translates to "German industrial standard". So, in summary, hp is the U.S. standard for horsepower, while ps is the standard in continental Europe. If you want to dazzle your friends, you can say that one horsepower is equal to 1.0139 ps, making SAE horsepower roughly 98.6% of the metric DIN measurement.
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