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Back Pressure, Sounds Real, But its Just Another Myth

admin / February 22, 2012 / 2 comments

The Myth: Back Pressure

This is our third myth, write that down as we will get into far more detail for each one in the coming weeks.

Back pressure is needed or the car won’t run…. We’ve all heard that from one person or anther whilst hacking parts of our exhaust off. Well this one is one like we mentioned before that comes from our fore fathers set so well in their ways they won’t have any part of learning anything new. Now our fore fathers were great and got us where we are now running huge boost and horsepower they couldn’t dream of…. So what is back pressure? Back Pressure is the pressure the exhaust creates in the system while the car is running. If you have no exhaust system you would have zero back pressure because the exhaust escapes into open area. So what does it do, well nothing really, other than help push some extra gasses back into the air intake. It isn’t needed for the car to run, think about it drag cars have almost zero back pressure.

So how does lowering the back pressure help me out? Well the lower the back pressure the more freely the exhaust will flow out of the car allowing more fresh fuel and air to fit into the cylinders, meaning more horsepower and torque. The best way to achieve this on your street car is purchase high flow catalytic converters as cats are the most restrictive parts of the exhaust system. Next up grade the pipe it self to a larger diameter, but not to big on a Naturally Aspirated engine or you could lose torque. And finally a higher flow muffler.

Now the most important part is checking local laws to see what you can and can’t use without getting picked up on any charges.

Remember we will be getting into full detail on exhaust soon. If you have any questions please let us know.

Category: automotive, project / Tags: back pressure, car, exhaust, exhaust parts

Myths, They Are Myths For a Reason

admin / February 21, 2012 / No comments

Myths are wrapped around the car world just as much as the truths. This week and maybe even into the next we are going to debunk a few for you so you may be a little more informed. Some of these myths come from good reasoning but with bad follow through, kind of like my golf swing. Typically they start from a lack of knowledge or to much from the industries for fathers who are set in their ways.

So lets get started.

Myth One:

The lower my car is and the harder the springs the better the handling.

This is one is one of the ones that comes with good reason, that lower centers of gravity the better the car will corner and harder springs will reduce body role. Yes this true, to a point, as there is a threshold that the car needs to reside in. What that means is when the car is lowered to much it will adversely affect the suspension geometry and cause things like bump steer. What is bump steer you may be wondering, well, bump steer in its simplest form is when the car will steer itself when the control arm goes up or down. We will cover that more later when we talk about total suspension systems. As well harder springs will help reduce how much the car “dives” into the corner on the outside, but that is job of the sway bar not the shock. When the spring is hard it will cause the tire to bounce more as it is the shock assemblies job is to keep the tire on the ground. Again we will cover this much more in the future.

Myth Two:

Wings will make my car handle better.

This again s one that has perfect reasoning behind it but it’s only half the story. While spoilers will put down force on the back of the car it will take the force of the front, you know where the steering goes on, so you may now ponder how is this helping my handling. Well when coupled with a properly fitted front spliter which is basically a spoiler for the front of your car it will improve the over all down force of the car. It to has to be properly designed and fitted. Most cars you see in the circuits or Super Lap races have what can be referred to as Shopping Cart Wings. These optimize the air moving off the roof of the car by continuing it in a natural pattern off of the back of the car as a whole. One more thing to take into account is that to develop much down force at all you have to be traveling at a relatively high speed, or all they are doing is causing drag. As with what is above we will cover all the subjects in our myths fully begging in the next couple weeks.

Know of any car myths your self be sure to contact us and let us know. We love to hear from our readers.

Category: automotive, project / Tags: air, car myths, handling, myths, spoilers, suspension, truth

Mobile Data Logging

admin / February 18, 2012 / No comments

In the world of grassroots racing and weekend warriors there are always companies with goals more towards helping out the little guy. Most of us can not afford fancy data loggers or dynos or most tuning device. That’s why companies like SuperChips does so well, they make a great product anyone can buy and open and use. Well there a few other companies around now doing the same thing. There are a few companies that have made data logging available for a low-cost for those of you weekend warriors. All you need us a smartphone with an app store. ( I tested using an Iphone 4)

So far I have tested what you can do for zero ’ right zero dollars. I have used 4 App’s that all have free downloads in the app store, REV 2 Lite, LogWorks, Pocket Dyno, and G-Tac Free.

REV and LogWorks were the two best in regards to functionality and usability. The Pocket Dyno and G-Tac are much less capable than the other two, although being free they are worth downloading to have some fun with. REV Lite has the ability to be paired with a wifi OBD II adapter to do even more but that would make it no loger free, as well ou can do the same with LogWorks. Both then have the ability to log many more parameters about your car. They will only log the parameters or metrics that your car has available through the OBD II port. With REV you have the ability when paired to the WIFI device to record speed, RPM, Torque, Horsepower, and Throttle. It will will also many metrics for your Air Fuel ratio such as MAF Rate, Fuel Pressure and Trim, as well as others. You also have the ability to monitor engine parameters such as engine load and fuel level and consumption. Again that is only when paired tot he WIFI device and if your car will supply that data to the OBD II port.

LogWorks being our second favorite is also quite Powerful and ahs the ability to link to a WIFI OBD II device. The home screen shows a speedometer anf a fuel economy gauge. these work of the Phones accelerometer when not paired to the WIFI device. You can also with this app like REV Lite record your acceleration, and lateral G-Forces. It also when paired has many gauges you can monitor and record as well as check and erase OBD II trouble codes. As a stand a lone product it is not as powerful as REV but still a good start to the word of data Loging.

For the other two we tested as a free standalone app, Pocket Dyno G-Tac Free, Pocket Dyno works strictly off of the Phones accelerometer and there for we have no idea how accurate it is. What it will show you though is your Max acceleration, max distance, max velocity as well as dragstrip quarter mile times, although we are not sure how it figures those. That is about all tht it will do. G-Tac does the same thing relying strictly on your Phones accelerometer there for again not sure how accurate it is. So basically with these two just use the one which interface you like more, We Liked G-tacs G-Force monitor much better.

We do have some screen shots for you of each app just to give you an idea of how they look.

REV 2 Lite

LogWorks

Pocket Dyno

G-Tac

So there you have it there are some things you can do for free yet. Stay tuned to see what REV2 Lite and LogWorks can do when paired to the WIFI Device.

If you have an automotive app or product you would like to see on Ameri-Tuner, just email us on our contact page. If you have any questions or concerns about what you see here let us know.

Ameri-Tuner, does not support or condone the use of a cell phone while driving nor do we not support or recieve support from any app making companies. Drive safe.

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