Latest News

Buying a car from the Stealership

I’ve wanted to write this article for some time now. As some background, I was laid off from my job as an Imagery Analyst (I’ll tell you about it sometime) in May of 1998. After about a month of searching for a new job, I took a job selling cars. Selling cars, IMHO, is not a very good job for anyone, at least the way I was forced to ...

What is an internal combustion engine? It is responsible for turning an air/fuel mixture into motion. It does this by burning the mixture inside the engine to utilize the power output of the combustion explosion. There are different kinds of internal combustion engines like diesel or gas turbine. However, for the purpose of this article we are talking about ones utilizing gasoline as its primary fuel source.

In order to understand how an engine works, a look at engine makeup is required.

Block:

The block is the foundation of the engine. It is upon the block which everything else is mounted. Most blocks are made of either cast iron or aluminum. Most automobiles utilize 4, 5, 6, or 8 cylinder engines. There are many different configurations. Below are examples of different types of engine blocks.


These are just a few examples. Other combinations exist, such as horizontally opposed (aka: pancake or boxer) four and six cylinder, V4, V10, W6, W8, W10, and many more. The examples shown should help you to understand the different combinations which ...

Monday I left to come to Boston for a conference for work. The plan was to be here most of the week. When I found out, I dropped an email to Factory Five Racing to see if I could get a tour of the plant. Their front lady, Sally Bean, sent me back a note saying they could oblige. I was ecstatic (as you could probably tell from this blog post). When I got to Boston, I got in the rental car and started my hour trek down to Wareham, MA. I arrived a little early due to being able to grab an early flight. I was glad I did, as I don't think I would have made it to the Factory Five shop before they closed ... or without enough time to really get any ...

Most people on this forum, this will come second nature to you. But, there are those that are either looking to save money, or just want the satisfaction of doing ...

What's up guys and gals. I thought I would post up a how-to on installing poly bushings from Prothane. I had noticed that my steering was really loose so I started checking the front end out. On the passenger side, I could grab the upper control arm and move it front and back about 1/2", not good. So, i ordered this kit and started the install on the passenger side. There are no pics from that side other than the completed pics. This is cause the drivers side is exactly the same with the exception of having to remove the master cyl to get to a shock bolt.

So, with all of that said, onto the writeup.

The first thing that you want to do is get the car up in the air and put it on jack stands. Take the front ...

Part 1 - Aperture, Shutter Speed, & ISO

First and foremost, we need to cover the 3 main settings you should be adjusting on your Digital SLR and the relationship they share with one and other: Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO. In the world of photography, light is everything. These 3 settings control how much light enters your camera or how your camera processes that light, so understanding what each setting controls and the relationship between the settings is critical to taking a properly exposed picture.

1) Aperture

Think of Aperture as the hole in your camera that lets in light. A bigger aperture means a bigger "hole" and thus, lets in more light. Conversely, a smaller aperture will let in less light. Aperture is probably the most confusing of the 3 settings because the number (f/stop) used to describe it may seem "backwards" to most people. The lower the number, the larger ...