Need some help...

[LMagenis]

Posted in another part of the forum, and that was totally useless. Maybe Empire can help me out. As most of you know, I teach chemistry. My next unit is on setting up reactions and predicting the amount of product. There is one section that deals with combustion engines. I thought that it would bee cool if I could include some facts about car mods. I'm specifically looking for things that are done to engines. (i.e. N2O increases the amount of oxygen in the engine and reduces intake temp). I don't know all of the things that people have done to their cars and why they've done them. The why is really what I'm looking for.

Thanks--I know all of you can really help me out!

[Iceotron]

well here's some basics

Supercharger will force compressed air into the engine. More air means more fuel and more power.

Turbo at the same psi as the supercharger will do the same thing in principal but make alot more power. This is due to the supercharger running off the engine itself and causing parasitic loss. A turbo uses the other wise wasted energy from exhaust gases.

Don't forget the nitrous itself is not flamable. There's a great faq on nitrous in the forced induction section.

hmm, headers is more air flow and less restriction causing the engine to work less to more the air out and therefore make more power. Ditto on exhaust kits.

Cold air intake uses cold air which is denser and lowers intake temp and 99% of the time flows more air into the engine.

Colder plugs used with forced induction ensures there will not be detonation in the combustion chamber.

Performance plug wires ensure a better spark for ignition. Ditto on ignition performance systems(msd makes some of the best)

Better flowing heads = more air

Bigger throttle body = more air

Port and polish = more air

ok, i'm done now.

[LMagenis]

Iceotron--Thank you so much!! That's perfect!!!

I knew Empire would help me out. The first few posts were all flames. It's under the garage talk forum.

[JamP]

Originally posted by: LMagenis
Posted in another part of the forum, and that was totally useless. Maybe Empire can help me out. As most of you know, I teach chemistry. My next unit is on setting up reactions and predicting the amount of product. There is one section that deals with combustion engines. I thought that it would bee cool if I could include some facts about car mods. I'm specifically looking for things that are done to engines. (i.e. N2O increases the amount of oxygen in the engine and reduces intake temp). I don't know all of the things that people have done to their cars and why they've done them. The why is really what I'm looking for.

Thanks--I know all of you can really help me out!

Here is a link that I'm using to learn more about performance modifications:

http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/perf/

A lot of the information is Mopar related but some is generic so it might be of some help. Most of my experience is with late 1950 - early 1970 vehicles so I'm trying to get up to speed on the newer technologies.

[LMagenis]

JamP--Thanks for the site. I'll be visiting it a lot!!