Road trips don’t require much preparation, but 4×4 trips off the beaten track are a different thing altogether. There is no help available off the highway, so the vehicle has to be in good shape and the driver must be well prepared to deal with any eventuality. Of course, the idea is to avoid breakdowns in the first place, so a number of things have to be looked at when setting out on a 4×4 trip out into the wild.
Category Archives: Tech
The ultimate 4×4 site
This page has the ultimate collection of 4×4 links:
WJ’s 4×4 & Offroad Homepage :: For the persistent, no road is impassable.
Very detailed and informative articles & links on all things 4×4. It would take months just to go through all the linked material…
Grease Is the Word: Fill It Up With Fry Oil
Practically all our 4×4’s run on diesel fuel, which is becoming prohibitively expensive, so it’s surprising that no one in Pakistan has looked into vegetable oil yet. The New York Times reports:
Continue reading Grease Is the Word: Fill It Up With Fry Oil
Jeep Rebuilders Redux
There are a few Jeep workshops in Karachi who do world class restoration work. I had known that many of their jeeps from Karachi end up abroad, with one great example in the Smithsonian Museum in the World War II section, and another in the New York Museum of Arts. Recently I found out that there was even a documentary made by an American channel about the local jeep rebuilders:
Vehicle Maintenance 101
There are some good introductory articles on vehicle maintenance on Autoblog.
How well do K&N air filters work?
This is a question which has been long debated. There are those who swear by K&N filters, and many who swear at them. From ‘Autoblog:’:http://www.autoblog.com/entry/1234000600057664/
Fortunately, a Duramax owner tired of the lack of scientific evidence pursued a path of testing that eventually ended with a lab performing the ISO 5011 procedure on a number of replacement air filters.
Read the ‘full test results here’:http://home.usadatanet.net/%7Ejbplock/ISO5011/SPICER.htm. The gist of the tests is:
The K&N and UNI filters were far less efficient at trapping dust, and note that they lose their flow advantage after filtering about 180 grams of dust.
Free Wheeling Hubs: Why Have Them?
Interesting article on free wheel hubs. There are two opposing camps about free wheel hubs, and never the twain shall meet. After many years driving a Willy’s jeep with permenantly locked hubs, I’ve never had a single problem with the front axles, or with mileage, loss of power etc.
Comparing Diesel Types
An interesting overview of marine diesel engines, also applies to car engines.
New Hilux Engines
Two new generation D-4D common rail direct injection diesel engines have been introduced with the new Hilux. Since the new Hilux is widely available in Pakistan, it is to be hoped that one fine day these engines will show up in Shershah.
Fluid selection
Good article on oils: ‘Fluid Selection’:http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3828/is_200311/ai_n9320844/print:
Today, the automotive service industry is faced with a daunting variety of fluids. One type certainly does not fit all applications. This article summarizes some of the most common fluids and the unique OEM specifications that have appeared over the last 10 to 15 years and that are in use today.
Toyota Technical Articles
These are training materials used by Toyota. I’ve collected them from various places on internet. They are a very good introduction to EFI engines in general. Recommended reading for anyone planning to install an EFI engine, or just wanting to know more about how they work. To view them, you will need ‘Adobe Acrobat Reader’:http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html.
Diesel Motorcycles
We’ve been saying it for years, the future of vehicles is likely not hybrid, it’s TDI – Turbo Direct Injection Diesel. Thunderstar seems to agree, having just developed a three-cylinder, 1200cc, TDI motorcycle. Weighing in at 455 lbs, ready to roll, it produces 90hp and 150 ftlbs of torque in stock trim.
The engine is a VW 3 cylinder diesel (from the VW Polo), recast to fit the motorcycle. Apparantly these things don’t go very fast, the current speed record for diesel motorcycles being 85.46mph. (Diesel KLR650 Sets Speed Record)
Pass the lab coat
bq.. New passenger-car diesel engines from the Ford-Peugeot Citroen alliance will require workers to be trained to work in a sterile environment. The common-rail diesel design, requiring all cylinders to be injected with fuel at the same pressure, needs a dirt-free environment to ensure there is no blockages in the fuel lines.
*”With the old tractor-type diesel engines it didn’t matter too much about a bit of dirt, but these new engines have much less tolerance of any dirt particles, especially in fuel lines and the fuel head,”* a Ford U.K. spokesman says.
Such attention to detail will require workers in high-tech environments to labor under sterile conditions and powerful lighting. They will be required to wear white coats and protective footwear.
>> ‘Pass me the lab coat; I have diesel engines to build’:http://wardsauto.com/ar/auto_uk_hone_ford/index.htm
Whatever will local mechanics do? Especially when the majority of workshops in this country look like ‘this’:http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/neza_e_sultan/workshop_at_mashkell.html? Common rail diesels are now becoming common in all the new diesel cars and suvs. A 28,000 psi encounter with a bit of dirt is not going to be pretty…
Hot under the Bonnet
The following article is the elaboration of a post that I made in the forums a while ago. My good friend KO insisted I turn it into a tech article as a reference for those who are not regular visitors around here.
Proper cooling for an engine is like oxygen for us – you don’t care about it until you’re not getting enough of it. That’s why cooling systems tend to go unnoticed until something bad happens, usually accompanied by a lot of huffing, hissing and steam. Continue reading Hot under the Bonnet
Jeep rebuilders
There was a time when Jeeps were only owned and maintained by the either the Landlords for a visit to the lands or shikari’s (hunters) or contractors engaged in construction/mining in remote areas. With the introduction of Pajeros and Land Cruisers a more comfortable approach to the wilderness was available to the not so outdoors kind. Pakistan Army, the single largest possessor of Jeeps gradually phased out the American Legend and replaced its fleet with Toyotas, the auctioned Jeeps found their way in the driveways of enthusiasts, sparkling and shining rebuilt by a few master professionals.
Motivation Equation
I first published this article back in 2003 when the petroleum pricing structure in Pakistan was completely different from present day and hence the engines available locally were also accordingly different. With the recent alignment of Pakistani petroleum prices with global oil prices, gasoline engines have quickly become a less expensive and often more desirable alternative to diesel engines. I have reproduced the article in more or less its original form, albeit updated where appropriate to reflect engine options now available in light of this development.