All Fuels Are Not Created Equal

Do you still buy the cheapest gas you can find? Ever worry it might mess up your engine? Maybe you should, if you drive a newer, direct-injected car, as the hostile environment these high-precision multi-orifice injectors operate under makes them vulnerable to the performance-robbing deposits cheap gas can leave. 

According to consulting engineer Jerry Horn at Chevron, these deposits are formed from a series of compounds, among them olefins and di-olefins with double-bonds that break down, forming gummy deposits that can alter airflow around intake valves or fuel flow out of injectors. Jim Macias, fuels technology manager at Shell, adds that these carbonaceous deposits start out as one of the 300 compounds in gasoline, then polymerize on hot surfaces. There's no single component to target, which complicates preventing or cleaning them. 

Back in the 1990s, as Tier I emissions regs were phased in, the deposits -- created by fuel impurities -- began causing problems for the emissions gear that manufacturers had to guarantee for 100,000 miles. So the EPA established a minimum fuel-additive performance standard in 1995, but the standard was below what some suppliers were then offering, so many reduced their fuel detergency, making matters worse for the subsequent Tier II standards of 2004. After unsuccessfully lobbying for higher standards, a group of automakers (Audi, BMW, GM, Honda, Mercedes, Toyota, and Volkswagen ) consulted with fuel suppliers to establish a higher voluntary standard, marketed as "Top Tier Detergent Gasoline." 

Top Tier is a performance standard, establishing tests and minimum acceptable results for intake-valve and combustion-chamber deposits, fuel-injector fouling, and intake-valve sticking. It also requires that all fuel grades marketed by the brand meet the standard (not just the premium grade, for example). Additive manufacturers pay for the testing, fuel suppliers pay an annual fee to participate, and compliance testing is conducted by third-party labs. Over and above the three basic tests to certify Top Tier fuels, the major fuel suppliers conduct additional testing. Jerry Horn explains that Chevron is "trying to cover more of the on-road vehicle population with additional engine and vehicle dynamometer tests, and then also we do tests with a cab company in SoCal to test fuels under relatively severe service conditions." A revision to the current EPA and CARB test regimens is also expected in the future, perhaps to include testing of direct-injection, but certainly to change the standardized test engines.

So how do Top Tier fuels like Chevron and Texaco with Techron, Shell's Nitrogen-Enriched, and BP's Invigorate work? Each employs top-secret organic chemistry (Chevron admits theirs involves a polyether amine. Others often employ polybutene amines, if that helps), but by and large the molecules include a "hydrocarbon tail" (that keeps the detergent soluble in fuel) attached to a head that includes a functional group containing nitrogen. When enough of these nitrogens attach to a deposit, it comes off. Then the nitrogens can attach to the clean surface and prevent new deposits from forming. The fresh challenge with DI is designing functional heads that don't lose their cool at temperatures of 4000 degrees F or higher. Chevron and Shell both claim that running a few tanks of fuel can remove the deposits left by miles of use of minimum-standard fuels. 

National gas prices are still well below historic highs, but as for fuel-system cleaning products, Macias cautions "the aftermarket treatments tend to be high-concentrations of these additives. Some of that material can get into the crankcase and the effects are not entirely known. It is a big dose of materials, and we are not sure if it could cause damage to the catalytic converter. The only way to ensure that a vehicle maintains peak performance is to use top-quality fuel consistently." Horn states this about these concentrated aftermarket additives "You can wash [deposits] off, but they'll come back, and any deposits can impact air-fuel mixture and combustion, emissions, drivability, fuel economy, etc."  

If you love your car like you love your pet, feed it the good stuff, at least every other tank or so.

Source: http://blogs.motortrend.com/1403_all_fuels_are_not_created_equal_technologue.html

Top 5 Audiobook Recommendations

The Invention of Wings: A Novel 

Written by: Sue Monk Kidd

Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
Summary: From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees comes a magnificent novel about two unforgettable American women. Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world. Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Imperial Life in the Emerald City 

Written by: Rajiv Chandrasekaran 
Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
Summary: The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, takes us into the Green Zone, headquarters for the American occupation in Iraq. In this bubble separated from wartime realities, the task of reconstructing Iraq is in the hands of 20-somethings chosen for their Republican Party loyalty. They pursue irrelevant neoconservative solutions and pie-in-the-sky policies instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity, angering the locals and fueling the insurgency.

Divergent, Book 1 

Written by: Veronica Roth

Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
Summary: In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue - Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is - she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

   

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War 

Written by: Robert M. Gates

Length: 25 hrs and 42 mins
Summary: From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vivid account of serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House, he thought he'd long left Washington politics behind: After working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happily serving as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty.

Sycamore Row

Written by: John Grisham  

Length: 20 hrs and 50 mins  
Summary: Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier. The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly?

Best Apps to Help You Save Time on Your Commutes

We all know that Traffic Technology is evolving at the speed of light. Also, the moment you drive off the lot you might find out that some insane new technology just came out! For this reason, we’ve compiled the best apps you can download to help you save time on your work commute. It will help you avoid, accidents, traffic, police stops and radars or basically anything that will prevent you from getting home fast.




Garmin Street Pilot 

This expensive software with photo- realistic mapping and right-now prompts, which worked well even when you are cruising through rural areas without a cell signal. That detail and immediacy are the result of maps that live locally on your smartphone, not in the cloud. Another distinguishing feature is Garmin's awesome mass-transit database. The app can route you to the nearest parking garage and it will drop a virtual pin on the map to help you remember your car's location. It even knows the bus schedule and will help you find the nearest Bus/Metro/Ferry stop. Live traffic information is provided by Here and augmented by crowd sourced data.





Waze

Recently purchased by Google we still need to say, it's not Google Maps with added directions. The maps and routings are built by 50 million worldwide users. Traffic data in the U.S. is based entirely on the progress of "wazers" currently driving. These generous volunteers provide information on speed traps, accidents, and other road events, which fellow wazers confirm and update. But Waze needs an internet connection; lose service and most of the info is unavailable. The police and traffic warnings are highly reliable, and points-of-interest searches are augmented by larger databases such as Google, Yelp, and Foursquare. This is basically a game-changer in the Traffic Apps of the world.




Scout

This product comes from mapping- and traffic-service provider Telenav, so they know what they are talking about.In case you don’t know who they are, they are the inventors of In-Car Mapping systems. We like the layers of information that come with directions, such as weather forecasts. Two other features stand out: OnMyWay texts contacts that you're en route, and the Meet Up function lets multiple users see the others' progress in real time. Scout also acts as an event guide, with listings of movie times, concerts, and so on. In-app upgrades include speed traps and speed cameras. Like Waze, Scout's prompts may be a beat slower than those of Garmin's StreetPilot, but, hey—it's free! We also love that you can choose a monster truck as the icon for your car. Basically, this is a very contender! Don’t miss out on it.




Trapster 

Directions and traffic alerts aren't the only ways to improve your commute—apps can also help you steer clear of cops, drive green, or find a charge. For those averse to tickets and fines, Trapster uses voice prompts to flag red-light and speed cameras along with known speed traps. Data is crowd sourced from 20 million users, and accuracy is solid.

5 Ways to Make Your Old Car Feel New

The best thing about your old car is that you've already paid for it. Most of us grow tired of our used cars long before they're used-up cars. But money is tight for just about everyone, so why throw away a car that's running well just because it's feeling worn down, looking beat up and has lost some of its athleticism? Cars built in the last 10 or 15 years can go 200,000 or 300,000 miles if given the right care. And there are some simple ways to spice up your long-term automotive relationship without using up whatever is left on your home equity line of credit. What it takes first is the determination to re-commit.

 

1. Electronics - Even if your car is only a couple of years old, it's almost certainly got an outdated sound system. Trading an old radio head unit for one that integrates with an iPod, iPhone or satellite radio, and includes a Bluetooth connection for a cellphone, will shoot your car or truck into the present. You might also consider an Electronic GPS navigation system.

2. Let it breathe - Aftermarket intake systems and air filters don't work miracles, but they can open up an older engine's inhalation system and kick up output by a few horsepower.

3. Paint - Generally speaking, it's best to use touchup paint sparingly and carefully. However, you can easily remove plastic trim pieces on your car's exterior and repaint them with a spray can. It particularly makes a big difference on black parts that have weathered to a dull gray.

4. Revitalize the A/C - Your car's AC can suffer buildups of mold, mildew and bacteria. To clean out the system, first make sure the air coming into the system isn't first passing through leaves, dust or other accumulated grime in the air passageways. Then change or clean any filters in the system. Finally, use an air-conditioning deodorizer to finish things off.

5. Clear the lenses - Vehicles built during the last couple of decades usually have plastic composite headlamps that weather and dull over time. You can pick up a headlight restoration often for under $30, and they're easy to use. It only takes a few minutes to turn a dull, yellowed headlight clear—which makes your old car look nicer and instantly improves illumination.

Car Graveyard in Bastnas, Sweden

Deep within a Swedish forest lie 1,000 forgotten cars from the 1950s. The rusting vehicles are all that remains of a scrap yard set up in the wake of the Second World War. Back then it was the final destination for cars abandoned by American soldiers leaving Europe after the war. Two forest-dwelling Swedish brothers ran the scrap yard until the 1980s before they abandoned the site in the 1990s, leaving the forest undergrowth to claim the cars. Today, rusting classic cars including vintage Opels, Fords, Volvos, Buicks, Audis, Saabs and a Sunbeam litter the natural undergrowth.

Photographer Svein Nordrum ventured into the dense woods to snap some pictures of the abandoned vehicles. He said: "It is very quiet in there. It is a strange feeling when you’re there, as if you’re on the edge of the world... The forest is very dense. You can only see a couple of cars at any one time - the rest disappear into the woods. The cars are now a part of nature in a way. The trees grow all over and through the cars, with branches sneaking through windows and over the bonnets."

 
The 1,000 corroded vehicles are collectively worth an estimated £100,000 in scrap. However, efforts to remove the cars from the forest have been thwarted. Nordrum said "Some people in Sweden want to remove the cars, but environmentalists keep stopping them. Apparently birds and other animals have made nests in the bodywork."

The car graveyard is in the mining country of Bastnas, a town in southern Sweden. Hikers have discovered trees growing around bodywork and moss covering seats and steering wheels.

Save Gas Money In Eight Simple Steps

With gas prices skyrocketing and living wages stagnating, it's only logical that we would try to stretch every dollar a little further. That includes certain habits to get the most out of each tank of gas when we fill up. But have you heard about these lesser-known yet expert tips to help maximize each tank for longer periods of time? Check out these eight steps below:

Step 1. It's ok, enjoy your air conditioner on the highway. Consumer Reports says that AC's gas-guzzling reputation is undeserved. And, at higher speeds, opening the windows or sunroof can hurt on gas miles by increasing drag.

Step 2. Don't fill up your tank until you're practically on empty; the less fuel you're toting, the lighter your car, and the more you will save on gas.

Step 3. After filling up your car, turn the nozzle upside down before you remove it from your tank. You'll get another half a cup of gas that's stuck in the hose that will save on gas.

Step 4. Tighten your gas cap after filling up so you don't let any precious fuel evaporate. Try to park in the shade. This will also help save on gas by preventing evaporation.

Step 5. Put your car in overdrive for highway driving. It lowers your RPM, or revolutions per minute, which saves you gas money. Check your owner's manual for the recommended speed at which you may use overdrive. If you're due for new tires, get radials; they improve gas miles by two or three percent saving you gas money.

Step 6. Stay in one lane as much as possible; weaving uses up more gas miles.

Step 7. Use cruise control when you're on a flat highway, where it can increase gas miles by 7%. But don't use it on uneven roads, where it's not efficient.

Step 8. Turn off all electronics and climate controls before you cut the engine. With the extras off, your engine won't have to strain so hard to restart, leading to better gas miles.

Millennials skip showroom, use social media for car-buying

When 20- and 30-somethings go car shopping, they’re likely to ask their friends for help – their Facebook friends, that is. The youngest generation of car buyers is far more likely to turn to social media for advice than head for the showroom, according to an eBay Motors study.

More than nine of 10 so-called millennials -- "Generation Y" babies born between 1980 and 2000 -- turn to the Internet when shopping for a new car or truck, according to the eBay research.

They aren’t alone. A separate study found that the majority of buyers now go online to begin the car buying process – and more than half will be strongly influenced by what their friends have to say on Facebook.

94 percent of millennial car buyers gather information online;

More than a third use mobile devices to do that research, compared to 19 percent of older car shoppers;

Only 13 percent of millennials view visiting a dealership as their preferred method of shopping, while 25 percent of older buyers prefer to go to a showroom.

The study, based on responses from over 1,000 U.S. adults, also found that millennials are more comfortable using portable devices than older drivers when researching a possible purchase. One of five of these young motorists reported that they would be open to going through the entire purchase on a mobile device, according to eBay Motors.

Millennials aren’t alone. The survey found that two of three older motorists say technology is changing how they shop for a car.

That’s supported by the Automotive Social Media and Reputation Trend Study which finds 81 percent of buyers read reviews to narrow down the right car or truck, a figure that has grown substantially in the past six months. The study, by research firm Digital Air Strike, named Cars.com, Edmunds.com and Yahoo! among the most influential sources of reviews. It also noted social media outlets Facebook, Yelp and Google Plus.

Twenty-four percent of those surveyed indicated online reviews are the single “most helpful” factor in the final choice of a vehicle. According to the study by Digital Air Strike, “There is a 59 percent probability that a consumer will trust a review from a Facebook friend more than reviews on other sites.”

Meanwhile, the survey of 2,000 shoppers found that 43 percent said they would use Facebook to search for a local dealership.

While there has been a lot of debate about the effectiveness of Facebook advertising, the Automotive Social Media study found that clicks on dealership ads jumped to 39 percent from 16 percent between October 2012 and April 2013.

A History of the Automobile, Part I

Ever wonder who first planted the seed for the idea behind your speedy coupe or beastly SUV? The history of the automobile takes root in humble origins:

It all began with several Italians who recorded designs for wind-driven vehicles. First among them was Guido da Vigevano in 1335, who created a windmill type drive to gears and thus to wheels. Vaturio designed a similar vehicle which was also never built. Later, Leonardo da Vinci designed a clockwork-driven tricycle with tiller steering and a differential mechanism between the rear wheels.

In 1712, Thomas Newcomen built his first steam engine. It had a cylinder and a piston and was the first of this kind to use steam as a condensing agent to form a vacuum and with an overhead walking beam, pull on a rod to lift water. The steam was not under pressure, so Newcomen's lift would have only been limited by the length of the rod and the strength of the valve at the bottom. It was not until 1765 that James Watt developed the first pressurized steam engine, which proved to be much more efficient and compact than the Newcomen engine.

The first recorded vehicle to move under its own power was designed by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot and constructed by M. Brezin in 1769. A second unit was built in 1770 which weighed 8000 pounds and had a top speed of 2 miles per hour on the cobblestone streets of Paris.

Above, you will see the first model on its first drive around Paris, when it hit and knocked down a stone wall. This unsteady prototype also had a tendency to tip over forward unless its weight was counterbalanced with a canon in the rear, for which purpose it was built to carry out.