Auto Trends

The oil companies are obviously running a little scared folks. We’ve got them on the run as the country is in a panic to find alternatives to gasoline. Hybrid sales are at an all-time high, people are considering hydrogen, electric, and just about anything that will postpone those visits to the gas station.

This newfound consumer hatred for gas, and the slightly weakening demand for fuel (about a 4 percent drop over this past August) has brought a sudden drop in gas prices in favor of the consumer for a change. You can’t make big money on oil when nobody is willing to buy your product.

AAA reports that the gas price trend is continuing to drop and is at a low of $3.671 as of this Thursday September 11^th, 2008. There are a few spots where gas remains at $4.00 a gallon, like Alaska and Hawaii, but in general the entire country is seeing some much welcome relief.

While most people will see this as a good thing, there are millions of environmentalists right now cursing this move by the oil companies, as they have had them right where they wanted them all summer, and now people are going to once again slip behind their gas guzzlers and feel just a little bit more secure and comfortable than a few weeks ago.

Don’t let this brief hiatus fool you folks, the country is still in a bit of a pickle and hopefully we can continue to dig us out of this oil dependance and find alternative forms of fuel. Right now, the preferred alternative could be said to be electricity, as it is by far the least expensive infrastructure to achieve at the moment.

Spencer Abraham, our Secretary of Energy a few years back, estimated the nationwide cost of a hydrogen infrastructure at a trillion dollars, with the average cost of a fueling station at a cool million. Electricity, well, just a few thousand plug outlets in public spaces for several Billion and we’d be good to go, at least initially.

But with the good old hurricane season upon us, we can be sure to experience the sickening up and down motion of gas prices, that should rekindle visions of the opening segment of the 60’s television show, Gilligan’s Island over the next few weeks.

Hurricane Ike is currently responsible for a slight hike in prices since Monday, but the oil companies are going to do their best to win their way back into your hearts. You can take them back with a slight sweeping motion and then get on with your life, but just remember, they are a fickle friends. Don’t let this change your initiative to eventually strive towards an alternative fuel vehicle.

If we don’t… we’ll all pay for it. And it will be a whole lot worse than $4.00 a gallon!

Advice given today to help folks save gas with the ultra high prices, is like, well… like pot holes. Everybody’s got at least one to contend with during a typical day.

Well, there is a way to get paid for your gas, plus a little extra on top, and all you’ve got to do is qualify by driving a certain number of miles per week, visit various restaurants and other various popular hang-outs, and have a popular and well kept car. It is called car advertising, or car wraps.

This is nothing new by any means, being that it actually came into existence in the early nineties when gas was just a buck twenty a gallon. Today, with gas prices well over four bucks, this idea has been gradually catching on and gaining more popularity. Such advertisement can mean big relief to an otherwise heavy drain on our checkbook!

If you like attention, enjoying getting out and talking to folks, and don’t mind a vehicle with a toilet on the roof, screaming something like, “Need to use the toilet… how about one of ours, at your local Home Depot hardware center!”,

Then a car wrap may be just the thing for you!

There are a variety of levels from which you can do this. There is the simple bumper sticker, that will get you a dollar or so per month, on up to the full decal wraps (advertisement covering your vehicle from roof to rim), which has been noted to go as high as $3,800 a month, for the right set-up.

FreeGasHelp.com is one such company who offers gas cards in exchange for advertising various products and services with everything from bumper stickers, magnetic signs, to window decals. But if you are looking to get even more involved, companies like Autowrapped.com offer entire vinyl vehicle kits for more cash-in-hand.

There is a waiting list mind you, but if you have certain qualifications, you might get ushered to the beginning of the line quicker than others. They like people who are energetic, friendly, won’t mind learning about the product (if people ask, you are expected to tell them about it), visit several restaurants and stores per month, drive at least 1,000 miles per month, and have an eye catching vehicle.

Such preferred vehicles are the Volkswagen bug, Hummer, Hybrid, Scion, Honda Element, Smart Car, and heck, if you’re willing to have your Lamborghini or Ferrari pasted over in commercial artistry, that would probably be worth some big bucks in the right area! Other vehicles are accepted, and some programs even offer the driver a “free vehicle” to use during the duration of their advertisement period.

After you get your vehicle tattooed over in advertisements, you can start on your own body with advertising tattoos. What we don’t get, is while you can get paid to tattoo your vehicle and body, tattooed clothing costs YOU. Just to prance around in a $10 t-shirt that says “GUCCI,” is $172… on sale!

How much would you pay to wear a Preparation H body suit???

If you are looking to squeeze just about every last ounce of horsepower out of your engine and you are getting down to taking out your passenger seat and stereo just to gain a half horsepower, then perhaps it is time that you seriously look at indexing to add a few newfound ponies.

This is actually one of the oldest tricks in the book, other than the famous pick-up line, “You must be tired… because you’ve been running through my head all night.” But unlike some of those tired old pickup lines, this trick actually works!

We mentioned spark plug indexing in Part 3 of our series, but we didn’t really have enough room to tell you how to do it. We highly recommend the purchase of spark plug washers, which will enable you to index any plug.

If you don’t use washers, you are going to have to buy a stock pile of spark plugs to find the perfect matches for your engine. And it always seems that out of eight plugs, you won’t find more than two or three that will work reasonably.

You can find index washers at just about any performance shop and they should look something like these, featured on the Summit Racing website. There should be three thicknesses that will get you to the angle you need, depending on how far you are off in the first place. Which brings us to the steps of the process.

Step 1:

Take the plug you intend to use for the cylinder and using a magic marker, mark a line down the white portion of the body where the ground electrode attaches to the body of the spark plug.

Never use pencil for the marking as it can cause carbon tracking and thus poor spark plug performance.

Step 2:

Using a diagram of your engine, either found in a mechanics book or on the Internet, find where your cylinder is in reference to where your spark plug is going, and in particular take notice where the exhaust valve is facing.

Indexing works in theory because the open gap of the plug is being place in the direct path of the rushing fuel/air mixture, which gives it a much better chance of igniting the mixture completely, than if the ground electrode is in the way.

The reason you want to angle it towards the exhaust valve in most engines is that the force of the mixture is usually moving towards the exhaust valve inside the cylinder. Of course, every engine is very unique, so you may want to experiment a little to see what exact angle achieves the best results.

Note: The only problem with such experimentation, is that without a professional engine dyno… using the “seat of your pants” dyno you will be hard pressed to feel the difference of a couple horsepower… but you can sure try!

Step 3:

Once you know where you want your gap to be facing, go ahead and twist the plug gently into the cylinder wall until it is snug and see which way your line is facing as compared to where you need it.

Remember that you will need to turn the plug approximately a quarter turn or so to tighten, so keep that in mind during your estimation measurements.

If you are close enough, tighten the plug up and move on to the next one. If not, then look at the distance you need to turn the plug in order to be in the proper location and decide between the three thicknesses of washer which one will work best to get you within range.

Note: Never double up on index washers. You will lose compression in your engine. You should be able to reach any destination you need with one of the washer sizes.

Step 4:

One you are within range of your goal, go ahead and tighten the plug and move on the the next plug.

While this does not always guarantee you results of improved engine horsepower and efficiency, it has been proven time and again to work, so the odds are actually more in your favor than using any of the “trick” spark plug designs.

Yes, sometimes the best tricks are the oldest tricks (and least expensive to boot)!