Purple Garage: P1

Hey! Welcome to my first 'Purple Garage' post! These are for the girls, some of you probably already know the things that will be written in here but a lot wont. So lets go over the basics of what’s going on under the hood of your car in a language we can understand!

We all seem to take our cars for granted these days, we forget that when we get into our car even if it is an old absolute hunk of sh*t we are in fact driving quite a smart piece of machinery and its how we drive and maintain them as to how well they preform for us.

LESSON #1 - The basic bits in your engine...

The Piston 
A sliding piece of metal that moves up and down the cylinder. 

Valves
One side being the Exhaust Valves and the other being the intake Valves.
Intake Valves - The part of the cylinder that allows the air / fuel mix inside the chamber. 
Exhaust Valves - The part of the cylinder that releases the used fumes from the chamber. 


Internal Combustion Chamber 
The enclosed space created when the pistons move down the cylinder, which encloses the explosions created by the ignited fuel. 


The Spark Plug 
Produces the spark which ignites the air/fuel mix. 


The Crankshaft 
The piece that rotates to make the pistons move up and down inside the cylinder.


The Camshaft
Opens the Intake and exhaust valves


Timing belt (Cam Belt)
Connects the Crankshaft to the Camshaft so as the Crankshaft moves the Camshaft opens and closes the valves at the right time.


Alternator 
Works with the battery to power the electrical components of your car.

Distributor 
Spreads electricity to the proper cylinder. Not all cars have these, although most older cars will. 




Like I said - a lot of you probably already know this but for those that don't I'm starting from the beginning. Hope at least one of you out there learnt something. 


Staci <3 


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Info from - Essential Car Care for Girls book, How stuff works website.

Im Baaccck!

Ok so it's been like a month since I posted but what can I say, I'm a busy person hehe, what with getting a tattoo on my butt for charity and all.... (JOKE!)

I hope you all had amazing holidays and are settling back into work just as well as I am. We didn't get up to a lot, went out on the boat a couple of times and generally just laxed out.

I have to say it feels a bit strange not having to rush around getting everything ready for the Nats this year, normally id be stressing out major by now. Instead of the nats I plan to enjoy the weekend (always my birthday weekend) not 100% sure on what ill be doing yet, if its a nice weekend might go out on the boat but otherwise I'd like to end up at the drags on the 29th.

Michael and I will be off to Christchurch tomorrow for a bit of sight seeing but mainly to head to their speedway track with the sprint car. I'm a bit nervous of old Christchurch, not been there since the quakes, going to be in for a surprise at what I see no doubt. 

In the mean time my 1st 'Purple Garage' post will be online tonight for you all (just have to get the BF to check I'm not telling you all lies). A garage lesson for the girls, may as well start with the basics so I know whats going on when my lovely Mercedes starts to come apart.

I'll let you know how my trip goes next week and share some pic's I take at the speedway! 

Have a great week!

Staci <3 

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PS,  Running a comp for who can send the most people to like the facebook page if I hit 100 likes at the end of the month ill go shopping at Mad Soundz Tauranga for a wee giveaway for the winner! Will run the comp till 31st Jan.