Engineering Magazines

It is well known that 85-90% of all Internet users rely on search engines to help them locate the information they are looking for. However, only 7% of them look past the first 2 – 3 pages of the search engine’s search results. Therefore those top few spots are incredibly valuable, and competition for them is intense.

If your online success depends on getting the right visitors to your website, then it depends on high rankings for the right search terms, or keywords, on search engines. A high search engine ranking is critical. If you think you can’t afford to spend the time, effort and money it takes to get that ranking, then think again, the reality is that you can’t afford not to.

If you want to be successful in an online business, you must make the search engines your greatest ally. Search engines are the best possible supplier of long-term, targeted free potential customers. Good search engine optimization needs two vital ingredients

1. Content, Content, & more Content. 2. Links, Links & more Links.

1. Content for search engines is vital. It is fundamental to every legitimate search engine strategy. Good content is critical to a good search engine ranking because many elements of search engine algorithms insist on page content on web sites. The type of content you provide for search engines should also be the type of content your visitors will appreciate.

Simply put, that means if you provide content for your visitors, then the search engines will follow. Do your research for the correct keywords using a quality program such as keyword equalizer. Use these keywords in your Meta tag titles, and descriptions. Also use your keywords on your pages, in the titles throughout the body text. However, and this is important, be sure to use your keywords in such a way as to be valid to your readers. Avoid the deliberate overuse of keywords.

This is known as Keyword stuffing. It is unattractive and unappealing to your visitors. It does not provide them with the information they came looking for. If your visitors don’t like your site they won’t stick around, therefore it doesn’t matter even if the search engines do. However, keyword stuffing may well get your site penalized by the search engines.

There is currently much ado about articles for content on the web these days. One of the best methods of including quality content on your pages is with good articles. Write your own, or visit Content Desk, – join up if possible, – to find high quality articles to use in your pages for fresh relevant content that will be appreciated by your visitors. It will also help enormously with your search engine rankings.

Joining a pay per click program can provide appropriate themed ads on your pages. This is a great way of obtaining fresh new content which helps your ratings, and your customers. For multiple PPC programs PPC Management is a very useful tool.

2. Links to your site are also essential.

Quality inbound links provide access to your site for visitors and search engines alike. However, these links must be relevant to your target audience. From a visitor’s point of view there is no purpose in a link that is irrelevant to their topic of interest. They will probably not use it.

Search engines appear also to now be looking for relevant links, and tending to discard or even to penalize links that are irrelevant. Therefore, the type of links you provide for search engines should also be the type of content your visitors will appreciate.

Simply put, that means if you provide links for your visitors, then the search engines will follow. If you limit yourself to exchanging links only with websites that have a theme highly related to your own, the traffic you receive from those links will be far more targeted and valuable to you. Not only do highly relevant links bring you more highly targeted traffic, but they also provide customer satisfaction for your visitors. Therefore they are far more likely to visit you again.

Many search engines are now giving link relevance greater weight in their algorithms, in preference to purely link numbers. A large number of inbound links from pertinent sites that are highly ranked by the search engines is exactly what you need. However, to get those links, your content must impress the owners of the sites you link with. Back to that – content, content, content.

Obtaining quality links is a time consuming, but essential, process. Using a quality program such as SEO elite will help you to quickly find quality topical sites to include in your link exchange program, and make this job much, much easier. Another rapidly growing way of obtaining links that will be highly regarded by potential visitors and search engines alike is through an article submission campaign. If you submit articles applicable to your theme into quality article exchange vendors, such as Content Desk, they will be picked up by other websites looking for content, and distributed around the web. Include a few well placed links and have your biography link to your site or your opt-in page. You’ll be amazed at how well this technique is working for many home internet business owners.

Pay Per Click is one of the easiest ways to place links and immediately begin getting traffic. Advertising in this way on the search engines not only provides you with highly targeted potential customers, but provides a link from other relevant websites that participate in the advertising program. This can assist your search engines rankings.

Be sure though to monitor your PPC campaign closely, as it can get expensive if left unchecked. Remember that quality content and inbound links to your website are essential to your search engine ranking. However, the reason for providing both goes far deeper than impressing the search engines alone. “The customer is always right”. It is the visitors to your site that you need to impress. Highly themed quality content, and links to other relevant and well regarded resources, are what your customers are looking for. Guess what? So too are the search engines.

Simply put, if you provide content and links for your visitors, then the search engines will follow. Good luck, & have fun

There is no black magic or knowledge of rocket science required to building websites that are easy for search engines to navigate round and give you the best possible ranking.

Get the fundamentals right and you will be ahead of the vast majority of websites created.

Originally there was SGML (Standard General Markup Language). This was the standard to which all information was displayed on the Internet. It is still the basis to which HTML and XML adhere. The Algorithms that Search Engine Spiders use to analyze sites are designed to recognize this standard and very little has changed! It is therefore imperative that you design your WebPages with this in mind. If you use it, not only will you produce WebPages that Search engines will love but will vastly improve the chances of your site being ranked highly for your desired keywords and phrases.

TEXT FORMATING TAGS

OK here are the three most important tags used for formatting your text:

[H1] the Main Heading Tag, tells the SE the pages main topic

[H2] a Second Heading and slightly smaller (e.g. subheading)

[p] paragraph and the body of text and content

A typical layout of your HTML code, and therefore your text, should look like this.

[HTML]

[HEAD]///////I’ll explain what need to go in this bit later on //////// [/HEAD]

[BODY]

[H2]Title of Your Page Starting with you Keyword Phrase[/H2]

[H3]Subtitle Including Some other Keywords/Phrase[/H3]

[p] Lots of useful information with the odd keyword thrown in but good useful information is what really makes a site successful, after all, Content is King – I’m now starting to waffle on. [/p][H3]Next Subtitle Including Some other Keywords/Phrase[/H3]

[p] Lots ore useful information with the odd keyword thrown in but good useful information is what really makes a site successful after all Content is King – and again I seem to be waffling on. [/p]

[/BODY]

[/HTML]

There are other basic HTML tags that you can use of course but these three are so obvious that it makes it an absolute breeze for Search Engines to look at your web page and instantly know what your site is all about and how to rank its content. OK, there is one slight problem though. If you used these tags as they are on your pages and in particular the text on them isn’t going to look that good on the eye and certainly won’t win any design awards. This is where Custom Style Sheets come into play in a major way.

ALT TAGS

These provide the Search Engine Robots with a description for any images you have on your page. They look as follows:

[img src="" alt="blue beach ball " width="50" height="50" /]

Place in good descriptive key words here without going over board i.e. no spamming the same words in every images alt tag 3 times each.

META TAGS – TITLE, DESCRIPTION AND ROBOTS

The Meta Tags and Title go in the Head section of your HTML and let Search Engines know what was important on a Webpage and so how to rank its importance. They can also tell the Search Engine what language it is written in and other files it needs to take into account. Typically it will look something like this:

[HEADER]

[TITLE]Greek Holidays Idyllic and Very Cheap[/TITLE]

[META name="description" content="Very Cheap Prices for Idyllic Greek Holidays and Vacations in Greece"]

[META name="keywords" content="budget cheap greek holidays vacations europe Greece sunshine"]

[/HEADER]

The Title Meta Tag is extremely important and is widely used by the SE’s most importantly Google. Make it between 5-10 words and put your best Keyword/Phrase at the beginning e.g. ‘Greek Holidays’.

The Description Meta Tag should be less than 150 characters in order to suit all Search Engines. Anything more than this will simply be missed out with some SE’s. The “description” is what most SE’s use to describe your site when listed in its results. Make sure it is ENTICING for potential customers. It should include at least 5 of your best keywords but DO NOT simply repeat all of them in your “description”.

The Keywords Meta Tag should be a string of keywords and 2-or-3 word phrases that people surfing the net might use to find pages like yours. It is a very common opinion amongst many experts that the “keywords” Meta Tag is used very little if at all by SE’s these days. This is very true but since some SE’s do still use them to some degree DO NOT repeat your keywords more than 3 times in either your “keywords” Meta Tag or your “description” Meta Tag. Some SE’s will consider this as ‘Keyword Spamming’ and your site could be seriously penalised.

The Robots Meta Tag is a simple instruction that goes in between the [HEAD] and [/HEAD] tags of your web page and tells any visiting Search Engine Robots whether than can index that page (INDEX, NO INDEX) or follow the links leaving that page (FOLLOW, NO FOLLOW). There are basically 4 variations of these instructions:

1. [META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"]

2. [META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,FOLLOW"]

3. [META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,NOFOLLOW"]

4. [META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW"]

The simplest way of using the tags is to use example 1. above on every page of your website that you want the search engine seeing and then put example 4. above on every page that you do not wish the Search Engine to see yet alone index for the world to see.

ROBOTS.TXT FILE

The Robots.txt file is actually the first thing Search Engine Robots will see when they visit your site. With the use of a Robots.txt file we can tell Search Engines what areas of your site are out of bounds. There are also many other uses for the Robots.txt file but I won’t talk about it here.

Using a text editor (notepad, BBedit etc) create a new file and name it, yes you guessed it: robots.txt. Place in it the following syntax:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /cgi-bin/

Disallow: /pictures/

Disallow: style.css

This syntax tells Search Engine that it may not look in to the folders “cgi-bin” or “pictures” (these could actually be any directories you name). Save the file, upload it to the root of your website i.e. yourdomain.com/robots.txt and that’s it.

The SEO benefit to you is not so much to give you a higher ranking but to make your site more Search Engine friendly… Think Kudos!

SITE LAYOUT – THEMED BASED WEBSITES – THE ULTIMATE SEO TECHNIQUE

Establishing a theme for your site and the contents’ structure can produce a dramatic increase in your sites ranking amongst Search Engines. All of the big search engines use a ‘Themed’ based algorithm in their ranking criterion. This is basically essential for them in order to return the most relevant results when a user enters certain ‘keywords/phrases’ into their search engine. Basically a Search Engine will spider every single page on your site and index it as one. It is therefore imperative to concentrate your sites content on the around the main theme and not to diversify too much.

SITE STRUCTURE

The structure of your site, i.e. how your content is categorized and linked together, is meant to support and strengthen the overall theme of your site. Let me explain how you achieve this.

There are 4 main types of pages you need to be concerned with:

* Index

* Sitemap – (a.k.a. Table of Contents)

* Hallway Pages

* Doorway/Content Pages

View your site as a Shopping Complex. The theme is “Shopping”. It has an entrance (Index page). At the entrance there is a map showing you the different areas, stores, and the stores contents (Sitemap). From the entrance there are 3 possible hallways you may walk down one for “Sports”, one for “Home”, and one for “Toys”. Each has its own description of what specific shops you’ll find (Hallway Pages). As you walk down the Hallways you’ll pass the doorway to each shop on which is a very detailed explanation of what is inside the store (Doorway Pages). I’ll explain these pages in closer detail.

Index Page – Most Search Engine Optimization experts agree that your websites’ initial page of entry (index.htm default.htm etc) will never be the definitive page that Search Engines will rank highly. Make sure it looks good, introduces your visitors to your site, and lets them know what they can expect to find deeper within it. E.G. If your site was about Holidays in Spain, all you want to say here is “Come to Greece for your Holidays its great!”

Sitemap – A single page that is linked only off your Index page and links to every single page on your site. It should be laid out like a Table of Contents but with one or two keyword specific sentences for each and every link. This should be linked off your main page but DO NOT call/name the text in the link as “Sitemap”. It’s often thought that Search Engines will penalize this. Instead simple call it “Table of Contents”.

Hallway Page – This is basically the first page of each Sub Category. It should give a brief summary/paragraph of each specific topic within that Sub Category. E.G. Staying with the Spanish Holidays theme Hallway1 would deal with “Accommodation” and Hallway2 “Excursions”. A rule of thumb would be to focus these pages on keyword phrases containing 1-3 words.

Doorway Page – This is an individual page that is only concerned with a specific Topic of that Sub Category as mentioned in the Hallway Page. These pages are full of very specific topic related content. They will also be keyword/phrase rich focusing on 3-4 keyword phrases. E.G. Following the Hallway Page of Accommodation, Doorway1 could be “Hotel Rooms” and Doorway2 “Apartment Flats”.

How to Link your Pages

All linking should be done vertically throughout the site. The only exception to this rule is the Sitemap (which links to every page). Doorway Pages should be linked to the Hallway Pages above them and the Hallway Pages in turn should be linked to the Index Page.

Always use the Hyperlink Title tag. Its another great excuse to drop a few more keywords to describe the page you are leading the Search Engine Spider too.

Similar to the Alt Tag the Titale tag is placed within the syntax of the hyperlink and looks like this:

Title=”some useful keywords to describe the link”

LINK POPULARITY

Arguably the most important factor in getting a high search engine ranking. This has basically been Google’s little baby that most of the other Search Engines have also begun to adopt. OK the concept is simple: If Search Engines can see that other sites are linking to you, then they think that you’re popular. The more other sites link to you, the more popular you look. The more popular you look, the higher ranking the SE will give you.

Not all links are equal though. If the sites linking to you are about the same topic e.g. “Holidays in Greece” then Google is going see these as highly relevant links. Further more, the bigger the site that links to you, or the greater its Page Rank, the more weight Google will give to these links and so your Search Engine Positioning will benefit greater.

SEARCH ENGINE SITEMAP

Not to be confused with the traditional Site Map or Contents page, this page is designed specifically for the Search Engines and not for visitors to your site. Similar to the Robots.txt file, this file does not so much give your site higher rankings as it does make your site more easy to navigate for a Search Engine. Search Engine Sitemaps do require some basic knowledge of xml if you wish to build one by hand but do not fear, there are many tools available online to help you build automatically. If you are new to Google Sitemaps I would recommend reading their overview: google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/siteoverview.

SUMMARY

If you can create a website that provides a clear understanding of the theme of its content with an easy to follow navigational system, you will have accomplished the fundamental basics of your onsite Search Engine Optimisation.

Here are some of the standard foreign and domestic automotive maintenance procedures that you should be sure to have done periodically:

Oil Changes: This is one of the most obvious, yet it is also one of the most frequently overlooked. Changing your oil and oil filter every three thousand miles keeps your engine running smoothly. Not changing your oil and oil filter often enough, on the other hand, can be disastrous: Over time, the additives in your engine oil break down, and the oil becomes thick and sludge-like. When this happens, the oil creates resistance on the engine, causing buildup and premature wear. Old engine oil can also cause the rubber seals in your engine to prematurely dry out and crack, creating leaks that can be quite expensive to fix.

There are a lot of quick-lube places that will change your oil quickly and cheaply, which may make you question the need to take your car to a good foreign or domestic automotive maintenance shop. However, it is definitely worth the extra money to make sure an experienced professional services your car. It is not uncommon for quick-lube shops to employ inexperienced teenagers at minimum wage, and horror stories (driving off without oil in the engine, finding months later that the oil plug won’t come out because it was stripped) abound.

Air Filter Replacement: Replacing the air filter is another important precaution that many people forget about. The silly thing is that this is also the easiest thing you’ll have to do on your car. Just as easy, if not easier, as filling the washer fluid on some cars. In fact, this one is so easy that you may not even have to get a foreign or domestic automotive maintenance shop to do it for you. Just make sure you get a high quality replacement filter. If you are not sure where it goes, ask. There will be a couple of clips you’ll have to undo to open the air filter box, but that’s about it.

Your air filter should be replaced once or twice a year. Every six months, you should at least check it. If it looks dirty, replace it. The better airflow your engine gets, the better it will perform, which to you means higher gas mileage and lower maintenance costs over time.

Basic Tune-Up: A tune-up basically involves replacing a bunch of inexpensive, quick-to-wear-out parts, and checking out a bunch of more expensive, slower-to-wear-out parts. This should be done once a year, but again, many people aren’t very good at making sure it gets done regularly.

A basic tune-up involves replacing (or cleaning and re-gapping) your spark plugs, replacing your distributor cap and rotor, and checking and/or replacing your spark plug wires. Other parts that might need to be replaced during a tune-up are your PCV (positive crankcase ventilation valve) and your oxygen sensor. All of these can affect the way your car runs, causing your gas mileage to go down and the carbon monoxide in your exhaust to go up.

Radiator Flush and Coolant Replacement: Your cooling system is a vital system. It prevents your engine from overheating, which can ruin an entire engine in mere minutes. Your cooling system therefore ought to be treated with respect, which means flushing your radiator and replacing the coolant every year or so, preferably at the end of summer or fall, before the cold weather hits.

The reason for flushing your radiator and replacing the coolant is that the Ph balance in antifreeze breaks down after a while, destroying many of its protective properties. Not only will it not cool to as low a temperature, but it will also begin to allow rust to form in your cooling system, which may lead to premature leaks in your radiator.

Be sure your replacement coolant is half water and half antifreeze. The 50/50 mixture has the lowest possible freezing temperature, the highest possible boiling point (meaning your coolant won’t boil on hot days), and will protect against corrosion inside the system.

Automatic Transmission Fluid and Filter Replacement: Many people don’t realize that their automatic transmission contains fluid and a filter that need to be replaced periodically, just like an engine. Unfortunately, neglecting this maintenance repair can result in parts in the transmission going out more quickly than they should, requiring you to overhaul or replace your transmission, which is a costly venture, to say the least.

The fluid and filter in your automatic transmission should typically be replaced about every 25,000 miles, which is less than a year’s worth of driving for most cars. The oil in a standard transmission doesn’t need to be replaced as frequently. Replacement about once every couple of years, unless you happen to do a lot of hard driving, such as towing.

Keeping up on these five preventative maintenance repairs will ensure that you maximize the life of your car. A good foreign or domestic automotive maintenance shop can help you keep track of the required maintenance, making sure that you don’t miss anything important.

In the world of auto mechanics an engine swap is just about the biggest job you can undertake. No matter what kind of car you drive its inevitable that the engine could possibly fail. If your car has very high miles its almost a given. You have a few options if that happens. You can sell your car as is, pay to have a new engine installed, or take the liberty of doing it yourself. The level of difficulty that changing an engine has changed with automotive technology. The newer and more advanced your car is the more technology goes into making the engine work. Back when carburetors were used things were much simpler. Changing an engine basically consisted of disconnecting a few wires, motor mounts, trans mission, radiator hoses, and throttle linkage. The same basic process still applies on modern engines but it just involves a lot more work. There a many more connections, hoses and cables that need removed.

When changing your own engine the basic challenge is to disconnect everything and put it back exactly how you started. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph the age of your car is where the complexity issue comes in to play. Basically it is the same process but, the older the car the easier the process. When undertaking a job of this size you should be sure to have all the needed tools to perform the job properly. Not having the correct tools can lead to damage of parts and a lot of lost time. You can spend more time working rather than looking for the correct tool to perform the task. Overall spending a little money on the right tools can save you a lot time and money in the future. Depending on where you vehicle was made will determine whether you will need metric or standard tools. European and Asian will require all metric tools and almost all domestics will take standard.

When selecting an engine you must be very careful and be completely sure that you have chosen the correct engine. Thats not something you want to find out when installing the new engine. Again, as automotive technology has advanced so have engines. In the past if you could make an engine fit in the engine compartment you could make it work. The electronics of modern cars makes this virtually impossible without major modification. Fuel injected cars are much more complex. They involve electronic controls rather than manual controls. Basically the most important thing to remember is: Do your research. You need to know the exact model, year, and engine displacement of your vehicle.

Once you have obtained a new or used engine the real work begins. Prior to starting you need to purchase all engine fluids to replace once you have completed. Most cars will require the hood to be removed for full access to the engine area. You should mark the bolt position on the hood hinges to make for easy alignment when reinstalling. Drain all your engine fluids, drain coolant, disconnect all wiring, throttle linkages, fuel lines, and cooling hoses. Be sure to remember what you removed and where it came from. Its a good idea to take photos of all areas of the engine compartment. This will give you a good reference for reassembly. Next, remove the bolts from the motor mounts, transmission and exhaust. Once you have made certain that nothing is still attached to the engine you can begin slowly lifting the engine out. Obviously this will require an engine lift and chains. Carefully remove the engine from the engine bay and set it aside.

The installation process is basically a reverse of the removal. Carefully set the engine back into the engine compartment and bolt up the motor mounts, transmission and exhaust. Its a good idea to replace the motor mounts, belts, hoses, plugs and wires in this process. This just allows for much easier access to all of these components. This could save you a lot of time and work in the future. Reconnect the wires, hoses, and linkages. Once everything is reconnected you can move on to replacing all of the fluids. Your coolant will require a complete refill due to to the lack of coolant in the new engine. Once your fluids are replaced check for leaks and double check for loose connections. After everything has been checked and secured your ready to start it up. New engines will require a break in period. This will be detailed in your new engines documentation. You should test drive your car and watch for anything abnormal. When finished test driving check all of your fluids and top them off in needed. If everything goes as planned you should be ready to hit the road again.

This article is not really meant to be a complete guide. Its basically an outline on what is involved in the process. If you are planning on changing your engine yourself you should know what to expect. Its not a process that you want to get partly finished and give up. It is a pretty difficult task that takes time and effort. Its impossible to create one thorough guide due to the fact that almost all auto makes are unique. A good tip is to purchase a complete repair manual for your make of vehicle. There are some great publications for every make of car. You get what you pay for when you by a repair manual. The higher the price, the more thorough manual you will get. You should have a decent amount of mechanical knowledge before attempting this job. If you have any doubts you should probably leave it up to a professional mechanic. Overall be sure that you have the will power, knowledge, tools, and time before taking on a job like this. If you enjoy mechanics this will be a rewarding and educational process.

So, OK, you paid your thousands for your vehicle. You feel great with it and also relax a bit and put some check up tasks for later.

Well, you better watch out!

Some of the most common mistakes car owners make at this point are to skip fluid checks and also the service their engines between longer periods of time.

You must always check at least the fluid levels on your car. If you don’t, you may miss a minor defect, for example, a coolant leakage.

If you don’t detect that leakage, then you will eventually run out of coolant in your vehicle, his leading to major damages to the engine and eventually diminishing your vehicle overall performance.

Protect your vehicle investment by checking your engine regularly.

In order to keep the engine in good condition this is what you must take into account:

- Engine lubrication: This can be achieved with oil servicing on time.

- Overheating prevention: Done with periodical coolant and radiator check ups

- Proper and properly scheduled engine maintenance and tune up

- Immediately eliminate any minor engine defects

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Checking the Engine Condition.

——————————

Do you hear any noise when the engine is running?.

The engine should run evenly and you should not hear any strong noises, knocking, pinging, or whistling while the engine is idling or during acceleration.

When pressing the accelerator, the engine should accelerate quickly, with no delays or loud noises.

The idle should be stable during a stop. No smoke should come out from the tail pipe.

A good engine should be dry. The more leaks on an engine, the more damage your engine may have.

During routine engine maintenance and tune ups, cleanings, adjustments, and necessary replacements, check for the following:

- Fuel Filter: related to the loss of engine power when dirty.

- Air Filter: related to the loss of engine power, increased fuel consumption, and so on

- Spark Plugs: must be replaced to increase engine performance.

- Timing Belt, when it is damaged it can induce serious problems for the engine

- Coolant: must be replace to maintain the anti-corrosive properties.

———————–

Check the Oil Pressure.

———————–

Always check the oil pressure on a cold engine. Start the engine, and look at the low oil pressure warning lamp or oil pressure gauge on the instrument panel.

The time between the engine start and the time you note oil pressure at the instrument panel should be no more than one to two seconds. If this time is longer than two seconds, it means that either the oil filter is bad or the engine is too worn.

If the low oil pressure warning light goes on while engine is running or idle, there is definitely a problem with the engine. Stop your vehicle immediately if the oil pressure warning lamp goes on while driving to avoid further damage to the engine.

—————————————–

Check the Engine Oil Level and Condition.

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This is very critical. Without oil a running engine will damage in a matter of seconds.

If the engine is leaking oil, try new gaskets or seals to fix the leak.

If the engine is burning oil, the valve guides and seals are most likely worn out, but the rings and cylinders could require replacement, too.

Check the engine oil on the dipstick periodically, especially if your car isn’t brand new.

Change to oil and oil filter every 3,000 miles. Immediately after performing an oil and filter change, check for oil leaks to be sure that the oil filter has been installed properly.

During oil level check up the oil should normally reach the “FULL” mark on the dipstick.

Do not add oil unless level is below the “ADD” or the “LOW” marks on the dipstick.

Never add oil to reach above the “FULL” mark, to avoid damaging of the spark plugs.

When you regularly check your oil, you will become familiar with the rate of oil consumption of your car and you’ll know when the consumption is rapidly increasing.

Also check for the oil condition. Here’s how:

The oil should look clean and translucent. If the oil is slightly-brown, it can be fine too.

However, if it’s dark-brown, but still transparent, although still admissible, it would be better to change it. If it’s too black, it’s time to change it.

If the engine oil on the dipstick is color “latté” or if it is foamy, then the engine coolant is mixing with the engine oil, i.e. an evidence of an internal engine defect (such as a blown head gasket or cracked block).

Also, the oil should never have a gasoline smell. It means there is some fuel leaking and this can be dangerous.

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Check the Coolant Level and Leaks.

———————————-

Check the coolant (antifreeze) level and investigate the system for leaks periodically.

NEVER open the radiator of a car that has just been running. Wait at least 15-20 minutes after the engine has been turned off for the engine temperature to drop before adding any fluid into the system. The cooling system of a car is under high pressure and the fluid is usually hotter than boiling water. 

Begin your check of the cooling system by viewing the front side of the radiator and the space between the engine radiator and air conditioner radiator; it should not be clogged with debris, such as leaves or heavy pollen. One of the most common reasons for overheating is debris buildup in this area.

Be sure that electric fan operates, and water pump drive belt has proper tension. The water pump should not have coolant seepage.

Check the radiator for any trace of damage and all water hoses for leaks. If you find any coolant leak, try to stop it up as soon as possible to avoid engine overheating and have a mechanic inspect the damaged area immediately.

Next, look for the cooling system expansion tank; it is usually translucent white so you can see the fluid level without opening it.

The expansion tank has two level marks on the side of it: “FULL” and “LOW”. Check the coolant level in the expansion tank. The coolant level should be between “LOW” and “FULL” marks in the coolant expansion tank. If it’s lower, you should add it, because a low coolant level may cause the engine to overheat and therefore result in engine damage.

When engine temperature is reduced (in 15-20 minutes after the engine has been turned off) , simply add a coolant into the expansion tank till its level be at “FULL” mark.

If the level frequently falls below “LOW” after adding fluid, you probably have a leak and must have it checked as soon as possible. If there is no coolant in the expansion tank at all, you should add the coolant directly into the radiator.

If the coolant color brown or rust-colored, the car may need a radiator flush. The coolant should not have any engine oil in it. If you see oil in the radiator or expansion tank, it may be evidence of an internal engine defect, such as a blown head gasket.

Antifreeze is toxic, so be sure to capture and recycle the drained fluid. Keep it off your skin and away from your eyes. It can also damage painted surfaces, so avoid spilling it on your car.

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Automatic Transmission Fluid Check up.

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Automatic transmission is a very complicated device and its repair is costly. Most automatic transmissions must be checked with the engine running and warmed up. Also, make sure the car is on a level surface and fully warmed up.

If you not sure how to check the automatic transmission fluid, here is a step-by-step explanation:

Begin by letting the engine idle with the parking brake engaged and your foot on the brake.

Move the gear selector through each gear. This ensures that the fluid is circulating through the pumps, thereby providing you with an accurate reading.

Once you have done this, put the vehicle in park, but leave the brake engaged and the engine running.

The transmission dipstick is located near the rear of the engine. Pull the transmission dipstick out, wipe it clean with a rag, and note the markings on the end of the stick. The usual markings are “FULL” and “ADD 1 PINT”. Inset the dipstick fully and remove it again to take a reading.

If the engine is cool, it should be at the upper end of the “COLD” mark.

If the engine is hot, the level should be at the upper end of the “HOT” mark.

When the transmission is warm, the level should be in the safe zone between the hash marks. If it’s lower, you should add some amount of automatic transmission fluid.

Check the fluid condition also: If it’s too black and has a burnt smell – your transmission is going to break!

Normally it should be clean and transparent. Its color may be different, from red to brown. Wipe the dipstick with clean white paper and look at the paper. Normally there should be no black deposits, no metal particles, no dirt left on the paper.

How to add the transmission fluid:

Never add fluid unless it is below the “ADD” mark and never bring it above the “FULL” mark. Make sure you check the transmission fluid type in the owners manual and use the correct transmission fluid for your vehicle. Do not substitute anything else. For example some Chrysler transmissions need only Chrysler specific type of fluid and usual fluid like Dexron II can destroy the transmission.

Add a little amount of the fluid at a time. You will need a special funnel to get the fluid into the small tube that the dipstick came out of.

Wait for a couple of minutes for the fluid to flow down. Start the engine and check the level again before adding more fluids.



By: JDM Engine Inc.

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