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Automotive Engineering, fabrication, welding, machining, assembly and design technical Information.
Send us your technical queries to sales@flashcustoms.co.uk we will do our best to answer your questions and post the information on this page for all to see, this may also help someone else to solve or overcome their problems.
(a problem shared is a problem halved - as they say)
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Polished Stainless Motorcycle Battery Box
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Do Induction Kits and Performance After Market Filters Improve BHP
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Carbon Fibre Wrapped Oil Catch Tank
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How an Internal Combustion Engine Works
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What is a Water Swirl Pot used for ?
We make em but does anyone really understand the reasons why we might need a Water Swirl Pot ???
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Hydrogen Generator Economy Device SCAMS
I have been reading up recently on hydrogen generators, my conclusions are somewhat similar to the author of the text below - I thought it interesting to share this article with you. Obviously it is there to help you make your own judged decision before spending any of your hard earned cash. One thing I will say is that the mathematics this guy is stating check out from what I have researched.
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WHY USE POLYURETHANE SUSPENSION BUSHES?
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Improved Engine Crankcase Breather System explained
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Honda Civic VTEC Engine Cover Breather Modifications
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MK3 VW GOLF ALLOY HEADER TANK FABRICATION
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Technical beginings !
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Why do you need an Oil Catch Tank ?
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See our blog for this mod
VW Drive Shafts Modified to fit a turbo diesel lump in a camper
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See our blog for this tank build
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BMW MINI RACE FUEL TANK FABRICATION
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What is a "SWAGE" in sheet metal work ?
A "swage" is a recessed or raised area of material (a bump or a dip) put into sheet metal components typicaly to strengthen the panel.
The swage is made by 2 matched dies - one a "male" and one a "female" these are used on what is known a "swaging machine" where the sheet can be placed in between the dies and pressure is used to clamp the sheet and "roll" it through the "dies" producing the bump or dip. Usually other shaped dies can be swapped onto the machine to produce various shapes of form to strengthen, shrink, stretch or even add decorative patterns to sheet panel work.
See example of swage below and also a typical manual swaging machine.
SWAGING MACHINE SWAGES IN TANK PANELS TO STRENGTHEN THE SHEET
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A customer recently asked
What are the advantages of using tank foam?
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The biggest benefit of using fuel tank foam is to reduce fuel "sloshing" in the tank. Tank foam is special open cell foam that cushions the fuel sloshing around in the tank and reduces fuel moving about. This "sloshing" can cause a change in the centre of gravity of the car or vehicle, motorcycles can be affected far more by fuel sloshing, due to sheer weight of fuel moving around (approx 1 ltr = 1kg). Adding foam also reduces the chance of injected engines being starved of fuel during long corners as the fuel tries to slosh to one side. The foam only takes up approx 3-4% volume of the tank, so tank capacity is not drasticall affected. Tank foam can be purchased in 1 cut piece to fit into a new tank or alternatively small blocks that can be squashed and pushed in through the filler neck or sender aperture (if available).
A point to consider is that tank foam is not always sufficient to use in fuel tanks for drift cars as forces and speed involved in changing direction so quickly can still cause fuel starvation if the fuel moves around the tank too much. In this case hinged or pivoting baffles are needed instead of tank foam. These work by closing off an area of the tank and keeping fuel in a position where the fuel pick up can do just that - pick it up to feed the fuel pump. When the car direction changes the hinged baffle opens to allow fuel to flow back into the chamber. Alternative methods are utilising a fuel swirl pot as an integral part of the tank or between the low and high pressure pumps to maintain constant feed to the injectors. This is not a requirement or so much of a problem on vehicles that run on carbs as they have a dash pot in which fuel is kept at a constant level by the float and shut off valve.
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Failed repair on cast alloy hub.
JohnPaul Latham Why did this not work Ian, people may find this useful?
repair failed as had large amount of magnesium in the casting and hence you can see burning of molten material around the base of the repair, this caused lack of fusion between parent and weld metal, causing the new built up material to break off easily the minute we tried to reshape the new metal.
JohnPaul Latham Brilliant!
Ian Fowler Failure on items like this could also have been due partly to poor quality casting, lack of preheating of casting prior to attempting to weld / repair the item, and also accelerated cooling of job after repair causing shrinkage cracking as weld shrinks at a different rate to casting. hope that may be of help to someone!
JohnPaul Latham Great information Ian :)
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