I was watching TopGear last night and they were dynoing old ferrari's and stuff to see how much horsepower they had lost over the years and some had lost ALOT. I was just wondering what exactly causes these losses over time?
Think about this.......read some engine rebuild thread on here and you will know......the reason these engines have lost alot of power is that they are no longer up to scratch and hence need a rebuild.....thats like our engines, when the compression goes low its time to rebuild.......things just cant work at there maximum after 20 years of wear and tear...
Same reason why devoice rates are so high.. same thing... after years of wear and tear its time to part it off and start a fresh with a stronger newer model...
yeah but what causes that exactly? just the wear and tear over time lessens the quality of the internals in the engine that cause it to not combust as well or what? I mean sure i can get my head around that as things get older they break and arnt as good as brand new but why does that decrease the power output. The way i look at it is if its still got the same parts attached and still runs on the same fuel etc why is there a big difference? where does the power go? Is it still producing the same power but its lost to other things (noise, heat, friction etc) or it simply cannot produce the power anymore?
heres some obvious ones for you that would cause a power loss partial fouling of spark plugs with carbon,partially deteriorated leads...weak spark means less burn which is less power partial clogging fouling of injectors/ carby restricting fuel flow loss of compression,either rings or valves not seating properly.... boost leaks like on our cars..... failed sensors sending dodgy signals to the ecu.... thats just of the top of head, its a infinately variable situation...
Bit hard to tell without the car in front of me but, loss of compression will make a big difference. Build up in the fuel system will decrease fuel delivery/efficiency. Gumming/deposits in the bearings and seals through out the system will add friction. Wear of the cam lobes will affect critical valve timing, wear in the sprockets and bearings will also affect the valve timing. Wear in the distributor's gearing and cam lobe will give less precise spark timing. Worn coil packs will produce less spark resulting in less than optimal combustion. Old electrical wires and connectors result in greater resistance in the electrical system affecting timing. Deposits in the combustion chambers will decrease combustion efficiency, deposits in the exhuast system will decrease exhaust flow. Leaks in the intake sytem and exhuast system will affect performance. Then you can start looking further down the drive line for more performance robbing wear and tear. There are so many other things that I could mention, all it takes is a little bit of wear and tear in everything to reduce performance by quite a bit and is the reason sports cars cost so much to maitain.
Very simple really. Anything that has a moving part will wear to the point it can no longer perform to the specification it was originally engineered to do. Murphy's Law mate, what can go wrong will go wrong! The rates at engines lose power will depend on a number of factors, namely maintenance frequency and quality of parts and lubricants used. Also the frequency they are used, what sort of pressures they are exposed to and how often metals expand and contract due to heating and cooling. There is also the old wives tale about if the engine was assembled at 5:00pm on a Friday
They are comparing dyno readings to factory readings, therefore comparing wheel hp to engine hp. The dyno will always show a lower reading even if they tested new cars.
As the engine is full of parts that move and the drive train, i would assume powerlosses are contributed by these moving parts....either that they are outta tune, not balanced etc........
wear and tear as an engine goes through life, normal wear and tear will occur.... metal components wont remain at factory specs for ever.... the obvious reason for a loss in power over the years is a drop in engine compression due to normal wear and tear....... ie, less cylinder compression, less power that is generated.... The engine will still work fine, it just wont make as much power as it would when new. When it gets really bad, then its engine rebuild time. This is the same for all cars, our zeds included...... Cheers
Ha, that is so true and i do believe they done this....how silly are they and there supposed to know there cars
