Maintenance Checklist

Maintain your equipment to prevent future problems and unwanted costs. Keep your cooling and heating system at peak performance by having a contractor do annual pre-season check-ups. Contractors get busy once summer and winter come, so it's best to check the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall. To remember, you might plan the check-ups around the time changes in the spring and fall.

A typical maintenance check-up should include the following.

• Check thermostat settings to ensure the cooling and heating system keeps you comfortable when you are home and saves energy while you are away.
• Tighten all electrical connections and measure voltage and current on motors. Faulty electrical connections can cause unsafe operation of your system and reduce the life of major components.
• Lubricate all moving parts. Parts that lack lubrication cause friction in motors and increases the amount of electricity you use.
• Check and inspect the condensate drain in your central air conditioner, furnace and/or heat pump (when in cooling mode). A plugged drain can cause water damage in the house and affect indoor humidity levels.
• Check controls of the system to ensure proper and safe operation. Check the starting cycle of the equipment to assure the system starts, operates, and shuts off properly.

Cooling Specific

• Clean evaporator and condenser air conditioning coils. Dirty coils reduce the system's ability to cool your home and cause the system to run longer, increasing energy costs and reducing the life of the equipment.
• Check your central air conditioner's refrigerant level and adjust if necessary. Too much or too little refrigerant will make your system less efficient increasing energy costs and reducing the life of the equipment.
• Clean and adjust blower components to provide proper system airflow for greater comfort levels. Airflow problems can reduce your system's efficiency by up to 15 percent.

Heating Specific

• Check all gas (or oil) connections, gas pressure, burner combustion and heat exchanger. Improperly operating gas (or oil) connections are a fire hazard and can contribute to health problems. A dirty burner or cracked heat exchanger causes improper burner operation. Either can cause the equipment to operate less safely and efficiently.

Actions To Do Yourself

• Inspect, clean, or change air filters once a month in your central air conditioner, furnace, and/or heat pump. Your contractor can show you how to do this. A dirty filter can increase energy costs and damage your equipment, leading to early failure.

Structural Keels

A structural keel is a beam around which the  hull of a ship is built. The keel runs in the middle of the ship, from the bow (FRONT) to the stern (REAR), and serves as a basic foundation or spine of the structure, providing the major source of structural strength of the hull. 

The keel is generally the first part of a ship's hull to be constructed. The picture illustrates a sail boat keel. This type of keel will give more stability in the water which, is also refers to the vessels drought, or also called draft. 

Modern ships are now largely built in a series of pre-fabricated, complete hull sections rather than being built around a single keel. 

If a ship suffers severe structural stress that usually would happen during a ship wreck when running aground, it is possible for the keel to break or be strained to the extent that it loses structural integrity.  In this case the ship is commonly said to have broken its back. This type of damage / failure means that the entire structure of the ship and its machinery has been compromised and repairing such damage would require generally require re-building the ship from the ground up. A ship that has broken its back is almost certainly is usually found 
not salvageable and subsequently written off by its insurers.

Basic Overview

The simple explanation is that EcoBoost is a combination of turbocharging, and direct fuel injection that improves fuel economy without sacrificing vital engine power. 

Turbocharging component

First off all of the Ford EcoBoost engines are turbocharged. Turbocharged engines use a device that forces in more air than a normal engine would receive. More air and more fuel makes an engine more powerful.

The device that forces this air into an engine is a turbocharger and some use the word "boost" to describe the process of turbocharging. That's where Ford gets the boost in EcoBoost. More important, turbocharging adds power without substantially decreasing your gas mileage. That's different from simply enlarging an engine, which requires more fuel and hurts your gas mileage.

Direct Injection component

The second part of Ford's EcoBoost engine is gasoline direct injection, or simply direct injection. Direct injection is one form of fuel injection, which is the process used to send fuel into an engine. While typical fuel injection uses an extra step known as the intake tract to inject fuel, direct injection cuts out that process entirely. The result is a less complicated fuel injection process, which improves efficiency.

So now what? Should you consider it?

So, is EcoBoost worth considering? It depends on your situation. Nearly all Ford models now offer an EcoBoost variant, but some only offer the system at the very top end of their model line. The Ford F-150, for example, uses EcoBoost to replace its top-shelf V8 model, though standard V6 versions retain the more traditional technology.

Regardless of whether EcoBoost is at the top or bottom of a model lineup, experts think the technology is sound. It adds power and lifts acceleration without many disadvantages to gas mileage. And it brings shoppers the exciting power delivery of a turbocharged engine. Still, we recommend you try it out, like any new technology, to see if it's for you.

You Can Do It

Thanks to The Family Handyman a Free E-Book about basic plumbing repairs.

Just click http://hostedmedia.reimanpub.com/TFH/Newsletters/give-away/easy-plumbing-repairs.pdf on the link. 

Does your engine have carbon buildup

Back in the days of carburetor-equipped engines and leaded gasoline, a proper engine tune-up included the use of a top engine cleaner to remove the carbon deposits that built up on the intake valves and in the combustion chambers of the engine. Today’s modern fuel-injected engines may go a lot longer between scheduled tune-ups than a vintage carburetor-equipped engine, but engine decarbonization should still be part of your scheduled vehicle maintenance program. That’s because the gasoline the engine uses to make power during the combustion process is still causing power-robbing deposits to build up in your engine.

The air flow from the PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) system and EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) valves will also cause fuel- and carbon-related deposits to build up on the intake valves, which will restrict the airflow into the engine’s cylinders and cause the engine performance to diminish. The combustion process will also cause carbon deposits to build up in the combustion chamber that will negatively affect the combustion process and increase the engine’s need for higher-octane gasoline.

The carbon deposits that form on the top of the piston and in the combustion chamber will increase an engine’s need for high-octane gasoline because the deposits will artificially increase the heat in the engine’s combustion chamber. The carbon deposits that form on the intake valves both restrict the flow of the air/fuel mixture into the cylinders and negatively effect fuel vaporization. If the fuel is not fully vaporized and properly mixed with the air in the engine’s cylinders during the combustion process, part of this fuel may go out of the cylinders as unburned hydrocarbons. These unburned hydrocarbons can cause an engine to fail a smog check because the unburned hydrocarbon (HC) content in the exhaust may exceed the emission test standards. These carbon deposits can also cause cold start and driveability problems as the engine warms up because they can actually act as a sponge by momentarily absorbing some of the fuel that is need for proper combustion.

A grapple is a hook or claw used to catch or hold something.

A grapple can be mounted to a truck, tractor, or excavator with a movable arm that may lift, extend/retract, and move side-to-side (pivot or rotate). Some machines also have a separate control for rotating the grapple, also known a tiltrotator.

Simpler grapple machines consist of a hydraulically lift-able fork, rake grapple rake, or bucket and a movable, opposing thumb (one or more hooks or levers) that enclose and grip materials for lifting or dragging. 

A demolition bucket or multi-purpose bucket on a loader may also operate as a grapple in this application the bottom and rear side of the bucket are hinged and can be forced apart or together with hydraulic cylinders.

Steering clutch

Most older bull Dozers use a clutch and brake system for each track. The clutch disengages power to the track for gradual turns, applying the brake causes a sharper turn. This system works because there is no differential between the tracks. Some newer ones use one lever or pedal for both functions. 

The first part of lever or pedal travel releases the clutch, moving it further applies the brake. Another system is the controlled differential, it uses a brake on each side to cause power transfer to the opposite track thereby slowing one track down and speeding up the other. This system is widely used on military tracked vehicles, and some dozers. Oliver (Cletrac) used a controlled differential on the HG/OC-3 and maybe others. Caterpillar has also offered differential steering.  Most new machines have gone to hydrostatic drive, where a variable speed hydraulic motor is used to drive each track.