>JD> worse in very cold weather or when the engine is cold, and
 >JD> is better in indirect injection engines. 
 > 
 > What's indirect injection?
Some Diesels squirt the fuel directly into the combustion chamber; the older 
Detroit Diesels are a prime example. Automotive-type Diesels always use 
indirect injection because they're easier starting and quieter. Indirect 
injection has the injector squirting into a "pre-combustion chamber", where 
most of the actual burning takes place. It's connected to the main combustion 
chamber by a relatively small port. The "precup" carries the glow plug in 
addition to the nozzle; indirect engines won't start without them unless 
they're hot or it's very warm outside.
 >> wonderful feeling -- to know *exactly* what I was looking at!  To be 
 >> able to identify all of the parts,  and know what they were,  what 
 >> they were in there for,  and to be able to get at stuff,  with lots 
 >> of room.
 > 
 >JD> Sure. Extrapolate a bit further. Ever seen a hit 'n miss 
 >JD> engine? 
 > 
 > Not that I know of.
 > 
 >JD> A 5HP engine that weighs 600 lbs? 
 > 
 > Sounds a bit inefficient.
That's my point. An old hit 'n miss engine is VERY inefficient, from many 
aspects. Lotsa iron/horsepower, high fuel consumption, very high 
maintenance/hour of operation, etc. But, everything's out in the open, 
they're easy to understand. :-) Take a look at www.oldengine.org for a bunch 
of pictures of this stuff.
 > ways.  We have one vehicle here with a busted sensor.  I have no 
 > idea what this sensor is,  or even what it's mounted into -- from 
 > appearances it looks like it's in a power steering line!
Pity the poor mechanic who was used to working with steam engines around the 
turn of the century. Having to learn about this new-fangled internal 
combustion stuff! And about the time he thinks he understands what's going 
on, someone replaces the easy-to-understand hot-tube ignition with a 
low-tension magneto that somehow generates SPARKS. And a couple of years 
later, someone else comes up with jump-spark ignition! How does a fella keep 
up with this stuff???!!!
 > Maybe I wouldn't feel this way about it if the literature (of the 
 > sort available to consumers) would have kept up with this a little 
 > better.  Sure, there's info out there,  but it's the sort of thing 
 > where you need to be a garage to afford it and have to buy many 
 > shelves full of this stuff at a cost of some thousands of dollars,  
 > quite the thing if you're running a shop but not at all beneficial 
 > to the average (or even above-average!) consumer...
Absolutely not true, Roy. I've seen many articles in Popular Mechanics over 
the years, detailing how those sensors work, how to troubleshoot them with 
relatively low-tech equipment (a test light and DVM in many cases), and so 
on. You can buy a shop manual for an individual car for around $50.00, and 
they have quite a lot of detail on the engine-control systems.
Also, you'll notice that engine bays are getting a bit SIMPLER these days. 
That's because they finally have computers that actually control about 
everything on the engine, so there's a lot less plumbing and hoses strewn 
about. And it all WORKS; I can hop in my wife's Olds when it's zero degrees 
F, hit the switch and away it goes. No pumping of the pedal, holding my 
tounge under my left eyetooth and HOPING. Plus, the car has about 60,000 
miles on it and I've not touched it other than to change oil. I remember my 
'64 Buick Special; replace plugs every 10 or 20 thousand miles, adjust the 
timing every 10K, fool with this, play with that. And it didn't get nearly as 
good mileage as the Olds, let alone perform like the Olds.
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