Today after school, we had deviated from the Eclipse rebuild in order to focus on some other work.
Two of our regular Car Club members helped to perform some more real world work on a
Honda Accord. The vehicle received some routine maintenance in the form of an oil change, battery cleaning and headlight restoration. By using simple tools and the right procedures, hundreds of dollars can be saved in maintenance work.
Our junior level students helped to build something "out of the box." Toying with the idea of alternative energy, we studied how small engines have been converted to run on compressed air instead of gasoline. This concept has been around for over 100 years, finding its origin with old steam engines. So, as we like a challenge in the auto shop, we worked to take apart an old two stroke gas engine and build an electronic air injection system for it.
We removed the spark plug and attached an air hose to the combustion chamber...
Next we added an electronic hall-effect sensor to determine the proper timing of the air injection.
After which, we installed an electric air valve and pressure regulator to proportion the air pulses.
And with a little luck, it starts on the first pull!!! Look mom, no gas!
We are always finding challenging problems, and enjoy creating and testing solutions for them in the auto shop. In fact, problem solving is a wonderful part of learning in any classroom as well as at home.
Let's keep on working hard, solving problems, and inventing great things as the semester continues!
See you next week!
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