Oxygen Sensors

Your vehicle has an oxygen sensor in its exhaust system. The oxygen sensor’s job is to calculate how much gasoline your fuel injectors are spraying into your engine. The oxygen sensor tells the computer and then the computer decides if it’s enough. If it’s not enough, the computer will increase the fuel flow from your injectors.

That all sounds like a great plan, but here’s the kicker: Your engine has many fuel injectors (one per cylinder) but only one oxygen sensor.

So let’s say you have a six cylinder vehicle, (six fuel injectors) and you haven’t been using AMSOIL P.i. to clean your engine, so three of the injectors have gotten dirty and partially clogged. Your oxygen sensor is going to notice that there’s not enough fuel getting into your engine. It’s going to tell the computer and because the computer cannot compensate for individual cylinders, it’s going to increase the fuel flow from all six fuel injectors. So now the three clogged injectors are trying to push more fuel through, but they are still clogged so they still aren’t providing enough fuel. (We say they are running lean.) And the three injectors that were working okay are now providing too much fuel. (They are running rich.)

So what’s happening?

Well, your engine is not running properly for starters. It’s probably running a little rough, and if it gets really dirty it will probably start to hesitate and stall. If your engine is allowed to run this way it could even cause some pretty expensive damage. But that’s not all. You’re also using way too much gasoline, and at today’s prices that’s not something you want to have happen. The extra fuel is also turning into excess exhaust that is being sent out into the environment. Another bad, bad thing.

But there’s an easy fix. It’s AMSOIL P.i. One bottle will clean your dirty fuel injectors, eliminating these problems for the next 4,000 miles. One bottle will increase your gas mileage (tests show increases up to 5.7%), reduce your vehicle’s emissions, and increase your engine power and drivability. One bottle of AMSOIL P.i. will have your car running like new. Get some. You’ll be amazed.

Fuel Injection

Last week we attended AMSOIL University. We sat through 20 hours of intense training in Automotive Technology, Engine Oils, Filtration and Lubrication Fundamentals. I learned more in three days than I had in my entire lifetime. (I won’t mention how many days that that has been.) So guess what? I’m passing it on.

Today, I want to tell you about fuel injection.

Your engine has a fuel injector for every cylinder, so a V6 engine would have six. There are different types of injectors, but they all work the same way, spraying fuel in a fine vapor mist into the combustion chamber. There the mist is mixed with oxygen and a spark from your spark plug that causes the pistons to move, rotating the crankshaft which eventually turns the wheels, making your car go.

It’s a long, complicated process, but for now just know that the entire system depends on the spray from the injectors. If the spray isn’t right, the entire process is wrong.

A fuel injector has a tip that has tiny holes about the size of a human hair. The fuel is pushed through these holes and that’s what causes the mist. If some of the holes get clogged with tar and soot and stuff, they just can’t work right, so they either send the fuel through in bigger drops that won’t combust properly, or they don’t send any fuel through at all, causing a misfire.

Gasoline may cost more than gold, but it’s still some dirty, nasty, filthy stuff. The combustion process turns the gasoline gunk into the goo that clogs your injectors (and lots of other parts as well, but that’s a topic for another day). It happens quickly, and it happens constantly. Injectors can start to clog after just a few hundred miles of drive time.

That’s where AMSOIL P.i. Performance Improver comes into play. AMSOIL P.i. is the most potent fuel additive on the market today. One bottle treats a 20 gallon tank of fuel and lasts for 4,000 miles. One bottle cleans fuel injectors to “like new” condition, restoring power, acceleration and drivability to your vehicle. It can also increase your fuel economy up to 5.7%, but I’ll explain that in the next post.

So to summarize: Fuel injectors get dirty. Dirty fuel injectors cause poor engine performance. AMSOIL P.i. cleans dirty fuel injectors to “like new” condition. Try AMSOIL P.i. It’s good stuff!

I'm Back!

I haven’t posted for a while. It’s not because I didn’t want to. Life just got in the way.

But now I’m back.

Actually, I’m back in more ways than one. We just returned from the AMSOIL 35th Anniversary Convention in Duluth, Minnesota. WOW! is all I can say. We learned so much and did so much that I can’t fit it all into one blog, so I’ll be posting on the Convention for a while. Stay tuned. We’ll meet again tomorrow.

A Word About Filters

The other day we were talking with a man who told us he tried a competitor’s 15,000 mile synthetic oil in his car and didn’t like it. “I ran it for 15,000 miles and then I had it analyzed,” he said. “It came back 5,000 miles over its useful life.”

Charles and I were happy to hear this because we know the competition can’t do what AMSOIL can do. But then he admitted that he ran the entire 15,000 miles on a cheap 3,000 mile filter. Well geez Louise, if you aren’t going to filter your oil, how do you expect it to perform?

Without proper filtration, even the best oil in the world will quickly turn into junk. You can take a cup of pure liquid gold, throw in a handful of mud, stir it around, and all you’ve got left is pure liquid gold junk!

I almost felt sorry for our competition on this one, because they really weren’t given a fair chance. (But then again if you make mediocre oil, you probably only deserve a mediocre chance.)

My point is this: Your oil is only as good as your filtration. That’s why AMSOIL makes the best filters in the world, so you can use them to filter the best oil in the world.

Try them. You’ll see.

Some Stuff to Know About Brake Fluid

Lately, all the talk among AMSOIL dealers has been about brake fluid. I couldn’t do any of the talking because I didn’t know anything about brake fluid. So I did some research and here’s what I found.

Most passenger vehicles have hydraulic brakes. The brakes are connected to the brake pedal by hydraulic lines filled with brake fluid (It’s actually more complicated than that with something called a vacuum assist module and a master cylinder and a slave cylinder and a brake rotor, but that’s more information than I needed.)

Have you ever hit your brake pedal with your foot and it went too far? Or felt kind of spongy? Apparently that’s because your brake fluid is not acting right. It has either melted, or vaporized, or leaked out or something and you’re in big trouble.

According to AMSOIL, there are two things that make brake fluids fail. They may have gotten so hot that they began to boil and vaporize, or moisture may have gotten into them, causing loss of lubrication and corrosion protection.

AMSOIL has just introduced two new products, DOT 3 and DOT 4 brake fluid, and like everything AMSOIL, they are pretty much the best you can buy. They have an unbelievably high boiling point so you don’t have to worry about that, and they also absorb moisture and hold it in suspension so you don’t have to worry about that.

One other thing. It seems that you are supposed to change your brake fluid every 24 months. I did not know that. I guess I’ll be ordering some AMSOIL brake fluid!

I Made up a Rhyme About AMSOIL

My engine is really a mess.
My fuel mileage couldn’t be less.
It’s AMSOIL I need.
To get up to speed.
And give me relief from this stress.

Myth #3 – If You Could Call It That

AMSOIL 100% synthetic motor oils are recommended for 25,000 miles or one year under normal driving conditions.

Some people just can’t handle that information.

The craziest excuse we hear is the one I’m calling Myth #3. It goes something like this: “My granddaddy changed his oil every 3,000 miles and my daddy changed his oil every 3,000 miles, and if that’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.”

If that’s your excuse, I’ve got two things to say to you.

1. Your granddaddy must have been a really smart man. He followed the best advice he had at the time and he took good care of his vehicles.

2. He sounds like the kind of man who would have wanted to learn about new ways to save money and better ways to take care of his stuff.

If your granddaddy were alive today I think he would say to you: “Son, get your head out of your butt and listen to this lady, she makes good sense.”

And he would be right.