In the diesel world, "blow-by" is a term you're bound to run across at some point if your line of work involves diesel-powered vehicles of any kind. What is blow-by, what causes it, and how concerned should you be? At Ekart Automotive in Manhattan, KS, our fleet maintenance and diesel technicians see it on a regular basis. Here we'll take a quick look at blow-by, correcting it, and preventing it.
What is Blow-By? - Diesel blow-by is a term that describes an event of lost compression into the crankcase. Blow-by occurs whenever a burnt or unburnt fuel and air mixture escape from the cylinder and past the piston rings and into the crankcase. In a perfect world, the piston would be sealed tightly in the cylinder, able to move up and down but keeping all the air and fuel and exhaust that enters or exits the cylinder during the combustion process out of the crankcase. As you'll see, this perfect world doesn't exist, but it is important to minimize the amount of blow-by in a diesel engine.
Keeping your fuel system maintained will prevent premature parts failure and poor running conditions. Here are some important aspects of diesel fuel system maintenance, to keep your fleet running smoothly. While your system and components should typically be serviced by a professional technician, there are some things you can be conscious of that will go a long way toward keeping your engine in good shape.
Every year, more and more trucks come equipped with turbochargers. What was once a novelty or a performance option has become increasingly common as stock equipment. What are they for, and how do they work? Ekart Automotive in Manhattan, KS is here to help.
The turbo on your diesel pickup is a precision-engineered component. As a result, proper maintenance is essential to keeping it going strong. At tens or even hundreds of thousands of RPM, keeping everything in good shape is absolutely necessary. Fortunately, turbos don’t really require any special maintenance - they just make the maintenance you do all the more important.
Don’t you hate it when potholes sneak up on you? There is a lot of money being spent on vehicle damage due to potholes. Do you know what parts of your car could receive the most damage?
Unless you are confident in your abilities as an automotive mechanic, there is really only one rule when purchasing a flood-damaged vehicle: don’t do it. Unfortunately, sometimes sellers aren’t particularly straight-forward with their used cars. Many will try to hide the fact that it’s been damaged by floodwaters at all or try to convince potential buyers that the car is in fact fine. “It has gone months with no issues” or “technically it is flood-damaged but” are two red flags, and while it isn’t impossible for a flood car to be fine, it’s altogether a good idea to stay away.
Changing the oil in big trucks and commercial vehicles is an expensive, but necessary, part of keeping your vehicles going. You don’t want to wait until it’s too late to change your oil, but changing it too early can be a waste of time and money. Having your oil tested regularly helps us to hone in on exactly how often your oil needs to be changed, to optimize reliability and efficiency.
| Weekdays: | 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM | |
| Fridays: | 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM | |
| Weekends: | CLOSED |
