Author: staff@jalopnik.com (Paul Stadden)

BLKstudio/Shutterstock Spark plug gapping may sound like one in every of those old-timey chores, like setting breaker points in a distributor or lubricating the frame, but having the correct spark plugs and ensuring they’re properly gapped is a vital a part of engine operation. Before we dive too deep, let’s start with some basics about spark plugs: They supply ignition for the air-fuel mixture in most internal combustion engines. (You diesel people can sit this one out; we’ll discuss glow plugs one other time.)  At the highest of a spark plug, you could have the terminal nut. That is where the…

Kunlathida6242/Shutterstock In what would be the quintessential “first world problem,” consider that wealthy individuals with large automobile collections need to do constant maintenance to mitigate the consequences of expiring gasoline. Opportunities for the common person to fret about old gas are much farther and fewer between, and typically involve lawnmowers or portable generators. But when you might have a automobile that may sit for a 12 months (or years), you’d higher exercise due diligence to forestall that fuel from damaging engine components, leaving gummy residue that acts like plaque in arteries. Usually, non-ethanol gas lasts anywhere from three to 6 months in…

frank_peters/Shutterstock Jerry Seinfeld once quipped, “Why will we even use the term ‘horsepower’? Is that to further humiliate horses? The space shuttle rockets have 20 million horsepower. Is there any point in still comparing it to the horses?” Yes, Jerry, it’s because kilowatts and megawatts aren’t as poetic. Gigawatts is a cool word, though, so long as you pronounce it as “jigawatts” like Doc Brown. Still, horsepower has a superb ring to it, and it’s just more fun to say that a Koenigsegg One:1 has 1,341 mighty steeds, or an Airbus A380 has a complete of 300,000 stallions powering its…