Ford Motor Co. will put soybean-based foam cushions in the seats of the 2008 Mustang and may do the same with other models as well, eventually saving thousands of barrels of oil in the manufacturing process, the Detroit automaker said ThursdayMost automakers use petroleum-based foam, with an average of 30 pounds going into each vehicle, Ford said. The annual worldwide market for automotive foam is 9 billion pounds, meaning a broader switch to renewable interior materials could have a significant environmental impact, said Debbie Mielewski, technical leader for Ford’s materials research and advanced engineering department.Ford said environmental advantages include reduced carbon dioxide emissions in manufacturing compared with petroleum-based foam, lower energy use to produce the soy foam and reduced dependence on foreign oil.Ford is teaming with seat supplier Lear Corp. (nyse: LEA – news – people ) to install the seats at a joint Mazda-Ford factory in Flat Rock, Mich., the company said.Crew Chief Note: found it intersting they put 30 pounds of foam in each car foam does not weigh a lot so that is a lot of foam News source: Forbes.com

Your mother always told you that clean is important. After all, you never know when you might break a leg and the paramedics have to cut your underwear off on the scene exposing your skid marks. But that’s underwear. We’re here to talk about engine oil. Keeping the oil clean is very important to your car’s health. We accomplish this by performing regular oil changes using a high quality oil (preferably synthetic oil) and a new filter. Keep this level of maintenance up and your engine could last half a million miles without needing a rebuild. There are a number of companies out there offering an additional tool to keep your oil clean — an oil bypass filter. It’s basically another oil filter added to the system. Manufacturers of oil bypass filtering systems claim they can continually filter out particles as small as one micron (don’t ask me how big a micron is, who knows), keeping your oil particulate-free and allowing you to go much longer between oil changes. The technology has been in place for some time and is used regularly on fleet vehicles and other trucks that really rack up the miles in a hurry. But do you really need this added protection for your car’s engine? Depending on which pocket your keys are in, the research on the subject can go either way. Unfortunately the only “research” out there on car and light truck engines is offered by the companies pushing the oil bypass filtration systems. This doesn’t mean it’s not accurate, but it’s hardly independent. The lack of concrete lab findings leaves it to guys like me, and eventually people like you, to form your own opinions. My opinion? I think adding one of these systems to a car or light truck engine amounts to severe overkill unless you’re driving 100,000 miles a year. The systems add between 1 and 4 quarts of extra oil to the car, along with a bunch of new fittings, hoses and other connections. If one of these connections were to fail, you’d have zero oil pressure and no oil in a hurry, leaving you stranded. Besides, research has proven that using quality oil and changing it on a regular basis (the new standard is 5000 miles) is enough to get you hundreds of thousands of miles out of an engine. Synthetic oil doesn’t break down the same way mined oil does so won’t add particulates to the oil mixture. Ironically one of the companies pushing a bypass system also sells their own brand of synthetic oil which doesn’t break down, so why would you need the extra filtration? In defense of the guys who make these systems, the independent testing performed by the US Department of Energy showed a huge savings in the amount of oil a diesel-engined bus would need over the course of a year, thanks to many fewer needed oil changes. But my gavel still falls on the “no” side. I just don’t see the need to add an expensive set of extra plumbing to my V6. News source: About Auto Repair

You mother always told you that clean is important. After all, you never know when you might break a leg and the paramedics have to cut your underwear off on the scene exposing your skid marks. But that’s underwear. We’re here to talk about engine oil. Keeping the oil clean is very important to your car’s health. We accomplish this by performing regular oil changes using a high quality oil (preferably synthetic oil) and a new filter. Keep this level of maintenance up and your engine could last half a million miles without needing a rebuild. There are a number of companies out there offering an additional tool to keep your oil clean — an oil bypass filter. It’s basically another oil filter added to the system. Manufacturers of oil bypass filtering systems claim they can continually filter out particles as small as one micron (don’t ask me how big a micron is, who knows), keeping your oil particulate-free and allowing you to go much longer between oil changes. The technology has been in place for some time and is used regularly on fleet vehicles and other trucks that really rack up the miles in a hurry. But do you really need this added protection for your car’s engine? Depending on which pocket your keys are in, the research on the subject can go either way. Unfortunately the only “research” out there on car and light truck engines is offered by the companies pushing the oil bypass filtration systems. This doesn’t mean it’s not accurate, but it’s hardly independent. The lack of concrete lab findings leaves it to guys like me, and eventually people like you, to form your own opinions. My opinion? I think adding one of these systems to a car or light truck engine amounts to severe overkill unless you’re driving 100,000 miles a year. The systems add between 1 and 4 quarts of extra oil to the car, along with a bunch of new fittings, hoses and other connections. If one of these connections were to fail, you’d have zero oil pressure and no oil in a hurry, leaving you stranded. Besides, research has proven that using quality oil and changing it on a regular basis (the new standard is 5000 miles) is enough to get you hundreds of thousands of miles out of an engine. Synthetic oil doesn’t break down the same way mined oil does so won’t add particulates to the oil mixture. Ironically one of the companies pushing a bypass system also sells their own brand of synthetic oil which doesn’t break down, so why would you need the extra filtration? In defense of the guys who make these systems, the independent testing performed by the US Department of Energy showed a huge savings in the amount of oil a diesel-engined bus would need over the course of a year, thanks to many fewer needed oil changes. But my gavel still falls on the “no” side. I just don’t see the need to add an expensive set of extra plumbing to my V6. News source: Auto repair about

Look on the shelf of your local auto parts house and you’ll see more oils than breakfast cereal choices at the supermarket. It wasn’t so long ago that you had about a half dozen to pick from, and since they were all made from the same gunk, it didn’t matter much anyway. Then in the early 1970s popped up a new batch of lubricants — synthetic oils. Made popular by brands like Amsoil and Mobil 1, die-hard gear heads, racers and enthusiasts started using synthetic oil exclusively. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until almost two decades later that the major oil companies started offering synthetics to the masses. Despite the number of benefits over mined oil (the stuff they pump out of the ground), Americans still haven’t fully embraced this advanced technology. So what’s the difference? Synthetic oil is produced in a lab, which means the only stuff in it is what they put in it. Despite the high-tech refining of crude oil, there are still contaminants in the oil that can build up and eventually damage an engine. Changing your oil and filter removes any loose particles that form, but often the build-up occurs in an isolated area of your engine, usually where it gets really, really hot. This build up can clog oil passages and valves, which can eventually lead to reduced engine life.There are also ecological benefits to using synthetic oil. Its viscosity (ability to lubricate) stays higher than mined oil at high temperatures, enough to even affect your gas mileage. Since it breaks down much more slowly than petroleum-based oil, you can greatly extend the time between oil changes. One truck driver drove his semi 409,000 miles on synthetic without changing the oil! Think of how much less oil would have to be collected and recycled if we used half as much every year. The bottom line is synthetic motor oils are an easy choice. The extra couple of bucks you spend for an oil change will be returned in no time at all. Better is better, whether its engine life, gas mileage or environmental impact. News source: About Auto Repair

You want to save the earth, but you’re not ready for a hybrid car. The four-cylinder Fuel engine in the new Toyota (nyse: TM – news – people ) Corolla is about as efficient as it gets, producing 130hp and 41 highway miles per gallon. With plastic intake manifolds and head-mounted injectors, it weighs a scant 234 pounds. But what if you could get the same horsepower and 10mpg more from an engine that weighs half as much and could fit under a rear seat cushion? This is the promise of the rotary engine, a century-old technology that stalled two decades ago but may rev again. News source: Forbes Conventional four-stroke engines produce power by moving a piston up and down using rapid explosions of fuel and air in a cylindrical chamber. A rotary engine has no pistons. The Wankel engine in the Mazda RX-8 houses a rapidly spinning cam that is shaped to compress and combust fuel and air against the inside of an oval chamber. A new take on the rotary comes from a tiny company in Vancouver, B.C., called Reg Technologies (otcbb: REGRF.OB – news – people ). Its Radmax engine uses two wave-shaped cams that rotate above and below a stationary rotor. The cams’ curved surfaces compress fuel and release exhaust as they spin, generating 24 combustions for each crankshaft revolution. A water-cooled Radmax engine, so claims Reg, weighs 1 pound per horsepower. A water-cooled Wankel weighs 2 pounds per horsepower.Rotary engines for years suffered emissions problems that were caused by leaky seals as the cam rotated. Reg says the Radmax’s design eliminates leaks. Testing on a 125hp diesel engine is scheduled to begin soon. But getting the Radmax to market may be a challenge. The company has a dubious aroma to it: past ties to the Jehovah’s Witnesses and appearances in the lists of stocks hyped by spammers. The 25-year-old Reg still has no revenue and has lost $8 million since it began work on its rotary 20 years ago. Its volatile shares, traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, recently sold for 43 cents.Reg says it’s been approached by Rolls-Royce (other-otc: RYCEY.PK – news – people ), Honda (nyse: HMC – news – people ) and Boeing (nyse: BA – news – people ), but its hopes currently rest with the U.S. military, which is pursuing the idea of sticking the lightweight Radmax into aerial drones.

OK so we jumped ahead to save energy. Lets think about I spent over an hour resetting clocks which frustrated me so I had a couple or maybe 3 beers. Monday when I try to wake up an hour earlier it will take an extra cup of coffee or maybe 2 to wake me up.My efficiency will be down so it will require me to work late a couple days till my body and mind become accustomed to the time change.SO where is the saving it took energy to brew and cool the beer, to make the coffee and to power the lights when I worked late and of course I became more flustered and drank more beer and stayed up late and drank more coffee and put in more overtime. There has to be a negative energy savings here so politicians take note you have more important things to worry about. LIKE GAS PRICES

Thanks to rising prices of precious metals, catalytic converters have suddenly become a hot commodity for auto thieves.The converters, which help reduce exhaust emissions, contain platinum and other metals that make them valuable to companies that recondition the parts. This makes them perfect targets for thieves looking for quick cash. Illegally sold converters can bring about $100 each, local mechanics say, and the repairs are even more expensive for the victims of such thefts.Thefts rise with pricesCatalytic converters contain a combination of platinum, palladium and rhodium, all three of which have seen significant price jumps in futures markets. Earlier this week, the New York Mercantile Exchange listed January prices of platinum at $1,118.50 an ounce.In comparison, gold prices were expected to reach about $625 per ounce by March.The converters are the latest target in metal thefts that have occurred throughout the country in recent years. Reports of brazen thefts like copper wiring stolen from heating and air conditioning units and aluminum gutters and siding taken from houses have become commonplace.The metals in the converters are in a honeycomb-shaped substrate, a porous bed that harmful emissions of hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides pass through to be converted into safer gases. Without the converter, those emissions can reach illegal levels, and create a pretty awful sound in the process. News source: Ashland City TImes

Mineral or synthetic?Mineral oils are based on oil that comes from dear old Mother Earth which has been refined. Synthetic oils are entirely concocted by chemists wearing white lab coats in oil company laboratories. For more info, see the section on synthetics further down the page. The only other type is semi-synthetic, sometimes called premium, which is a blend of the two. It is safe to mix the different types, but it’s wiser to switch completely to a new type rather than mixing. SyntheticsDespite their name, most synthetic derived motor oils (ie Mobil 1, Castrol Formula RS etc ) are actually derived from mineral oils – they are mostly Polyalphaolifins and these come from the purest part of the mineral oil refraction process, the gas. PAO oils will mix with normal mineral oils which means Joe public can add synthetic to his mineral, or mineral to his synthetic without his car engine seizing up. The most stable bases are polyol-ester (not polyester, you fool). When I say ‘stable’ I mean ‘less likely to react adversely with other compounds.’ Synthetic oil bases tend not to contain reactive carbon atoms for this reason. Reactive carbon has a tendency to combine with oxygen creating an acid. As you can imagine, in an oil, this would be A Bad Thing. So think of synthetic oils as custom-built oils. They’re designed to do the job efficiently but without any of the excess baggage that can accompany mineral based oils. Pure syntheticsPure synthetic oils (polyalkyleneglycol) are the types used almost exclusively within the industrial sector in polyglycol gearbox oils for heavily loaded gearboxes. These are typically concocted by intelligent blokes in white lab coats. These chaps break apart the molecules that make up a variety of substances, like vegetable and animal oils, and then recombine the individual atoms that make up those molecules to build new, synthetic molecules. This process allows the chemists to actually “fine tune” the molecules as they build them. Clever stuff. But Polyglycols don’t mix with normal mineral oils. News source: Chris-Longhurst.com

Two electric motors, a V-8 engine that can work on only four cylinders, a really smart computer, and a four-speed transmission that joins them into one package. GM calls it “dual hybrid” technology and says that soon it will make pickup trucks or big sport utility vehicles as fuel efficient as some cars.The technology, showcased with General Motors Corp.’s future engines and powertrains Thursday at the company’s proving grounds northwest of Detroit, will start showing up in the 2008 model year with the GMC Tahoe SUV. It will be available on the GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade SUVs and the Chevrolet Silverado pickup – GM’s top-selling vehicle – later that year.GM says the hybrids, similar to those now in use in the transit buses of 39 cities, are so versatile that they will boost fuel economy by 25 percent over the current SUVs and pickups. For the two-wheel-drive Tahoe, which now gets an average of 18.3 miles per gallon in combined city-highway driving, that means nearly 23 mpg. News source: Forbres.Com GM says the hybrids, similar to those now in use in the transit buses of 39 cities, are so versatile that they will boost fuel economy by 25 percent over the current SUVs and pickups. For the two-wheel-drive Tahoe, which now gets an average of 18.3 miles per gallon in combined city-highway driving, that means nearly 23 mpg.Figures for city and highway driving haven’t been calculated yet, but Tim Grewe, GM’s chief engineer for rear-wheel-drive powertrain hybrids, said there will be a significant improvement.”We give you the highway economy and we give you the city economy while maintaining SUV performance,” he said.The dual hybrids, developed jointly by thousands of engineers with GM, DaimlerChrysler AG and BMW AG, also will be placed in the Dodge Durango and BMW vehicles.Prices on the GM vehicles haven’t been set, Grewe said, but the company plans to make them competitive, similar to a $2,000 premium on the hybrid version of the Saturn Vue.The powertrains are huge for GM and its partners because they take the gas-guzzling prefix off of trucks and bring people back into the market, said Jim Sanfilippo, senior industry analyst for Bloomfield Hills-based Automotive Marketing Consultants Inc.”It’s a big thing. It’s a terrific thing,” Sanfilippo said.Most current hybrids are efficient in stop-and-start city driving, Grewe said, but they aren’t as efficient at highway speeds.The new technology, Grewe said, uses a computer to chose from thousands of combinations of running on one electric motor, two electric motors, a combination of electric motors and the V-8 Fuel engine, or shutting down some of the V-8’s cylinders.The computer judges speed, the load the vehicle is pulling, terrain, temperature and humidity, whether the pavement is wet and other factors to decide the most fuel-efficient combination of technologies, Grewe said.”It’s got a gazillion choices to make, and it makes them 100 times a second,” Grewe said. “It’s like having the world’s smartest co-pilot.”And although the technology is complex, it has been proved in buses, some of which have 150,000 miles on them and have been used since 2002, Grewe said.As automakers continue developing hydrogen fuel cells, Grewe said the future of fuel-efficient engines will include a combination of smaller diesels, Fuel engines and hybrids. GM has teams of engineers working to make all the technologies more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly, engineers said Thursday.Sanfilippo said the new hybrids should take away the environmental stigma attached to driving a pickup or big SUV.”It certainly is going to reopen the door to people who don’t necessarily work with their pickups but like to drive one. It makes them politically correct.”