How It Works
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You off-roaders out there know all about disconnecting your own sway bars. You crave articulation, and you'll disconnect parts of your vehicle to get it. For those who don't seek out tough trails and mud-covered body panels, the idea of a disconnecting sway bar might be an odd concept. It's less odd when you listen to Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained talk about it. A sway bar provides stability and helps to mitigate body roll in a car or truck. It's a great bit of bent mental that helps keep your vehicle feeling planted on the road. You don't want that when you're crawling off road...
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Can a gearing change make your car quicker?
If you change your car's gearing, can you make it quicker? The simple answer is yes. More aggressive gearing creates a quicker car but not a faster car. A gearing change will have a noticeable affect on your car. If you swap in taller rear gears, you can gain some top-end speed, making your car...
Jeff Glucker -
How to install a rear differential in a Honda S2000
Engineering Explained is back with a new video, this time on how to replace the rear differential in a Honda S2000. In this case, the swap stems from our host, Jason Fenske, using this opportunity to change out gear sets, switching from a 4.1 final drive ratio to a 4.44, to get quicker acceleration...
Zach Bowman -
Watch a Holley carburetor rebuild in 3 minutes
Time-lapse magic returns from Hagerty—the number one insurer of classic cars—this time involving the teardown of a Holley carburetor. Before the days of fuel injection, these babies were essential for the proper mix of air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. Therefore, proper...
Sean Szymkowski -
Watch a Ford Thunderbird transmission rebuild in 5 minutes
The magic of technology can make nearly anything look as simple as tying your shoes. We assure you, rebuilding a transmission is not easy, and it certainly cannot be done in less than five minutes. But, Hagerty has returned with another rebuild timelapse, making the teardown of this Ford...
Sean Szymkowski -
This is how hot your exhaust system can get
When your car is running, your exhaust system takes the hot waste gas from the engine and expels it out the series of tubes bolted to the underside of your vehicle. From your exhaust manifold, you typically move down to a catalytic converter and through some more plumbing before hitting the muffler...
Jeff Glucker -
When you buy a new car, the odds are good that it's going to come with solid tires. If that new car you're buying is a sports car or performance-oriented model, then the odds are even better that your car, truck, or SUV will have some seriously capable rolling rubber at all four corners. Now, if you buy a used vehicle or when it comes time to replace your tires, you shouldn't be looking to cheap out. You need to buy the best set of tires that fit your budget, and Engineering Explained is here to tell you why. The easiest way to understand why you need to spend more on your tires is to...
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What happens when an engine runs without oil?
It’s one of those crazy thoughts which has really no way for the average person to go about solving: what happens if an engine runs without any oil flowing through it whatsoever? Thankfully, Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained is back to do it for us and cure the curiosity at large. You...
Sean Szymkowski -
Why doesn't the Koenigsegg Regera have a transmission?--Part 2
Engineering Explained returns to correctly answer why the Koenigsegg Regera doesn’t have a transmission. Bad math. It happens to the best of us, even our friend Jason Fenske, the host of the channel. Jason previously walked us through why the Koenigsegg Regera doesn’t have a...
Sean Szymkowski -
How to do a burnout with a manual transmission, and what it does to your tires
Right off the bat, we're going to enter Pedantic Mode. We're really talking more about a brake stand than a burnout here. Yes, there's a difference and it involves how much tire destruction takes place. A burnout is all throttle induced, while a brake stand keeps you in place while the rear tires...
Jeff Glucker -
How the Rimac Concept_One's torque vectoring system does it all
The adoption of the electric motor into the automobile is changing many facets of the automotive industry at large. From entire propulsion methods, to power increases, and torque vectoring, we seem to merely be at the beginning. One of the more intriguing applications of electric motors comes from...
Sean Szymkowski -
Why doesn't the Koenigsegg Regera have a transmission?
When the Koenigsegg Regera made its debut a little over two years ago, news that the hypercar would arrive without a transmission was a shock to many. No gears, no CVT, nothing. Thankfully, Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained is here to help us figure out how the Regera can move at all, let alone...
Sean Szymkowski -
It’s common knowledge brakes heat up during use, but how hot can they get? Simply put, pretty darn hot. Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained is back with another intriguing video made with help from a $55,000 FLIR thermal camera. This time, he points the camera at the brakes and takes some measurements. The camera shows us five specific points where heat is registered: the leading edge of the brake pad, the rotor before the brake pad, the rotor after passing through the caliper, the wheel hub, and the back of the brake pad itself. CHECK OUT: Watch engines warming up as captured by...
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The benefits of Individual Throttle Bodies vs. a single throttle body
Your average new car has a throttle body and an intake manifold. The engine sucks in air through the air filter before it passes through the open throttle body and into the manifold. From there, it moves into the cylinders as called upon during the combustion cycle. You'll find one throttle body...
Jeff Glucker -
See how hot a burnout gets through a thermal camera
What's the best way to end the life of a set of tires? If you have the mind of a fully grown child, a good burnout is the way to go. We all know that you're going to heat up the brakes and tires when you're playing these foolish games. But do you know just how much heat you're creating? Jason...
Jeff Glucker -
Watch engines warming up as captured by $55K thermal imaging camera
If you have a newer car, your engine warms up pretty quickly. Driving something a bit more classically cool? That engine will stay cooler for longer as well, since it needs a bit more time to get up to operating temperature. But aren't you curious what an engine would look like if you could watch...
Jeff Glucker -
Why can't production cars reach 300 mph?
The Bugatti Chiron is just getting out to the extremely well-heeled public. Customers have started taking deliveries of the 1,480-horsepower ballistic road machine, and we're curious if any of them will ever find the room to explore the car's rumored 288-mph top speed. Jason Fenske from Engineering...
Jeff Glucker -
How much air will an engine consume at wide open throttle?
The headline to this article is clearly the type of question that keeps Engineering Explained host Jason Fenske up at night. Luckily for him, he's got the math and science skills to figure it all out. Fenske wanted to explain air intake for a given engine to the rest of us, and thus visual aids...
Jeff Glucker -
McLaren is a company that loves pushing the technological envelope. Be it the company's road cars or its racing machines, there is plenty of fascinating bits to be explored under the skin. One area that's proven to be rather interesting is in regards to the suspension employed on a number of modern McLaren road cars. With a traditional vehicle, you'll find springs, coils, and sway bars playing a role in the suspension setup. These works together to mitigate and control both up-down motion as well as side-to-side rocking motion. The sway bar is what helps control that side-to-side action. In...
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These 5 features make for a powerful off-road truck
Engineering Explained's Jason Fenske recently had a chance to check out the 2017 Ram Power Wagon. We think he likes it just as much we did ourselves. There are five standout features of the truck that help Fenske proclaim it an ultimate off-roader. First up is the fact that the truck is equipped...
Jeff Glucker -
No, the Tesla Model S P100D doesn't do 0-60 in 2.28 seconds
It's all about math and physics, folks. At least that's the soup that fills the head of Engineering Explained host Jason Fenske, which is why he's so easily able to explain scientific concepts to the average YouTube viewer. Recently, he posted a video going over the numbers produced by Motor Trend...
Jeff Glucker -
Be mesmerized by the action of this off-road suspension
Suspension can be a surprisingly mesmerizing bit of mechanical enjoyment. Go stare at a Trophy Truck as it rips across the desert and think about all of the work that the springs and dampers are handling. The abuse being dished out is both amazing and terrifying. Yet those trucks float over most of...
Jeff Glucker -
How the Tesla Model S hits 60 mph in 2.28 seconds
The 0-60 mph times for the Tesla Model S keep getting lower and lower. The new P100D package really helps put all of the horsepower to the ground efficiently, and makes the electric sedan rocket away from a standstill. Recently, we saw a drag racer in a stock P100D record a time of 2.38 seconds...
Jeff Glucker -
Why does the McLaren P1 have an open differential?
The McLaren P1 is a hilariously complex and deliciously expensive hyper car. However, there is a simple and inexpensive secret lying underneath its rear end. Where you might expect to find some fancy torque-vectoring, power providing, hard working limited-slip differential, instead you'll find an...
Jeff Glucker