Alright, I absolutly love third-gen cars and would love to do some engine work on my '87 Camaro sometime in the future. However, I know nothing about the mechanics of a car. My dad was never much of a car guy so he can't help teach me.

Basically, what I am asking is where could I go to learn about the mechanics of a car and its engine? I'm talking hands-on, a website isn't going to teach me all I need to know. Where did you guys learn what you now know?

Thanks!

 

go get a repair manual at any local auto parts store, or borrow one from teh library, tehn narrow down on what you would like to do to your engine and read over.. and then try (hey if you screw just take it to a real mechanic and say it was like that when you got it

 

read here or books, got any gear head friends? start out washing parts, look at local vocational schools for a intro to mechanics class

 

if you can take a class that would be a great way to learn. if you can get your hands on a junk car that would be good too, you can just strip the engine down to see how everything goes together and not have to worry about screwing anything up. leafing through a chilton's is good too, just don't go pulling your car apart until your confident in your skills.

 

a good manual is worth its weight in oil filters at least (dunno bout gold though)

gearhead friends can be a good place to learn what to do and what not to do, just look at how well their ride runs

trial and error, thats how most of us learn, that and using patience and doing research, reading up on stuff, asking for advice, and questions. go to car shows, talk to people. watch those tv shows where they build hot rods hehe or even junkyard wars

get junk parts and take em apart or rebuild them, help your friends with their projects

If you really seriously want to learn everything you can and have the time and money, look for your local vocational school and see if they have an auto mechanics course, most communities have a vo ed and most vo eds offer some sort of mechanics class

 

usually a gearheads car isn't the best running/looking since he's to busy fixing other people's/friends problems :sillylol:


seriously though a manual is a somewhat of a good start. it will teach the theory of on how a specific engine management system works. among other various systems involved.

 

The best thing to do first is learn the basics. Don't try to learn how to adjust A/F ratios on a TPI system using EPROM chips that you burn for the ECM if you don't even know what a TPS or an MAF is.

---->Click here for the absolute basics<----

They have some really cool catagories for engines, trannys, brakes, etc. Then they have sub-catagories about camshafts, horsepower, gears, etc.

It's even great stuff for some of us older farts.

AJ

 

A few simple steps to learning cars:

Do like I did and buy a crummy car I *THOUGHT* was in good condition.

Buy a decent service manual. (Chilton's are better than Haynes, Helms are a lot better than either.)

Wait until the car starts breaking. Most of the time, the problme doesn't lie within the engine, but something easy to fix outside of that. (i.e., MOST of the time when the engine breaks it won't be a rod shattering and punching a hole in the cylinder wall)

Have patience. There's nothing more required when learning how to work on cars.

Oh and a friend you can go to when you do get in over your head is always helpful.

 

I always found walking around the pick-a-part junkyard was really helpful. You read about stuff and then you see it at a junkyard with everything else and the info kinda sinks in.