What should you do when you’re already having quite too many problems with your engine? Well, prices and service charges change every now and then–pretty much like your budget limit. So we dare not give any specific answer to this question. Instead, we’ll provide you things to consider whether you’ll rebuild or replace your ride’s motor.

Engine Rebuilding

- Since you’d only be tinkering with select components, it might give 20-50% savings compared to engine replacement.
- You can customize your engine and determine the kind of parts that would be used in it.
- You get to buy components such as gaskets, seals, rings, bearing and lifters from the brand of your chocie and with the manufacturer’s warranty.
- You get to buy engine rebuilding kits that really match each other.
- You’ll be helping mother nature since you wouldn’t entirely junk your old engine.

Engine Replacement

- You don’t have to outsource labor to tear down the engine components and put them back again.
- You don’t need to go to machine shops to get the engine block bored, resurfaced, refinished, etc.
- You get to enjoy about 2-3 years warranty on brand-new engines.
- You don’t have to buy components separately since you can get a complete engine assembly.
- There are now remanufactured engine assemblies that perform just like brand-new ones but are far more affordable.

Engine knocks can cause significant damage to your engine. That’s why you should try to prevent them even before they happen. Remember the cliché: prevention is better than cure.

Knocking out engine knocks isn’t really hard to do if you understand why knocks occur. All you have to do is find out the causes and do something about them. It’s that easy! But you can make it easier by reading the following tips on how to prevent engine knocks.

1. Check the knock sensor. Most knock sensors last for years, doing their job so efficiently that car owners only get to notice them when they fail and knocking occurs.
2. Check the spark plugs. Knocks may happen because of worn-out spark plugs, which can misfire against ignition timing. Meaning, the spark plug may ignite the fuel even before the piston reaches TDC (top dead center) position.
   

   Carbon fouled. A spark plug tip with sooty carbon deposits, which may cause misfires.

3. Warm up the engine before running. Revving up the engine to a good warm state makes for better combustion, which means no unburned fuel will be left in the cylinders. Unburned fuel that remains in the chamber may get detonated simultaneously with the next cycle’s air/fuel mixture and thus create two flame fronts that will cause pinging or knocks.
4. Clean your engine. Because of constant exposure to fuel/air mixture and sometimes even engine oil, your engine’s combustion chambers and cylinders may get a build-up of soot or carbon. These carbon deposits get constantly burned in the chambers and become glowing embers, creating hotspots in the cylinders. Because these hotspots are somehow still burning even after the piston has reached its fourth stroke, they can readily ignite the fuel/air mixture even before the spark plug does. You don’t need to grind the cylinder walls to do this. You can simply mix detergent additives to your fuel to clean your engine for you.

To add or not to add? That is the question on oil additives. And since the answer to that is worth thinking about, let us help you on the “thinking” part. Here’s a list of reasons why you should or should not buy an oil additive.

Use additives because they…

- could prevent wearing of the engine by coating the engine parts and acting as a cushion between parts that come into contact and create friction

- could prevent oil from seeping into the combustion chamber and getting burned along with fuel, which causes blow-by and smoking

- could reduce oil consumption by keeping the oil from the chambers

- could have a detergent property that cleans sludge and impurities out of the engine

- could provide a protective coating that prevents sludge and other impurities from sticking to the engine’s internal parts

- could prevent oil impurities from coagulating

- could inhibit corrosion and oxidation of the engine’s parts

Don’t use additives because they…

- might contain chemicals or compounds like Polytetrafloeraethylene or PTFE (more popularly known as Teflon). PTFE comes in the form of powder and is merely mixed with an additive’s base compound. It supposedly prevents oil from leaking into the combustion chamber by thickening the oil so it won’t easily get through the gap between the piston and the cylinder bore. On the contrary, PTFE could clog oil filters if its particles aren’t small enough to pass through the oil filter. This won’t only obstruct oil flow, it would also render your filter unusable.

- might contain TFE resin, which hardens at really high temperature and might get deposited into the bearings.

- might contain chlorine that can oxidize and corrode your engine’s parts pretty fast.

- may just be popular because they’re too hyped up in the media. Meaning, they advertise false claims about their product.

- may not be needed by your oil anymore. Most oil manufacturers nowadays already include additives into their motor oil products.

- might just neutralize the anti-wear, anti-corrosion, and combustion efficiency-enhancing compounds already mixed into your oil.