What does a shorthrow shifter do?
What does it mean when someone says its 4.6 liters, what does that have to do the the mechanics of the car? Same thing when some one says 302 cubic inches, what does that imply?
What is the purpose of a carburator?
1. The 'throw' of a shifter refers to the distance your hand travels from one gear to the next... so a short throw shifter minimizes this distance to provide faster shifting.
2. liters and cubic inches are units of volume... so what people are referring to when they say '4.6 liters' or '281ci' is the capacity of all of your cylinders combined, also known as your engine's displacement. so if you filled up all your cylinders with water, in theory you should have 4.6 liters total... FYI, a 4.6 is about 281 cubic inches.. the 5.0 is about a 302, etc
3. in order for combustion in your cylinders to take place you need gasoline mixed with air and a spark... the gas/air mixture is created by your carburator.. newer cars have fuel injectors
(i hope i got all this right.. i'm a bit of a car newb myself )
Pushrods are used in older engines that are called OHV (over head valve), the pushrods open the valve when they are actuated by the camshaft (single camshaft in the Vee of the block. SOHC is actually better technology than OHV (pushrod engines), and DOHC even better. It just seems that pushrods are better when you compair the LS-1 to a modular GT motor, but the Camaro/TA engine has more displacement and higher compression. I'm by no means a engine guru, but I think thats all right?
Yes, the dohc and sohc can also rev higher then pushrod motors. But pushrods typically produce more tq at a lower rpm then dohc and sohc, its all about revs