ESSAY

ESSDONOVAN MOORE
MRS. BORESON
EXPOSITORY WRITING PERIOD 4
CAUSE AND EFFECT ESSAY
1-30-2009
Most teenagers are very excited about New Years Eve, going out and partying, and bringing in the New Year because it is a way of starting over. The day before New Years Eve was very interesting for me and my friends because we went to Greeley looking for parties to go to. The night before New Years Eve was very important because we were in my car and we ended up racing a few people, although my car isn’t the fastest or the coolest, I still enjoy racing people and having fun. My story is about racing, although racing is fun, it can also damage your car.
Street racing is a very fun and popular thing to do. Street racing is all about going as fast as you can without stopping, and trying to beat the other driver. This is not only a way to show who has the best car, but also, who the best driver is because you have to be able to stay on the road. It is important to know who you are racing and that if you are going to race to win anything you better be able to win. Also, racing is a dangerous activity that is very fun if you do it correctly but can be deadly if you do it wrong or mess with the wrong people.
My friends and I were in Greeley, and went to see a teacher from the elementary school. We were leaving when across the street we saw a 2009 Chevrolet Camaro, and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go look at it. A 2009 Camaro is an awesome car. It is capable of going from 0-60 in 4.6 seconds, found at (2009 Camaro 2010 Camaro New Camaro forums), I’m not sure why I decided to race this awesome car, I think that I was feeling good because I had raced a few other people and won. The plan was to wait till the driver went inside Wal-Mart and then go to look at the car; it did not happen like this. We were following the Camaro and I think that we got a little too close because the driver scooted way over and just stopped. I of course pulled up next to the Camaro and revved my engine, and he revved his engine. Then without warning the driver punched it, he spun his tires for a good ten feet, I then punched it and we were off. Although it wasn’t like a real race or anything because we kept stopping and going just spinning our tires, we raced down the lanes of Wal-Mart and then I turned to go again. My friends told me to go park and just end it because we didn’t know who was in the car and didn’t want to start anything. So I parked a few rows away from the spot of the race and the Camaro came and parked by us, at this point we were freaking out and wondering if we should drive off, but then he rolled down his window. The man sitting there was an older man like sixty or seventy years old so he knew what kind of car I was driving and all he could say was good job. My friends and I proceeded to go home after a long night, and my car was running fine. Then the next day I went to Greeley again and that’s when the problems really started.
While in Greeley, the car started making a popping sound. A quick stop at the advanced auto parts should fix it right? Wrong! Two hours, and about fifty dollars later I was still unable to drive the car, even though the distributor cap, spark plugs, and spark plug wires had all been change which was said to be the problem. The car was left there that night because it was New Years Eve and there were parties to go to. The next day the car was worked on again with few results, the only thing that was figured out was that if the fifth spark plug wire was left off then it didn’t pop anymore. The car was brought home and I was able to drive it the next day to work. The maintenance man at McDonalds works on a lot of cars so he was asked to take a look at it. Mark, the maintenance man, said that he would bet all of his cars that it was a rocker arm, I had no idea what that even was, so there was research to be done. A Rocker Arm is a curved lever that pivots in the middle. One end is attached to the top of the valve stem. In overhead-valve engines the other is attached to the pushrod. In some overhead-cam engines the other end is attached directly to the camshaft lobe. As the camshaft rotates, the rocker arms pivot causing the valves to open and close (Motor Era: Automoble History). I was sure that it was the Rocker Arm and it was time to go investigate my hypothesis. Removing the valve covers, where the rocker arms are located, was easy and it was very simple to recognize the problem. The bolt that holds the rocker arm on was completely off! So fixing it was also not very difficult, except the bolt could not be over tightened or else it could potentially bend and break a rod; which could be very expensive. The cougar was fired up, once I put the car back together, but the car was sadly still popping so the fifth spark plug was taken off again. I discovered that the firing order could be wrong, the firing order is the sequence or order in which cylinders must be fired 1, 5, 3, 6, 2, 4, etc. it differs from the cylinder sequence which starts with cylinder number one and goes to the last cylinder. The sequential firing distributes the shock of combustion evenly and reduces engine vibrations. Also stated by (Motor Era: Automoble History). That sounded like exactly what the problem was so I looked up the firing order, 1, 8, 4, 5, 6, 2, 7, 3. The firing order was wrong and when I checked them all and redid them the car ran better than it ever did.
This Christmas break was very fun and filled with many crazy things with my car. Racing although fun and cool, can also be very damaging to your car. Racing a 2009 Camaro may not be the best decision either. Racing can push your car to the limit, loosen a few important bolts, and make you kind of crazy so you don’t take the time to fix it right. That was one of the coolest nights of my life, but it resulted in a few sleepless nights for me. Your car may be new and super cool, but this sort of thing could happen to anyone, so before you go racing you better be sure you know what you’re doing so you can fix it.
Bography
"Camaro 0-60 official (for V8). - Camaro Forum - 2009 Camaro / 2010 Camaro / New Camaro SS Z28 Forums - Camaro5.com." 2009 Camaro 2010 Camaro New Camaro forums, news, reviews, wallpapers, pricing - Camaro5.com. 27 Jan. 2009 .
"Dictionary of Automotive Terms Abbreviations." Motor Era: Automoble History. 27 Jan. 2009 .
"Dictionary of Automotive Terms Abbreviations." Motor Era: Automoble History. 27 Jan. 2009
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winter narrative

Donovan Moore
1-13-2009
expoository writing, 4th hour
Mrs. Boreson
winter narrative
CAR TROUBLES
When I think about my Christmas vacation, I can remember a lot of things that I did, but only one of them really sticks out in my memory. That would have to be working on my car, I drive a 69’ mercury cougar, and it being now forty years old it requires a lot of maintenance. So over my break I did a lot of maintenance on my car because it was a little beaten up from the ditch that I put it in a few weeks ago. This is my story about my very interesting experience of trying to fix my car.
When I first started the Christmas break, I changed my spark plugs but forgot to attach one of the spark plugs which was pretty dumb of me but it was also an easy fix. Then it started making a really really bad noise when I was in Greeley so I had to stay there trying to fix it out side of the Advanced auto parts on 23rd avenue, I replaced the distributor cap, and also the point and condenser rotor and it still wasn’t working. I figured that it just needed to be timed so I left it there in Greeley all night until I was able to come back the next day to try and fix it. The next day, I came back to Greeley with my friend and her dad, who had a mercury cougar, so I was really excited about the fact that my car should be up and running that night, but sadly it wasn’t. We got it running a little bit, at least good enough to get it home, but I could tell something was still wrong. I went to work the next day and I asked the maintenance man if he might be able to look at it for me, I asked him because he has rebuilt four or five cars and he is always bragging about how he can tell what is wrong with a car just by listening to it. So he went out there for like an hour and told me he thinks it is my rocker arm, well I had no idea what a rocker arm was at the time so we talked about it for about another hour, which made my boss a little bit angry since I was at work. I went home that night and took off my valve covers to discover that my rocker arm bolt wasn’t even on it was just sitting on top! So I tightened the bolt down which I was nervous about because mark, the maintenance man, told me that if you tighten the bolt down too much then you can throw a rod in your car which is very expensive, so I finally decided just to tighten it down so it looks like the other ones. I then decided to check the other rocker arms, so I took the valve cover off and then was ready to put it back on when I discovered that my gasket had ripped and was now worthless, so I turned my car on to see if it was okay to drive and my oil drained out of my car because there was nothing holding it on. So the next day I still couldn’t drive which made me very sad, but it was fairly easy to replace the gasket, luckily my dad had the day off so that he could take me to get the right parts. Working on my car was a very good experience that was also a little bit nerve racking.
I enjoy working on my car and the fact that I actually improved it makes me feel a lot better about it knowing that I can usually fix it if there is something wrong with it. Working on my car relaxes me and is really one of my favorite things to do. Really the only reason that I have a job is so that I can fix up my car and also hang out with friends. My Christmas break was an enjoyable one that I will never forget.