 Welcome to Cobb U. This video series will take you from start to finish to teach you the basics of various automotive systems and how modification and tuning work hand in hand to help you achieve your car's goals. In a sea of internet experts, we aim to be a sensible, unbiased source of accurate information regarding vehicle modification. I'm Emmy. I'm just one small part of the team here at Cobb Tune. If you're watching this, you most likely own a vehicle we support, so you're familiar with what we do already. For those that are unfamiliar, Cobb Tuning makes engine management solutions and performance parts, predominantly for small displacement turbocharged engines. So that's what we'll be talking about in this series. While these videos are aimed more towards folks who are new at modifying their cars, we hope that whatever your skill set, you walk away from this with a better overall understanding of how your car really works. No matter what it is that you're doing, you need a good foundation to build off of. So today, we'll begin with a basic overview of how your car works. From intake to tailpipe. We'll cover specific systems on their own in future videos. Throughout this series, we'll be referring to this real-world mock-up, so we can show you the actual components and how they intermingle with other systems. For the sake of visual explanation, we've stripped the engine of systems and components that are not discussed in this series. That way, we can easily see what we're talking about. So when you look at your engine, you will see way more parts than what is here. One more note. This is a Subaru EJ25 motor, and we're using components from a 2015 Subaru STi. So keep in mind that your vehicle may be designed slightly different. We'll be covering some of those differences in later videos. With that being said, let's get to it. An internal combustion engine needs four things to run. Fuel, air, spark, and compression. Once you have those, here's how everything else comes together. First, air enters into the air intake and passes through a filter, which is then metered by a mass airflow sensor, also referred to as a MAF sensor. From there, the air enters the turbo inlet hose and passes through the compressor side of the turbocharger. The air then goes through what's referred to as the hotpipe and enters the inner cooler. As the air moves through the internal passages of the core, its temperature decreases because the heat transfers from the air to the metal core. Cooler air from outside passes through external fins on the core in an effort to reduce the temperature of the core itself, allowing it to continue to cool the air inside. Once that happens, the cooled air makes its way up through the cold pipe, entering the throttle body. The throttle body houses a butterfly valve that controls how much air passes into the intake manifold, which then directs air into each individual cylinder. Just before the air enters the cylinder, we have the mixing of air and fuel, which is provided by our fuel injectors. The air fuel mixture then enters the cylinder through the intake valve as it opens during the piston's downward intake stroke. The intake valve closes and the piston then compresses the mixture as it travels upward on its compression stroke. Just before the piston reaches the top, it is ignited by the spark plug. The pressure from the combustion pushes the piston back down on the combustion stroke, giving your car its power. Lastly, the exhaust valve opens as the piston travels back up one last time on its exhaust stroke. Evacuating our exhaust gases. At that point, the exhaust gases make their way from the exhaust manifold into the turbine side of the turbocharger, spinning the turbine to provide necessary energy to build boost. Once our exhaust gases have finished their job, they'll make their way through the downpipe and pass through a catalytic converter to reduce emissions. From there, the exhaust gases pass through the rest of the exhaust system, which include a resonator and a muffler to help dampen the sound. And then finally, they make their way out the tailpipe. Everything we just talked about happens thousands of times a minute, all while you're on your way to the grocery store or the track. It's a well-organized chaos at its finest. Now that you have a basic understanding of what's going on, all the way from intake to tailpipe, we can break everything down into their individual components, starting with the next video, which will focus on the first step in the upgrade path, ECU tuning. Your car's ECU, or engine control unit, manages a lot of the systems we touched on in this video. So before you start adding any parts, it's important for you to understand how the ECU and ECU tuning work to help you realize the full power potential of your car. While working on your car, you'll need a wide variety of tools. For the systems we'll touch on throughout this series, you'll generally need tools like ratchets and sockets, allen wrenches or hex sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers, picks. And while not needed but are extremely handy, a small mirror and telescoping magnet to help retrieve screws and bolts that fall through the cracks, various pliers, torque wrenches, and silicone spray. We'll be covering specific tools needed in each episode. One last note, for those of you that are eager to learn more, at the bottom of each video on our website, you'll find the extra credit section that has links to additional information about the topic discussed in that video. That's going to do it for this episode of Cobb U. Thanks for joining us and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can watch future episodes. I'm Emmy, your host for Cobb U. Remember to check out cobbtuning.com for all your parts and tuning needs. Do you like the storage solutions featured in our studio? Then visit sonictoolsusa.com to get more detailed product information.