Mechanic (currently small engine, formerly vehicles), industrial fabricator, hydraulic system tech, and drummer.
Grass-touching spouse of @dustbunnies@hexbear.net – DM or ping her and she will bring me in.
I assume the fix-a-flat is for one of the tires installed on the car. Be aware this is an emergency-only fix, and it not intended to be used long term. The proper fix is to take it to a tire shop and have it repaired/patched. It costs more to have the fix done (25.00+) but is the proper fix. The tire goo will throw the wheel/tire off balance at higher speeds.
Control arms and struts are both front suspension components. They connect your car's chassis to the wheels, essentially and allow for steering and independent movement.
Typically, the control arm would be the more serious concern because it is directly responsible for making sure the wheel and steering components stay connected to the car's chassis. If a control arm (or ball joint on said control arm) fails, you may lose all control of that corner of the vehicle.
A strut is a shock absorbing component, similar to a shock expect that it it combines a spring and shock into one unit, and also provides in some cases a fixed attachment for locating the control arms to the frame. When a strut fails, it can either be due to a broken spring or (more likely) simply a leaking shock absorbing component. If it is just a leaking shock absorbing component, you will notice the car riding like crap and not sticking to the road well, soaking up bumps, etc.
Both are safety concerns - depending on the make and model, if you had to pick one to do first, it would be the control arm.
Valve cover gaskets are on the top or side of the engine, depending on the design and when they start leaking, they tend to soil the exhaust manifolds, which are one of the hottest external parts of an engine. That smell is oil vaporizing. It's not uncommon for engines with some age to leak from several areas, including the valve covers. If you can smell it, then it's a leak significant enough to warrant a repair.
As others have stated, the leak will slowly drop your oil level in the engine and if it gets low enough, it will starve the engine of its vital fluid. Engines need oil to protect rotating and moving parts from direct contact with each other. It also serves some purpose as a coolant. The engine oil needs to be kept clean and changed frequently to ensure these parts don't wear prematurely.
It's kinda cool, actually - some of these parts are suspended by a film of pressurized oil. The two parts never really touch each other, although they appear to be in direct contact. Thousandths of an inch or less separate them, and the oil takes up that space, allowing the parts to move and "float".
Jerry Cantrell new album!!! "I Want Blood"
All the goodies. Harmony, melody, riffs, and mood.
My first thought was if he aimed too low, that could be interesting....
Not an expert on off grid solutions, but I spent some time building mobile off-grid systems using solar, shore power (grid input) and LifePo battery banks.
The inverter you are looking for I believe is something like what Victron offers. Victron makes really nice stuff, super techy and customizable. This unit here is able to accept two AC inputs and has built in transfer switch. It's a battery charger, inverter and transfer switch in one package.
https://www.victronenergy.com/inverters/phoenix-inverter-smart#pd-nav-secondimage
The only thing missing from this equation would be a suitable solar charge controller, which Victron also has plenty of offerings for. A plus to sticking with Victron is that your monitoring can all be done on one app. Some Victron devices also talk to each other and optimize parameters to extend battery life, favor off grid or on grid power, etc.
For battery banks, I've had good experience with the EG4 racks. They are power dense, have great BMS systems that are customizable, and are priced affordably. You can run these in parallel to increase your AH.
https://signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepower4-v2-lithium-battery-48v-100ah-server-rack-battery-ul1973-ul9540a-10-year-warranty/
Lots of technical considerations go into selecting proper components, but maybe this will help get you started.
https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/gear-ratio
Looks like the math is relatively simple. If you know the relative size of the gears you are looking to use, you can play with these values here to determine your required force vs your output torque. If you attach a crank to the input gear, you will get even better torque multiplication.
Surplus Center and McMaster-Carr are good places to browse for off-the-shelf components for things like this.