Originally posted by: alkemyst
Originally posted by: exdeath
As for my recent 'surge' in automotive interests that you've noticed, maybe it had something to do with actually owning a car worth tinkering with and talking about finally, because you know it's so exciting to talk about what I did with my 150,000 mile Camry last week :roll:
exactly. I have not seen much of any contributions here on car threads until that. I have been pretty active in a lot of those and have posted the work I have done many times. I don't know what makes the car 'worth it', but even back in college when I owned a Saturn coupe I tinkered with it.
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Since then my 98 240SX SE has been something I worked on at
link also my father's 96 Eddie Bauer 408 Bronco conversion
Link.
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Prior to those I bought a new 97 VW GTI VR6 at
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And in high school, early college I had a fully restored by myself and father, 1966 Mustang GT at
Link. After that car I purchased a 2 year old 88 Mustang GT since it was the last of the T-Tops. Pretty much the full motorsports package was put on it. There was also a 92 GS-R in there I had for a little while, it was fast but no torque.
I have replaced other's brakes countless times, did a R&R of an intake manifold just recently on a 200x Mustang GT that cracked, and currently most of my time is spent working on a house I just bought.
I have been doing alot more than just helping someone rebuild a carb here and there.
This reply is intended to provide insight into my own experience rather than participate in a e-peen contest.
Thats great that you've had so many cars to play with. I've got a bit of catching up to do in that regard, as I've said, the Cobra is the first really serious car I've had that I've been willing to put auxiliary money into (ie: above and beyond necessary minimal maintenance). I'm not about to spend $200 on an after market part for a car that won't matter when thats $200 I can put toward a better car.
Aside from maintaining and troubleshooting a 68 Chrysler 440 and a 95 Camry that I owned as first cars, my experience has been mostly with other peoples cars until the last 3 years or so with my Cobra. Most recently swapping an engine in a 97 Buick Skylark that warped all the machined mating surfaces from overheating and wasn't worth repairing unknowns when a used engine from a bone yard was about $500. The 3100 series GM engines are bad about cooling problems from what I understand.
And then again with a 97 Sentra that my sister got a steal on with a hole in the block and a missing rod (come to find that the transmission was shot; the owner had driven the car full blast down the freeway from Phoenix to Tucson with a slipping transmission the whole way = blown engine)
The first was done in my parents garage with a cherry picker (father being a career mechanic has more tools at home than god and air ftmfw) and the second was done at the shop on a lift. Both jobs from start to finish in time for a late lunch.
Maintaining the 95 Camry for 10 years introduced me to the wonders of working on FWD cars and how needlessly complicated getting to something as simple as a water pump or clutch can be. Nothing like pulling an entire wheel assembly apart to crack the bell housing open a few inches and unavoidably spilling 90 weight (god that stuff stinks) for what should be a 5 minute job.
Growing up I got to be involved with my fathers pet projects, a 58 Del Ray street rod with a 402 and a 64 Plymouth Fury with a 440 and OEM push button tranny. Along the way we've had a 70 Challenger and countless others that came and went.
My first serious car that I owned personally with my own money was the '03 Cobra convertible (because I previously had a long since expired fascination with the Boxster and couldn't shake the 'roadster' craving). I did my research and wanted a car with a reputation that was also modern and easy to find production parts for, and though I never really liked newer mustangs, the '03 Cobras grew on me fast for some reason. It came with BPUs like exhaust and intake and I did all the rest from used parts here and there as I learned the specific ins and outs of that particular car in depth (Kenne Bell 2.4 twin screw, crower cams, FR500 heads, fuel supply, e-mail order tune with in car wide band verification and retune requests, rear end bullet proofed, etc.) Thats the car that was good for probably ~700 RWHP though it's never been on a dyno to confirm or to the track due to the < 13.99 cage requirement for convertibles. I don't like cages in convertibles. High 12s stock, and with those mods it was an easy 10 second car. Enter my new coupe acquired this summer.
Now I've got a bone stock coupe and I want to go with a 325 cid (stroked 4.6 with 3.7" bore either on a sleeved teksid block or a Ford Racing 4.6 block with thicker casting for 3.7" bore) with twin turbos so I can enter my contribution to the Terminator community exploring uncharted waters (twin turbo is new enough, much less on a increased cid block). But first comes the boring but important stuff (oil, cooling, drive train bulletproofing, etc). I'd love to build the block from scratch myself, but thats just not something I have the expertise or machinery to do at that level of performance (not about to buy 10 sets of pistons to so I can perfectly weight match and hand select 8 of them them, etc, I'll let a engine builder do that kind of stuff and get a short block thats CNC balanced and spin tested on machines I can't afford to buy, much less for 1 build).
Most of the time you will find I speak in theory rather than application, this is true. But that's just how I am period, it's not just cars. I tend to avoid specifics and generalize to focus on the principle of the matter and if you were to 'stalk' the programming forums as well you'd see the same thing. I've coded on anything from my Ti86's Z80 to the PS2s EE/VU, yet in answering others questions I am purposely vague and general. Do I have any significant contributions or publications to those communities on the internet? No, because I do them on my own time for personal pleasure and curiosity, not to benefit an online community or gain fame and notoriety.
Cars, computers, whatever, after I mess around with the same thing in different circumstances, I tend to step back, postulate or learn the general theory and principle to explain what it was I was doing and why, and use that to apply my knowledge to unexplored platforms. 99% of the time, everything is always the same at some fundamental level. You should also find that if I am not absolutely positively sure about something that my info comes with a disclaimer stating such.
Not trying to get into a e-peen fight, but I seriously can not stand someone acting smug or telling me I don't know what I am talking about based on a 0.0001% mis-accuracy/technicality in page length post that is otherwise spot on. (seriously if you want to get into technicalities, check the pressure at the exhaust valve just after the exhaust event with a excessively large exhaust with poor velocity and a properly sized exhaust with optimized scavenging, you'll see higher pressure with the larger exhaust, but otherwise yes, at that point the exhaust system is so seriously screwed up who cares).
Anyway, :beer:
