Are you a car guy? (petrol/gear head?)

[Shadow1]

Re: Are you a car guy? (petrol/gear head?)

The "scalded dog" analogy...oh how wonderful southernisms are. LOL! Thanks for the laugh shadow! It just made my day.


But I've driven a Dodge Intrepid. It has about the same kick as the Grand AM I used to drive. Totally fun! I will still interject that the 351 Cleveland V8 in that Ford Ranchero would scare the pants off you. I would break out in a cold sweat if a cop came up to a traffic light I was already stopped at. The last thing you could do is touch the gas. There was no way to go from a stand still by pressing the gas unless you wanted to lay down rubber. It was impossible. Forget yourself and it was instant ticket time (same thing if you touched the horn). To go 0-45 simply release the brakes.

A buddy I work with bought an old Camero as a playtoy because it had a 6 speed manual in it... he thought it would be fun to drive something like that again. (He's got some wild stories from his youth...) He had it about 2 weeks and blew it up - spun 2 mains and a rod bearing. It then became a money pit, but I got to help him rebuild the motor (I'm not a bad mechanic, but mostly I just kept the cold beers flowing) and add quite a bit of horsepower. Gotta admit putting your foot down on nearly 400 hp and that T56 transmission is fun

[jonezy999]

Re: Are you a car guy? (petrol/gear head?)

Had a few Aussie muscle cars starting with a 1974 Statesman DeVille which we fitted a worked 5ltr. Was my all time fav car til I wrapped it around a tree and pole in one go.
Following that I put the running hear in a LH Torana, went like a cut snake, too scary, sold it.
Then bought a HQ Sandman Panelvan, already had a 5ltr in there, this car is what we commonly know as a lemon. Swapped it for a Corolla (it was purple)
Currently working on a Ford XG 93 panelvan, keeping the big 6 in this one, don't want too many ponies, just a nice cruiser.

[Iowatech]

Re: Are you a car guy? (petrol/gear head?)

I don't know if you are just going for displacement, but if so the first car I had properly licensed was a rusted out '69 Thunderbird. It had the standard 429 cubic inch Thunderjet in it. Unfortunately, I was pretty young back then, and didn't fully understand the need for high grade gasoline to be run through an engine with high compression (depending where I look, the Thunderjet then had either 10.5:1 or 11:1 compression ratio, and I sometimes ran it on tractor gas (86 octane at best) because that was all I could afford). As you might imagine, the head gaskets did blow out eventually and I barely got it home from school that day, and when I pulled the dipstick out then it was covered by the cottage cheese of doom.
Still, even if the eight track player in the car never really worked properly, the car did had glass packs on it so that was fun to listen to. At least for me.

[Shadow1]

Re: Are you a car guy? (petrol/gear head?)

It had the standard 429 cubic inch Thunderjet in it.

There's 2 ways to make horsepower: Cubes and Money. The second option works best.

I've always been amazed how those old engines had really low horsepower/displacement numbers, and some of it is the rating system, but most of it is the R&D that's been poured into the new engines. Some of those old big blocks scored less that 200hp on 400+ cid, but that much power is well within the reach of 4cyl engines in the 140cid range now. ("Smog Motors" from the '70s are particularly wimpy)

One factor skewing those results is that in the days of old, horsepower was measured at the wheel - so called Brake Horsepower because the dyno measured power at the car's brakes. Many manufactures and hot rodders quote "Flywheel horsepower" meaning the motor is strapped to the dynamometer directly and the power is measured at the engine's flywheel - A somewhat less useful number, since it also matters how much you can put down where the rubber meets the road, and drivetrain efficiency plays a big role.

Another factor is that modern high revving engines typically produce max power over a relatively small range of RPM near the redline, whereas that massive old Detroit iron pounds out power through the whole range of purring to screaming.

Most production cars now are running somewhere around "one pony per cube" so imagine what you could do with your 429 and a little tweaking money. Headers, so it can breathe. Modern pistons and rods to bump up the redline a bit. If you got it that far apart, might as well put some better flowing heads on it and long runner intake since it will rev higher now. Can't leave the valvetrain alone after all that work, so a decent roller cam and 1.6:1 roller rockers (lopeing or not as you like, but it don't make too much difference in HP anymore) . Double coil valve springs, so you don't "float" a valve. Carbs are a matter of personal choice, but a Holley double-pumper is just a start - a sixpack or dual-quad setup will make a dyno run for it's life. You can easily pump 5, 6, or even 700 HP out of a naturally aspirated big block... now start thinking blowers...

I think I'll correct myself... Best way to make horsepower is Cubes AND Money.

(BTW - detonation from low octane gas in high compression engines don't usually blow head gaskets - usually cracked rings or lands, and high bore wear will doom the motor before anything else. The head gasket was likely from overheating - even iron heads will warp)

[prntrfxr]

Re: Are you a car guy? (petrol/gear head?)

With the older cars you also have to factor in the loss of horsepower. An engine with age on it typically loses some over time to the point that it is no longer the machine it was.

However,...

driving the 4 cyl Honda is nothing like the feeling I had of getting knocked back into the seats of the car with that big block V8. Plus the feeling that you are not quite in control of that bad boy as it tears down the road leaving stripes in the road behind you. Get it on the highway and open it up, and you just know you're going to die in that machine, but the rush of acceleration and the roar of the engine leave you feeling nearly invincible. You hear the type of laughter that dictators and mad scientists are well known for and you look around to see where it came from. You realize that it came from you as the road stretches out before you and... oh crap there's a cop! :whew: Once you have finished taking a huge amount of space to slow down, no anti-lock brakes on this puppy, you check your pants because you know you almost soiled your underwear that time. :sigh: It was just a dream, because you drove the Honda to work this morning and you are probably never going to have those feelings of power, freedom, and fear ever again. LOL