--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 246 AUTOMOTIVE Ref: F2E00011 Date: 02/09/98 From: JASON WEDEHASE Time: 09:24am \/To: JOHN FAERBER (Read 0 times) Subj: Oily Plugs John Faerber told the story like this: JF> What does it mean when a person pulls their plugs andd they are oily, JF> what would that mean? Big $$ repairs, or something simple to cure? It might not be oil. It could be something as simple as runnign way too rich or old plugs, I think. Have you ever heard the ol' "water down the carb" fix? Keep the RPMs up, and slowly pour water down the carb, which will basically "pressure steam" the carbon and crap out (or at least help). After that, put in some new plugs, see what happens. As far as the water... you should keep the RPMs up cause the water will drop em a bit, and maybe slowly pour in... oh... a large glass or so, it's obviously no real science. I've done it before, and it helped more than I thought it would, but don't expect it to work miracles. Jason Wedehase strife66@Psynet.net http://www.Psynet.net/strife66 ... Support the metric system every inch of the way ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 --- QScan/PCB v1.19b / 01-0154 * Origin: MicroLink BBS * Dinuba, CA 209-591-8753 (1:214/80) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 246 AUTOMOTIVE Ref: F2E00012 Date: 02/09/98 From: JASON WEDEHASE Time: 09:24am \/To: SEAN DUNBAR (Read 0 times) Subj: Vision Sean Dunbar told the story like this: SD> *grin* Don't have to worry about it now though, since the truck's SD> parked :) Windsor, windsor, windsor, win.... heh. Or maybe a big block SD> I told him I had contacts on. He told me to look ahead, then stared SD> into my eyes for a moment, then asked me why I was lying to him. :-/ Ha! Sucks to be you! SD> What I don't get is.. last time I got a renewal, they had the person SD> in front of me read the 1st 3 lines. I was able to read those fine.. SD> then they had me TRY to read the next 2. I couldn't. I had to get a new license recently (wallet stolen) so they took my picture again and all that, but I wear glasses now (stupid computer monitors). I was quite worried, but lucky for me, they never asked me to take the vision test. Jason Wedehase strife66@Psynet.net http://www.Psynet.net/strife66 ... You can test my urine when you pry my penis from my cold dead fingers. ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 --- QScan/PCB v1.19b / 01-0154 * Origin: MicroLink BBS * Dinuba, CA 209-591-8753 (1:214/80) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 246 AUTOMOTIVE Ref: F2E00013 Date: 02/07/98 From: ALAN MORRISON Time: 07:44pm \/To: MARC GERGES (Read 0 times) Subj: 225 hp Neon? -=> Quoting Marc Gerges to Alan Morrison <=- MG>> lovely concept car on the front page. Now the text says this car MG>> has a 225 hp engine in it, and that the engine is from a Chrysler MG>> Neon. Is there a 225 hp Neon in the US? AM> No, they always tease us with concept cars with a lot of power and AM> slick bodies. Then the crash testing causes the body to get changed, AM> and the insurance charts cause management to reduce power by 25-40%. MG> Mmmmh... the last two american concept cars that made it into MG> prodution were the Viper and the Prowler, right? And both these cars MG> don't seem to be underpowered to me :-) and their styling didn't MG> change much as well. True, these were very close to the original concept styling, and the Viper was a total surprise to jump to premium power levels as Americas fastest sportscar. I can't think of any other car that has done this in a long time. As for the Prowler, I don't know how much power the concept vehicle delivered, but it has the same mild V6 supplied in other Chrysler passenger vehicles. AM> It will probably show up looking somewhat similar with 160 HP... was AM> it a V6? MG> Not specified. It said Neon engine and drivetrain put in the back. OK, that would be the 4 Cylinder. 225 HP is probably stretching it a bit unless they plan on some sort of supercharging. MG> I tried one a couple of years ago and it seemed a fine car to me. But MG> there's not that much engineering and refinement in it than in an A4 MG> or a 3 series BMW. So to sell it for a comparable price is not really MG> a good idea, and consequently you hardly ever see one here. I can't emphasize enough that most small US cars won't sell here if they are loaded and priced like a larger model. As is often the case, the price goes up when it gets exported due to costs of delivery, marketing, and tariffs. --- Blue Wave/386 v2.20 [NR] * Origin: River Canyon Rd. BBS Chattanooga, Tn (1:362/627) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 246 AUTOMOTIVE Ref: F2E00014 Date: 02/07/98 From: ALAN MORRISON Time: 07:53pm \/To: MARC GERGES (Read 0 times) Subj: Active Handling -=> Quoting Marc Gerges to Alan Morrison <=- AM> Here hatchbacks and wagons have largely been replaced with Minivans AM> and SUVs... The article claims that this market segment tripled in AM> sales last year! MG> Strange people there... Those family types got station wagons in the 60's, Volvos in the 70's, Minivans in the 80's, and now SUVs are coming on strong. AM> more power combined with a better weight bias. The nose-heavy AM> Caddy understeers a fair amount when driven hard. MG> That's what a car should do. Show you when the limit is near. I hate understeer unless you can easily invoke oversteer with a little throttle... Of course, having neutral handling that is forgiving on throttle application is much preferred. AM> the Eldorado Sport Coupes should be RWD to compete in this market. MG> I remember a french TV comparison test a couple of year ago... the was MG> the old Jaguar Coup, the Mercedes S coup, the BMW 840i and the MG> Cadillac Eldorado. They found the Eldorado to be most entertaining of MG> them all when driven hard. Caddy is known for ride and amenities, not handling. It was somewhat whimsical for them to compete on a handling basis with the Beamer and Mercedes. The Jaguar is a little closer to the Cadillac approach to luxury coupes but, I believe still RWD. AM> I hate the torque steer, and wheelspin on high-performance models. MG> When wheelspin shows, you accelerated too hard. For the torque steer MG> it shows you how much power you are applying. 'accelerated too hard' ? What is that?? ;-) MG> To begin with, an FWD car is inherently stable on the road, not like Hmm... I think if that were always true race cars would be FWD. Since it has a higher percentage of weight on the nose it tends to understeer. MG> an RWD car. And in turns the FWD car shows always the same behaviour: MG> if you are frightened, step of the accelerator and everything will be MG> fine. I can see that, if done gradualy and soon enough. It is often a setup you would feel comfortable about your wife or daughter driving. But for me, the performance potential is somewhat lacking, upkeep is more expensive, it's harder to work on, etc... AM> This makes the front tires handle all major forces of turning, AM> braking, and acceleration, wearing the tires more quickly. MG> That's no point if the tires are rotated regularly from the front to MG> the rear. I rotate them every time I change from summer to winter MG> tires. More upkeep. And when I see my Mom's tires, I have to tell her to get new ones soon. --- Blue Wave/386 v2.20 [NR] * Origin: River Canyon Rd. BBS Chattanooga, Tn (1:362/627) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 246 AUTOMOTIVE Ref: F2E00015 Date: 02/07/98 From: ALAN MORRISON Time: 08:15pm \/To: MARC GERGES (Read 0 times) Subj: Buying imports -=> Quoting Marc Gerges to Alan Morrison <=- MG> Mmmh... here you might have to wait a couple of weeks, but not very MG> long. Most japanese cruisers and choppers tend to be better quality MG> at lower prices, so people buy two of those instead of one Harley. I sometimes hear 'quality' substituted for 'engineering' but I see 30 year old and older Harleys around, and no Japanese models near that age. So it seems the quality is good. Now the basic engine design came from early 20th century radial airplane engines. While it has undergone many improvements, the long-stroke V-twin is technically obsolete. The real curiosity is why the Japanese makers finally gave-up competing in that market here and cloned the V-twin design. MG> Harleys are bought by doctors, lawyers etc. Yeah, too bad. You used to have grimy bikers on Hogs but nowadays it seems the owners take off their clean suits on weekends and put on clean leathers. > Lebenskuenstler machen sich nichts aus Zahnluecken. Sie pfeifen drauf. MG> Sorry, but I really cannot translate that, it only works in german. AM> You sure you ain't cussin' me in German? ;^) MG> Really not. Honest :-) Just kidding... [that's a wink ;^) ] I can't find my translator programs; must be on my other computer. How do you say 'Vi der se'? --- Blue Wave/386 v2.20 [NR] * Origin: River Canyon Rd. BBS Chattanooga, Tn (1:362/627) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 246 AUTOMOTIVE Ref: F2E00016 Date: 02/07/98 From: ALAN MORRISON Time: 08:35pm \/To: PETER KURZBACH (Read 0 times) Subj: buying imports -=> Quoting Peter Kurzbach to Alan Morrison <=- PK>> yes! my 1980 olds cutlass with 5.7 chevy v8 has better mileage as a PK>> friends 1978 mercedes v8 with only 3.5 liter! > Do you get Oldsmobiles there? PK> not this year, but my olds is a german model. it has a kilometer- PK> speedometer and a german manual. PK> the vin is: 3k47ham463500 engine: 14010207 cylinder heads: 462624 PK> if somone can identify? I don't have a manual for that but older US VIN's have a layout like this: Position 1 Manufacturer 2 Series Code 3-4 Body Code 5 Engine Code 6 Model Year 7 Assembly plant 8-13 Unit Number 3 is probably Oldsmobile k must be a Cutlass 47 the body style (2 door coupe?) ham may be HAMburg, Germany? 4 is possibly the Engine code 6350 may be the Unit number 0 may be for 1980 PK> this year only some cadillac and chevrolet models are sold here. PK> however the camaro convertible is lower price as that ugly boring tiny PK> golf convertible. Here a Camaro convertible is about $22,650 or $27,975 for the Z28 version. A VW convertible (Cabrio) is $18,475 base model and 22,790 for the GLS. PK> would prefer a late 60 or early 70 cutlass 442 with a big block > representation from Olds, the 5.7 liter small-block is a saving grace > for parts availability! PK> although parts are imported they are much lower price as any parts for PK> german cars. I'm a bit surprised, although they are much cheaper here. PK> i bought an edelbrock 600cfm carburator, performer intake and headers. PK> it runs really fine Hey, same as mine. A 75 Monza, which also has a 5.7 liter (350). It's a bit smaller than a Cutlass, and the lightest body GM ever put the 350 in. PK>> Origin: 8zylinder 8liter 800ps 8000dm kfzsteuer! (2:240/5701.2) > Ah, welcome from Germany... What's 800ps? PK> 800hp PK> in germany we have to pay a yearly tax -only for owning a car. PK> how much i have to pay depends on cubic capacity of the engine. PK> i pay about 1500 dollar tax (2500dm) And you'd rather have a big-block?? :-) PK> thats why we have take up with this small engines, 2liter and smaller. PK> this system truly sucks! -this is the meaning of my origin line. Ouch, enough to eliminate a lot of US performance car sales, no doubt. It would be nice if they would go by published mileage figures, but Vipers might not be much better that way. Some of the other late-model performance cars with overdrive transmissions may do better. --- Blue Wave/386 v2.20 [NR] * Origin: River Canyon Rd. BBS Chattanooga, Tn (1:362/627) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 246 AUTOMOTIVE Ref: F2E00017 Date: 02/07/98 From: ALAN MORRISON Time: 09:05pm \/To: JAY EMRIE (Read 0 times) Subj: Buying imports -=> Quoting JAY EMRIE to ALAN MORRISON <=- AM> Harley-Davidson, has Japanese forks, carbs, and gauges. MG> And those die hard patriots still buy them? :) MG> Lebenskuenstler machen sich nichts aus Zahnluecken. Sie pfeifen drauf. JE> Lebenskuenstler - Nothing can get him down: machen - make, cause, JE> produce; sich - oneself, himself, themselves etc: aus - out; JE> Zahnluecken - gap between the teeth; JE> You figure the above part out! Suspect it's "Nothing can get him down. JE> Just makes a gap in his teeth". Maybe something about getting a tooth knocked out? JE> Sie - you; pfeifen - whistle; drauf(darauf) - on it, or them, after JE> that. Suspect it's "You whistle after that". Thanks Jay! I had a friend in CA that swore German was easy, and had many similar words to English. I guess English is a Germanic language but it often looks intimidating at first glance. Now where did I put that darn Language tutor program? --- Blue Wave/386 v2.20 [NR] * Origin: River Canyon Rd. BBS Chattanooga, Tn (1:362/627) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 246 AUTOMOTIVE Ref: F2E00018 Date: 02/07/98 From: ALAN MORRISON Time: 09:10pm \/To: JAY EMRIE (Read 0 times) Subj: Timing -=> Quoting JAY EMRIE to ALAN MORRISON <=- AM>And the light can show late ignition timing, until someone corrects it. AM>To test for slop in the chain you can disable the advance mechanism and AM>blip the throttle while watching the marks with the timing light. JE> There is a much better way which will give a very exact check on chain JE> wear. Turn the engine MANUALLY in a reverse direction to exactly 0 JE> degrees. Not start turning in in the other direction till the JE> distributer rotor just starts to move -then STOP. You will now be able JE> to read exactly the amount of chain stretch that exists. Very JE> accurate! You can now figure exactly many degrees late your ignition JE> timing is. Try it, you'll like it! Very logical, I'll try that. I guess I noticed the timing marks jumping around in the past, and thought it would be a good way to check. You can also see the degrees of slack this way, but you're way doesn't require a timing light! --- Blue Wave/386 v2.20 [NR] * Origin: River Canyon Rd. BBS Chattanooga, Tn (1:362/627) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 246 AUTOMOTIVE Ref: F2E00019 Date: 02/07/98 From: ALAN MORRISON Time: 09:22pm \/To: LORI HARVEY (Read 0 times) Subj: Brakes -=> Quoting Lori Harvey to All <=- LH> Would somebody like to explain to me......When there are 4 sets of LH> brakes on a vehicle, and on set goes bad, why doesn't the rest of them LH> compensate for the bad one. If one set doesn't stop you, why does the LH> rest of the system quit working. I have a '85 Plymouth Voyager that LH> my front right brake went out on, and soon after the whole system went LH> kaputz. Ideas? Usually a single wheels brake wearing faster than the rest indicates a problem with that particular wheel. Possibly the caliper piston on it sticking in its bore and dragging excessively against the rotor. Check that caliper's bore for smoothness, and either have it honed, or replace it with a rebuilt caliper unit. What do you mean about the whole system going kaputz? If you can be precise in your descriptions, more people may deduce the problem. You did good by telling the year, make, and which wheel so we can infer it is a disc brake, rather than a drum brake. --- Blue Wave/386 v2.20 [NR] * Origin: River Canyon Rd. BBS Chattanooga, Tn (1:362/627) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 246 AUTOMOTIVE Ref: F2E00020 Date: 02/07/98 From: ALAN MORRISON Time: 09:33pm \/To: JOHN FAERBER (Read 0 times) Subj: El Paso -=> Quoting John Faerber to All <=- JF> Just got back from El Paso a couple of days ago, and the price of gas JF> is outta sight! Paid 99.9 when I left Dallas, driving through Abilene JF> saw signs for 97.9 Midland was 99.9 when I filled up, Van Horn had JF> signs for 103.9 but when I got to El Paso, EVERY gas station was JF> charging 121.9 for the 86 Octane. Went ahead and put in 88 Octane JF> (129.9) Sure is strange though, all the name brand and cut rate JF> stations all across the city were 121.9! A couple of weeks ago the 5 o'clock news reported that some Georgia gas stations were charging 89 cents for regular (87 octane). Several miles across in TN I only noticed a slight drop. When I got to that side of town and went across into GA it was 89, 99, and 1.05 for premium! I was in the Z28 so I filled it with the Conoco premium, which is what I pay 1.25 to 1.29 for, where I live. A week or so later it finally dropped to 99, 1.09, and 1.19 here. We pay about a dime more in tax than GA does, but it took the local stations a while to drop the prices. Rather than drive to GA to check I have found a few stations nearby that often price all grades close to the regular gas price on weekends. Since two of the stations are Exxon and Conoco I usually fill up then... with 93 octane Exxon Extra! --- Blue Wave/386 v2.20 [NR] * Origin: River Canyon Rd. BBS Chattanooga, Tn (1:362/627)