Continuation of car thread (or powering your wyze cams off a distributor)

Watercooler
1

Having worked at the drag strip for a few years before being able to afford a real car (I took my Corolla down once, it was a 5 speed so I think I managed 19.xx seconds) I had all that pretty well down pat and even my very first run in a powerful car was pretty respectable.

My worst mess up was after I had souped up my 2001 camaro to around 500HP, including a very short throw shifter in a 6 speed which was very unforgiving, I shifted 3->2 instead of 3->4. Lifted the heads right off a little bit, unsealed the head gasket. I was able to limp it home. Had to drain the oil and coolant, replace the head gaskets (luckily metal ones that are very easy to swap) and flush everything out well. The ARP head studs and titanium pushrods I put in did their job, could have been a lot worse.

This particular track is in a lousy spot climate wise too, always very humid. One night there weren’t many people there so we got to make lots of runs without much cooldown in between. On my like 3rd run of the night, I had been sitting in the staging lanes with the A/C on, turned it off about 60 seconds before pulling up on the track (as you should do so you’re not dripping water on the track). By the 60 foot line the heat from the engine blowing across the windshield fogged it up solid. I had to turn the defroster on mid run and look for a change of underwear after.

We would constantly watch guys (and some gals) drive their front and rear tires through the bleach, then either do no burnout or just a little chirp. Then they’d get sideways mashing the gas right off the starting line. The worst was front wheel drive cars that actually did know what they were doing, they’d pull up spin a bit in the bleach, back up (which usually required the cars behind them to back up) drive around the water pit, then line up in front of it and do their burnout (at which point there wasn’t much water/bleach left on the tires). Slowed everything down.

These days they put so much glue down pretty much anyone can get traction even if they’re totally clueless. Even the track I was at that was notoriously stingy and was pretty much the only one nobody had hit 300mph at yet, nowadays your shoes will come off if you walk across it and a new NHRA trap speed record just got set there. Takes some of the fun/skill out of it.

2 Likes
2

Speaking of push rods in 2017 I broke two on my GTO, I pulled the first one out and the second one I dropped down the hole. :laughing:
I got the engine rebuilt and it runs great, My Sunday hell raising car.

Broken 1
Broken 11000×750 295 KB

2 Likes
3

The very definition of turning a hours job into a days job, and good opportunity to practice those words you don’t say around the family.

Luckily these V8s are almost never “interference” engines (at least not without major modifications) so broken/bent pushrods or even a timing chain don’t cause permanent damage. Again, low tech, simple, and why I like them.

What I hate however is how the newer cars shoehorn them in and make working on them a feat of acrobatics, yoga, and hacked together tools. Though I suppose like those brain puzzle games, maybe it keeps us from going senile as quickly.

4

Enough room to work in here :grin:

Engine 28 July 2017 1
Engine 28 July 2017 11920×1440 278 KB

2 Likes
5

One of the many reasons I’m considering going back to old school next.

Though I do not miss adjusting timing and carbs (never mind EFI, screw that crap).

6

A mechanic next to me was doing his umpteenth intake manifold gasket replacement on a Chevy 3.1 He was a chain smoker and kept his BIC lighter in his shirt pocket. The intake was off when the lighter fell out of his pocket into an intake port on the front (left) head. The only metal part of the lighter is not magnetic. I think it is stainless steel. It had disappeared out of sight. He ended up pulling the head after hours and paying for one head gasket.

7

Any reason you put the upper shock washers on upside down?

Does that make it go faster, like flipping your air cleaner lid?

image

8

It stiffens the ride, gets you that extra .01G when cornering.

I didn’t even notice, your eyes are better than mine. Or maybe you were staring a bit too long (like me at the beach).

1 Like
9

What year is your GTO? I always loved the GTO since I was a kid watching the Monkees.

10

That thing is an abomination :rofl:

11

I was around 9 years old when the Monkees TV Show was on the air. I built model cars of all my favorite TV show cars. Don’t get me started on the original Batmobile and the Green Hornet car.

IMG_0571
IMG_05711925×1283 169 KB

IMG_0572
IMG_0572941×672 143 KB

1 Like
12

Awhile back, I was shopping in a grocery store. I saw this in the Hot Wheels bin and since it was only a dollar I had to buy it.

IMG_0573
IMG_05731920×2560 401 KB

13

At 9 years old I thought the MonkeeMobile was very cool. Some 60 years later I think a stock 66 GTO is cooler. Funny how your tastes in cars changes over the years.

IMG_0574
IMG_05741920×1240 156 KB

14

I’m a big Chevelle fan (70 and after). The GTOs have a similar look so like those too, especially the Judge obviously.

Old Camaros are gorgeous but so common that I’ve tired of them a bit. I am a sucker for a C2 or C3 vette too.

For a long time I was in love with the mid-90s Impala SS (rebadged Caprice but done nicely), especially the 96 with the shifter on the floor. Great sleeper car.

15

I bought a new Corvette in 1981. Here is a fun fact. The stock speedometer in an 81 Vette only went to 85mph (see post#1 on this link). I used to love to peg the speedometer on road trips.

16

My c6 z06 speedo goes to 200 but I don’t think I’ll ever have a chance to peg that. It actually doesn’t have a peg, would just hit the bottom of the bezel around 210.

The scary thing is hitting triple digits in a classic car, you know it, you’re likely going to be semi-white-knuckle at that point and its going to be roaring high RPMs in 3rd or 4th. But these modern ones you barely know or notice it, feels like 55 and hardly requires any gas in 6th. Have to keep an eye on myself.

1 Like
17

You asked me the same question last year :rofl: I don’t know why it’s upside down, there was probably :beer_mug: involved.

18

1967 Built the last week of September 1966 at the GM Plant in Fremont Ca, ( Now the TESLA plant)

1 Like
19

Deviating from the old cars ..

Several years ago, we bought 2 new roll around oil drain buckets. Nice, extendable, drain with air through a hose. The owner at the time bought the shop because he helped a friend work on a ‘Chevy Challenger” He has a PhD in microbiology and retired from Life Sciences research and sold a few companies. Loooooooaaaaaaaaadddddddddeeeeeeeedddddd. He really got the itch to work on cars, and knew nobody would hire him having NO experience so he bought the shop lock stock and barrel. He fell off the alignment rack a few times and had to go to the doctor to have the crystals in his ears realigned. That IS a thing.

Back to the oil drain buckets. Before you connect compressed air to the tank, there is a big ball valve on the top of the tank that MUST be closed when pressurizing the tank. This is what happens when you forget to close the ball valve.

IMG_2795
IMG_27951610×931 201 KB

I highlighted the other drain tank.

My boss is a germophobe . Really doesn’t like to handle paper money.

Here he is with used engine oil dripping down his head. This is considered hazardous waste and requires a bonded company to pick it up.

Amazingly, he didn’t freak out. The shop manager is seen tearing off paper towels for him to clean up.

He was a dream to work for otherwise. Since he was loaded, him buying the shop was more of a hobby than a business venture. He had lots of friends who were also loaded so the trust level wasn’t even in the picture.

He moved me from the shop to the service counter because he didn’t want to talk to the customers and was used to being in a lab. Since I had been there 40 years, convincing him to move me in the AC was easy. All the older single women were called my sisters, and were treated the same.

People trusted me, and I never abused that trust. If they needed a lot of work, I would break it down into now, later, and when you can afford it. No high pressure sales and we still turned a nice profit. Enough so he could buy a new Aston Martin. He didn’t work on it because he knew better, but did he bitch when it was oil change time. $3000 because there are filters behind fenders and in the seats.

20

I witnessed that exact thing in a shop while waiting for my car to get inspected (the only reason I ever take anything to a shop). I believe it is a fairly common occurrence, think I even saw a youtube or facebook video of it too. They need to design one with a check valve in it if they haven’t already. Something like the ping pong balls in the fuel filler neck of most cars for anti-siphon, and just put a seat at the top for it to blow up against. **Patent pending

I have a 10 gal auxiliary air tank on my compressor system that acts as an expansion tank when connected (through a big hose with high flow fittings) and I can disconnect it to go fill tires etc. But this requires a wide open ball valve when connected, and that valve to be closed before pushing the quick disconnect to remove it. It comes off an unregulated port on my filter/drier.

It only took me 1 time forgetting to close the valve to put a ptouch label above it “CLOSE VALVE”. No oil, but my ears were ringing for a couple days. My system is only 155 PSI but coming through that high flow valve from a 60 gallon tank is quite loud. Almost punched myself in the face from the force too. Normally when I open the drain valves for my system I’m wearing ear muffs and just crack them a bit to drain the water.

I frequently use the rubber tip on the blow gun to flush out lines and coolers, and also have a pressure bleeder for brake fluid. I went through my car this year and flushed and changed all the fluids (one of the weird things about having a 17 year old car with 20k miles, you realize hey, those fluids are no good even though they haven’t hit the mileage limit). I’m not always good at wearing rubber gloves, even when I do they tear and get in the way and I just take them off. The combination of brake, transmission, clutch (DOT4 brake - nasty stuff) power steering, and gear oil that drained all over my hands and sprayed on them when I blew out the lines, the entire back of both of my hands peeled off in one big piece later that night. It looked like snake skin (before and after peeling). That was a bit disconcerting. Brake fluid really is nasty stuff but usually I’m only doing that, and whatever little bit gets on me is wiped off quickly, but I was doing so many things this time it sat on there too long. The other things mixed in didn’t help either. Oddly the palms were fine, guess I was keeping them wiped off better.

Hey, what’s one more carcinogen in my system.