Michael

Realize that most things aren't worth doing. And of those that are, few are worth doing right.

It's one of the "big questions" of life.... whether to continue an effort with a 35-year-old car, attempting to build it to be both fast and comfortable, or to relent and to purchase a much newer vehicle for all-around attributes. A friend at work is shopping for Corvettes, to ship to his father, back in Europe. The budget is around $18K, which is good for a stock C5, 1998-2002 or so. This afternoon we test-drove a 1998 C5 automatic. I've driven Vettes before, but this was the first opportunity for a thorough evaluation. Suprisingly, it is a comfortable car, with decent interior and good build quality. It is not noisy, or drafty, or rattly, or otherwise saddled with manufacturing defects. Underhood, things are logically arranged, and even the spark plugs are within reach. Pedal feel and placement are comfortable, the steering effort is just about right for a daily driver, and even the exterior visibility is quite good. All in all I was pleasantly surprised. But here's the problem... it's just NOT a sports car! It lacks the ferocity of acceleration, and the nimbleness of handling. It is a GT cruiser, not a car to take to the strip. Since it was an automatic, I can't be blamed for my lackadaisical clutch/shifting techniques. Dropping the hammer, acceleration is just OK... it is faster than a modern V6 family sedan, but only just faster... it is NOT night and day! As a true daily driver it is a reasonable alternative to a BMW/Benz/Cadillac for the fellow who does not need a back seat. But it should not be regarded as an alternative to a well-built V8 Z. Now here is an even more surprising alternative... the Porsche Cayman. Another guy at work bought one a couple of years ago, and recently I got the chance to drive it. That car just begs to be driven hard, and winding out the gears for this lazy dour dweeb (your truly) was oddly very easy and very natural. Yes, the car felt a bit silly, with a trunk in the front and a trunk in the back, and the engine ensconced somewhere in the middle. But somehow the Porsche felt nimble, built for both aggressive driving and gentle puttering. It made highway lane changes at 100 mph the most natural thing... and this was the baseline model, not even the "S". It was down some 70 hp vs. the Vette. But it definitely FELT like the faster car, even though on paper the Vette probably achieved better numbers, at least in a straight line. So... wait until Caymans depreciate down to below $30K.

Many of us rural folk rely on propane to heat our homes. The price of propane is “supposed†to follow the price of oil, but whereas oil is presently trading at roughly have of its all-time price, propane seems to be hitting new highs; it is around $3.50/gallon in our area (southwest Ohio). At this price, my propane bill would be larger than my property tax! Typically, the homeowner contracts with a propane provider to lease a propane tank. The company installs the tank, and grabs a monopoly on propane supply thenceforth; which can last for years, or even decades. I inherited a leased 500-gallon tank when I bought my house in 2001. Questions… 1. Has anyone tried returning their leased tank, buying their own, and shopping around amongst competing suppliers for the cheapest propane prices? If so, how did the lowest local price per gallon compare with that of the monopoly supplier? 2. What other combustible substances can be pumped into a propane-fired furnace, in lieu of propane? How do costs compare, and how does furnace performance compare?

10 years indeed! This thread has been like a clock for me... the hands turn, but the face is invariant. For the younger guys a great deal has changed in 10 years. For the older people, who maybe have families and whatnot, the change has been conveyed in what they see in those around them. "Change" is now a political buzzword. But let me recite a few things that have not changed.... - 10 years ago, I was unsure of what to do with my Datsun V8 swap. I was unsure what level of performance is attainable, what amount of work is justified, what is the meaning of "good enough", and where lies the balance between reliability and performance. This remains the case today. - 10 years ago, rear wheel drive was rare, sports cars of any kind were a dying breed, and a V8 meant a 3500+ lb behemoth. This remains the case today. - 10 years ago, we were entering uncertain economic times. The best years seemed to be behind us, and a scary new century dawned with as much apprehension as promise. And this remains true today. - 10 years ago we were all agog over the portents of new technology, but the basic tasks of maintenance, tuning and repair were all traditional mechanical arts, where experience and tenacity mattered far more than technical sophistication. And this is still true today. - 10 years ago the traditional American muscle car dominated drag racing, and strangely enough, in most parts of the country this is still true today. But here is one measure of truly great changes with time: today on HybridZ we have members who were born AFTER the advent of the World Wide Web! And this year's college graduates are probably the first cohort to have no living memory of life before the internet!

Ebay has eviscerated the local flea market, yard-sale, and newspaper classified ads. I still don’t understand how one would risk a purchase from an unknown private individual without direct personal contact. At least there’s Craigslist – which is probably the best of both worlds; the reach and immediacy of the internet, and the security of in-person contacts.

Nearly every such problem, it seems, can be traced to one or more of the following: * vacuum leak * carb dumping fuel into the intake plenum, or the inverse problem... insufficient fuel entering the venturis in all conditions other than those of idle or high manifold vacuum * something wrong with timing advance * weak spark * wiped cam lobe(s) Blessed is the mechanic who can quickly diagnose the simple problems! But back to the broader topic - carb selection. This is so vast, and so ubiquitous, one has to wonder - why don't we have a FAQ, or at least a Sticky? Or did I miss it???

Now that it's been 6 years, I wonder about the reliability record of these engines. What has been the going rate for an oil change? Or for clearing a "check engine" trouble code? Or for replacing an oxygen sensor? I know, thing of beauty... mechanical masterpiece... and all that. But does the thing start immediately in 0-degree weather, after sitting for a week, after my not having checked the engine fluids for 3 months? Or will it puke coolant because the plastic radiator water tanks have cracked in the cold?

There's a fellow living in Newark, Ohio... but I have not seen him post in several years. In Wapakoneta (maybe 80-100 miles from your specified location) there "Denny"... but he too has not been active for quite a while, and I have not been able to reach him by cell phone for about a year or so. There's Garrett, in eastern Greene County - he posts often, and should notice this; if you don't hear from him, I can contact him on your behalf. And then there's me.... NOT a mechanic by any stretch of any imagination, but I may be able to offer cursory assistance on minor matters. I'm in Xenia (about 60 miles SW of Columbus).

Another excellent source of amusement is to peruse ads on Craigslist. It is utterly astonishing, to the uninitiated, how poorly people write, and to ponder the limits of their vocabularies! There is also an interesting trend: the more expensive the car, the better the writing! My favorites: "... needs fixed", "... needs gone"; missing "to be". "it is blue in color"; as opposed to blue in texture? I won't even begin to list the snippets of spelling creativity...

Not being a businessman or a technician, my appreciation may be naive, but... Whenever I appeal to a professional for service, be it a roofer or a car mechanic (the only exception is medical care, but that's a whole other debate), I get a written estimate of (1) costs, (2) time of delivery, (3) detaild description of the service to be performed. The understanding - typically given in writing - is that if the technician discovers a problem beyond the scope of the estimate, then all work stops, the customer is contacted, and a new estimate is written. Otherwise, the estimate is a contract. If the cost is beyond the estimate by some percentage, or the service takes longer than estimated by some percentage, then the contract is violated, and penalties kick in. On the other hand, once I sign the estimate, I agree to pay; so if the costs seem excessive, it is my responsibility to reject the estimate before work commences. Why did such a thing not take place here? And if it did, and if service is taking longer than estimated, has not the provider of the service broken the contract?

Hoods can be replaced. If the aesthetics of cutting a hole disappoint, it's not too great a trouble to start over afresh. It's not like tubbing the rear or cutting the roof to make a convertible.... One should be careful about extrapolating aero results for overall car aerodynamics, to the flow through an air filter. The middle of a typical hood is a region of local separation, so air flow into the hole would be poor. However, the air filter acts like a local low-pressure region - because, well, air is flowing into the engine. It would of course be better to source airflow into the air filter from near the hood/windshield juncture, but a hole in the middle of the hood is NOT necessarily awful. Proper air-scoop design is difficult. So I suggest cutting a hole for Version 1.0, and then worrying about an air-scoop in Version 2.0. Also note that an air filter sticking out of a hole in the hood would at least partially alleviate issues of high underhood temperatures reducing intake mixture density. There are ways to solve this in a "clean" installation with no hood cutting, but which approach is simpler? After much tinkering, my home-built fiberglass hood has a hole in it, for a 14" round air filter case (Chevy big block V8). It is not suitable for the rain, but in dry conditions it is very convenient. I can tinker with the carb without having to remove the hood.

My DD 1992 E36 325is threw its serpentine belt on a 500-mile a few days ago. I attempted a roadside fix (parking lot of Autozone), screwed it up, drove 140 miles before the charging system died. Last night I finally installed the correct serpentine belt, more or less correctly... after having to make a custom fork-shaped tool to deflect the belt enough to slide it past one of the idler pulleys. My point is that "easy to work on" is relative. If you can pull off a V8 swap in a few weeks, then yes, E36 BMWs are terrifically easy to work on. And they are certainly easier to maintain than post-2000 luxury cars. But I am continually frustrated and challenged, to say the least, but "basic" repairs on my E36... suspension bushings, shock mounts, and the like. This suggests that a Corolla/Civic/Sentra/Protege is the more user-friendly daily driver. If a major problem develops, one simply throws the car away, without attempting to repair it by oneself, or to take it to the dealer.

I can’t help wondering…. 1. Dealers charge high prices, but given the various costs of doing business, they are not making much of a profit. 2. New cars are expensive, but even so, the margin is low; so neither dealer nor manufacturer is making much of a profit here either. 3. Taxes are high – on purchases, on income, on property and so forth – but governments at every level are running huge deficits. 4. Insurance costs are high, but insurance companies aren’t making much of a profit either (see their annual financial reports). 5. And to confirm that corporate profits are doing poorly, check the overall P/E on the stock market… in the US, and abroad. So if everything is expensive, but no one is making any money… where is all of the money going?

Rover V8?

My wife contends that my frustrations with being unable to make the final push towards streetability of my Datsun is a cloud over my wellbeing, and therefore she wholeheartedly wishes that I would spend MORE time in the garage. In fact she keeps suggesting that I just farm the remainder of the project out to a professional. And she recommends that I just buy a new sportscar and quit my plaintive gripes about not having a vehicle that can out-accelerate pickups and rental cars off the line at traffic lights. You see, I’m the stingy one, and she’s the wise one.

A few points to throw into the mix.... 1. Is the engine source from a donor vehicle or from a catalog? If you find a LS1 F-body, start with that. If you find a strong-running 350 in XYZ candidate, then start with that. The "better" engine ("there is no best", etc.), on a budget, is the one that is already the most complete, in the most complete state of tune. If all that you have is a Summit catalog and a checkbook, the choices would be skewed differently than if you already had a credible donor. 2. Consider not only the engine, but the whole swap... clutch/transmission, mounting system, and so forth. The older stuff is generally more straightforward to swap. 3. Consider the age of the swap donor. An early 2000's truck (for example) is probably in sufficiently decent shape that no internal engine work is required (unless you want to swap pistons for higher compression). A donor with a traditional 350 is probably either (1) worn out, (2) low-performance, or (3) both. I started 10-11 years ago and was talked into a big block. The LSx world was too new back then, and junkyard finds were rare. I ended up with a semi-junkyard big block, and over the years have replaced everything except for the block, the crank, the rods and the damper. It's been a costly ride. If I were "doing it all over again", I would purchase a complete, running car with an LS1 (or something newer from the same family; maybe truck-based). That probably means settling for an automatic transmission, but that would be OK for a baseline.

How did this saga end up concluding? I am in a similar, but less severe situation... both rear drums are heavily dragging, so both rear wheels are very difficult to spin, making the car tough to push (1978 280Z). The cause is 2 years of immobile storage in a drafty, humid garage.

Keep it. Besides the unavoidable financial loss of selling the car, a sale is a sort of admission of failure. It's a divorce writ small. I have not seriously worked on my Z for about two years. The initial drive was great (or almost great), then some things broke, and it was impossible to find the motivation to learn the skills necessary to make the repairs. And a local shop, with a good reputation, was of no help – in fact, negative help. So the car just sits. I intend to have it sit for years, while I concentrate on my regular job, while sorting out the hobby-interest and their place in life. But I’ll depart from the other guys in recommending that you don’t attempt to spruce up the car in an effort to improve its sales potential. Just let it sit as is. If you have extra money, purchase a used, newer-model sports car for scratching the spirited-driving itch. And maybe once the kids are in kindergarten, you’ll revisit the Z and resume work – not for a more lucrative sale, but for your own enjoyment.

Space travel and space flight beyond low-earth-orbit is a concept that ran its course in the 20th century. And I say this as a practicing aerospace engineer. In 2069 we will be celebrating the 100th anniversay of the Apollo moon landing. And we will all be in awe of how people mustered the guts, the foresight and the technology to achieve something so enormous!

Are these "just" DOHC, or do they use some form of variable-valve timing? One suspects that the better modern aftermarket conventional-style OHV heads outflow most of the 4-valve DOHC exotics. And the engine rpm is probably more limited by bottom-end stability than by the valvetrain. Maybe 4-valves offer mid-lift flow advantages because the valve curtain area is larger for the same valve lift? Do 4-valve heads have a combustion chamber advantages over canted-valve 2-valve chambers? On a related note, what about multi-valve cam-in-block schemes? The advantage is short timing chain, compact design, no need to disturb the timing chain when removing the heads... but lower valve mass and possible combustion chamber advantages.

How old is the CTS, and how many miles? If it is relatively new, then a $3000/year maintenance bill seems justified, since the depreciation hit upon selling it would be staggering. If it's, say, 7 years old - then perhaps it is better to cut one's losses and sell. I can personally attest to the transformation of Pete's car in going from 327 to 406. I'm not a skilled driver and relied on Pete's demonstration to appreciate the car when it was a 327, as my attempts to drive it were rather disappointing. But when I drove the 406 version last year, it was deeply pleasurable! It is a wonderful sensation to be able to light up the rear tires at will, especially if a downshift is not required. In controlled racing circumstances of course one should worry about gearing, tire diameter, the torque curve and so forth. But in a casual street situation, the sheer wanton excess of torque is just too good to forego, for any benefit of high-rpm horsepower maximization. If anything, I would have preferred a tamer carb, and a shorter-duration cam with less overlap. Poor traction is a good problem to have. I'd much rather worry about tires and suspension tuning, than about finesse of clutch technique, gearing, tuning, and peaky torque curve.

Brings back the memories! And if I'm not mistaken, we are coming up on the 10th anniversary of HybridZ! Others doubtless can recite a more accurate history, but I vaguely remember the ascendency of forums in around 1998. Before that, it seems, the principal format was e-mail exchanges... every day there would be e-mails sent to every subsriber. When the volume of e-mail became intractable, a day's collection would be bundled into one large e-mail. I first stumbled into the e-mail exchanges in grad school, in around 1995. But they likely go back to the late 1980's, if not earlier. Before 1999-2000 it was pretty difficult to find Datsun V8 swap information. The JTR book was already around, and there was the "Zhome" web site mentioned by someone earlier. Occasionally a V8 conversion would pop up in car shows, such as the Motorsports shows in Orange County (California). And that was around, or shortly after, the aforementioned flame wars. Those were some really irate exchanges... I continued posting to Zcar.com until around 2001; it remained a useful resource for stock S30 information. On one occasion I had a frustrating (but elementary) electrical/EFI failure on a 1978 Z which served as daily-driver at the time. After posting my question on Zcar.com, the solution was posted the same afternoon.

Many things begin tentatively and tritely, so why not this? For over 10 years I have been tinkering with my Datsun, first as a newbie owner of a dilapidated stocker, then as a customer of a semi-pro building who did a fantastic job on a roll cage and V8 swap – only to find myself unable to deal with what really amounts to car maintenance, rather than car building. Over the years moved from California to the Midwest, bought a house in the countryside with a long driveway for burnouts and plenty of garage space, but my skills have not improved, and my motivation has atrophied. And no, I can’t blame family tensions or job loss or dementia (at least not yet); some of the greatest obstacles are emotional, ineffable, divorced from practical constraints or logic. So here’s hoping for a less whiny and more productive 2010. And here’s hoping that EVERYONE has a better year and even better years ahead!

Simple quarter-mile performance calculators assume that horsepower application is a constant. Then they multiply by a penalty factor to crudely account for the engine's torque curve, traction losses and gear shifts. What this means in practice is that "proper gearing" is that gearing for which the engine is kept maximally close to its power peak for as much of the race as possible. Too steep a gear would require an upshift too early, while too shallow a gear means loss of time while the engine struggles at rpm below its power peak. The problem with all of this reasoning is that it applies to skillful drivers who shift correctly, and to well-sorted cars which achieve predictable traction. Being a lazy and conservative driver I almost invariably prefer steep gears, because they produce the grin-inducing (but not necessarily race-winning!) burst of acceleration on demand, even in the wrong gear.

How about the 1999 AMG C43 (W202)? It’s a V8 and may be early enough to avoid significant Chrysler influence. Many C43s are selling or below $10K now; some well below. In fact, I’m surprised that so few folks on HybridZ own AMG’s. Is it the lack of appeal of a “factory†hot rod, when one can build a better/cheaper one by oneself? AMGs are overpriced when new, but depreciate remarkably quickly. They lost half of their value by age 4. My daily driver is a BMW 325is (E36), but at the risk of being branded a heretic here, I must admit that I’ve never particularly cared for inline-6 engines. They just seem long, ungainly and heavy. But having driven comparable BMWs and Mercedes back to back, my impression is that BMW emphasizes higher-rpm horsepower whereas Mercedes is more about low-end torque… which is my preference too. Thus the interest in the Mercedes. So how about the C-class AMGs, especially the C43? Reliability issues, in particular?