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Pop N Wood

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Everything posted by Pop N Wood

  1. Without seeming overly preachy, old cars require work. No way around that. And any car that you could get licensed will cost way more than $500. And of course, there is what you want and what you can afford. The best of both worlds is to have a daily driver and something else to play with. I bought a Toyota Tacoma 6 years ago, and with exception of all the accidents I have done nothing but routine maintenace to it. Smog has never been an issue. Most new cars are that way now. You can get the base models pretty cheap. It is only when you start adding a bunch of stuff that the price spirals. But I hear you. Can't afford a new car and an old one at the same time. My advice is to not try and experiment too much with your daily driver, and the only way to get a really cheap car is to get one that not many people want. Start adding restrictions like reasonably fast, good handling, nice looking and the price goes up. But if you hunt the obituaries and buy a used Crown Vic off some old guy's widow, then you can get reliable transportation very cheaply. May not be what you want to hear, but reality often isn't.
  2. I would say save every bolt, nut and fastener you can remove. But after reading some of John Coffey's postings about reusing fasteners I would feel overly cheap.
  3. This is where your argument goes awry. They only show you the empty door if you DO NOT CHOOSE IT in the first round. If you do choose it' date=' you're out and have no further chance of participation. [/b'] Your not reading the problem statement. If you are trying to say they don't always show you what is behind one of the doors, then you are asking a different question. If you add the restriction that they will only show you an empty door if you pick the right door to begin with, then the best you should never switch and your odds are back to 1 out of 3. But if you start with the idea that they always show you what is behind one of the doors, then the answer is without question to switch choices. This is why I disliked statistics and enumeration. Sometimes the difficulty is in approaching the problem from the right direction. And when you get done, you are always left wondering if you did it right. But like I said, this problem is a bit of a classic in graduate level engineering courses. I heard the answer years ago, but to be honest I didn't really understand it until I started playing with it on this thread. In fact, I wrote a computer simulation to do a series of random draws (called a Monte Carlo simulation) to try and verify the answer. (I know, get a life) It was only through working out the code logic that it became obvious to me there are only two possible outcomes. BTW, never heard your short skirt analogy in any of my random processes courses.
  4. Gotta love the internet. At one point the bid was 10 million, so I think somehow they have been throwing out the odd ball bids. My wife and her on line Mom's groups have all been following the sale. He was on the Today show the other morning. He has even set up his own web site. I have had 3 different people forward me the link. So yeah, the hit counter might very well be real. I can remember when they were worried about getting women on the net because it was a male dominated place. That was before stay at home mom's found out about it. Gotta love the net.
  5. Look at it this way. If I showed you two doors, told you there was a gift behind one door and nothing behind the other, then told you which door had nothing behind it, what do you think your odds of picking the right door are? With only one choice left you will pick the door with the prize every time. Now start with three doors. Put one door in one group and two doors in the other group. The "group" with 1 door has only a 1 in 3 chance of winning. The group with two doors has a 2 in 3 chance of winning. But picking the group with two doors won't do you any good if you have to randomly pick one of those two doors. But if you pick the group with two doors, then have someone throw out the bad door, the odds of getting the prize are the odds of the prize being in the second group. 2 out of 3. Think of the initial pick as elimnating one of the doors with a 1 in 3 chance of throwing out the good one. The whole trick is that the person throwing out the bad door is not doing so randomly. They are picking based upon your initial pick and their perfect knowledge of the remaining two doors.
  6. Like I said, this is an old problem. Don't really like the explanation above because it gets too confusing what a valid permutation is. The easy way to look at this is there are only two possible courses of action: either you switch or you don't switch. If you don't switch, the odds of getting it right are 1 in 3. Can’t change that. That means the remaining 2 out of 3 chance has to fall with the other option: switching doors. Another way of looking at this is you are being allowed to pick 2 doors and get to throw one of them out after you know what is behind them. Of course old Monte will trick you up. BTW, WTF is a "Six Sigma Black Belt"? What does this have to do with Kung Foo anyway? Is this just a Tennessee thing?
  7. That's not a bad idea. The thing I don't like about most rotisseries it the large mounts you need to weld to the front and rear of the car. This would keep the mounts on the underside of the car where it is stronger. With such a design you could also replace front frame rails without worring about the car buckling on you. One obvious and potentially fatal flaw is it will take more shop space and a couple of strong friends to safely put on it's side.
  8. I have read the comments about carbs sludging up the oil before also. The articles I have read claim it is primarily during warm up that the over rich fuel condition causes unburned gas to blow by the cold rings. So over 100K miles is common, but a lot of it has to do with how you drive. Long trips, warm climate (Lambeu Field, baby!) proper maintenance and there won't be as much fuel contamination. Just makes sense. On the average FI cars will live longer.
  9. There is one more possiblity. Pick A, shown C and swap to B losing the prize. Wouldn't that make it 2 for 2?
  10. Because people have round holes. The falling in answer is the correct one. I know people who were actually asked that question in a job interview. Human factor? Ever watched lets make a deal? They don't always open one door and offer the chance to switch doors. Thus there is one more probabilty in your Markov chain. Why are they asking me to choose again? Do they offer this choice more to the guy who has picked right? Or the one who has picked wrong?
  11. We get the little wasps nests all the time. I have a 10' section of PVC pipe I hook up to the vacuum end of my leaf blower. Hold that up to the hole then start banging on the wall with a stick. Works perfectly. Just make sure you have the bag on to catch the dead bees.
  12. I am starting to think the guys who paint their hot rods flat black have the right idea. Or camo. Nice, dull, non-reflecting put it on with a brush camo paint. Just like a humvee. BTW, wait until that paint starts to oxidize....
  13. Bayesian probabilities. I had a statistics course that computed the conditional probabilites for this very problem, but I can't say I believe the answer. It ignores the human factor. I also know why manhole covers are round.
  14. Well, like Dan said, without an overflow tank the radiator will suck in air as it cools. So you can fill it to the top and after on heat up and cool down cycle it will be an inch or so lower. That is how much the water expanded as it heated up. That is why an overflow tank is such a good idea. It keeps the raditor completely full of liquid. Check the overflow tube coming off the top of the radiator where the cap installs. Make sure that is not blocked, because that is the path air takes coming back into the radiator. It is odd that the system will suck air back in after cooling, but maybe it is only a small amount and not worth worrying about. Are you sure you got the right sized cap?
  15. To expand on what Dan said, you need a new radiator cap. The cap should act as a check valve to allow air back into the radiator as it cools. Just as importantly, it acts as a pressure regulator to keep it at the right pressure. Blowing hoses could mean excess pressure. Buy a new cap every few years. Antifreeze does more than just keep the water from freezing. It also prevents corrosion of the aluminum parts and most importantly (for a Z) it acts as a lubricant for the water pump. A corroded engine will do more to reduce the effectiveness of the cooling system than water wetter ever could so never run an engine without the proper amount of antifreeze. Also water expands as it heats up, even if it is well below the boiling temp. Thus once you take the cap off a hot engine, the only way pressure will build back up is if it gets even hotter. With a properly functioning cap the entire cooling system should be completely full of liquid with no air or steam. Steam doesn't transfer heat as well as liquid water. So like Dan says without the pressure from the cap, you run the risk of forming small steam pockets in the hottest parts of the engine. This makes those hot spots even hotter.
  16. They sell replacement splatter sheilds. Buy a few glass ones and keep them handy. Even the most expensive helmet will be ruined if you run it without the shield. Can't blame the tool for that one. I hear you on being able to see. In my case it is the trifocals rather than the helmet. Try a halogen work light to help illuminate the weld area. And the smoke from the flux core does complicate seeing the weld.
  17. The current bid is only 1800 which isn't too bad. The engine and transmission are hybrid bait anyway so who cares? I have downdraft webers. They are smog leagal and considerably better than the original flat top SU's, but I can say first hand they are not an ideal set up. The top is really bizzare and like all vinyl has trapped a ton of rust underneath. The paint looks clean but probably covers up many other problems. Dash cap pretty well means no show car. Funny how he tries to describe it as "such a clean original". He appears honest but obviously has an over inflated sense of worth on this car.
  18. Definitely satin/no gloss. Otherwise it will reflect laser designators. don't need no LGB's in your fox hole.
  19. Doesn't the LS1 also have a computer ignition? How are you going to back fit a distributor? Guess you could install some type of crank trigger unit, but then you are back to wiring and fabricating some type of bracket for the trigger unit. Doubt you will find many aftermarket intakes and ignition units for an LS1. How is that the easy way out?
  20. Man, that is a truely beautiful car! The rear flares are probably as tasteful and well blended as any I have seen. Also the front strut bar is a work of art. But definitely an old Z car. Did anyone else notice the poor fit on the driver's door from the rear quarter view?
  21. Man I like your attitude! Lemons to lemonade!
  22. You're honestly considering building a 100 mph go cart with no front brakes? Another good source of used bike parts is hospital emergency wards. This will have the added benefit of putting you on a first name basis with the emergency room workers. Might come in handy when you lock the rear brakes at 100 MPH.
  23. Brings back memories. Worst class I ever took was a graduate level class in non-linear stochastic processes. I don't know how the professor gave final grades, because with 40-50 grad students the test scores would be uniformly distributed from 7% to 98%. No two people would score within 2% of each other, and you had as many people scoring under 10% as you had scoring over 90%. I have never seen a course like it before or since.
  24. Yeah, I agree. My Z has a very unique smell. My has been on blocks for a couple of years, and everytime I open it up the smell brings back the memories! This came up once before, and someone attributed it to something specific. Can't remember what.
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