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etex211

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  1. Here is that Stewart tech tip page: https://www.stewartcomponents.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=6
  2. Nascar used to qualify on 0w0. I don't know what they use now. A lot of the old qualifying practices have been abolished by the sanctioning body, mostly to control expenses.
  3. I think I can answer some of your questions... Every Nascar national touring series runs gasoline for fuel. In fact, the gasoline is a spec item and purchased at the track. They do not run thermostats in Nascar engines. I do not know if they restrict the water in any way or not. For about the final 15 years that I ran my short track cars, I didn't run any kind of restrictor for the water. Maximum cooling efficiency is obtained when you have maximum coolant flow. I do not know what kind of water temps F1 cars run with. I don't pay a lot of attention to F1. Howard Stewart used to have a great cooling guide on his water pump website. That guide continued after he sold out his business to EMP a number of years ago. I just went looking for it, and it appears that the Stewart EMP site is either down or moved somewhere else. In that guide, Stewart debunked a bunch of the old wive's tales about cooling. The old wive's tale about needing to restrict the water was one of the debunked ideas. The fact that your engine runs hotter when you run it harder probably has a lot more to do with airflow than with coolant. 90% of all cooling problems are air flow problems. If your coolant temp is 200 when it really matters most, then your 170 thermostat doesn't appear to doing much of anything for you. If you want to run cooler, then your answer probably lies with your fan, your shroud, and the ducting in front of your radiator. The last few years I ran my stock car on dirt, my temps never got over 180, even in the heat of the east Texas summer. I was running a Stewart water pump, no water restriction of any kind, a CV products copy of the old GM 4 blade fan, and a really good fan shroud. That motor was a flat top 400 with Vortec heads. My fuel was 20% 108 octane racing fuel and 80% 93 octane pump gas... I forgot to mention above that the fuel also plays a huge role in cooling.
  4. Nascar runs electronic fuel injection now, and they routinely run their water temps at 250 degrees. If they made more power at 220 or 180, they'd let more air through to run them cooler. It is true that closing off the nose for aerodynamic reasons is a component of this, but everything begins with the horsepower. With the new car that was introduced this year, they are no longer allowed to put tape over the grill opening, but they still allow the engines to run hotter, certainly not at 170 or 180.
  5. Smokey Yunick studied the whole "water temp vs. horsepower" thing decades ago. His conclusion was that an engine makes the most horsepower when the water temp is around 230 degrees.
  6. I raced dirt cars for 28 years. Most local dirt tracks did their own thing, and rules enforcement was always spotty. I did race a number of years under a sanctioning body (IMCA) that used the rulebook as a way to make money. If a parts manufacturer did a sponsorship deal with them, they would spec parts from that manufacturer. The parts suppliers and the sanctioning body were all making money on the backs of the racers. ETA: IMCA has spec'd things like heads, intakes, carburetors, a-frames, transmissions, rear ends, and even crate engines.
  7. Since the tires are issued to the teams when they arrive at the track each week, the teams were measuring the spring rates of the tires at the track. That made it easy for Nascar to police it. Nascar bans practices and changes rules all the time to cut expenses for the teams, to protect teams from themselves. A perfect example was the with the impact guns used to change tires on pit stops. Some of the teams were spending a fortune on R&D to develop faster guns that could shave fractions of seconds from their pit stops. Nascar stepped in a couple of years ago with spec pit guns, and started issuing them to the teams each week. Then some teams started using helium to drive the guns faster than they were designed to operate, and the guns started failing. Nascar stepped in again and ordered the teams to use only nitrogen to drive the spec guns.
  8. A number of years ago, Nascar teams started measuring the spring rates of tires, and used that in their weekly setup prep for races. It was another way to gain an advantage, and of course, it drove up expenses.... Nascar banned the practice.
  9. Update: After driving the truck for a couple of weeks, I was still unsatisfied with the ride quality. I started playing around with air pressure in the rear tires and weight in the back of the truck... I now have the Bilsteins back on the rear of the truck. I am carrying 180 pounds of dead weight in the back of the truck, and I have the rear tires a couple of pounds below the pressure prescribed on the door jamb. I am now satisfied with the ride quality. The Bilsteins are good shocks.
  10. It felt like the opposite of worn shocks. It felt like the shocks weren't allowing the springs to do their jobs. It felt like the shocks were a couple of swedge tubes that had the chassis locked into position. The tires would just bounce along the highway because there was no give in the suspension.
  11. I know there are a lot of Bilstein fans here, so I'll try to not step on any toes... My truck is a 2007 Silverado Classic 1500 Crew Cab. I bought the truck used in 2010, and it's been a great truck. About 4 years ago, I decided to replace the factory original shocks on the truck. After doing a lot of reading, including posts on this site, I bought a set of Bilstein 4600 series shocks for the truck. I haven't been happy with the ride comfort ever since that day. The truck has felt like it has no suspension whatsoever in the rear. The issue was especially noticeable on going over all the joints on a concrete interstate highway. I experimented around with different air pressures in the rear tires, and I even tried running a small amount of air in my air bags, which I normally keep empty when not pulling a trailer. Nothing made the ride acceptable to me. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I put the original shocks back on the rear. It rode much better than it did on the Bilsteins. I wanted the Bilsteins to work. I raced dirt cars for 28 years, and the best shocks I ever had on any of my cars were Bilstein's S9Z series shocks. I also ran shocks from Afco and Pro over the years, and the Bilsteins were superior to those. I have no doubt that if I was driving my truck off-road, the Bilsteins would probably be the absolute best shocks I could buy. However, I don't drive my truck that way. It runs around town and up and down the highway, and I occasionally use it to pull my 20 foot car hauler. I'm getting old, and a nice smooth ride is important to me. The Bilsteins just didn't give me what I wanted. I guess I'll also add that I've got a set of 4600 series Bilsteins on my '96 model crew cab dually, and I am happy with them there. I know that truck is never going to give a smooth ride no matter what shocks I put on it. I'm going to buy another set of shocks for my truck. I've been doing a lot of reading again, and I know that I won't buy any more monotube shocks. I'll definitely put twin tube shocks on it. I've looked at "stock replacement" shocks that advertise OEM ride quality from all the customary brands like Monroe, KYB, and some others that I've never even heard of. Right now, I am leaning toward the AC Delco "Professional" line of shocks, which I assume are probably made by Tenneco, and probably virtually identical to Monroes. I guess I really don't have a question here, but if anybody wants to offer any comments, I'd love to read them.
  12. The dealership is in this truck way too deeper than they should be, and they are looking for a way out. Somebody padded their pockets by allowing way too much on the trade. They can't put it on their floor plan, so they are stuck. After thinking about all of it, it really kind of pisses me off that they tried to pawn this thing off on my wife. It's not surprising She is just there for the paycheck. My wife has been in car business most of her life. She was born into the car business. Her daddy was a used car dealer. Unfortunately, he died in 1986. She got back into the business in 1994, and has worked at dealerships ever since. As recently as a couple of years ago, she was the controller for three dealerships. The money was good, but the job was impossible. New car dealerships have changed. They're nothing like they used to be. They were once like families, but no more. The new breed of dealer couldn't care less about employees. Of course, there are exceptions, but things just aren't like they used to be. My wife is doing a job now way beneath her knowledge and skill level, but she has her nights, weekends, and sanity back. She can even take a day or two off from time to time, if she likes. Some things are more important than money. . My '07 Classic has been and still is a great truck. I've had to do virtually nothing to it in the 11 years I've owned it. I expect at least another 10 years of great service from this truck. Our '96 dually is like a part of the family. When it comes down to it, I'm not sure we could ever part with it. These two trucks don't have all the bells and whistles of new trucks, but I can live with that. I like everything I've read about the new 6.6 gas engine they're using in some of the one ton trucks. Maybe a few years down the road when the used ones come down in price, I'll take a look. Thanks to the posters above for your input. I feel great about walking away from this deal.
  13. After taking a sort test drive in this truck, I am killing this deal, and the wife understands. Before spending this kind of money on a vehicle, it has to blow me away. This one didn't. My two trucks that were paid for years ago will continue to do what i need them to do. If you took the time to read this post, thank you. This thread can be closed.
  14. My wife works for a car dealer. They've got a truck on their lot that was traded in back in December. It is a 2015 GMC Sierra 2500HD SLT. This truck has 101,000 miles. It is a crew cab 4x4 with a 6.5 foot bed. Carfax shows that regular maintenance (oil changes) has been done on the truck since new. This truck has the 6.0 gas engine and six speed transmission. She wants to buy this truck. I am trying to decide if we should. Our current situation is that we have a 2007 Chevy Silvarado Classic as my daily driver. It hit 150,000 miles last week. We bought this truck in February, 2011 when it had 48,000 miles. I've done all the work on this truck since then, and it is in good shape. It still drives good and looks good. I really don't put all that many miles on the truck. I drive a company car for my job. We also have a 1996 Chevy crew cab dually with a vortec 454. We've owned this truck for 21 years. The only thing we use this truck for is pulling our camper, a 38 foot fifth wheel that weighs about 11,000 pounds dry. I've never weighed this camper with all of our "stuff" in it, but I'm guessing it's somewhere around 14,000 pounds. The pin weight is about 2500 pounds. The dually sits in our shop all of the time. I bring it out when we have camping trips. It generally sees about 1000-1500 miles per year. It has about 165,000 miles on the odometer. I've done quite a bit to this truck in the last 2-3 years including a new A/C compressor, new oil cooler hoses, new power steering hoses (all 5 of them), new Bilstein shocks, and the addition of a TCI aluminum transmission pan. This is still a pretty nice truck, but it is 25 years old. If we buy the 2015 GMC, it will probably mean selling both of out existing trucks. I think the '07 will bring $10,000-$12,000, and I think the dually will bring $6,500-$8,500. These are just guesses on my part. I really haven't surveyed the market yet. The dealership is asking about $32,000 for the 2015 GMC. I have no idea if this is a fair price or not. They can't put this truck on their floor plan, so I believe they are motivated to sell. Here are the things I have to decide: 1. Do I really want to take on a car loan? Affording the truck isn't really an issue, but I hate car payments. 2. Do I really want to downsize from two trucks to one? It is always nice to have one to fall back on if the other is down for any reason. 3. I have to ask myself if I really want to give up the dually for pulling our camper. We don't take the camper far from home, Our jobs don't permit us to take a lot of vacation trips. We take the camper to Texas Motor Speedway 2-3 times per year. Other than that, we occasionally take the camper to casino campgrounds, or other area campgrounds. None of these places are more than a couple of hours away. Gaining the four wheel drive capability would be nice. I've had the dually stuck in that TMS campground several times over the years. That's no fun. I'm also trying to decide if swapping from an 8 foot bed to a 6.5 foot bed will be okay. I've been looking at some torque and horsepower charts. I believe this 6.0 is very similar to the old Vortec 7.4 in the 3000-3500 RPM range, which is where I try to let my engines live when towing. I'm not going to turn the 5 grand it takes to get the peak numbers. I believe the six speed transmission would give the 6.0 some advantages over the 454 and it's four speed. She's brought the truck home for the weekend. I'm going to get it in my shop in a little while and look everything over. I'd like to hook my camper to it and get it on the highway for a bit if I am able. However, I'll have to wait for all of the ice and snow from this week's winter storm to melt first. We are in northeast Texas. This week was unreal. I'll gladly accept any input you have to offer. Before anybody tells me to buy a diesel, just understand that I have no interest in owning a diesel. I'll accept the limitations of the gas engine. Everything is a compromise.
  15. More info: On the emissions sticker under the hood, this vehicle has the following certifications: EPA: LDT, Tier 2 Cal: LDT, ULEV Another question: Are there different ECM flashes for different states on this vehicle? Thanks
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