Jsdirt

Sad part of all of this is, it has nothing to do today with 1st year runs - that's a thing of the past with computer aided design tools. Problem today is downright greed, and a IDGAF attitude by some (or all) of these companies. Quite a few vehicles today are having engine problems. How long have we been building engines?? They STILL haven't figured it out??? Think about that. Ford's 6.0 & 6.4 diesels are classic examples, along with their 4.0 DOHC gas engine. The latter was a great engine, until they band-aided it to make it OBD-II compliant, which added several failure prone components - namely the timing chain cassette tensioners. Ford also produced the 2.0 SPI for the 2000 - '04 or so Focus, which spit valve seats out of the head and into the combustion chamber causing catastrophic damage. Bent rods, smashed & holed pistons, destroyed heads, and if the engine was spinning fast enough, the shrapnel got sucked into the rest of the cylinders through the intake manifold, destroying them as well. These are just 3 examples I picked off the top of my head - there are more. Fine designs, after 100+ years of automobile building. The 5.3 is another great engine .... that GM cheaped out on. 2007 and up has changed -these are no longer 200-300k mile engines. Lower end is indestructible (except for the .05 cent oil pickup tube o-ring that can cause $6,000 in damage). The top end is a POS! Everything in the upper end is junk, IMO. Cheap, thin, low-tension piston rings that wear prematurely, failure prone AFM lifters that fail in several ways, camshafts that pit and wear down to nothing ... and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few more items here. If it has AFM, it WILL fail between 90 - 160k, depending on several factors. That's pretty much a guarantee. I've read HUNDREDS of posts & stories from professional auto techs regarding this issue - many have seen this several times, just in their ONE shop! That's a pretty big problem to show up that often in just one shop. The general public doesn't see this angle of it. Best thing you could've done is an AFM delete - if you changed the cam and lifters, then you've made the engine somewhat reliable again. If you just tuned it out, you just kicked the can down the road a bit. I suspect with my engine that I'm in the beginning stages of cam bearing failure. Increase in engine noise, decrease in oil pressure (although minor at this stage), and increases in levels of iron and copper/brass, and the known history (of professional techs) on this issue all point this direction. My plan is to just run this thing until it doesn't - then I'll cross that bridge when the day comes. A carbureted 502 swap may be in it's future.

HO-LEEEE-CRAPPER, she's a BEAUTY!!! Total time-warp right there. Where on Earth did you find that one??? AMAZING!! If I had a brain between my ears, I'd have spent $30 LARGE on THAT instead of my POS Silverado ... CONGRATS MAN!! I'm only slightly jealous ...

My truck started the squeak/rattle thing at around 2k miles. They had 8 opportunities to fix that (while it was in for pulsating brakes ...), and never could. I've got used to it over the past 10 years. Pretty sad that I have to drive my 32, or 25 year old cars to get a quiet ride ... Squeaks and rattles - a 21st Century thing I guess!

If you didn't buy a reman, you can rebuild the old one and sell it on eBay to recoup some cash. This site is great for rebuilding starters and alternators: http://rebuilderinabox.com

My truck stayed parked this time - had the lumber delivered. New shop is finally coming together! Floor pour, and 10k lb. lift install is next. Been dreaming of this day for almost 3 decades. Inside foundation dimensions are 29'x25' - building is 30' deep x 26' wide. Should have a 13' ceiling height after the floor is poured. 6" of 4k psi concrete, fiberglass reinforcement, plus metal mesh. Should last the rest of my life. Just need to fix a communication screwup on the garage door there - it's supposed to be 12' wide. The concrete in the pic here is 10'6" wide for a 10' door. Going to have to cut a foot off each side.

Yikes - sounds like some cars I get over here! If they built everything like my '05 Polaris Sportsman 800, I wouldn't mind FI. I haven't had a single hiccup in that system so far. Bought it new Jan.'05, has about 1,300 miles on it, 270 hours or so. All Bosch electronics and sensors - very well built. A fuel pressure test will confirm a leaky injector. Should notice a slow, steady bleed down when the engine is off. Fuel fouled plug is a dead ringer for that - could probably just shotgun an injector at it and be right.

It's amazing how those guys pop dents out. My mom got a small dent in her brand new Subaru Impreza, high on the door, next to the body line, and mirror. Guy worked it out in 10 minutes - you'd never know it was ever there. Only charged her $70 too! Came right to her house and did it in the driveway. Guess that's the one benefit to the beer-can bodies they put on vehicles these days!

Might either have to disassemble half the machine, or remove that section of pipe. Nice how they build them today, huh? Starting to see FI make it's way into lawn equipment too. BAD idea. Great when it works, but down the line, it's just going to cost the consumer MUCH more money than it should. There's a reason 90% of piston-driven aircraft that fly over us every day still use magnetos, points, and CARBURETORS!

Nor do they take well to small saplings at 3 mph - that cost me $2,200 in repairs ... and I disassembled and reassembled everything! That was just for the body shop. It had to go on the frame machine to straighten the box! I couldn't believe it. Truck was just 2 years old then. I backed into a concrete parking lot light base in Phoenix with my '72 El Camino at nearly 20 mph, and it pushed the bumper and one side of the tailgate in 1/4"! Hit so hard it almost knocked me out. Stalled the engine instantly too - all the fuel came right out of the float bowl. Sure don't build 'em like they used to ...

Oh I've got several of those dents. A couple of them from my own elbows ... These trucks use body metal that makes a beer can feel like Abrams A1/2 tank skin ...

Used the truck the same way last night. Installed a LED barn light. Still could barely reach the damn thing with my 22' ladder. Going to have to buy a bigger one I guess. Lost my easy roof access when I tore down the back section lean-to.

Cleaned the truck after the scrap run covered it in mud. Took the easy way out and just rolled through the car wash. Does a crappy job, but at least it got most of the mud off it. On the drive home I was looking at all the crap laying on my console, and how my windows were extremely dirty. Haven't cleaned the interior in 4 years! Cleaned all the glass, inside and out, pulled all the crap out of the truck and vacuumed the floor and cleaned the floor mats. Cleaned all the dust off the gauges too - that's been bugging me forever. While doing this, I noticed the crappy job the body shop did - could see outlines of tape and overspray all over the tinted rear door glass. Also noticed the amber coating on my turn signal / running light bulbs is flaking off, and leaving pieces at the bottom of the headlight assembly. Then noticed one headlight starting to fog up at the bottom. Removed my interior light and cleaned all the bugs out. Looking at the structure of the roof, I was just amazed at how cheaply built this truck is. It's a wonder they even last as long as they do! Aired up my flat spare a couple weeks back - even covered in oil and Fluid Film, the rim's bead still corroded and leaked air. Had to bust the tire off the rim, and wire wheel all the corrosion off. Used a rust proofing bead lubricant to reinstall. Hopefully I'll get more than 91k miles out of it this time. Sad part is, this thing sits in a garage 90% of the time! Imagine if I parked it outside ...

I'd hold onto it ... it owes you nothing, at will continue to be usable long after our trucks are in the scrapyard. There's a reason I own 32, and a 25 year old cars. Neither are carbureted, but each have THE most robust FI systems ever built (not to mention the indestructible drivelines - there's a benefit to being down on power). The 32 year old Grand Marquis is still running it's OE fuel pump at 249k miles plus. Would've been running it's OE injectors if I didn't break one during removal. I sold them on eBay - a guy out in CA is running six of them in his '32 street rod now, and is very happy. They all tested within spec, with only one of the eight 3% out of spec. Try that on modern injectors after 29 years and 222k miles.

That's great! I can tell you don't live anywhere near the Northeast. Price gouging is accepted up here, even on Christmas.

That's something I need to do badly. Went to the scrap yard yesterday for a buddy of mine with the truck and flatbed trailer. The thing got trashed. Hardly worth the effort. We had the entire bed full, plus most of the 18' flatbed - ended up with $124. I think I'll keep stockpiling until the price goes up at least a little bit.

I'm at 10 years, and 91,326. I want to have my barn addition and lift installed before anything else breaks on this thing. The less I drive it, the better. Currently has a rejected sticker on it, because the damn monitors won't run (might be time to change the T-stat). Drove it for the first time in 2 months this past weekend. Last tank of gas I got for the thing was on October 12th ... and it still has over 1/4 tank! Had to grab a huge storage shelf my brother gave me - wasn't fitting that in the Volvo. Truck felt like a built hot rod compared to the anemic 114 CRANK HP the Volvo puts out. Old pic of the Volvo engine - I would never let a car hit the roadway with PINK zip ties ... on the damn plug wires! Awful. Took this pic the day I got the car home, almost 3 years ago.

Always makes for a fun ride on the motorcycle too. Doing anything in the cold sucks. 22° here and dropping by the minute. The bike is parked until next year. Tonight will be the last night for the Marquis too - 15w-40 Rotella doesn't play well under 40°. Salt will be dumped soon.

Looks pretty well designed! That means I can't afford it. The FWD cars in my day were total garbage. Only one that was halfway decent was the V8 El Dorado.

I've refused to own any car that isn't rear wheel drive for pretty much my whole life. Everything FWD that I've owned in the past either broke down constantly, and/or was a royal PITA to work on.

Any large car was always much better built than the little FWD ones in the past. That's why I always drove them, and still do! Even the mid sized Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Regal, and Cutlass were super reliable. Mine had been overheated, and hit from every angle twice, with a 200-4R transmission that skipped right over 2nd gear, and I still drove it daily, and beat the CRAP out of it, for 2 years straight! Thing burned oil like crazy from the overheat. Drove it to NYC twice, and up in the mountains of NH several times. Towed ATVs on a trailer with it for years too, even with the bad tranny. Now THAT's how a car is SUPPOSED to be built! Our Grand Marquis, this January, will be in our ownership for 15 years with no signs of slowing down yet! Just have to take it off the road before they start spraying liquid car dissolver on the roadways every winter.

I suppose anything is possible. This valve allows vapor from the canister to enter the engine - when it sticks open, it makes the engine run pig rich, and runs like crap, especially at idle, until the vapor is cleared out. Can also cause a vacuum leak, which causes the opposite problem (lean), with similar running. Sticking closed will throw a light, since it won't be able to purge the canister when commanded to. Usually a vent valve failure will trigger the gas cap light. If the tank can't hold vacuum during the computer's test, that message will appear, and also flag a code in the ECM.

Ahh yes, one of GM's finer designs. They must sell 15,000 of those daily ...

The car is a sleeper - at least looks wise. As soon as I hear that thing fire up, I know it's FAR from stock. Some rnon-motorheads might not know the difference, but we all sure do. Ahh, old pic. I don't have any recent ones except for the day we were installing these support bars on the rear diff, plus 4 new fully adjustable shocks all the way around - he's got totally different wheels and rubber on there now - didn't notice until the pic was posted: Oops .. found another that he took:

Damn great deal with there, Nick! Speaking of that gen Camaro ... my buddy just took his '11 SS to a Euro dyno guy the other day, just to double check the work he had done. Guy says to him, "I'm betting on 450 at the wheels". My buddy says, "Alrighty, I think you're way off, but have at it". He just got it back from Jannetty Racing in CT - had the supercharger pulley changed to a smaller one, since he wasn't making peak boost. They also found that the belt was slipping, so there was even less boost than they had thought. Boy, let me tell ya ... there's a BIG difference NOW!! Took me for a ride last weekend. We hit 125 MPH on the Mass Pike in SECONDS after leaving the on-ramp. Traffic is such a buzzkill. The Euro guys started laughing their asses off when they saw the numbers. Also mentioned that the tuning was SPOT-ON perfect! No surprise there. Jannetty knows their stuff!

Ahh, yeah I guess it's been a while! '96 seems like yesterday to me. Hard to believe it's over 2 decades ago! Where the hell does the time go???