Vehicular Thread

I have a 99-f150. Head gasket is an easy fix so dont sell it too cheap.
I drive my old f-150 much more than my relatively new Silverado.

 

I currently have an 07 f150. I misd the 68 AMC Rebel sst my grandfather gave me when I graduated high school. Looked similar to this:

 

My first car (which I shared ownership with my beloved sister) was a 1953 Dodge. It had a "hemi" V8. My next car was a 1950 Chevy "Fleetliner" and I drove it my senior year in high school and the year after.
My next car (and my favorite of all my cars) was a 1957 Chevy Bel Air Sports Coupe with 4 barrel carb and twice pipes. I loved that car. However, when I was drafted and overseas (in Germany) my mom had a wreck in it and the repair shop told her it was "totaled." End of my dream car.

I now own two Avalon's both with the 3.0 liter V6, and both with about 250.000 miles (1996 and 2004). And yes, I too have been told that engine can last for 300,000 miles, which for me may be to the end of the line. None of my American made cars made it past 150,000 miles. (Olds, Buick, and Chevy).

 

Cars are so expensive but so mechanically weak. The federals said that you have to build for so many miles per gallon which had resulted in a lot of cheap plastic parts that crack and break easily. They sell looks and back-up cameras and cupholders but don't talk about reliability and cheap repairs. They put fuel pumps inside gas tanks. They have cheap air conditioning designed to fail. Transmissions are not solid. Many cars are just money pits. I don't know what to buy.

 

So much depends on your needs and driving habits.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

I sm not so sure about all that. In the 1960s, if an engine got 100,000 miles, it was an exceptionally good one. Today, if they dont get 300,000 they are a lemon

 

So a lot of cars are lemons. I blame the government for the imposition of mileage standards.

 

Do you have an obdii scan tool? I bought a Blue Driver on sale at the end of the year but I haven't used it yet. I think those things should be built into a car. I don't drive even 100 miles a week.

 

I drive a 2010 Nissan Frontier, 4 door, 4wd, with the long bed. It was 2 years old when I bought it, and has been pretty much trouble free. The wife drives a 2015 Pathfinder. Some people don't like the CVT on them, but I haven't had any issues with it.

In the next few years I'll need to buy a compact of some sort, a Civic or Corolla, so the kids can learn to drive a stick.

But my 2017 Road King is my most enjoyable transportation.

 

Rob, the problem with CVT's is their reliability. It costs car manufacturers less to make them. Nissan has it's own transmission brand (Jatco). I do business in segments of the automotive field and the failure rate of CVT's compared to standard automatic transmissions is 3:1. That doesn't mean every CVT transmission will fail prematurely. It is the law of averages. I drive a 2017 Toyota Camry. I was gong to buy a 2018 but that is the year Toyota went to a CVT in the Camry. I passed. I am not an early adopter when it comes to new car technology. You never know how new technology works until a few years have passed.

 

Ford is probably correct in their claim that the F-150 is #1 bestselling vehicle in the U.S..

Toyotas are popular in my clan, we've had/have at least 5 Corollas, 2 Siennas, 2 Highlanders, a Sequoia, and a Tacoma.

I love a 5 speed Corolla. Like driving a sports car, spunky, hugs the road, and goes in the snow surprisingly well. Corolla is #1 best seller world wide.

 

The reason they last so much longer is engine oils have really gotten that much better, including boundary area lubrication and metalurgy. One thing used to be old worn engines developed serious bad cases of top end cylinder wear which made a very thick ridge at the cylinder top, resulting in a lot of cylinder taper, which causes oil burning, broken rings, compression loss. Engines from the 60's were highly machined tight tolerance precision parts, just as they are today.

 

I bought a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500 truck with the Cummins diesel, full bed, 4wd, 4 door pickup with dually rear wheels and it has been great so far. I added improved diesel fuel filtration by adding to filters, before and after the OEM filters. I rebuilt the front seats they were a little saggy, and added power locks to the rear tailgate and added a torsion bar tailgate lift spring to make it much easier to open and close. I also added a black rollup tailbed cover which closes off the bed. I need to rebuild the turbo as the bearings are getting loose inside, kit is maybe $50. It was setup for hauling a trailer by a PO so it has an improved hitch. My plan is to get a large camp trailer to go camping someday.

 

I used to rebuild engines. The machine tolerances in the 60s were indeed as tight as they are now. Oils were pretty good then. They protected great. They simply had a much more frequent drain interval. The engines then did not deal with heat as well as the engines of today. The vast majority did not have oil coolers. The flat tappet valve train was problematic.

 

Oils back then easily sludged up too if not changed often. I still say the one biggest improvement has been engine oil technology. And the other thing is fuel injection and higher energy ignition helped as with carbs more unburnt fuel went into the oil washing away the oil especially for rings pistons, cylinders. Oil filters are probably a little better than they were back then. Some engines did not use full flow oil filtration, they were bypass filters, so the oil stream flow was split off into the filter housing, filtered and then dumped back into the oil pan. Unfiltered oil went into the bearings, etc...all the time.
Today that only happens if oil is really stiff so as to partially open the bypass valve, as in when it is really cold. Most engines by the mid 60's had switched to full flow filtration.

I have torn down and rebuilt engines since the 70's, and dont see any cylinder ridges anymore, they used to be very common. Had to use a ridge reamer to get the pistons out. After 100,000 miles back in the day, an engine was about worn out.

 

Back in the 1950's, I remember my Dad's boss, driving into our place of business, and discussing with my Dad how amazed he was that he got 100,000 miles out of his Hudson Hornet. (Yes it looked similar to the one in the movie "Cars."