Vehicular Thread

Good idea! Back when both of mine were starting to learn, (both 50+ now) I told them up front that they were going to have to be capable of driving a stick shift before they could take the driving test. One of the few things I feel I had good foresight about!!
I taught both of them myself & used a Tech College parking lot for the multitudes of start/choke; start/choke; ------!

 

My dad has close to zero mechanical or electric interest. But I did ever since being a little kid, I used to wonder how engines worked. My first engines were old lawnmowers, tearing them apart, most were 1960's models. Anyone here remember the spring wind up starters? You cranked a huge handle and inside was a giant coil spring, then you pushed the handle over and down and it spun the motor. Now they use ropes because they designed a compression pressure relief into the camshaft. That way you can easily spin it with a rope.

 

I still see cylinder ridges on diesel engines. No big deal since re sleeve anyway. Now you have me wondering why? Diesel motor oils are far superior to gasoline oils.
Much of the sludge back in the day was due to owners and not oils. First thing that guaranteed sludge was removal of thermostat or switching to low temp stat. Second thing was mixing of paraffin and non paraffin based oils. Changing back and forth between Quakerstate and Havoline was a guaranteed sludge up. Topping off with an incompatible base oil was near instant sludge formation.

 

One of the things I liked About my rebel was ford parts were interchangeable. My Grandfather was a retired mechanic. Mostly diesel heavy equipment. My dad grew up build street cars. He told me at 15 either I was going to learn how to work on cars or he would never help me on my own when I got one. To this day I still work on my own vehicles.

 

regarding diesel cylinder ridges, it could be the nature of the combustion which hits hard and faster, and has much hogher pressure, hits that piston much harder that a gas engine. I have not seen one on a gas engine in a long time. I only have my one diesel truck engine, and no plans to open it up to see, there is 160,000 miles on it. The biggest problems are injector wear on this particular engine design. Mine uses a cp3 pump which is a very good design. GM Ford used the cp4 which proved bad idea. Seen enough cp4 failures to make me never want to buy an engine with one. I also steered clear of diesel fluid and other Emission control stuff, so I picked my year looking at 2005 - 2007 and Dodge to be the better choice in a diesel truck.

 

You car people... I grew up in a family of car people... Dad was a mechanic, after the Aerospace Industry tanked in San Diego, he and my two younger brothers were always under the hood, working on something... Me I was more into school and my two younger brothers were more into tools... I wanted to keep my hands clean and they wanted them oily and dirty... After my stint in the Marines, my Dad help me purchase my first car... It was a 1970 Chevy Nova... The little mechanical work I did on it was changing the oil and the filter.

My youngest brother went into cars hole hog and bought and restored a 1951 Plymouth Dodge Truck, painted it white and put flames on grill, racing up the hood to both sides of the doors and won many trophies at car shows... Just recently he sold it... The other one, he was an interstate truck driver until he retired... Dad has long gone to be with the Lord... Me I now own a 2004 White Toyota Camry bought from a friend that was claimed as a salvaged car, taken by the Feds from a drug raid... Its been running fine with a tune-up here and there, and have been driving it over 15 years, I just had an oil change at 175,00... I drive a car and I have a mechanic and he loves to work on cars, I don't and never had the desire to because, like my Dad and brothers, I have you people... Brother Glen

 

It is pretty expensive to pay for a mechanic, and I do things as cheap as I can get away with. I do all my own work on most everything house, car, boat, or it just does not get done usually. Maybe someday I will be too old to do my own work. Lots of times when I have had 'help', the help has messed up the work and it just creates more problems. My wife's family dad died leaving us a house needing a lot of repairs to sell, like $100,000 worth of fixng up. I agreed to do some of this work saving thousands, but those 'professionals' messed up on everything they did. Peeling new paint, foundation work not properly done, I had to fix with my son inlaw, New door frames set in crooked so bad the locks would not align. Shoddy electric work, we found out he was not an electrician, floors unevenly sanded and gouged, they had to resand and repoly, that was on them. Bathroom vents venting into attic spaces. These guys will try and get away with everything they can. We eventually sold the house for $335,000.

 

When I arrived in US in 1979, my first job was at Rice and Holman in Pennsauken, New Jersey. The company over whole all types of engines included diesels. Some of the engines they sell in Europe for motor boats. I practically went through all phases of engine rebuilt using all sorts of different machinery, and in the process learned a lot about professional engine over whole.

The first car I had was Chrysler New Yorker 1968, it was donated to me. The car had number of serious problem, it could not stay strait on the road, consumed a lot of gas, and front seat was extremely uncomfortable. Despite very low gas prices in 1980's, around 80 cent per gallon, it was still impossible to feed this car with fuel.

Shortly after I took it to the dealer and trade in on a small used Ford Cortina with manual transmission, and it was a blast! Travel with this car a lot, primarily on east coast. Car was simple and reliable and never fail me. Two years later I took it from NJ to California and drove it in California for another 2 years without any problems. But car was so rusty that I started losing pieces of my exhaust system, lost my muffler on the road, and constantly smell exhaust gas in the car, because floor was rusted too.

So I took vacation I went back to New Jersey to visit my parents, and while being there purchased brand new Datsun pick-up in 1983, with manual transmission. In the same year Datsun changed its name for Nissan. So after 3 weeks I took this baby back to California, and in 4 years made 160.000 without any problems at all. I used it for my delivery business. I did one tune-up, couple brakes change, replaced bearing in alternator, and changed oil every 5000 miles, and this is it.

When I change my job on another and I no longer used my truck for deliveries, and put a cab-over camper on it, 600 pounds of weight. Because of such weight I install extra springs on the rear suspension and traveled all over California.

But time came when I have to go back to Europe for a while, and I sold the truck. From Europe I came back to New Jersey to my parents, and use my dad's old cars. When my dad bought brand new Dodge Caravan in 1998, he gave me his old Chevy Caprice. But when he passed away I took the Dodge and dump the Chevy. I still driving it today, now it has 130.000 miles on it. Hopefully I will make to at least 180.000, because this cars do not last.

On the Dodge I already changed ones automatic transmission, and just recently replaced struts, concerning emission control - no one can fix it, but I keep driving. Generally the car is not that bad, no major break downs so far. Oil leak badly from the rear valve cover and I smell burning oil inside the car, but to fix it, it would cost a little fortune, so I keep adding a quart of oil ones a month.

If I only knew what kind of cars I will drive after my Datsun, I would never ever sold my truck! I would keep it and I will drive it today. I also learn on thing, in order to by a good Japanese car which will last you a life time, make sure it made in Japan.

 

Hyundai Tucson. Spent many hours researching online. Test drove six different vehicles. Bought this. Functions well but I don't know how I really feel about it. However, the wife likes it and that goes a long way.

 

Hi Roy.

Yes, I can answer your question and with great enthusiasm. First our (I mean family) motorize transportation was a scooter. I was about around 15 years old when my father bought it used from another guy. The scooter was very much a copy of Italian "Vespa." It has one single cylinder engine on the right side. I do not remember exactly how much cc's it has, may be around 100-125. It was quite fast, in full throttle could reach between 50 and 60 miles in hour. Three speed manual transmission can easily pull two people. It was good and reliable transportation.

After couple of years my father decided to buy a car. At that time we cannot afford a new car, so he bought used Opel Capitan. This is car of German origin. After the war Germans paid Soviet Union reparation in cars and by other industrial things. But Russians actually moved entire production of Opel to Russia and build it in Russia in 40's and 50's. Russian called it "Mosckvich," but the metal insignia of Opel still was on the both sides of the hood. It has 4 small cylinder engine, 3 speed manual transmission, around 45 horse power engine. It runs not faster than our previous scooter, but the ride was much more comfortable. It has 4 doors and the trunk was behind the rear seat, so you have to recline forward the back of rear seat in order to use the space of the trunk behind it, you cannot access it from outside. We kept this car for a while. The weakest point in this car was the rear suspension. The axels often breaks and also they have a cone-shaped end with the pin for brake drum. It was very difficult to remove sometimes the brake drum from cone rusted axel, and sometimes the brake drum slides from the pin and causes some problems. But in overall assessment it was a good car. I spent countless hours repair it but it was worth it.

I drove this car sometimes, while I still was underage teen and had no driver license.

We kept the car for a while and finally get tired of constant repairs, and my father decided to by another car much higher quality. So he sold the Opel and but used BMW, it was 340 model, made in Germany in 1950, also as reparation. This was absolutely amazing car. It has 6 cylinder straight engine, iron block and head, 4 speed aluminum manual transmission. Despite the fact that transmission was quite long, I could easily lift it above my head with one hand! it was extremely light. Engine of the car was so wear our that I can grab the belt and pull it down fast with my hand, and engine will spin and make few turns before it stops! Real leather seats, roomy, and very comfortable. It has rack and pinion in front suspension. Driving this car with one hand was as easy as to drive with power steering.

We took this car on vacation trip to Black Sea, only my father and me. The trip was about 1000 miles each way from Moscow to Back Sea and back. We had practically no serious problems, except in the middle of the way radiator start leaking. We fixed this problem at the local shop. Another problem happened on the way back, when the water pomp belt broke and we stop on the side of the road. While we were thinking what to do, a driver stop near us and it happens that he had a spare belt! The belt of course was not for BMW but we manage to make it fit and continued on our way back home, GOD bless this man! Basically I did almost 80% of all driving while still had no driving license, I was not 16 yet at that time.

After couple of years I was drafted into Army and when I came home the BMW is gone, my father sold it and bought brand new "Lada" which is Fiat 124. Somewhere, I think in the 60's, Italians sold to Russia permission to built Fiat factory in Russia, and Russians began producing this car, the copy of Fiat 124. In order to buy this car, my father borrowed some additional money from his friends and bought it brand new. It was much smaller than BMW, but we have no problems at all with this car, it was running great. So we kept this car for number of years until we moved to US. My father sold it about few months before we left Soviet Union.

Before all of these cars I had two motorcycles, one was Russian made and another was a German, NSU, made in 1938, with the swastika on the block.

 

M

Thank you for taking the time to type all of that out. It was quite an interesting bit of history.

 

Picked up a 2020 Honda CR-V yesterday, probably the last car I’ll ever purchase. It’s actually my wife’s vehicle.



Rob

 

I’d be very disappointed if the car only lasted 10 years!
On the other hand, I would not be too surprised to find myself driving on streets of gold in 10 years.

Rob