Recent content by Lazy JW

Sounds to me like he could trade it off and will have saved money by NOT doing maintenance. Anyone who buys new and trades in every few years is probably WASTING money by doing maintenance. Joe

I define "short drive" as any engine operation during which 50% or more of the time is spent getting up to "normal" operating temperature as indicated by coolant temps. In other words, you need to spend more time driving fully warmed up than during the warmup phase to get out of the "short...

Originally Posted By: jaj As for the metallurgy, the S65/S85 V-engines use iron-coated forged pistons in Alusil bores. Basically, it's the traditional design turned inside out and made really light. I imagine it's easy to manufacture, too. As for longevity, we'll have to wait and see...

Even the high-performance piston engined WW2 aircraft engines eventually ran out of power at high altitude; some of those used two-speed, two-stage mechanically driven superchargers and they didn't have to meet any emissions standards, just pure performance. Any earthbound engine will also...

Originally Posted By: Bryanccfshr A boat has the same drag if it is in 60 feet or 600 feet of water(at the same speed). Make the water thicker somehow and then it takes more energy to move the boat at the same speed. Good point. So long as the oil film keeps the parts apart, it really matters...

Originally Posted By: drivewaytech How unobservant can a driver be? If the truck was burning that much oil, it would have been emitting quite a smoke screen going down the road.... Not necessarily. Having driven plenty of old junkers in my misspent life it has been my observation that a car...

I have had no difficulty driving my pre-doghouse Bugs well over 100,000 miles sans oil filter. Pretty sure that wouldn't happen if the (stock oil-bath) air cleaner didn't function properly. My next Bug rebuild will get a bypass filter of some type, probably toilet paper. Joe

The American people have voted for change by not buying American cars. The business model of the Big Three has obviously failed. Deal with it. Joe

I have an old cardboard box full of tattered Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines from the 1940's-50's. One of them from the 50's has a DIY article about swapping a remanufactured longblock flathead six I forget what make) purchased from Sears & Roebuck. The article stated that most...

Originally Posted By: XS650 Originally Posted By: tom slick I'm curious how they tension and maintain tension on the belts. cogged belts must have fairly high tension by design. a little looseness and they start skipping. I like the bikes. Tom, the good belts stretch very little. Harley does...

Originally Posted By: Gary Allan Quote: a bigger filter is just a waste of your money. With very few exceptions, they all cost the same. The extra oil required by using the larger filter is probably "wasted" in any vehicle that is driven primarily on short runs and barely gets up to...

Originally Posted By: GMBoy .... I think she should keep the gas tank no more than 1/2 full to save some weight and increase the rear tire pressure to maybe 38-40lbs. Otherwise drive easy and watch dips and bumps so as to not bottom out too hard.... The fuel volume and tire pressure won't...

Originally Posted By: RangerGress ..... 2) Someone mentioned in an earlier post of using oil analysis to help determine this, and that makes great sense. I could run a low viscosity oil and then the sample would tell me if there's bearing material in it. Is there a way that this might mislead...

I, for one, appreciate the effort Dr. Haas has gone through to document his considerable practical experiments on his VERY EXPENSIVE personal vehicles. The results are very logical even though they are not "factory recommended". How many of us have installed aftermarket parts that weren't...

Originally Posted By: RangerGress ..... I would like to follow the advice of the engineers that designed my engine..... That would be easy if you were operating in the "normal" manner. You aren't, however. Originally Posted By: RangerGress ...... and lawyers want to ensure that it's always...