Shipping 1097 chevy vegas

[Fitter30]

Never new how they were shipped by railt

A look back in time: The GM/Southern Pacific Vert-A-Pac - Railway Age

Remember the Chevrolet Vega and its Pontiac equivalent, the Astre? These cars were shipped long-distance in a rather unusual manner.

www.railwayage.com

 

[atikovi]

Surprised the engines didn't fall out in that position.

 

[atikovi]

What happens to the oil in the pan or the gas in the tank?

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I recall that now. I wonder if they were "dry". I would guess they would have to be

I had a 74 GT Good handling car - a "mini" Camaro.
Instead of an IECO turbo kit on the flakey 2.3, I went with a V8 Swap.
12:1 327c.i. 4 bbl q-jet, THM350 Z28 10 bolt posi swap. ( required welding 4 links brackets on axle)
In a far from perfect state of tune: 0-100 in 10 seconds.
Not bad for shade tree teenager and his first major swap.
As for Stock Vegas's, the later cars with a 3 speed MT and the "Iron duke" pontiac 4 were great.
I Love to have a cam back wagon with a 5 Speed and a Poncho Duke.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Surprised the engines didn't fall out in that position.

Come on, they were 1/2 decent cars. Just a scaled down GM A-body style car on a
Unit body. A great fun, tossable car with the Polyglass Bias- ply tires.
We lost all the fun tail-out attitude with the advent of radials with their tricky
stick, stick, stick then Whoa! - CRASH! handling characteristics.

This is of course before the Bridgestone- Lee Trevino, "You can feel it when you drive" Super filler technology of the 80's.

The came the "safety understeer" era in the 90's. A Fun Handling Deathnell to most cars.

 

[earlyre]

What happens to the oil in the pan or the gas in the tank?

"The Vega was delivered topped with fluids, ready to drive to dealerships, so the engine was baffled to prevent oil entering the number one cylinder; the battery filler caps high on the rear edge of the casing prevented acid spills; a tube drained fuel from carburetor to vapor canister; and the windshield washer bottle stood at 45 degrees"

Chevrolet Vega - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[supton]

Didn't we have this thread a year go?

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Didn't we have this thread a year go?

You mean like asking if 0W oil is O.k. to use for better Cold starting in Georgia?

Yeah, but this is, ironically, out of the box "Henry Ford" style innovation that we seem to be lacking in too many places.

Like hearing a favorite song over and over - this is "the good stuff" to get stuck in the brain!

 

[PimTac]

A friend had a Vega. (Not Vegas). Horrible car. The engine blew early on. He got a new motor and the forklift driver dropped the crate and cracked that block too. He got rid of it.

Aluminium engines were forward thinking but not yet perfected.

 

[kschachn]

A friend had a Vega. (Not Vegas). Horrible car. The engine blew early on. He got a new motor and the forklift driver dropped the crate and cracked that block too. He got rid of it.

Aluminium engines were forward thinking but not yet perfected.

The problem was not with the aluminum engine, GM had perfected the honing and etching of the block bores before the first car had been sold. The problem was simple overheating due to an improperly designed cooling system. GM rectified that later but by then the damage to the brand was already done.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

A friend had a Vega. (Not Vegas). Horrible car. The engine blew early on. He got a new motor and the forklift driver dropped the crate and cracked that block too. He got rid of it.

Aluminium engines were forward thinking but not yet perfected.

Same process and material as used on the Porsche 928 V8. I did hear the issue was with valve seals in the C.I. head more than block wear, but I never verified this. I didnt tear down the engine.
Chassis and comfort was fine. They should have manned up and gone to FIAT for help in Cyl Head casting in AL. but not the mentality.

So even today thousands of Hyundia and Kia aluminum engines are still toasting, along with a spate Honda accord engines in the late 2000's, the Subaru EJ engine disaster, and My wife's 2.4L Toyota engine that ate headbolts and wore out the cam and tappets at 58K miles 3 years.

I suppose they are all junk too....

You may be right!

 

[Trav]

The things were a horror, the Pontiac ashtray as well. Real excrement buckets.

 

[PimTac]

Pontiac Ashtray.

Thanks for the clarification above. I remember something about how Chevy added iron cylinder liners later on. The overheating problem makes sense.

Today’s aluminium engines are much better save for some perhaps. It’s the standard now. Maybe improved alloys and the automated robots doing the casting/manufacturing?

 

[ARCOgraphite]

i enjoyed mine, a car and project of my youth when motivation was über alles

 

[bullwinkle]

The ones around here were made of compressed rust! It took a lot to make an early Pinto or a Hornet/Gremlin to look good!

 

[atikovi]

Come on, they were 1/2 decent cars. Just a scaled down GM A-body style car on a
Unit body. A great fun, tossable car with the Polyglass Bias- ply tires.
We lost all the fun tail-out attitude with the advent of radials with their tricky
stick, stick, stick then Whoa! - CRASH! handling characteristics.

This is of course before the Bridgestone- Lee Trevino, "You can feel it when you drive" Super filler technology of the 80's.

The came the "safety understeer" era in the 90's. A Fun Handling Deathnell to most cars.

I thought they were some of the better looking things from GM and had always wanted one, but by that time they had all but disappeared from the used market probably because of the mechanical issues. Did have some Chevettes instead which weren't half bad either.

 

[ragtoplvr]

You had to change the antifreeze every year and used only distilled water with the green stuff, that is all they had then. Then you needed to actually change oil every 3K miles with good filter. The fan clutch and belt tension needed to be maintained. Keeping the trouble prone carburetor from flooding was an essential part, as well as keeping it tuned. It did get 28 MPG with the manual transmission.

I had a buddy that took good care of his, got him thru college with close to 100K miles, was starting to burn oil though. Then when he graduated he had the money for a V8 kit, wheel tubs and bigger axle. Fun car, they do tend to rust.

His was the only one I knew of that lasted that long. They DID NOT tolerate bad maintenance.

Rod

 

[chainblu]

In late 80's, early 90's my DD was a '73 Vega (base model). Honestly, it didn't really do anything well - the ride was just OK, the handling was just OK, the heater struggled below 32 degrees, BUT it never left me on the side of the road. One cold winter day I did a 105 mph run from one end of Charlotte, NC to the other on I-85 during morning traffic. 30 years later I bet people people still talk about the time they got their doors blown off by a Vega.

 

[ecotourist]

The Vega was a very attractive car. Too bad GM didn't do a better job on it.

 

[Job]

No one wants to work that hard now or has the ingenuity.