Thought I'd share this here since it really has no real home in my regular forum hangout.

Was refueling (all 33 gallons of it, ouch) the ol' Bronco today and had a silly little Focus pull up to the pump across from me. The kid driving got out and was carrying on about how much he had invested and how great this little thing was. Now, mind you, I understood about a tenth of what he was talking about because there was no mention of gears, cam, exhaust, intake, clutch or anything that an old gearhead would "get". It was all electronic this and software re-flash. Injector pulse-width mods, MAF tweaks, etc were the name of his game. Now, that didn't keep me from chiming in with the all-important question... "So, you think you can take a 18 year-old monster like this?" and I nodded back towards my topless '93 with a lowly EFI 300 and a ZF S5-42 and stock 3.55 gearing. His response was all in the look he gave. We took it to the nearby "deserted back road" (ever wonder how these always seem to be "nearby"). We both wound up and his buddy gave the signal. I slammed 2 through 4 as best as I could but remember the 300 is a low-end puller and 1st in a ZF is useless in these situations. He pulled away easily but when I hit 5th I shot past him and he went up in a blue cloud. I felt bad so I spun around. The sick little Focus was still idling but coughing and wheezing and belching more eye-stinging blue by the minute. I asked if he was gonna be able to get it home. He said yeah and he guessed his old man was onto something when he said that running it that hard for so long would mess up something called valve seals? He phrased it in a question. I said, well, yeah those are kinda critical and so are the rings which it looks like you may have issues with as well. He looked at me like I was speaking in a foreign tongue. He admitted at that point that he had no idea what went on inside, he just knew that with the right software and chip setup and some "tweaks" it would "run like hell". My reply was simple... "And now you know that you don't know enough." I gave him a card for my guy who does all the stuff I don't want to or can't do in a timely manner and told him to mention my name. I drove home wondering if todays' "shortcut-driven" youth and their zeal for forward progress without the desire to understand the whole concept could fall victim to this kind of sudden catastrophic setback on a greater level... and then I shuddered.

 

Interesting story. Im 17 and I hate new vehicles. My truck is a '79 that Ive done tons of work on and Ive been working on restoring a '62 plymouth Savoy. I find it pathetic how little about the internal working of cars that most people my age know. My only real requirement for a first car was something carbureted because of the simplicity.

 

Well, they have their place. Without them I couldn't program my VCR - no, I mean my DVD player, wait, I think it's a DVR. Hey, why are these numbers blinking at me. Just make it stop. Where are the rabbit ears? I can make them work...

 

depends what year focus it was,there was an engine in the earlier ones that had problems dropping valves(something to do with the head,not sure what the exact problem was). I can tell you the mods available to the engine in my 2005 focus are mind boggling!! not trying to hurt your feelings,but my 2005 with the few mods done to it will walk all over your bronco,but it won't pull the house down like the bronco will. everything has a purpose,and my 5 speed focus is a fast little car that still pulls 30-35 mpgs if i keep my foot out of it!!

 

Now that's an interesting choice. There has to be a story there. Do you also hang out at Allpar.com?

To be honest, I thought back then, and still do today, that early '60's Mopars were hideous. The '62's almost sank Chrysler, giving GM its biggest market share in history. Powertrains, especially the Torquefilte, were bulletproof. Did have an ugly Dodge A-100 at one time, so Im not slamming your Plymouth from a die-hard Ford-only perspective. Like I said, there has to be a story behind how you got that Savoy.

 

As a matter of fact, I do. Heres the build thread: 1962 Fury Project - Allpar Forums for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Plymouth, and more

The '61 was just terrible, '62 was an improvement. Its got the 225 Slant-6 in front of a 3 speed manual. My great uncle bought the car used and drove it for several years before the second gear sinchronizer went out on it. His kids drove it around the farm for a few years and then parked it in the woods where it sat for 30 some years. It got pulled out of the woods about 5 years ago and had a little work done, but came to a halt. I started on it last August and have pretty much finished it up. My name is being added to the title as right of ownership I havent been able to find another 2 door, 225, 3 on the tree in existence.

 

When I opened this thread I was thinking about a completely different kind of tweaker.

 

I thought a tweaker was a drug user(meth).

Never knew it had so many meanings.

Urban Dictionary: tweaker

 

Tweakers ARE gearheads!...........One will saw your cat. converter off in 30 sec or less, to sell to the scrapper for the platinum..........meth is spendy!

 

generally speaking, its one of the cheapest drugs out there to tell you the truth.. its the addiction of meth that is expensive..

but anyways, when it comes to newer cars, there is not a wide market of the typical motor building parts.. (like cams, and over size pistons and stroker kits.. theres some for some cars, but we are in a computer controled world, where typing something into your cars computer will release a lot of hp, but considering he didnt know anything about the internals of his motor, he aint a gear head in my eyes

 

I know two people who were relieved of their cats

 

I know two people who were relieved of their cats


any chance i could get one of them to look at my truck

 

A buddy of mine had his stolen twice. The third one is welded on.

 

they can have my cat. its useless, hardly catches mice...

 

I get my *** kicked in races at school (17 years old) by those little rivers all the time..... But then I tell em ok let's hook up and they go what and I tell em my trucks made to pull not race