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It’s definitely easier to set and keep a standard with digital technology. A sensor has a known good value range, outside that, set MIL.
That stuff is awesome for mass production of consumer transportation, and I’d argue it’s a good chunk of why the air isn’t completely unbreathable. With digital technology, cars are more efficient, more powerful, more feature-rich, safer, much more reliable, and I’d argue better than cars in the pre-OPEC era.
The real reason analogue technologies, carburetors in this instance, are thought of as old technology is that the last vehicles to have carbs that weren’t mired with horrible emissions related design issues were in the late 60’s. Even as long as they’d been around at that point, they were far from advanced.
Modern carburetors are a whole different animal, but people still see them as 60’s technology. I’m assuming you’re using some type of HEI setup, you’re obviously using modern boost control and an electric fuel pump. When I built my Model A hotrod, I used a carb and glasspacks, because that was the look and sound I wanted. But I also used an electric fuel pump, aluminum radiator and electric fan, modern suspension and brakes, etc. Use the technology that serves that purpose best.
Late to the party.
I had to do head gaskets on a late 90’s Toyota pickup with the V-6. I sent the heads out to be checked and one ended up being warped beyond repair, so I had our porter go to the junkyard and get a used head and drop it off at the machine shop. They cleaned it up, checked it over, threw new seals in both heads and sent them back over right at the end of the day. I had a good 20 minutes before I was out of there, so I decided to push the truck in so it would be warm by the morning (I hate working on cold cars in the winter). I decided I’d just throw the heads on now, get a headstart on tomorrow, and I would leave my tools out instead of spending the last 10 minutes cleaning up, since I’d need them all in the morning anyway. Bolted the heads down and called it a day. I came in the next morning, got the intake on, most of the harness back in place, and then spent a solid 2 hours trying to figure out why the timing set wouldn’t fit together right. I had an extra idler I couldn’t find a place for, and I finally gave up and consulted Alldata. I could see where the pulley was supposed to go, but there was no hole Turns out, aside from the one hole to mount the idler pulley, the left and right heads were identical, and the junkyard had sold us the wrong side. I tore it back down, sent the head back to the yard to be exchanged and taken over to the machine shop. I got pretty sick the next few days and my dumbass service writer handed the job off to another tech to finish up. He gets the new head and gaskets and puts the heads on, then spends an hour trying to figure out the timing set. He’d bolted the heads on the wrong sides.
4 heads, 3 sets of head gaskets, 2 techs, and 1 seriously stupid design choice by Toyota.
A 150lbs Mastiff in the back of a VW Rialta. (small motorhome) Apparently, when I hopped in to move it out of the service drive I disturbed his nap and he wasn’t at all happy. I noped the hell out of there and told my service writer to send them down the road. Nobody was going to touch that van after they neglected to tell us about the giant angry dog they left in it.
Hi Eric/forum,
I stumbled on one of your videos a while back and have been watching since, this topic inspired me to register on the site as I felt I had something to add. I was a mechanic for 11 years before I went into IT, it’s now been 3 or 4 years since I turned wrenches professionally, so I admit I’m definitely out of the loop on a lot of things.
I use Youtube as a resource pretty often, both working on my own cars and occasionally for friends. I bought a BMW for a daily driver. I think part of me misses working on cars, so keeping it running top is cathartic. After a decade in the shop, I can feel my way through just about every repair I’d ever need to with a torque spec sheet and some wiring diagrams, but I love that people like Eric have taken the time to make informative videos about repairs. I’ll even use a Youtube video or DIY post to determine whether I’m going to do the repair or just pay a tech I trust.
Most people know I was a mechanic, but a lot don’t, and I often overhear people make definitive statements about people’s car woes, and they’re almost universally oversimplified or just plain wrong. People tend to want to speak from a position of expertise, even if they don’t have any. It’s shocking how often you hear someone who genuinely knows things use the phrase “I don’t know”. Friends or coworkers will approach me with questions about their cars, and I frequently have to either call a friend who works on that make, or look stuff up.
A friend called last week, said her driver’s window was stuck down, and had a few quotes for a motor replacement since a coworker who was “good with cars” had told her that was the problem without even looking at the car. I told her to swing by, I’d get the window back up and make sure the motor was actually the issue. I watched a quick video on how to remove the door panel so I wouldn’t take a chance on breaking clips I could avoid breaking and so on. When she showed up, I popped the card off, got out the DVOM and checked there was power at the motor. In this case, the motor was the issue, but it could have just as easily been the regulator, or the switch, or a leaky sunroof drain had corroded the wires in the door frame. At that point it was easy to just throw a motor in while I had it apart and get her taken care of. Someone speaking from ignorance could have cost my friend a very real amount of money, especially if she’d shopped for the lowest price and they’d taken her coworker’s diagnosis as fact.
People just need to be more skeptical of the information they hear, and do a little cross-referencing before jumping in full-tilt. Question someone’s credentials. And, the people who relay unverified second-hand information as fact need to shut it.