Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
When they put 3 plug and wires under the hood in easy access and 3 up under the engine that “Rubberman” would have trouble getting to, that seems more a marketing and finance decision than an engineering one. No engineer worth his salt would design an engine that way. And when NASCAR can design a car in which a driver can walk away from a 200 mph crash, and 40,000 Americans a year die in car crashes, I don’t think that is an engineering issue but a financial one. And airplanes can fly for tens of millions of miles for 40 or 50 years but we have trouble getting 150,000 miles out of our cars. Of course those planes cost millions and have complex maintenance time tables that must be followed. In my opinion, it goes against everything the car companies do to make a car that will remain maintenance free beyond 7 or 8 years, more or less. They want most things to last at least through the end of the guarantee but then they don’t really care since the obviously want us to buy a new car. Aircraft manufacturers are not concerned with the owner buying a new plane every 5 or 7 years, but car manufacturers are. Just look at the trucking and heavy equipment industry, they build products that last for years and years and take a hard beating everyday. Sure they breakdown but they also make them fairly easy to work on, even easier than a consumer’s “cheap” $20,000 car.
When they put 3 plug and wires under the hood in easy access and 3 up under the engine that “Rubberman” would have trouble getting to, that seems more a marketing and finance decision than an engineering one. No engineer worth his salt would design an engine that way. And when NASCAR can design a car in which a driver can walk away from a 200 mph crash, and 40,000 Americans a year die in car crashes, I don’t think that is an engineering issue but a financial one. And airplanes can fly for tens of millions of miles for 40 or 50 years but we have trouble getting 150,000 miles out of our cars. Of course those planes cost millions and have complex maintenance time tables that must be followed. In my opinion, it goes against everything the car companies do to make a car that will remain maintenance free beyond 7 or 8 years, more or less. They want most things to last at least through the end of the guarantee but then they don’t really care since the obviously want us to buy a new car. Aircraft manufacturers are not concerned with the owner buying a new plane every 5 or 7 years, but car manufacturers are. Just look at the trucking and heavy equipment industry, they build products that last for years and years and take a hard beating everyday. Sure they breakdown but they also make them fairly easy to work on, even easier than a consumer’s “cheap” $20,000 car.
Okay, so after about 1 week of no start condition (unless starter fluid was sprayed in the the throttle, then it would start and run ok), got the fuel filter changed an hour or so. [Removed the previously mentioned sky blue fuel line clip and used the green old clip]. Primed the fuel system by cycling the ignition by turning the key a few times (key only not starting it) then it started right up after a 5 second or so rough start, probably still due to the fuel needing to pressurize the system. Ran fine, idled fine (no more idle surge!) Test drove it and performed fine, turned it off and on several times and hit the accelerator to bump up RPM’s beyond normal driving stress. All post filter checks work fine. Got my fingers crossed!! I did hear something rattling when I later looked at the old filter. Besides being extremely dirty, possibly something broke in the filter. Lesson Learned: Buy good gas and keep your tank about at least 1/2 full to cover the fuel pump and to prevent bad gas contaminates (rust, water, etc) from your filter and engine and also 1/2 to cover most of the fuel pump to avoid it getting too hot, etc. and wearing out faster. Thanks college man for your help and once again, I’m reminded why I love the ETCG videos and Forum!! Stay dirty friends. I am and I reek of gasoline as well, 🙂
Okay, so after about 1 week of no start condition (unless starter fluid was sprayed in the the throttle, then it would start and run ok), got the fuel filter changed an hour or so. [Removed the previously mentioned sky blue fuel line clip and used the green old clip]. Primed the fuel system by cycling the ignition by turning the key a few times (key only not starting it) then it started right up after a 5 second or so rough start, probably still due to the fuel needing to pressurize the system. Ran fine, idled fine (no more idle surge!) Test drove it and performed fine, turned it off and on several times and hit the accelerator to bump up RPM’s beyond normal driving stress. All post filter checks work fine. Got my fingers crossed!! I did hear something rattling when I later looked at the old filter. Besides being extremely dirty, possibly something broke in the filter. Lesson Learned: Buy good gas and keep your tank about at least 1/2 full to cover the fuel pump and to prevent bad gas contaminates (rust, water, etc) from your filter and engine and also 1/2 to cover most of the fuel pump to avoid it getting too hot, etc. and wearing out faster. Thanks college man for your help and once again, I’m reminded why I love the ETCG videos and Forum!! Stay dirty friends. I am and I reek of gasoline as well, 🙂
I’m thinking that is the best course too. I might add a small hose clamp to it also to ensure it won’t leak since I don’t know of popping the green one off might have damaged it. It still looks good though. Old filter poured out fuel that was black but blew through filter and it’s not clogged up so I’m afraid the fuel filter won’t help the non-start issue. I’ll post the results after the filter replacement. Thanks college man!