Cars Are Getting Better

Well its something like this. Older cars were less complicated, but needed fairly frequent service. Points adjustment and or replacement. Timing, cap rotor, wires, coils, Choke adjustments for the winter. Spark plugs fouling up due to chokes being off, rusted mufflers, generator brushes, I could go on, but old cars were not like now, where you could just drive 20,000 and do nothing. Most of what went out back then had to do with fuel not being metered precisely and us grease monkeys having to compensate and or replace. Motors didn’t last as long because of cylinder washing in cold weather things like that. Sticky needles and seats… you get the idea. This kept a steady stream of business, and this is also why there was a service station on every corner. To keep up with this. The upside was that parts were cheap, fairly universal and changed often. Downside is that cars that were neglected would really ended up smoking up the roads things like that. Its my personal opinion that at some point cars peaked with a balance of computer and mechanical devices, but like so many things, we have gone way, way to far and made to many things like wipers and door locks computer dependant, and there is simply no reason for over complication, but thats a different topic altogether.

Good topic. I actually started in the early 90’s so I had a taste of those 80’s vehicles they were referring to. Things have changed quite a bit since then. I’ll see when I can work this topic in.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=124124]Early 80s were a bunch of funny things. Imported cars had MOSTLY had fuel injection, generally. Bosch CFI or things like that. Simple, common and it worked. American cars had nasty things like feedback quadrajets, throttle bodys with injectors, and at the end of the decade, port fuel injection which of course made everyones life easier..GM was used about everything between 80 and 90, just depended on what it was. A Camaro for example used 4 6 and 8 cylinder engines with everything from basic carburetor to full TPI injection in one decade. Electronic ignition Came about for ford in about 72, 73 or so for Chrysler, and 74 for GM hei, so more the ignition headaches primary were gone for newer stuff, however cars from the 50s were still on the road in the 70s, usually driven by older folks or whatever so tuning an old car was a reality – very easy though. The real bugger of 80s cars to me is emissions controls that ran on vacuum ports, switches, mazes of vacuum hoses and trees, and this made later cars with computer controls easier to deal with. You know, I find it funny, VW Beetles, other European and nicer Asian cars dumped carbs mid 70s, but cheapy cars like lower end Hondas still had carbs up through the early 90s, so up until recently, carbs may have been seen on cars newer than one would think, however. I would say any car with a malfunctioning Keihn carb would be better off thrown away than repaired when putting repair cost against vehicle value these days. I would say without question that 2005 and newer cars with CANS systems are to complicated for their own good, and earlier stuff, but not to much earlier is just where one should be for computer assistance vs mechanicals. I think Ecms are a godsend for powertrains, whether it be shifting in something in a late model tran or fuel trims or what else it may do to increase power and efficiency -these things were never managed well by pure mechanical devices, however I see no good reason for body control modules, AT All. Chasing down a miss with coil packs or bad injectors or the likes, yea, count me in. Running through body panels to find broken connections to bcms that need to be programmed by factories so the windows and locks can work, or Onstar, Serius, ect, count me OUT. I ran into a technological wall with ECC systems in Fords years ago because of their NON Flashable ECMs which were limited, however later when I started reprogramming GM ECMs with Bin files, that true made me appreciate the technology at that time. Now, however whats going with automobiles and computers is pure insanity.[/quote] Pre-smog quadrajets are a wonderful thing though. I love mine(casting made 1970). Carbs became overly complicated when emissions controls were added circa 1975-1976. Like you said, the vacuum lines and the like were ridiculous. Any post smog carb is harder to rebuild due to the vast amount of unnecessary junk added to them for emissions.

[quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=124139]Pretty cool you have a 454 dually truck. Definatley and enthusiast vehicle. My shop/work truck is a 3500 Dually with a 454 TBI injection but it sits this time of year due to the SNOW. Collect your quadrajet stuff now, its getting harder to find. Stock up on Ethanol-proof accelerator pump cups, nylon primary meter rod retainers ect. Who knows how long before we start having to scrounge this stuff used.[/quote] Thanks and ya, duallies don’t like snow. Quadrajet parts hopefully will be available to us for a long while. After that, there are always fabrication possibilities.

[quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=124153]I always heard that if you removed a carburetor, and put a sponge soaked in gas on the opening on the intake, an engine would run. I have yet to try this, and probably never will, but I supposes as long as sponges and combustable materials are made, we will continue to be able to run our cars some way, even crudely. LOL.[/quote] Intresting, I haven’t heard of that one. Ya, we will be able to keep our cars running no matter what. Getting creative is part of the job! In any case, it is my perogative to preserve the past.