Scotty Kilmer, mechanic or shill?

[pcmdjason]

I watch his videos from time to time but I wonder if he’s really doing them because he likes making videos or because he’s taking money to sell a product?

He likes to do a lot of local news stuff and he seems to have mostly one sentence fix-its for any kind of question.

Topic

[Barry Blundi]

Scotty is informative, and certainly entertaining. He makes it fun. But, although he has a wealth of knowledge, and great delivery, he gives basic overviews of things without getting to deeply into the meat of practical repair out to his audience. He refrains from more detailed hands on, because his platform is different than Eric’s. Eric delivers in all three catagories, like Ford Tech Makuloco, who is another top notch You Tube teacher. Scotty is top notch also, only in a different way. You gleen from each what is helpful, and then after learning, give back in the way of helping someone else. Blessings!

[Jerry]

I worked on computer cars for decades, and finally became so disgusted with them I gave it up. To me these were no longer cars, but computers on wheels. I started working on ’50s and ’60s cars in the ’70s, and developed a love for them. I am now working on them again. I will never work on a car with a computer again.

Yes, Scotty does skip over a lot of the details as far as repairs go. He keeps bringing up his expensive diagnostic tools, something I have no interest in. But he does know a lot about which cars are best and which are junk. He realizes that while cars did get better after the ’70s, they are on their way downhill again, everything but the price anyway. If anything could justify all that computer garbage, it was that you could get 300,000 miles out of a new car. that is no longer possible and it is getting worse.

I think my favorite Scotty video was where he recommended getting a vintage car, which is all I drive anymore. When built right, I find them extremely reliable.

[Matthew]

I want to start off first by saying, I understand how old this topic is. I came across it when I was doing a search and decided to give my two cents on this seeing as I have had first hand experience with scotty as well as living in the same city he does.

First off, I have to be blunt and honest. He is a habitual liar and a hack.

Why do I say he is a habitual liar? Every video of his he posts has a lie in it. I don’t mean opinions either. I mean actual lies he presents as fact. Example would be he was talking about myths, and that the 3,000 mi oil change myth was true at one time cause cars didn’t have oil filters. He said that his fathers ’55 Fairlane didn’t have a oil filter and they changed the oil at 3,000 mi cause of this. I called him on this but no comment from him. I have a ’56 Fairlane which has the same Y-block Y8 under the hood as his fathers ’55 Fairlane which was the same 1953 to 1964. They all had oil filters and oil filters wasn’t the reason for the low oil change. In fact my ’56 owners manual states 2,000 mi oil change and 4,000 mi oil filter change interval. This was due to the engine being a draft tube setup. With the introduction of PCV and more efficient engine designs oil change intervals went up to 3,000 mi on up to 6,000 mi like stated in my owners manual for my ’78 Mercury. Another lie is that he claims he has 52 years of mechanic experience but yet he is 61 years old as he was born in 1959. One of his more recent videos he mentioned about him being a young mechanic in the 60`s. Considering he was born in 1959 there is no way he was a young mechanic in the ’60s. Sure he might have helped daddy work on his cars in the driveway but that doesn’t make you a mechanic. A mechanic is a occupation.

Now why do I call him a hack? I call him one because he gives faulty advice to people that know no better. Best example is where I cringed as I tried to make it known to the guy that asked the question not to listen to the advice. The guy in question asked scotty that he rebuilt his 5.0 himself in his ’89 F150 truck. He wanted to know if it would cause harm to switch to synthetic oil. Scotty told him you never switch oils you have to start off with synthetic from the start. That should make anyone with any kind of mechanical knowledge cringe as you never run a fresh engine on synthetic oil but here this hack is telling people to do that. He also had a video he since took down that showed a proper fix for rusted brake lines which was using compression fittings. You never use compression fittings on something like brakes. You can get by on low pressure applications such as fuel lines for carb applications. My ’68 Ford 3000 diesel tractor uses 5/16″ compression sleeves on the hardline from the diesel tank to the lift pump and from the lift pump to the fuel filter. The CAV dual filter housing has a double flare but the lift pump side has the compression sleeve. This is a fine application for compression fittings as it is low pressure. But never brakes.

Now what experience do I have? I asked scotty when I didn’t know any better as I was a young guy that was still in school and was helping to restore a old ’63 Belair. I asked him what AC flush does he recommend as my condenser was left open as the car sat in the garage for some 30 years. He told me you cant flush it after that long and to junk it and get a new one. After I got out of school and went to trade school for college to become a trained technician and now I work on cars for a living I know now that is a bald face lie. You can flush old AC condensers. You cant flush the newer plate and fin style condensers as the passages are too small to flush but the tube and fin style can be easily flushed with no problem.

I also strongly dislike his constant praising of 80`s and 90`s Toyota`s while talking down about everything else. I also dislike his more recent view that you cant daily drive a old vehicle even though my newest vehicle is a ’82 F150 which I currently have parked as I build a full roller 306 to replace the emission 302 engine. I wouldn’t own a new car as they have nothing that I need.

Now does he know what hes talking about? He knows a little of what he talks about. Mainly about whats going on in the automotive world with vehicles such as recalls and what is and isn’t a good vehicle. But from a knowledge stand point on repairing the vehicles themselves I would have to say his knowledge is highly lacking. Im still waiting for him to produce a video on fixing low oil pressure when hot on GM LS platform engines. We fix these at work all the time and its a simple fix but yet still scotty has no video on it.

[Lasse Longi]

Well..
I am pretty good at judging people in the sense that I pretty quickly can tell wether the person has positive personality traits or if the person is a complete pr**k underneath it all.
This Kilmer guy has always given me the creeps. He is just intolerably (overexpressively)macho and full of himself. I just can’t bring myself to watch any of his videos even if the topic seems to hint towards good information. Luckily it seems anything he has posted, someone has done it better already.
Not meaning to be mean, I am sure there are people who like his videos. I am on he opposite side of the spectrum.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Lasse Longi.

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