There is an interesting group dynamic happening that I hadn't noticed
before. For example, Sean (aka Dr. Moonstone), asked what would we do to
build a 260 with the assumption that 289s, 302, and 5.0s were non existent.
I had been thing about this for some time, remember a few months ago we
chatted about this and I said I would try and build a good simulation of
this very question. So I did. Sean's question reminded me that I owed the
list the response. Yesterday I put the info in a email reply. Now here is
the dynamic part. Rather than build their own motors a significant number of
the membership has chosen to comment directly to me on the motor I built
rather than develop their own in response to Sean's question. Nothing
critical, but suggestions for improvement in their minds and their
simulations. Please note that I enjoy the replies and suggestion! Chatting
is great and there is no complaint here and I am learning!
It does pointout one thing though: that a set of rules or specs needs to be
developed before any project is undertaken and solid goals need to be
stated. For instance, in my mind, I was looking for good hp with a good
torque curve and lots of reliability. I am getting old and would not want to
be wrenching on the car forever, so reliability is a key factor. So the
things I chose were for that, in my mind (but maybe not to other minds and
in fact truth! I could actually be wrong....nah...). Had I wanted to do so,
I would have dropped the compression ratio to about 8:1, added a T76 or T88
turbo, added a water to air intercooler (or is that aftercooler?), and put
in a 150 shot of NOS. I would have had bags of power, broken axles, melted
pistons, etc, ie no reliability. The power made is certainly enough to light
up the tires at just about any speed with street tires and is suficient to
move the brick through the air to a pretty fair speed, in the neighborhod of
160 mph give or take. Certainly well above any legal speed.
So, what does it all mean? Only that I have lots of friends who feel
confident enough to chat with me on just about anything and I like that, and
that when we go to play, we need to build a rule book with a set of goals
and specifications before we start. This has been fun for me...
what are we tackling next? I have to go plant 5 trees this morning (doing my
part to keep the planet oxygenated), mate the kids explorer tranny to the
engine, rebuild the transfer case, install the Bonneville lakester's gear
shift mechanisn, cut the grass, and work on my theory of gravity. Then this
afternoon....
I had better get another cup of coffee.......
mayf, having fun out in Pahrump
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