>[. . .cautionary tale deleted; at least it was only a Volvo :-) :-) :-) ]
I'll let that go, considering this is posted to British-Cars :-)
>It's surprising how much of being a mechanic consists of knowing
>how hard to bang on something, and what you can use, and when you
>have to stop -- and it's also surprising how difficult that can be
>to articulate to someone just learning. That's Julia's only
>real problem in Ron's story; she knew what to do and did that
>fine, she just didn't have the in-the-bones sense of how tight
>things need to be.
Just so. Well put. And the really sad part was, she was really getting into
the adventure of troubleshooting running problems. Little things, like
noticing the idle was rough, and opening the hood and finding a vacuum hose
had popped of, replacing it, and driving home. The oil pan incident made
her loose interest completely. It wasn't that she isn't good with her
hands, Julia is a Certified Massage Therapist, and what she can do with her
hands is pure magic. She still loves to drive, and misses our 1800 (we sold
it to help finance our baby). And she is still enthusiast enough to enjoy
car shows, and wants me to have another sports car (probably British next
time) when we can afford it.
>As a completely off-the-wall question, did they ever make an 1800
>with a B20, and if so, why didn't they call it a 2000? :-)
HA! A question no one knows the answer to! Yes, there was an 1800 with a
B20 engine. From '68 on ('69 got EFI, same as your 144 but with a 10.5:1
compression ratio and 135BPH). Our 1800 had a B20, but it didn't come that
way.
Ron Tewksbury
ront@twg.com
I don't own a British Car but I can tune SU's
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