Thursday morning. Heading to work I pull out into the hammer lane to pass a car that has no idea what a gas pedal is and all of a sudden my engine tachs right out to 6000 rpm and the truck is slowing down. I pull over to the side of the road,finish smoking my cigar and ponder the next couple minutes. I shut the truck down and let it cool down abit. When I go to fire it up again, the starter spins like no tomorrow and the engine won't turn over.. After calling a tow truck and getting it back to the house and up on ramps I pull the inspection plate off the transmission and low and behold my ring gear is spinning freely. It turns out that I cratered my flexplate.
Of course after getting a new one I decide it's time to figure out once and for all why the hell my truck seams to have an intermitten problem with mis fires. I yank out my distributor and inspect the gear at the bottom end and wouldn't you know it,it looks like it's been through the meat grinder. Calling up a local parts supplier I find out the that little gear is $78. The first thing out of my mouth at that was "Are you kidding me?" Pull it off and compare it to the gear I have on the bottom of an HEI distributor that I have kickin around the garage. They seam identical,so I install it in place of the worn out one. I find TDC (top dead center) drop it in hook everything up and the truck ran like a dream....with a knock coming from the bottom end of the engine when I put it in gear. NOT a good thing to hear. Spun bearing maybe or a collapsed piston. We're gonna find out when I yank the engine out and have a look.
I will say this though. In my own mind,the eletronic stuff that governs the operation of the new vehicles does have it's advantages. YOu just can't beat fuel injection for smooth operation and performance It is also very time consuming and exspensive to track down any issues with sensors,ecms,eproms and the like. The very same efficiency can be pulled out of a properly tuned after market fuel injection system for half the price and a lot less heartache and grief. When this truck goes back together it will be without the factory programming. There are a number of fuel injection systems that will give me more performance and greater efficiency than the stock set up ever will. I won't even bother to ask why auto-manufacturers create these systems when I know the answer is money. However,if the wanted a repeat customer that would go and buy a new truck every few years then they shouldn't have created a system that would have eventually pushes me to consider using old technology just because I can tune it properly and know when a problem arises,I can fix the damn thing on the side of the road without it taking the food out of my kids mouths.
Of course after getting a new one I decide it's time to figure out once and for all why the hell my truck seams to have an intermitten problem with mis fires. I yank out my distributor and inspect the gear at the bottom end and wouldn't you know it,it looks like it's been through the meat grinder. Calling up a local parts supplier I find out the that little gear is $78. The first thing out of my mouth at that was "Are you kidding me?" Pull it off and compare it to the gear I have on the bottom of an HEI distributor that I have kickin around the garage. They seam identical,so I install it in place of the worn out one. I find TDC (top dead center) drop it in hook everything up and the truck ran like a dream....with a knock coming from the bottom end of the engine when I put it in gear. NOT a good thing to hear. Spun bearing maybe or a collapsed piston. We're gonna find out when I yank the engine out and have a look.
I will say this though. In my own mind,the eletronic stuff that governs the operation of the new vehicles does have it's advantages. YOu just can't beat fuel injection for smooth operation and performance It is also very time consuming and exspensive to track down any issues with sensors,ecms,eproms and the like. The very same efficiency can be pulled out of a properly tuned after market fuel injection system for half the price and a lot less heartache and grief. When this truck goes back together it will be without the factory programming. There are a number of fuel injection systems that will give me more performance and greater efficiency than the stock set up ever will. I won't even bother to ask why auto-manufacturers create these systems when I know the answer is money. However,if the wanted a repeat customer that would go and buy a new truck every few years then they shouldn't have created a system that would have eventually pushes me to consider using old technology just because I can tune it properly and know when a problem arises,I can fix the damn thing on the side of the road without it taking the food out of my kids mouths.
