stroker said:Almost anything Renault. I qualify that because I don't know the whole historical Renault model line. They might have made something worthwhile, but if they did, I'm not familiar with it.
stroker said:Almost anything Renault. I qualify that because I don't know the whole historical Renault model line. They might have made something worthwhile, but if they did, I'm not familiar with it.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:I won't do a K-car. If someone gave it to me, I wouldn't even waste the Sharpie ink to make a "free" sign, I would just leave the keys in it and park it somewhere it would get stolen.
I actually did that with an 02 explorer.
No one picked it up
kevinatfms said:Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:kevinatfms said:SVT Contour. Absolute horrible piece of E36 M3 to work on in any capacity. Better have extra knuckle skin, super glue and health insurance.
Same goes with the Ford Probe V6.I've heard that before. Is it true that an alternator is an engine-out fix?
I almost talked myself into one because it was 900 bucks but I never looked at it because everyone said to run away screaming.
Not an engine out fix but an "i will kill the service advisor who gave me this job" fix. Better off sticking your dick in ghost pepper sauce than to deal with replacement of a Contour V6 alternator.
Worst was catalytic converters. Subframe removal minimum just to pull out the guaranteed frozen o2 sensors. Biggest gripe with that was the subframe bolts would strip along with the threading in the body. You would basically call out sick if you found out that one needed o2 sensors.
SVT Contours are amazing cars. Totally underrated and maligned. I heard so much BS about working on them. "You need a hoist, and a full day to change an alternator and you still need to undo engine mounts". BS. I had to do it several times as it turns out genuine Bosch remanufactured alternators aren't worth E36 M3. Three in a row failed out of the box or within a couple of hundred miles. I can (could, sold it in 08) swap them in three and a half hours in the drive with jack stands. The trick is every extension you have plus a couple of UJ's. Not easy, but way exaggerated. Same with HEGO sensors. The internet will tell you again that you need to undo engine mounts, rotate forward and all sorts of BS. Dead easy 20 min job from the top. You had to remove something (can't remember what after all these years) from the firewall and do it from above by feel, but seriously a 20 min job.
Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to MadScientistMatt :
Its just a 1st Gen Escort underneath, including the Ford CVH drivetrain, the Ford Zetec is loosely based off the CVH. So the swap may not be too bad to do, as far as swaps go. Of course there was a factory turbo version of the CVH overseas that might be a slightly more "Radwood" aproved solution when coupled with some modern relibility improvements.
It's a 3rd generation Escort, or MkIII as they say.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
First generation US Escort.
Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Wait, you'll take a complete failure of GM design, AKA the diesel V8 bt you won't take a K?
Only because you magically know how to "fix" the inherent issues with the V8 diesel through the magic of head gaskets (never mind that the engines themselves really weren't ever designed or intended for diesel use, so its still a grenade with the pin pulled, especially once you add "boost") yet the K gets a pass because you vaguely remember reading in some magazine about its supposed lack of chassis stiffness, even though many people have raced them and never once complained about chassis stiffness issues (unless otherwise previously damaged by rust or accident damage) as well as many who've actually owned and worked on them stating they've never had issues with chassis sag. I have had issues with door pins wearing out, especially on the 2-doors, but that's not a chassis twist issue, that's just wear and tear and easily replaced with new bushings/pins and isn't limited to any one manufacturer.
Disagree. This was my job for many years - driveline engineer for hot rod/custom shops. It was my job to know what will work best for any given combo and sell it to dim-witted muggles who didn't know E36 M3 about the world of how cars actually work.
The Olds diesel was not a flawed design. It was also NOT a "converted gas engine" as most people think. The Olds diesel had a major shortcoming with five 7/16" head bolts per cylinder and a weak gasket design. The factory TSB instructed techs to repair it by using a new factory gasket and re-using the original head bolts which had already stretched and failed. The fix is to use an upgraded gasket and drill and tap for 1/2" studs. Done. Period. Full stop.
The entire world hated diesel (and many still do) solely on the reputation of GM's failure to properly remedy the issue. The Olds 350 diesel block is based on the same gas architecture, but it was a clean slate design including a very capable crank, tons of meat in the main webbing, and very thick cylinder wall castings. Many have taken the 350 diesel and converted them to gas with aftermarket heads and slapped 8-71s, turbos, or nitrous on them and made 750 hp or more and they take it in stride, so the engine isn't the weak part. The only issue with them was crap head sealing which is easily fixed.
My neighbor and I built a 350 diesel (with 1/2" stud conversion) and a modified pump with 27 psi from a Garret turbo making 424 hp and 672 tq for a mid-engined S10 build. This was in 1994 and it was still making 11-second passes as of the last time we spoke which was about 6 years ago. I spec'd a 350 diesel-to-gas conversion in 2004 for a customer's 87 Cutlass that dynoed 650hp and it made probably 30 passes on the strip over a few years and damn near broke into the 9s (10.08) and it never broke anything.
The misconceptions over the Olds diesel design are all over the internet. I love it. It keeps them cheap. I'll take them all. You say they weren't designed for "diesel use" which indicates that you've never looked inside an Olds diesel. Clean. Slate. Design. Not in any way a converted gas engine. Based on the gas architecture, but absolutely nothing like the gas 350.
The K-car on the other hand is the single least-rigid unibody production car ever produced. I can't produce the link because K-cars and the magazine articles that did the research on it aren't available to the intarwebs, because the intarwebs wasn't around in 1982. Plus... ugliness.
From 350 Olds Diesel Specs & History (dieselhub.com)
There is an enormous misconception that the 350 Olds is based on GM's 350 gas engine. While the designs share cylinder bore/stroke dimensions, the notion that the 350 Oldsmobile diesel is a converted 350 gas V-8 is completely false. Not only would such a ludicrous design be engineering suicide, but the 350 gas engine would never have survived the cylinder pressures created by the diesel's 22.5 : 1 compression ratio. In fact, GM's official statement regarding these rumors was that "All of the major parts: block, crankshaft, rods, pistons, and lifters have been strengthened to handle the higher compression ratio." The rumor that the engines are related likely stems from a combination of the following:
• Because of the engine's identical bore and stroke, the Olds diesel could be manufactured using pre-existing tooling.
• Not only is it easy to assume the 350 diesel is based on the 350 gas engine, but owners and outsiders alike needed to place the engine's problems on something.
The LF9 engine block was a unique casting with extra reinforcement; the entire reciprocating assembly also was unique, with all its components heavy-duty. The larger, 3-inch-diameter main bearing journals it used in place of the normal 2.5″ journals were the same as in a big block;
Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:I won't do a K-car. If someone gave it to me, I wouldn't even waste the Sharpie ink to make a "free" sign, I would just leave the keys in it and park it somewhere it would get stolen.
I actually did that with an 02 explorer.
No one picked it up
If no one picked up your Explorer, they wouldn't likely pick up an Aries. Maybe I would waste the Sharpie ink.
Duke said:In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
First generation US Escort.
Which was a MkIII until they made it bigger in '86 or so...
I love how Ford kept trying to make "world cars" and then proceeded to change it up for different markets. Like how the US only ever got the first and third generation Focus.
Mid engine Kei vans. Despite the irrational love people on here I have for the E36 M3 boxes, I am one of the few people who has probably spent time driving them. They are utterly totally horrible. They are dangerous at typical traffic speeds and make a VW type II van look like a paragon of crash safety. Seriously, I wouldn't use one of the golf cart or slow speed hauler around private property. They are horrible loathsome dangerous devises. The only possible reason to except one is so you can take it straight to the crusher and save some other poor soul from the misery.
There isn't one.
Because if I made money just taking the car, I'd just turn around and resell it and make more money and never have to drive it.
I really can't see any reason not to do so.
I mean if someone is paying me to take a car, I'll take pretty much any car... Likely straight to the scrap yard, but hey.
That said, no VW, Audi or Jeep for me. Certain ones tempt me a little every now and again, but no. I refuse.
AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:That said, no VW, Audi or Jeep for me. Certain ones tempt me a little every now and again, but no. I refuse.
I can see why you'd want to turn down a free or paid for one of these (this are a couple of the 30 I had):
I mean, they ARE addictive.
Back when my wife was my girlfriend she came with a Dodge Aries K car. When the head gasket went (as they were wont to do) I happened to have the Crane Cams catalog open for another project and noticed that they had several cams for the 2.2L in the Dodge. Naturally, I ported the head and intake, replaced the electronic carb with one of the tricked out Holley/Webers left over from a hot rod Pinto engine project and removed the cat. It was still a crappy FWD econobox but it was a lot more fun to drive.
I still don't want one however.
stroker said:Almost anything Renault. I qualify that because I don't know the whole historical Renault model line. They might have made something worthwhile, but if they did, I'm not familiar with it.
There are quite a few worthwhile models.
Renault Clio V6
Apline A310
Alpine A110
Renault 5 Turbo
Plus a ton of other hot hatches like Megane RS, Clio Williams, etc. Renault has made a crap ton of cool cars. We just never got them.
Not much i wouldn't take. Though my wife hates the Suzuki x90. She calls it the stupid car.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
I had an diesel Olds Delta 88 wagon that was great (slow, but great) when it worked.
I had a hard time finding heads that weren't cracked between the valve seats. Maybe that didn't matter...?
In reply to CJ Cougar Mellonbelly III :
The cracks between the valve seats is relatively common (especially on the turbo engines) and as long as they aren't leaking or causing the seats to fall out, won't cause a problem.
The later 89+ heads were cross-drilled at the cooling passages between the siamesed cylinders and the block which helped improve cooling and reduced this issue considerably.
The 2.6L Mitsubishi motor, on the other hand, had huge cracking problems due to Chrysler's insistence on including the air injection ports.
Was there not a guy who used to build those Diesel motors for gas/drag applications with really good results? Joe Mondello maybe?
I've been gone for a few pages, so probably missed this one. I loathe most all French cars, but there isn't much worse than a French car re-engineered to be a USA made French car.
How I learned Motor Trend's Car Of The Year award was 'bought' rather than earned: this pile of excrement was named COTY.
In reply to 93EXCivic :
Psst. Being a pedant, Alpine weren't part of Renault until 1973.
Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to CJ Cougar Mellonbelly III :
The cracks between the valve seats is relatively common (especially on the turbo engines) and as long as they aren't leaking or causing the seats to fall out, won't cause a problem.
The later 89+ heads were cross-drilled at the cooling passages between the siamesed cylinders and the block which helped improve cooling and reduced this issue considerably.
I thought they stopped making the Olds Diesel long before 1989. Don't think there ever was a turbo engine.
The Olds engine was basically a gas engine (dating back to the 330 (?) from 1955!) with thick cylinder walls, high compression heads, and a fuel pump. Not designed to be a Diesel at all.
funny quote:
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) had been unable to certify the diesel V8 for sale in the state in 1979 and early 1980, as the test cars issued to CARB broke down before the tests could be completed. Of the nine cars supplied to CARB, all suffered engine problems and seven had transmission failures.[
In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :
The alternator comes out of the wheel well (like most 4v v6 fwd Fords.) Not that bad, especially at eye level on a lift. The starter in the valley is a pain though... I had 3 of them in the early 00s. They were fun cars in their day, handled well, and sounded great, even if they are a little slow by todays standards. I'd have another one if they weren't all rusted out or made with disintegrating wiring, lol.
Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to 93EXCivic :
Psst. Being a pedant, Alpine weren't part of Renault until 1973.
Fair enough but still lots of cool Renaults.
In reply to 93EXCivic :
Totally in agreement on cool cars. I have more respect for old Renaults than most on here, as I knew them as perfectly acceptable vehicles that stood the test of time. My girlfriends parents had a Renault 11 when new (bastardized as the Alliance over here), and both 5's Fuego's were cool, especially the turbos. Not as cool as a Capri or Manta, both of which were RWD before I discovered how much fun FWD could be, but good cars all the same. Something about the translation across the pond to here seems to have made them crap mobiles. It may have been the AMCification of them, as honestly everything AMC ever made was crap (sorry Javelin), it may be the lack of training for the dealers here, the ham fistedness of the mechanics at the time when confronted with anything more delicate than a boat anchor. I don't know. But as I said in the Aliance convertible thread, when cars crossed the Atlantic in either direction back then, they seemed to turn into unreliable laughably bad E36 M3boxes.
Least we forget. Renault 11 turbo's were also group A rally and race cars.
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