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How about "junkers" cars


Rye Miles #13621

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2 hours ago, Dirty Dan Dawkins said:

My turbo went out. Took it off. The pistons come to find out we’re low compression type, so there was double whammy in power loss. It had less power than a non turbo 22R

Generally you will find supercharged & turbocharger gasoline engines have lower compression ratios than normally aspirated models.  This is to allow higher boost pressures.  Otherwise the engine will detonate at higher loads.  Detonation will melt a hole in pistons in seconds.  Had an engineer a CAT's tech center in Mossville IL show a piston that came out of a spark ignited (gas) engine that was shut down after 10 seconds of detonation.  It looked like a plasma torch had been put to the crown.

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Yeah, I meant Corvair, Blackwater. I had an odd '78 Monte Carlo, burgundy color with a V-6 and three speed on the floor. Nice looking car, but it dog tracked something fierce. Believe that one was two made into one. Thought I could just faintly detect welding seam if I looked close enough. Pretty peppy for a V-6, too:blink::o:(:lol::blush:

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3 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

 

Sassparilla Kid has an '86 edition.

 

Fundamentally not a bad truck at all, but the Japanese turbochargers were terrible.  The Kid finally adapted a Mercedes turbo' and it worked well, but the plastic timing chain guides in the engine finally gave up the ghost.  Still ran, but barely.

 

So, he decided to build an engine, but omit the turbocharger entirely - after all, the vast majority of Toyotas of the period were normally aspirated.  California Bureau of Automotive Repair (state authority on such) sez "No problem!  That's a stock configuration!"

 

Engine built and installed - runs smooth and strong, but it's been parked for over a year.  Cannot get it to pass a smog check.  Actually, cannot get it checked, period.  Smog shops won't touch it - "the under-hood emissions-control schematic sticker doesn't match the engine.  It shows a turbocharger and this engine ain't got one.  You might be part of a 'sting operation' out to bust smog shops!"

 

So the Kid goes to Toyota for a proper sticker - they won't sell him one.  "We need your VIN to sell you a sticker and your VIN sez it's a turbocharged model and we can't sell you a sticker for a non-turbocharged model!"   Doh!

 

He finally found a sticker on Ebay; maybe, just maybe, he'll finally be able to get it done.  

 

 

 

                                    1146052743_Toyota3.thumb.jpg.f04e4640c5cc5b6fe5e3e24a5c4dab8b.jpg                       

 

What kills gasoline engine turbo's in cars & light trucks is lack of oil when starting & heat when shut down.  The heat issue is why turbo's on spark ignited, SI, engines at least have a water cooled bearing housing.   The cylinder exhaust temperature is high >1000F.  A diesel engine's cylinder exhaust temp. runs 300-1100F.  The problem with start-up is the typical driver doesn't idle the engine before putting in gear & romping on the throttle.  Doing that spins up the turbo when there isn't adequate lubrication.   Also, the typical driver will pull off I5 after doing 70+ on a 95+F day pull up to a gas pump & immediately shut the engine off.  The oil in the bearing housing cokes up (cooks) because the oil & coolant ain't flowing & the hot side of the turbo is very hot.   I have driven a year 2000 Ford F250 4x4 7.3L Powerstroke.  It only has 180K miles on it & I have never put it in gear after starting in less than 30 seconds.  In the winter the delay is at least 60 seconds.  Depending on how hot it is I will let it idle for before shutting off.

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2 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

 

I’m guessing you meant CORVAIR. I’ve had a couple of them. They’re a little weird, but mine were really fun cars and pretty easy to maintain.

 

Always wanted to do a Crown V8 conversion on one!

The Achilles Heal of the Corvair engine was cooling.  The two 90 degree bends in the fan drive belt meant short belt life.  Also the engine just couldn't handle the high load factors imposed by the Greenbriar vans.  In college I work for a TV sales & repair shop in Albany CA.  One of the service vehicles was a Greenbriar van that originally was one of the owners family vehicle.  The load factor was pretty high; because, frequently it hauled heavy color TV's & home entertainment centers that need a shop to repair.  That thing would go through cylinder heads monthly.  After a few head jobs it was retired from hauling more than a stock of vacuum tubes, hand tools, tube tester, volt ohm meter, color video signal generator & degausser.

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Let’s see would it be the Gremlin x that blew the main bearings at 45000miles or maybe the Oldsmobile Cutlass that by 60000 miles was on its third transmission but maybe it was the Honda Accord that I bought new and rusted away before it was paid for.

Tough choice   

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5 hours ago, J.D. Daily said:

What kills gasoline engine turbo's in cars & light trucks is lack of oil when starting & heat when shut down.  The heat issue is why turbo's on spark ignited, SI, engines at least have a water cooled bearing housing.   The cylinder exhaust temperature is high >1000F.  A diesel engine's cylinder exhaust temp. runs 300-1100F.  The problem with start-up is the typical driver doesn't idle the engine before putting in gear & romping on the throttle.  Doing that spins up the turbo when there isn't adequate lubrication.   Also, the typical driver will pull off I5 after doing 70+ on a 95+F day pull up to a gas pump & immediately shut the engine off.  The oil in the bearing housing cokes up (cooks) because the oil & coolant ain't flowing & the hot side of the turbo is very hot.   I have driven a year 2000 Ford F250 4x4 7.3L Powerstroke.  It only has 180K miles on it & I have never put it in gear after starting in less than 30 seconds.  In the winter the delay is at least 60 seconds.  Depending on how hot it is I will let it idle for before shutting off.

 

Ya... the Kid is/was pretty well versed in the treatment of turbochargers.  But the one Toyota used didn't seem to be very robust, and the only replacements available were Chinese made units that just didn't seem to have "legs."  After a couple of those failed, he fabricated fittings and retrofitted an oil cooled Garrett T3 "donated" by a Mercedes Turbo-Diesel.  It worked.  But when the timing chain started slapping about he was fed up with it.

 

So with the replacement, he started with totally trashed engine "donated" by a 4-runner.  When done, he'd used only the block, oil pan, rocker shaft and cam cover from that engine - replaced everything else.  Cast iron connecting rods were replaced with lightweight, "H" cross-section forged chrome-moly rods and upgraded, higher compression hypereutectic pistons - increased compression from 7.5:1 to at least 9.3:1.  Rod/piston assemblies were balanced to within 1/2 gram.  Slightly "enhanced" camshaft... heck, he even fit a "crank scraper" sheet-metal "air baffle" in the thing to reduce wind resistance inside the crankcase!  :lol:

 

Significantly peppier than the original turbocharged engine ever was... with better mileage, and undoubtedly cleaner-running.

 

Now... if the State of California would just let it get smog-checked!!  :angry:

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

 

Ya... the Kid is/was pretty well versed in the treatment of turbochargers.  But the one Toyota used didn't seem to be very robust, and the only replacements available were Chinese made units that just didn't seem to have "legs."  After a couple of those failed, he fabricated fittings and retrofitted an oil cooled Garrett T3 "donated" by a Mercedes Turbo-Diesel.  It worked.  But when the timing chain started slapping about he was fed up with it.

 

So with the replacement, he started with totally trashed engine "donated" by a 4-runner.  When done, he'd used only the block, oil pan, rocker shaft and cam cover from that engine - replaced everything else.  Cast iron connecting rods were replaced with lightweight, "H" cross-section forged chrome-moly rods and upgraded, higher compression hypereutectic pistons - increased compression from 7.5:1 to at least 9.3:1.  Rod/piston assemblies were balanced to within 1/2 gram.  Slightly "enhanced" camshaft... heck, he even fit a "crank scraper" sheet-metal "air baffle" in the thing to reduce wind resistance inside the crankcase!  :lol:

 

Significantly peppier than the original turbocharged engine ever was... with better mileage, and undoubtedly cleaner-running.

 

Now... if the State of California would just let it get smog-checked!!  :angry:

 

 

 

 

 

Even with the MB diesel turbo it could be difficult to pass the smog inspection if the stock turbo was typical in that it had a integral wastegate.  Also, by cleaner you mean lower carbon monoxide & unburned hydrocarbons.  It may not emit less NOX; because, the higher the compression ratio the higher the fuel efficiency & NOX emissions even with an A/F ratio, Lambda, of less than 1 which is required for the catalytic converter to reduce NOX.  The higher compression ratio increases the combustion temperature and NOX is proportional to combustion temperature.  Exhaust gas recirculation adds inert gases, CO2 & water vapor, to the A/F mixture which lowers combustion temperature because CO2 & H20 vapor absorbs thermal energy from the burning fuel as well as slow combustion which also reduces temperature.

P.S.  I had a salvage title 1984 Plymouth Laser that had a turbocharged VW engine.   The turbo housing hot side oil seal failed turning the car into a WWII destroyer escort laying down a smoke screen.  I don't remember how I found the turbo reman business; since, this was before the internet; but I found a reman turbo from a company in Ventura county that specialized in remanufacturing aircraft turbos.  It may have been cheaper & probably of higher quality to find a US based reman.

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7 minutes ago, J.D. Daily said:

Even with the MB diesel turbo it could be difficult to pass the smog inspection if the stock turbo was typical in that it had a integral wastegate.  Also, by cleaner you mean lower carbon monoxide & unburned hydrocarbons.  It may not emit less NOX; because, the higher the compression ratio the higher the fuel efficiency & NOX emissions even with an A/F ratio, Lambda, of less than 1 which is required for the catalytic converter to reduce NOX.  The higher compression ratio increases the combustion temperature and NOX is proportional to combustion temperature.  Exhaust gas recirculation adds inert gases, CO2 & water vapor, to the A/F mixture which lowers combustion temperature because CO2 & H20 vapor absorbs thermal energy from the burning fuel as well as slow combustion which also reduces temperature.

P.S.  I had a salvage title 1984 Plymouth Laser that had a turbocharged VW engine.   The turbo housing hot side oil seal failed turning the car into a WWII destroyer escort laying down a smoke screen.  I don't remember how I found the turbo reman business; since, this was before the internet; but I found a reman turbo from a company in Ventura county that specialized in remanufacturing aircraft turbos.  It may have been cheaper & probably of higher quality to find a US based reman.

 

Har!  I would've loved to have seen that smokin' Plymouth!  I can relate to the smoke screen... the Kid has a 70's vintage MB 240D that he brought home one night after literally buying it from some lawyer who was leaving town the next day.  Got it for a song ~ and in the light of day discovered why; it too generated an amazing smoke screen.  Evidently Mister Lawyer was happy to dump a car that he thought had a blown engine.

 

I laughed... he sighed... then he determined that it had a ruptured vacuum pump diaphragm that allowed it to aspirate crankcase oil.  As I recall, it cost him something like $8 to fix it.  Heck... the A/C even worked!  He's been a diesel MB nut since his high school sophomore year; has four or five of 'em in various stages of running/reconstruction.  I can think of less wholesome hobbies.  ^_^  (The lighter one is a 300D.  He modified it and ran it primarily on straight used tortilla chip oil for a year as a project for his Industrial Technology major).

 

By the way - with his rebuild of the Toyota, he basically made common upgrade mods that are popular with some Toyota group he's involved with for the standard engine.  The pistons were to bring it to the same compression ratio as a stock 22RE ~ 9.3:1.  He just wanted to get shy of that 22R-TE.  All intake and exhaust components and vacuum lines are now standard 22RE.  It oughtta pass.

 

358490754_RysundtdasStukawagen.thumb.jpg.2839bd461d7aa98bdd26b9d9b0254995.jpg  Photo108_zps7bb27742.jpg

 

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Back early '80's Filly and I needed a second car but had little money. We bought an OD green 1960 Rambler American similar to this one for $100.  It was surplus from a local phone company, had a straight 6 manual transmission. About as stripped a model as you could get.  Something was always breaking or falling off, had to drive home once holding the drivers door closed with a piece of clothesline because the latch failed.

It would also flood if you even looked at it wrong trying to start it  cold. If I had someone with me I'd hold the butterfly open while they cranked it. If I was alone I would stick a screwdriver or whatever was handy in to hold it open. One day, running late, all I could find was a plastic Bic stick pen. Stuck that in, fired it up and suddenly it went full throttle and wouldn't respond!!  Only way to stop it was shut off the ignition. When I looked in the carb the pen was nowhere to be seen!  My guess is it momentarily wedged the butterfly open, then fell down into the intake!.I figure it stayed there until the car was scrapped, or the combination of heat and gas dissolved it.  Didn't seem to bother the engine any.

 

Lord, I hated that car.

60-AMC-Rambler-American-1-e1532357026830.jpg

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23 hours ago, Dantankerous said:

Biggest junker I had was a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee.  Couldn't go a week w/o having to fix something on it.

 

After a year I sold it after just as soon as I got it running long enough to offer a successful test drive.

 

The person who bought it was warned about the problems I had with it. They drove it 5 trouble free years. Arrrrrgh! :blink:

 

It's all in what you expect from it! :D

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2 minutes ago, JP McLintock said:

 

It's all in what you expect from it! :D

 

Lol.  I have owned Jeeps most of my life and have just come to expect Jeeps will require and inordinate amount of maintenance to keep running to satisfy one's Jeep lifestyle habit. :D

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1 hour ago, Dantankerous said:

 

Lol.  I have owned Jeeps most of my life and have just come to expect Jeeps will require and inordinate amount of maintenance to keep running to satisfy one's Jeep lifestyle habit. :D

 

That is the absolute truth, I had a 87 grand wagoneer, if you could keep oil in it, you could go anywhere you wanted.

 

One of my customers has a 15 cherokee, everything but the engine has been replaced once, now it's here for it's second set of struts, and another transmission.

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19 minutes ago, JP McLintock said:

 

That is the absolute truth, I had a 87 grand wagoneer, if you could keep oil in it, you could go anywhere you wanted.

 

One of my customers has a 15 cherokee, everything but the engine has been replaced once, now it's here for it's second set of struts, and another transmission.

 

Everytime I read one of these Jeepcomplaint lists, I have to wonder what kind of use/abuse the vehicle has endured.  I've owned 8 Jeeps (Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee Limited, Liberty, and Wrangler Unlimited versions), and every one has given me exemplary service.  I've used them to pull boats and trailers; to carry loads of firewood an rocks; to haul building materials; and even to pull stumps.  I've been very consciencious about service.  Every one had gone well beyond 150K miles before trading; only one suffered a major failure - a blown transmission in the dealer's lot when we arrived to pick up our new one.  

 

I wouldn't be without one.  But then, I don't try to climb rocks with it no matter what the fender sticker says.

 

LL

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53 minutes ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

 

Everytime I read one of these Jeepcomplaint lists, I have to wonder what kind of use/abuse the vehicle has endured.  I've owned 8 Jeeps (Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee Limited, Liberty, and Wrangler Unlimited versions), and every one has given me exemplary service.  I've used them to pull boats and trailers; to carry loads of firewood an rocks; to haul building materials; and even to pull stumps.  I've been very consciencious about service.  Every one had gone well beyond 150K miles before trading; only one suffered a major failure - a blown transmission in the dealer's lot when we arrived to pick up our new one.  

 

I wouldn't be without one.  But then, I don't try to climb rocks with it no matter what the fender sticker says.

 

LL

That's been my experience with 5 of them.

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54 minutes ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

 

Everytime I read one of these Jeepcomplaint lists, I have to wonder what kind of use/abuse the vehicle has endured.  I've owned 8 Jeeps (Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee Limited, Liberty, and Wrangler Unlimited versions), and every one has given me exemplary service.  I've used them to pull boats and trailers; to carry loads of firewood an rocks; to haul building materials; and even to pull stumps.  I've been very consciencious about service.  Every one had gone well beyond 150K miles before trading; only one suffered a major failure - a blown transmission in the dealer's lot when we arrived to pick up our new one.  

 

I wouldn't be without one.  But then, I don't try to climb rocks with it no matter what the fender sticker says.

 

LL

 

The key word is service, if you take care of them they can be pretty good, back in the 4.0L cherokee days they were great vehicles, after daimler and now fiat that has changed.

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I think it was probably the 1980 Citation I owned for a couple of years, real turd.  Replaced it with a Chrysler Laser- another tremendous turd, not sure which was worse.  Then again, it might have been my 98 explorer, but it only started falling apart after the divorce and the ex had it, so I will always remember it fondly :D

 

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My ex's Subaru Impreza is well on its way to becoming a junker, and it's not the car's fault. In the 4 years she's had it she's wrecked it once and ripped various pieces of trim off of it thanks to her stellar attempts at parking or navigating tight spots. The last time I saw it the entire fog light bezel was gone on one side. :rolleyes:

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4 hours ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

 

Everytime I read one of these Jeepcomplaint lists, I have to wonder what kind of use/abuse the vehicle has endured.  I've owned 8 Jeeps (Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee Limited, Liberty, and Wrangler Unlimited versions), and every one has given me exemplary service.  I've used them to pull boats and trailers; to carry loads of firewood an rocks; to haul building materials; and even to pull stumps.  I've been very consciencious about service.  Every one had gone well beyond 150K miles before trading; only one suffered a major failure - a blown transmission in the dealer's lot when we arrived to pick up our new one.  

 

I wouldn't be without one.  But then, I don't try to climb rocks with it no matter what the fender sticker says.

 

LL

Both the Jeeps I owned had serious electrical issues that even the dealers couldn’t solve 

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I had a 78 Jeep CJ7, I carried spare parts with me.  It was horrible on reliability.  Bought it new and I utilized all aspects of its warranty. 

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1 hour ago, Henry T Harrison said:

Both the Jeeps I owned had serious electrical issues that even the dealers couldn’t solve 

 

Were they YJs? The square headlight model? Curious.

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7 hours ago, Henry T Harrison said:

Both the Jeeps I owned had serious electrical issues that even the dealers couldn’t solve 

I have owned two Jeeps.  An 1988 Cherokee w/4.0L 6 cylinder & and 1994 CJ 4 cylinder.  The 1988 had a few issues.  One was caused when it was made.  The unibody  had a kink in it above the passenger side rear wheel.  The kink was in what substituted for a frame.  I discovered it when I heard a strange noise that I traced to the passenger side rear when towing a Sanger ski boat.  The frame had cracked where the kink was.  Some UAW member had screwed up & no QC inspector ever caught  the damage.  The kink created a stress riser.  The other problem was due to the fact that the ECM was 1st generation so it didn't have a fault log.  The car would some times not start (no spark & no fuel).  It was towed to a local independent shop where they couldn't find the source of the problem.  What they did both times they had it was 1st charge the battery with their shop charger.  When they reconnected the battery the engine would start & run.  Since the Cherokee wasn't our only vehicle I let them keep it for a couple of weeks.  They'd start it 1st thing in the morning & let it get hot & shut it down.  They would do this twice a day.  It never failed.  Took it home and a month later it did it again.  This time the shop checked the ECM related sensors following the mfg's test procedures to determine if an sensor was out of spec.  They replaced the TDC sensor.  A few month's later it did it again.  This time I asked what their procedure was when a car was towed into their shop.  The shop owner said they always disconnect the battery & charge it.  The light bulb I my head went ON!  Some times digital electronics will quit working & all you have to do is remove the power source to reset.  After that I put a 1/2 combination wrench in the glove box & showed the misses how to disconnect the negative battery cable & reinstall it.  We even had the dealer that was 15 miles away check it out twice.  The 1st time after it was worked on it didn't make it 2 miles before it died at a stop light.  To verify the issue I drove it to work one day and it did it to me.  Took it back to the dealer & they check every sensor and replace those that were marginal.  I only paid for the one sensor that was iffy.  It didn't ever fail again.  However, we only kept it another year.   Had the catalyst disintegrate & plug the new muffler which melted the plastic EGR valve vacuum servo.   Other than these issues it was a great car.  The 1994 CJ's only issue was they car had to be downshifted to make it up I80 eastbound from Auburn to Truckee and maintain 65 MPH.  After June of 2014 when we bought a Kia Soul the Jeep sat until my daughter & son in law bought it for a fun car.  The CJ worked great when used to unstick my 2000 F250 4X4.   I live in fine sand & have stuck the truck & my Yanmar FX165 16.5HP mini 4X4 tractor.  I have a 50 ft. chain for the job of pulling them out of the sand. 

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Howdy,

The worst cars are ones that look good and just seem to need one more repair....

Volvo kept breaking. money detector equipped for sure.

I drove one thru college. Looked fine, broke every time i had a buck.

Bought another one forrest green wagon. Very nice.

I grew to truly hate that car. I sold it and walked home.

I didnt even want to ride home in it.

And I told the guy it needed brakes....

One of the happiest days of my life was that Volvo leaving.

Rivaled the day I left the army.

Best

CR

 

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