[OT] Engine braking

[Adam Wilson]

On Tue, 30 Jul 2013 18:14:25 -0700, Walter Bright  
<newshound2 at digitalmars.com> wrote:

> On 7/30/2013 4:22 PM, Adam Wilson wrote:
>> Indeed, the other things you listed are quite evil on the internals of  
>> the
>> engine. Particularly going too long between oil changes. But  
>> compression braking
>> isn't on the list from an engineering standpoint. The components of the
>> transmission and engine and much beefier than they strictly need to be.
>
> Eh, I'm less convinced about that. I've had two transmissions shatter  
> going steady speed at 30 mph. I doubled the horsepower in my dodge, the  
> first thing that needed upgrading was the transmission (replaced the  
> whole thing). I also upgraded the springs, driveshaft, bell housing  
> (don't want my feet cut off), flywheel & clutch, brakes, and mounts. Not  
> to mention everything inside the engine is upgraded, such as going from  
> a cast to a forged crank (3x stronger).
>

Huh, I can't recall a story of that ever happening to a Honda or Toyota.  
We've had people install towkits on Minivans without the required oil  
cooler and set their transmissions on fire. But never shattering... Now  
the Japanese tend to source higher quality metal than the American  
manufacturers do, so that might be it...

> I didn't upgrade the differential and rear axle. Those do tend to be  
> beefier than necessary.
>
> If I went to more than double the power, I'd have to do things like weld  
> extra bracing into the frame, "tub" the rear chassis, go to fat tires,  
> put in a roll cage, etc.
>
>
>> No manufacturer wants THAT recall at 5k per repair. Essentially, it's  
>> not any
>> different than driving forward, you are just reversing the stress on  
>> components
>> that were engineered to handle it moving forward.
>
> It also assumes that the profile of the gears and the hardening on them  
> is symmetric. It probably is - but I don't know that for a fact.
>
>
>> And most people drive cars newer than 15 years, unlike the Crazy Leader  
>> of D Who
>> Shall Remain Nameless. ;-)
>
> There's just something about a hotrodder doing it by reflashing the SD  
> memory that leaves me cold :-)
>

It's kind of hard to be proud of 5 minutes of effort. :-D

> I just don't care for new cars. The only ones that piqued my interest  
> are the retro Mustang and the retro Challenger. Not even the new  
> Ferraris look interesting. I'll rent cars on trips, and I can't even  
> recall what brand they were. Zzzzzzz.
>

I have to admit the tech in new cars is very appealing to me. But at this  
point now we're talking about taste, which I try not to debate people on.  
:-)

> I'll just conclude with a video on why electric cars will always suck  
> and why Detroit has never made anything worth buying since 1972:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsUnBQE8jhE
>

I'm with you on the electric cars. I'll proudly drive my oil burning  
pollution machines till I die. But if we want to make money in the  
automotive maintenance world, we gotta follow the crowd... *sigh*

-- 
Adam Wilson
IRC: LightBender
Project Coordinator
The Horizon Project
http://www.thehorizonproject.org/