Taking the block apart to repair the valves is easier than taking the head covers off? Besides, now that most cars have timing chains, what needs repaired?
A 2003 Nissan Maxima would probably blow the doors off of an early '50s Hudson stock car, and use less fuel in the process.
Valves are very RARELY repaired in a modern vehicle. They last fine from the 150k-400k range without any intervention.
A 1950 car required so much maintenance and fuel even to make it to 100k…
That’s because the good lord knows better than to compare things that are better contrasted. 
Nostalgia plays funny tricks with your head. Just look at the Ronald Reagan presidency. To hear conservatives talk about Reagan now, you would think he had a balanced budget instead of record deficits. My old 1969 Dodge Dart was a great car … for 1969, and my 1985 Buick Skyhawk was a great car … for 1985, but neither of them can hold a candle to my 1998 Civic in terms of repairs and longevity.
…unless the timing belt breaks and they’re kissed by the pistons.
Like every maintenance issue, if you neglect it, it will become a repair issue, so I don’t neglect it.
The Checkers were very good, long lasting taxicabs with their Continental Red Seal flathead engines. Since the Checkers were such good taxicabs, my guess is that when a Checker finally expired, it went to cab heaven. I would bet that heavenly taxicabs are these Checkers. This is my final word on technology and theology–I shouldn’t have made the remark about the valves being in the block where the good lord intended them to be placed–but it is sure fun to stir things up on this board.
Vehicle technology is always evolving, much more and faster than the average person realizes.
The Checkers with the Chevy 350s were better though…
Regarding the planned obsolescence statement, there is something to that.
At a Subaru service school I attended about 20 years ago the instructor there stated that planned obsolescence was part of the overall game plan.
He actually stated that Subaru policy was to kind of dink along about the same for 4 or 5 years before doing any moderate to major redesign work. There is no reason to think that other car makers are any different.
I think what you said is accurate, to an extent. Car companies DO compromise for mileage -- on some models, they now put rock hard, no-traction donuts ("high mileage tires"), compromising braking, cornering, safety, and especially wet, snow, and ice traction, in the interest of gaining a fractional MPG. So, absolutely, I think they would compromise some engine life in the interest of further MPG. Does it matter? I don't think so -- at least here in the midwest, I figure with proper maintenace my car will rust to pieces from salt, and rattle to pieces from monster potholes, well before I run into engine problems, and I think it would even if I put 0W20 into it instead of the 5W30 I do use in it.Intentionally designing in obsolescence of the model year is accepted practice. What I was referring to as “planned obsolescence” was intentionally designing in part lifespans, parts beginning to fail after a planned lifespan. I believe that it’s a balance between lifespan and cost. Cars could be made to last far longer but the cost would be prohibitive. Metals that deteriorate could be replaced with engineered materials that last forever, articulating joints could be made far more robust, structural parts could be designed with high strength engineered composits, and perhaps engines could even be individually balanced and tweaked until they’re virtually vibration free, reducing wear.
I actually think the industry overall does a darn fine job of designing and building longevity into automobiles while keeping them reasonably affordable. Cars toay last far, far longer than they did in the '60s, and operate far more reliably. And with the constant pressure to improve CAFE numbers, high tech engineered composits will eventually become commonplace and the cost come down. Already the technologies for creating structures out of these lightweight materials is rapidly advancing as the high-end cars like McClaren, Lotus and Lambo develop ways to create “tubs” (unibody main structures) out of the materials. I recall in my lifetime when aluminum body panels were considered exotic.
I’m kind of curious, just what is the actual viscosity of 0w oil? I know it doesn’t have zero viscosity anymore than zero degrees on the thermometer means absolute zero temperature.
Is 0w a lot thinner than 5w or 10w or is it just the next step down on the scale? Might we be seeing -5w oil in the future?
What is interesting is that Continental dropped Checker as a customer, so Checker was forced to switch to another engine after 1964. There were two models of the Continental engine that Checker used–one was a 226 cubic inch with the valves in the block and the other was a 226 cubic inch engine which had been adapted to overhead valves. In 1965, both the Chevrolet 6 and Chevrolet V-8 were offered in the Checker.
However, the Checker cabs I really liked were the models built before 1956. These cars had a shape similar to the 1946-47 Cadillac, were powered by the Continaental 226 cubic inch flathead engine and had a solid front axle. I remember when I was in elementary school our family went to New York City in 1950. The taxicabs back then were Checkers, DeSotos and Packards. These cabs were really roomy and all were powered by a 6 cylinder flathead engine.
You didn’t have to take the block apart with the 6 cylinder flathead engines. The cylinder heaed was removed and then there were a couple of covers on side of the block that were removed. This gave acdcess to the valves. The valve keepers were taken off and the valves were pushed up and out of the block. Of course, one advantage for the back yard mechanic on a car with overhead valves was that the back yard mechanic could remove the cylinder head and then take it to a machine shop to have the valves ground and replaced in the cylinder head.
What made the Hudson great in stock car racing was its superior handling to other cars of the day. On a straight drag race, I imagine that an Oldsmobile 88 with the Rocket V-8 could probably out accelerate the Hudson. Its interesting that the Oldsmobile V-8 displaced 303 cubic inches and the Hudson flathead 6 displaced 308 cubic engines. Both engines were about the same size.
In case anyone has forgotten, it was a member of his family who started the whole fuss, when she said she saw him born in Kenya.
Gear oil uses a different viscosity scale, so 75w-90 gear oil is about as thick as 15w-40 motor oil.
When I drove my '75 Civic with a 1.5L engine across the southern US in August (I was young and in love) I used 20W-50 oil.
In the early '60s the engine wore out in my father’s '48 Plymouth.
A few years later he got a $30 paint job at Earl Scheib.
By the late '60’s the body had rotted, so he gave it to his buddy in Virginia.
He put the car on stands and attached a saw blade to one of the rear hubs.
I guess I’m a bit old-fashioned–I say 5W-30 in winter and 10W-30 in summer. I say this because most owner’s manuals I’ve seen say to use 5W-30 up to 100 degrees or so and 10W-30 down to zero; both extremes are occasionally reached here in southwest Indiana. Plus, most of the cars I’ve ridden in were bought used.
ShiftKicker
Don’t they use beet juice now?