Two of the most outrageous claims I’ve heard are: In Navy Boot Camp, there was a guy who claimed (among a lot of other things) that he had a 66 Mustang with a rare 221 cubic inch V-8 that was a specially built racing engine by Ford. The more he talked about it, the faster it went. Started out claiming 13 sec quarter miles and eventually was claiming it would do in the 11’s a couple of weeks into boot camp. One day I called him a liar and from then on, we got into fights pretty regularly.
The other was a car salesman who was convinced that if he could find a 1:1 rear gears set, he could make a (71) Thunderbird go 400 mph with a Pinto engine. To him it was just a matter of gearing. I was so caught off guard with that one that I didn’t know what to say.
I drove a 1995 Corolla 5-speed sedan with the 1.8 liter 7A-FE
Here in the USA, it’s known as a AE102
The version with the 1.6liter 4A-FE was known as AE101
It’s apparently the 7th generation corolla, but in Europe and elsewhere it’s E100
George drives the earlier E90, a 1992 model year to be exact, the final year for that body style in north america. Apparently it was known here as AE92
My Corolla was definitely bigger and heavier than George’s car. I know that for a fact, because my aunt used to have a Corolla that looked just like George’s
George’s car is lighter and uses smaller tires and rims
Huh, beats me. Guess it was a six then but that was 50 years ago. Can’t remember how many spark plugs I bought. I still have no idea what the mpg was, but on snow days when we were off, we’d take that thing out running through snow drifts. Had snow tires on the back and it would just keep rocking and digging its way through. Never got stuck.
I suppose about 1958 my neighbor had a 49 Ford flat head. He was the mechanical type that would fix anything and had a welder under the hood. I remember when he got it and it was kind of like a big generator sitting under the hood. He ran it off of a V belt and had a crank to tighten the belt on the welder. Kinda weird but it seemed to work and the flat head never seemed to even notice the load while he was welding. Now that I think about it, I wonder what he thought having about five kids hanging around watching everything he did.
The only design fault with that car was the oil filter sticking out from the engine block, close to the exhaust manifold.
A poor oil change by a major oil firm branch caused an engine fire under the hood which I caught just in time or the car would have been toast litterally,
I was so sad, we had like an arc welder used to thaw frozen water services, it was powered by an old flathead at least from the 50’s, maybe 40’s, Sweet old engine, replaced by 2 newer whatevers. Nothing wrong with it. how that works is one side is connected to a hydrant or water valve, the other side connected to the incoming pipe in the house. Crank it up and the current heats up the pipe and the freeze melts. Now guys in the basement no gloves or anything would pull the clamp when water started to flow. I was like I will be the guy to press the switch to start the motor. One time I was trying to get a better connection on a hydrant, the guy because of cars parked could not see me wave, for I am good. He started the motor, surprised I was not killed, but got a good connection and water service thawed, no harm no foul I guess.
A couple winters ago there was a rash of frozen pipes around here. Cold and not enough snow. One guy in town was the go to guy when others failed. Don’t know what he used but it worked. I never had a problem but I have plastic pipe coming in under ground to wonder if the welder would work on that. 'Spose the ice itself would be a conductor. I take the water temp when its really cold and they say to start to worry if it gets below about 40 or so.
The postwar, overhead valve Ford six started as a 215 cube engine in 52 and 53 and was enlarged to 223 in 54. Ford raced it in the Mexican Road Race in the 52 and 53 race with instructions to keep the hoods closed when the public was around because they did not want people to know they were not racing the flathead V8.
When Tom McCahil of Mechanix Illustrated road tested a 52 he said there was no reason to pay for the two extra gas sucking holes of the V8.