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Just a little puffing, thatās all 
They failed to brag about the differing expansion rates of the aluminum block & the steel cylinder head, and the engine damage that often resulted. Surely, they could have āpuffedā a bit about that.
Was GM actually aware of the long term problems with the AlSi alloy that they chose to use? I doubt it since in many cases they sleeved the cylinders with iron sleeves. They should have been aware of course.
The Vega engine passed a 1000 hour wide open throttle test with flying colors and millions of miles of road testing. The engine was durable IF you worked it hard. The problem occurred on the granny cycleā¦ short trips, not fully warmed up, parked for a couple of days. Exactly how most would use a cheap small car bought as a second car. Oil would drain off the cylinder walls in cold weather while sitting and scuffing occurred. And then acids in the oil would destroy the cylinder walls and then they pumped oil like a Texan.
The cast iron cylinder head was a dumb ideaā¦ different expansion rates, greater vibration, worse coolingā¦ And a barely adequate cooling system. But hey, the cylinder walls often failed before the head gasket blew!
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Not to be harsh but ya think the ads are any better now? Women in evening dresses, cars suddenly braking to avoid hitting a kid in the road while the driver is distracted, trucks or cars plowing a foot of snow up the mountain, and on and on.
A note to the public: ads are created by over paid marketing folks trying to earn a bonus, and sold to out of touch execs. Just laugh at them and donāt wait for the engineer to come on the screen explaining how some of these features were added. Sucker born every minute.
Back in the '50s & '60s, almost every ad for floor wax featured a photo or drawing of a woman in an evening gown, waxing her floorā¦ effortlessly.
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And every women shown in the home doing any task was dressed like June Cleaver in Leave it to Beaver. A dress, heels, and pearls!
Of course Ward Cleaver never took off his tie when he came home in the evening either!
Even better than that, men were typically shown wearing a tie while mowing the lawn and doing other outdoor tasks.
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My first new car was a āMade in Americaā Vega, in consultation with my WW2 Vet Dad who wouldnāt countenance any German or Japanese car in the driveway.
The Fastback was a great design, the stick shift nice and neat features like an attachable tent which allowed you to fold down the rear seats and sleep in the car but within a month the muffler fell off (Dealer initially claimed it wasnāt covered by the warranty) and within 2 years the orange body parts had faded to pink and the engine was drinking oil like it was Kool Aid.
Combination of GMās rush to build a competitive car and the UAWās sense of entitlement.
Aside from itās problems, canāt help to wonder what would have happened if GM would have simply built a ānormalā 2 liter OHC engine, ānormalā body parts and the UAW/GM would have focused on quality instead of getting into a pissing match.
Next car, Dad took me to the Datsun dealer.
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Heh heh. Maybe I should try a dress while cleaning, cooking, and dishes. Iād have to shave my legs though. Maybe if I pierced my ears the wife would let me wear those diamond earrings I got her for Christmas.
Interestingly when I look at some of the old videos of guys working in the assembly plants in the 30s, a lot of the guys have ties on under their coveralls. Dad only wore a tie on Sunday though. Guess he thought the welding sparks might burn holes. A kinder gentler time when guys opened doors and girls said thank you.
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I didnāt notice it at the time, but on re-runs JC is quite attractive.
He did seem to keep his tie on long into the evening. But he didnāt wear it doing errands around the house and in the garage/
TV show, viewers understand what the characters wear usually isnāt realistic. Speaking of unrealistic, the kidās bathroom was more like something youād find in a palace. Huge and sparkling clean all the time. I always wondered who was cleaning the grout ?
I once saw someone doing that. It was 40 to 50 years ago and the guy was an old man.
I have a friend who used to do that in his 30s, about 40 years agoā¦ Tie, white short sleeve shirt wearing a fully loaded pocket protector.
I know I donāt need to say thisā¦ but he is an engineer.
Who cares, the Vega was meant to buy it blow the engine up and install a much bigger SBC or yet a BBC in it and make it a beast on the streets and dragsā¦
Well, that is the hot rodders version of the story anyways, thatās my story and Iām sticking to itā¦ 
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Apparently, puffing is not your strong suit 
This thing is a total POSā¦the engine will grenade and the rear end is sure to fall out, now what can we do to get you in one today?
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Flat top haircut and athletic tape holding his glasses together. Does that finish his description?
I had a flat top. Never had to worry about hair getting mussed up riding my motor scooter.
Closeā¦ Short hair but no flattop (another, older guy in the office had oneā¦) and if he did break his glasses, heād use his spare pair or his work-issued safety glasses. With the budget āBuddy Hollyā frames
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I still have a flat top to this day. Somewhere in my 20s I figured that short hair was the easiest to keep clean and wash after a day in the shop. And I always wore long sleeves to help keep my arms clean.
I suppose now that Iām 55 I should be glad that I still have enough hair to cut flat.
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