Automotive Myths, Lore, and other incorrectness

Marvel Mystery Oil will "improve" your oil.
Or your gas.
Or magically "repair" your engine.
Or make it last 500,000 miles. Yada, yada, yada.

wlkelley3 wrote: Can't count how many times I've heard this. Especially about Opel GTs. They have a speedometer that goes to 160mph and invariably someone will tell me that they knew someone that pegged the speedometer on theirs. Yeah right, even the factory literature say it will only go 112mph tops.

At one point, I had an RX-7 with an 85mph speedometer that was, inexplicably, over 10% fast, so it would peg while floating along in traffic at 75-80mph. It would peg the speedo in third gear. As-tested top speed was 120, which was 7k in 4th or ~5600 in 5th. I ran out to redline in 4th, upshifted, it kept pulling, and I wussed out at around 5800.

Meanwhile, my other car was a Subaru. It had a 130mph speedometer. Top speed, come hell or high water, was 87mph...

I have a thing for owning an RX-7 and an underpowered 4wd wagon, I guess

I wonder what those yahoos think of the dog-slow 1.8l SOHC 1st-gen DSMs. Those had the same 170mph speedometer as every other DSM. Why? Because why not, I guess.

poopshovel wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: I had some yahoo in a bar tell me his Trans Am would do 200 MPH. I dodged the statement as long as I could, then finally told him it wouldn't go that fast if it was dropped off a cliff. He then challenged me to ride with him. I took one look at this half drunk guy and said no frickin' way. Of course he called me puzzy, etc. I still to this day think he was looking at the KPH ring, which IIRC Trans Ams had. I just know there was no way in hell I was getting in that car with him.

Pus*y.

You are what you eat.

aeronca65t wrote: Marvel Mystery Oil will "improve" your oil. Or your gas. Or magically "repair" your engine. Or make it last 500,000 miles. Yada, yada, yada.

I forgot to take a photo.

Recently serviced a '41 Cadillac. Flathead V8, all the ports were on the inside of the V, so no through-the-block exhaust ports like the Ford V8s. The water pump impeller had fallen off. It would actually stay cool via the thermosiphon effect, but would run hot on the highway. You can do that when your engine is low compression and has huge water jackets and no coolant thermostat. (Thermostatic Venetian blinds in front of the radiator. It was rad.)

Anyway, it had a genuine Marvel Mystery Oil oiler attached to the firewall.

We'll see the car again, guy's a regular customer (it's his daily driver!) so I'll try to remember for next time.

The "w" in the oil designation stands for weight.

You have to let your car warm up before you drive it or you'll crack your engine block.

You can't modify an ODB-II car and still pass emissions inspection.

I had a guy once tell me that he paid GM to install a Can Am motor in his 72 Corvette. He also said that he rented Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a day and did a lap in said Corvette that would have "put him on pole for the five-hunderd".

:rollseyes:

Knurled wrote:

aeronca65t wrote: Marvel Mystery Oil will "improve" your oil. Or your gas. Or magically "repair" your engine. Or make it last 500,000 miles. Yada, yada, yada.

I forgot to take a photo. Recently serviced a '41 Cadillac. Flathead V8, all the ports were on the inside of the V, so no through-the-block exhaust ports like the Ford V8s. The water pump impeller had fallen off. It would actually stay cool via the thermosiphon effect, but would run hot on the highway. You can do that when your engine is low compression and has huge water jackets and no coolant thermostat. (Thermostatic Venetian blinds in front of the radiator. It was rad.) Anyway, it had a genuine Marvel Mystery Oil oiler attached to the firewall. We'll see the car again, guy's a regular customer (it's his daily driver!) so I'll try to remember for next time.

I just want to see this '41 Cadillac with no WP impeller that some dude drives everyday! Sounds awesome.

It's got one of them big block Pontiac motors.

RealMiniDriver wrote: You need a manual transmission to be "in control" of the car.

Nowadays that's true. Along with you need a throttle cable.

Maroon92 wrote: I had a guy once tell me that he paid GM to install a Can Am motor in his 72 Corvette. He also said that he rented Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a day and did a lap in said Corvette that would have "put him on pole for the five-hunderd". :rollseyes:

It''s not that hard to believe, my Cavalier could have been on the pole up until about 1922

I had some yahoo tell me that the 5.7 in the Toyota Tundra is really a Chevy 350, that Toyota bought after GM was done with it. Ugh.

I had another guy that was NOTORIOUS for talking out of his ass, who was in a borrowed Cadillac Seville. An early northstar car, circa 1995 or so I think, it was actually a sharp looking car. Anyhow he claimed it registered 220, and that Mike (the guy who owned said car) had gotten it "Pretty damn close.) I get up and check out the speedo, thinking he's reading the Km/ph. It sure did say 220, but I didn't see MPH or anything on it at all. I'm seriously thinking it was a Canadian car. Which is weird here in Kentucky.

Working at a parts store I hear this stuff CONSTANTLY and sometimes I really have to bite my tongue to keep from correcting some people.

But yes, I agree that the proverbial "chip" customer comes in at least once a week. I tell them "there's no such thing as a chip anymore, OBDII cars have programmers, where you reprogram the computer that's already there."

dumbfounded look

"I just want the thing that I plug in and gives me more power."

facepalm

One guy bought the only tuner we offered for his automatic Focus. Which was a BullyDog Watchdog. I told him it was a monitor, for economy stuff, not for performance. He scoffed at me, bought it anyway, and returned it later that day.

Dumbass.

I just cant stand the terrible BS'ers.

Kid at work has a 99 Mustang GT that has twin turbos from Saleen, but he cant pop his hood because the latch is broken. Also, he paid extra to keep the car sounding stock because he is a street racing hustler.

i used to hear the darndest things when i had my ex cop car.

One guy was convinced it was supercharged and chipped and that is was lightening quick. I assured him it was non above and finally, just shy of opening the hood he believed me.

I should get another CVPI just to hear the things people have to say. Funny stuff

There is no room for improvement in factory ECU tunes

If you remove the thermostat the water will go through the radiator so fast the engine will overheat.

Backpressure is necessary in the exhaust.

Zomby Woof wrote: My personal favourite. The best cams for a turbo car are the stock ones.

You must hang around our forums alot.

Duke wrote: Neons have a Mitsubishi engine. Nope, other way round. Base 2L Eclipses have a Neon engine, with the head on backwards.

Ugh I hate this one, especailly when looking for 420A parts and every neon part on ebay is list as 420A. I've run across a few people that argue the point also.

Oil changes: three months or three thousand miles.

Knurled wrote:

wlkelley3 wrote: Can't count how many times I've heard this. Especially about Opel GTs. They have a speedometer that goes to 160mph and invariably someone will tell me that they knew someone that pegged the speedometer on theirs. Yeah right, even the factory literature say it will only go 112mph tops.

At one point, I had an RX-7 with an 85mph speedometer that was, inexplicably, over 10% fast, so it would peg while floating along in traffic at 75-80mph. It would peg the speedo in *third* gear. As-tested top speed was 120, which was 7k in 4th or ~5600 in 5th. I ran out to redline in 4th, upshifted, it kept pulling, and I wussed out at around 5800. Meanwhile, my other car was a Subaru. It had a 130mph speedometer. Top speed, come hell or high water, was 87mph... I have a thing for owning an RX-7 and an underpowered 4wd wagon, I guess I wonder what those yahoos think of the dog-slow 1.8l SOHC 1st-gen DSMs. Those had the same 170mph speedometer as every other DSM. Why? Because why not, I guess.

My '82 RX7 had one of the 85 MPH speedos which I later swapped for the, IIRC, 140 MPH version. When it had the 85 MPH it was funny to pull out to pass and the speedo would just quit till I slowed down again.

gamby wrote: I'm sure a lot of people know someone who knew someone who, back in the 80's, had a car bought back from them because it had some "experimental" 50 mpg carbureter on it that accidentally made its way out of the factory. also-- Back in the height of the Honda craze, I couldn't even count how many times I heard someone (at a quick lube/auto parts store/etc...) say about my 99 Civic Si "yo, my cousin/boy/brother has one of those and he got this chip that gave it an extra 30hp, y0!!! I'd just usually let it go--sometimes I'd say "gee, that's really odd, since a header only adds 4 or 5 hp". The EM1 Si is very well-tuned from the factory. Unless you're doing big cams and high comp pistons, expect nothing outside of 10-12hp peak. My "chip" was in an OBD1 conversion ecu that would allow the car to simply run after camgear and fuel tuning. The stock ECU doesn't tolerate it. The unwashed masses are fascinated by the concept of this mythical, omnipotent "CHIP" that will add untold power to any car it graces.

That said, the butt-dyno was very improved when you did your basic breathing mods and farted around in Crome or Neptune for awhile. Doubt peak power was much affected, though. To this day i think the vtec engagement was too high on those cars.

mmosbey wrote: Oil changes: three months or three thousand miles.

You know those horrible sludging problems that lots of cars have? I haven't seen any.

Ayup, waste of money it is. (Ever see a 250k 1.8t that is perfectly clean under the cam cover? )

I don't think either of my cars make it to 2k before it's time for an oil change. One turns the oil to a vile, spiteful sludge, the other dumps fuel into it at an alarming rate...

I once had a bro-tato first-time (and probably last) autocrosser at my worker station insisting that his Prelude was rear-wheel drive. My polite skepticism was met with a more emphatic expression of confidence, because "the car is seriously modified, dude - I've done all of the work myself".

gamby wrote: The unwashed masses are fascinated by the concept of this mythical, omnipotent "CHIP" that will add untold power to any car it graces.

It doesn't help that there are ridiculous numbers of questionable so-called "chips" on eBay that claim to do exactly that.

Amazing how much you can claim your product gains when you're totally devoid of a conscience.

When I was a Junior in HS the mom of a friend of mine had an Onmi GLH, the boyfriend of said friend had a 70 something Granada with a V8 and an auto. We were sitting at a softball game talking about cars and he said that his car was faster because it was an auto and it could shift faster. I told him that if he could get me the keys to the GLH I would show him how wrong he was.

MadScientistMatt wrote:

gamby wrote: The unwashed masses are fascinated by the concept of this mythical, omnipotent "CHIP" that will add untold power to any car it graces.

It doesn't help that there are ridiculous numbers of questionable so-called "chips" on eBay that claim to do exactly that. Amazing how much you can claim your product gains when you're totally devoid of a conscience.

$199! Cheaper than $1 per HorsePowah!®

Guys with ZX2's buy the 150 mph speedometer from the SR so it will go faster.