Do modern engines last longer?

don't miss

have sensors

Be sure. It is true. Virtually NO fuel dilution of oil, closer combustion control meals less detonation and cyl overheating. Timing virtually never shifts. Electronic engine controls are resposible for a LARGE portion of increased engine life.

Actually, it does not.No more carb rebuilds. No timing adjustment. No points to change( and adjust). No choke problems. No worn distributor cams or sticking advance mechanisms. In many cases no distributor cap or rotor to go bad. When things go wrong on an OBD2 engine, it "tells you where it hurts". The diagnostics do not always tell you exactly what's wrong, but it lets you know the engine is not "feeling good" before it fails. I started in the automotive service buisiness in the sixties, and I've owned and worked on vehicles from the twenties on up. No doubt in my mind at all that new engines are MUCH better than the old ones, and also no doubt they are EASIER to service, on the whole, than the old ones were - other than the FACT that getting to them is a lot more difficult. My wife's Mystique is not easy to get to ANYTHING on - my old 3.8 TransSport was every bit as bad. My 3.0 Aerostar was not simple to get to either - and even my 2.4 PT Cruiser promisses to be challenging.

No worse than a 428 CJ mustang, or a V8 Monza though - and on them you had to change the plugs about once a year (which involved removng engine mounts etc) while ll of the above-mentioned only need it every

change the oil

Oil burning is not the issue. Oil control is. The rings maintain a light coating of oil on the cyls - which lubricates. Washing this off with gas causes engine wear (as well as oil consumption). The gasoline also gets into the crankcase, past the rings, diluting the oil and reducing it's lubrication capability.

Most definitely - most piston "heads" are smaller than the "skirts" and in many cases smaller than the "ring lands"

Put a wee bit of leaded aviation fuel in the tank every couple of months. It takes VERY LITTLE lead to protect the seats, and the effect lasts a long time. Half a gallon of 100LL to 15 gallons of unleaded fuel every 5-10 tanks is MORE than adequate.

I have to agree with that one for sure. I got a Ford code for "defective ground at fuel pump". Now that could be the kind of thing that will drive someone crazy finding it. Another time it told me, "Hey, your fuel filler cap has a little vaccuum leak".

My wife's car was the year before Jaguar started using OBD. Want an exercise in pure life-wasting misery, diagnose that Smith's and Lucas-filled thing, with one computer made in France, another by Bosch, and two in England, all talking to each other..Kind of. And I have the OEM Manuals, all four volumes, with pages and pages of map-folded schematics. If someone were to steal it, she'd be heartbroken. (I would slip quietly away and buy a bottle of something really expensive....for myself. And party balloons.)

I started working on my own cars a _LONG_ time ago. First car was a Studebaker Golden Hawk. Still have dreams about it.

Almost put a Pontiac Sprint motor in the Teraplane.

IIRC "chills" are added to parts of the casting box to increase the cooling rate locally where required and refine the grain structure to improve the local properties. IIRC the old Gardner engine with its cast ally crankcase was a great example of this.

Thanks. That's very interesting.

Best wishes,

Chris

I think that's probably one trade-off you can't avoid.

Chris

You mean the castings are cooled by quenching?

Chris

Hmm ... did you also make the access ports in the firewall so you could access the rearmost spark plug on each side? That was a needed part of the design of the Tiger IIRC.

The biggest engine swap (actually the only one) that I did was putting an MGB 1800 CC engine in the MGA 1600 MK II. It made a significant difference in the pep of the car. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.