The Unofficial "Ask a Stupid Question" Thread

I get my batteries at Home Depot, they’re usually by the exit past the cashiers.
For a stock car pretty much any battery in the correct physical size will work fine.

You’ll lose all your presets on your radio.
 
rampagingsloth said:
I have an offer to get a Costco replacement battery, not sure what that means (brand-wise) so I'm open to suggestions in terms of cranking power and AGM vs. normal. Also, will anything stupid happen because the car lost all power while the battery was swapped? I can't remember what happened the last time the car lost complete power for any length of time.
Click to expand...
I'm still not sold on AGM batteries. I've been using Costco batteries (made by Interstate) for as long as I can remember. I haven't had any issues with them at all and they are quite a bit cheaper than at the parts store. I put a Costco battery in the '97 in 2020 and it is fine. All of my other running rigs other than the LTD wagon have Costco batteries.
 
KevinVarnes said:
I'm still not sold on AGM batteries.
Click to expand...
If the car came from the factory with an AGM, get an AGM.

If the car came from the factory with a wet-cell, don't get an AGM.

It really is that simple.

:bdh:
 
Vicinity said:
Isn't there other data that gets wiped?
Click to expand...
Supposedly in some cars yes. It's advisable to hook a jump pack or another battery, to your battery leads, so that it never loses voltage. There are some battery packs that plug into the cigarette lighter to keep power to everything, as well.
 
A VW loses all its readiness parameters when the battery dies or is disconnected. Takes it 2-3 cycles to relearn everything. Until then you'll think it has fouled plugs by the way it idles.
 
A couple years ago I pulled out my rear subframe and redid everything, that included upgrading my fuel pump, changing the filler neck, and all new rubber hoses on the tank. Ever since then I haven’t been able to fully squeeze the gas pump without it clicking off, so I would have to fill the car up slowly, which you can imagine is super annoying.

While in the midst of my trans swap, I changed the fuel tank vent valve because I didn’t do that a couple years ago, I’m not sure if this is going to solve the issue, But is there anything else that would cause the gas pump to click off if I squeeze it all the way? I’d like to fix it while the tank is still down, I don’t want to pull the exhaust again that sucked. 😅

My second dumb question; is a 190lph pump good enough for my SVO blower when I install it? I plan on keeping the stock pulley making 6-7 lbs of boost and adding the 30lb injectors it came with.
 
Technically 30s can deliver enough fuel to support if it's delivering fuel all the time, but you have to focus in on duty cycle and pulsewidth. I would say 70-75% being a good max duty cycle for injector sizing calculations. Under high load, high RPM, and especially with forced induction, you need to be able to deliver the fuel quickly.

With that I would be skeptical of 30s being strong enough; I'd probably go with 36 or 42s to give you more headroom. This also gives you the ability to deliver the fuel with a much shorter pulsewidth, which can be delivered to the cylinder at the most opportune time with the intake valve open using the injector timing tables.

The 190lph pump won't max out until you exceed the flow of 36#/hr injectors at 100% duty cycle. If we use 70% as our max, that would mean flow to support a hypothetical 54# injector.
 
I bought some a few years ago, that supposedly had been on Ron's car. They were green tops, which are 42# injectors. I believe he sold them when he upgraded, maybe he will chime in. He has an excellent car, with blower.1733951311507.png
 
Last edited:
also
I have two sets of 24# injectors, one old style from a mark, and one new style, that Have a finer spray, that I plan to use on the dohc heads. All the ones I got, I refurbed. All were gunked up, with bs dissolved out of our fuel lines, which don't tolerate alcohol well.
The o-rings have changed; green and blue viton;one optimized for pressure, one for vacuum.
 
Last edited:
Another option is 03 Cobra #39 injectors, you can sometimes find them real cheap when terminator guys upgrade blowers and switch to #60s and whatnot, though that scenario was more common 10 years ago. They’re blue body EV6 with the newer connector but they sell adapters
 
I saw the other thread about ramps, and I got to thinking. What are notable differences, pros and cons to using ramps over jack stands? I feel that ramps are bulkier and more cumbersome than jack stands.

Like. How do ramps work in comparison to jack stands? Do they provide greater clearance than jack stands? My jack stands are out of the way as I place them on the pinch welds (Honda / wife's car). With ramps, the ramps would also be out of the way, but I feel I'd be running into them because of how much bigger they are.

Someone let me know. I'm curious!
 
Jack stands are way higher than ramps, and it is easier to just drive up on the ramps for oil changes etc.
I also use 6 ton suv stands, so I can lift it up high enough to do a transmission.
I have four stands and a fairly large jack.
 
Ramps are only really useful for things like oil changes where you can quickly drive the car up on them to get to the drain plug and filter, they also can be useful to tighten suspension bolts at ride height. Beyond that jack stands are more useful for more tasks
 
I like ramps for oil changes and some smaller jobs because they’re quicker to use. If it wasn’t for the time savings I’d always go with a jack and stands.
 
Anything big you'll want stands. The ramps are easier and more convenient. cars won't fall off a ramp unless you're a complete idiot, and it's your time,lol. I managed to pull the tbird off my good stands pulling on a rear irs bolt. on't do that. I stuffed a jack stand thru the gas tank.
 
It’s always good practice IMO to leave the jack up underneath even when the stands are doing the main support, or put your wheels underneath if they’re off.

I’ve never dropped a car off stands though. I’ve done everything you can possibly do to one of these cars from underneath; pulling the IRS, multiple transmissions, dropping the K member, fuel tank, exhaust etc. and never once no matter the fight some fastener(s) put up have I felt the car budge.

The other thing I do that I unscientifically suspect is more stable is place the stands where one is straight and the other is diagonal, or two straight two diagonal when on all four.
 
Since I'm still pretty new to mechanical work (never done it on any car prior to the Thunderbird), ramps were simply way less intimidating to me than stands. The ease of use for oil changes, etc. can't be beat.
 
Th prob I had was due to that 1 stand sinking in the dirt when r=the weight shifted to it, the rear doesn't weigh much. The cars balance point is under the firewall.
 
Grog6 said:
Th prob I had was due to that 1 stand sinking in the dirt when r=the weight shifted to it, the rear doesn't weigh much. The cars balance point is under the firewall.
Click to expand...
I have a square of plywood for under each jack stand, as I work outside on a gravel surface most of the time.
 
Zep5.0 said:
Supposedly in some cars yes. It's advisable to hook a jump pack or another battery, to your battery leads, so that it never loses voltage. There are some battery packs that plug into the cigarette lighter to keep power to everything, as well.
Click to expand...

I have one that plugs into cig lighter and for OBD 2 cars I have this one.

 
CDsDontBurn said:
I saw the other thread about ramps, and I got to thinking. What are notable differences, pros and cons to using ramps over jack stands? I feel that ramps are bulkier and more cumbersome than jack stands.

Like. How do ramps work in comparison to jack stands? Do they provide greater clearance than jack stands? My jack stands are out of the way as I place them on the pinch welds (Honda / wife's car). With ramps, the ramps would also be out of the way, but I feel I'd be running into them because of how much bigger they are.

Someone let me know. I'm curious!
Click to expand...
I've never owned a set of ramps. Just haven't. I'd say 90% of the time I need a car up in the air, a wheel is coming off as well so ramps are no good for me there. We have an old set of ramps here at work that I have used to set the car down on the tires so I can tighten suspension bushings. Other than that I just always use a jack.
 
I use them to do everything easy under the car, oil,trans filter,etc. But to change the trans, you need tall stands to get it out.
I used a 2x12.sitting on a 4'square of 3/4" plywood, for each of 4 stands. The wood broke when the weight shifted to it.
 
So saving time on oil changes what they're good for.

But when I do oil changes, I also do tire rotations, so it would apply to me there either.

Good to know!
 
On the tbird, I had to pull up on the fender to get a jack under it, lol. I would put a 2x12, about 2' long in front of the ramps, and it wouldn't hit. It had tokicos and 1.5" vogtland lowering springs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Back
Top