Cozumel Diving 13-18 Sep 2020
- Thread starter ColoDale
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
deepsea21
Contributor
hen I was a lot younger I drove a 1969 Ford Econoline that developed a small radiator leak, and a friend of my dad's who used to be a NASCAR driver recommended that I pour a quarter pound tin of ground black pepper into the cooling system. It worked. I drove that van with the pepper in it for a couple of years, but every time I took off the radiator cap it smelled like I was cooking gumbo.
Never heard of that but it's fantastic.
Let me think... Radiator "Stop Leak", A/C "Stop Leak", "Belt Dressing", "Engine Restorer", "Transmission Fix", "Muffler Patch", and of course every magic tonic under the sun I'd throw in the gas tank in an attempt to keep those POS's going. The best of all was the "Spark Protector" that I could screw on the base of the spark plugs and screw them into the head for the cylinders that were burning oil and fouling the plugs every 500 miles or so. They supposedly shielded the electrodes on the plugs in a little vented housing and protected them from fouling so fast from all the burning blow by oil from scored cylinders and worn rings - they recommended no more than 2 of those be used at any one time in an 8 cylinder engine. How much time did I spend in junk yards walking out through all the old junk cars with tools and pulling what I needed while trying not to get stung by some massive wasp nest under the hood of a car I opened. Man does that bring back memories... But I had my own car and my own keys when most my age didn't!
Remember the fuel line magnets that were supposed to double your fuel mileage?
I had my share of "slam the hood and run like hell" incidents with salvage yard wasp nests as well. Junkyard dogs are nowhere near as mean as those guys.
deepsea21
Contributor
Remember the fuel line magnets that were supposed to double your fuel mileage?
I had my share of "slam the hood and run like hell" incidents with salvage yard wasp nests as well. Junkyard dogs are nowhere near as mean as those guys.
Yup. I remember those as they were supposed magically re-align the liquid hydrocarbons into a more efficient and combustible molecular structure. I also remember high power magnets you could place on the bottom of your oil pan & transmission pan to grab more metal fragments (as if the filters weren't there to do that already). I do think this thread diversion from the OP is relevant because what many of us did as kids keeping cars junk running most in the 3rd world do their entire lives and I have to say, they are very good at it. I remember a story my parents told me when they were driving their old VW camper bus through Mexico in the 60's and they got to some hill that that 4 cylinder air cooled engine wasn't going to climb - not even in 1st gear. They tried over and over. A couple of locals stopped and asked what the problem was and they explained it. The locals pulled all plugs, cleaned them up, cleaned out the air filter and did this and that and after about 45 minutes of helping from the locals they fired it up and breezed over that hill with all power restored. No one knows their way around an old air-cooled VW 4 CYL engine like a Mexican who has been around them and kept them running forever.
sefuchs
Contributor
Here’s one that not many have done. I had a 1964 Fiat that I couldn’t get an oil filter for - the dealer said to stick a roll of toilet paper in the canister. It fit perfectly and I drove that car another 10 years before selling it
Similar threads
