Myelio.me Is Up & Running

[Coss]

True. One thing I admired about Chevy was that their engines used the same parts for years. You could go in and say "I need a distributor cap for a 350." And the parts guy would say "Okay. Here. Cash or charge?" Ask for a distributor cap for a (Ford) 351 and he'd say "Okay. What year? Automatic or Manual? Air conditioning or no air conditioning? Etc.."

I ran into counter guys that didn't know how to find parts without asking the questions (new help).
I would drive them crazy with my 74 Chev 1 Ton;
Counter guy: "what size engine?"
Me: 385
CG: "Chevy never made a 385; at least they don't have it in the book. Are you sure it's a 385?"
Me: "Yup. Built it myself"
So for some reason their brains could never wrap around my comment of "I built it myself" and would go off to find someone with more experience.
The guy they brought back to help was usually someone I had worked with before and knew the story.
We would have the new guy going for a while; and just like those commercials on TV, the new guys brain would explode into a puff of smoke.

What's a 385? A 350, bored .060 over with a 400 crank. The 400 crank would fit, only if you felt like spending hours with a die grinder inside the block to grind out the clearance. That was a screaming motor in that truck; 400TH behind it, with a Spicer 60 free floater rear end in it.
It got 11 mpg, empty, full, uphill, downhill, it didn't matter. It had a 600 square bore Edelbrock HP carb on top of a Edelbrock high rise intake, 194 heads.
It dyno'd at 402hp.
Yes, gas was still cheap then, it had to be for me to afford filling 2 - 25 gallon tanks

 

[ross]

My '56 Chevy came new with a 265 V8, when I rebuilt it I put a 350 horse 327 cam in it. With the exception of the W motor (348, 409) Chevrolet built 2 engines (before the LS) a small block and a big block and everything interchanged between them (small block to small block, big block to big block) Ford built a 427 a 428 and a 429 and they were three separate engine families and nothing interchanged. One of the reasons a 1970 Chevelle SS 454 is worth 40 to 50 thousand and a 1970 Torino 428 Cobra Jet is worth 17 thousand.

 

[Buckeyejake]

I envy you gear heads. Lots of knowledge and fun. Can't wait to see what you do to the plain Jane Elio.

 

[Coss]

I envy you gear heads. Lots of knowledge and fun. Can't wait to see what you do to the plain Jane Elio.

Sometimes, simple is better. The items I plan on changing are subtle changes; I'll probably leave the motor alone; but will dress it up, by making it as "clean" as I can. Not clean like washing it, clean like fine detail; looms for wiring, stainless lines with air equip like fittings; items like that. Maybe have the valve cover powder coated. Just the kinds of things that when you open the hood, you go "whoa ! that's nice"
These are simple items that just take a lot of time to do right.

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

I envy you gear heads. Lots of knowledge and fun. Can't wait to see what you do to the plain Jane Elio.

If they keep their promise, the Elio should be easy to work on.
Think of it as a Gear Head Starter kit.

It'll start as:
Maybe i can change my oil.

In a few years you have a friend say:
You think we can laterally mount a V8 in it.

Response:
(sigh)..... yeah. (opens tool box).

 

[Coss]

If they keep their promise, the Elio should be easy to work on.
Think of it as a Gear Head Starter kit.
It'll start as:
Maybe i can change my oil.
In a few years you have a friend say:
You think we can laterally mount a V8 in it.
Response:
(sigh)..... yeah. (opens tool box).

"Gear Head Starter Kit" I like it!!

You ought to send it to EM and have them use it in one of the Blog entries or a Momentum email.
They love little catch phrases like that.

 

[msmith5150]

I've been a gear head for 21 years professionally, I'm a diesel technician, plus another probably 4 years just for fun when I was young before I started doing it for a living. I'll repair my own vehicles when it makes monetary sense. Like replacing brakes, especially disc brakes because I can save a couple hundred dollars. But I don't change my own oil anymore. Too messy, dealing with the cleanup and disposal, and buying the oil, etc. It's just so much easier to let someone else do it.

Basically I don't really like tinkering with my vehicles anymore. Mechanically at least. Just not fun for me anymore. I have hope that by the time I'm 50, 9 years from now, I'll be able to stop being a mechanic because by then the job will have consumed 30 years of my life. I'm already pretty beaten up physically, and mentally the vehicles are getting more and more complicated to work on, it's pretty taxing. I just want to be able to go traveling with my wife, enjoy the latter part of my life while I'm still able to do so.

Well that's enough of my crybaby rant for one day! Carry on gear heads!

 

[Sr.MailMan]

I am still trying to figure out why they are going to still use spark plug wires and not just put the coil packs directly on, like Mazda does on their 2.0L engines. 2005 Mazda 3 Ignition Coil (Set of 4) at AM Autoparts
Heat is not a factor,on that side and the bracket mounting is there too. (less parts)
Then again... The production version is not finalized.

 

[HonestTex]

I am stIll trying to figure out why they are going to still use spark plug wires and not just put the coil packs directly on, like Mazda does on their 2.0L engines.
Heat is not a factor,on that side and the bracket mounting is there too. (less parts)
Then again... The production version is not finalized.

How do you mount a coil pack directly to a spark plug? Im not a gear head, so I'm lost on this one.

 

[Coss]

How do you mount a coil pack directly to a spark plug? Im not a gear head, so I'm lost on this one.

They've been doing this for many years; there is a coil per spark plug, and it sits directly on the spark plug.
They are small, and don't look like the old coils.
Here's an article on Diagnosing a Bad Coil Pack I grabbed this at random because it has a picture of one. In the picture the red and green/yellow stripe wires connect to it.