Do you still get a sense of satisfaction when, you figure out how to do something better or faster or in a new way, that you thought was going to be either a real P.I.T.A. or something that you just didn,t think you could figure out ?
do you get a sense of satisfaction when you find the cause of a problem?
do you keep looking or just give up if things take awhile?
I just don,t understand, or relate to guys that get totally frustrated and abandon projects , that simply take time and effort, or a bit of research into how the part or components supposed to work. to accomplish, a repair or modification, to me thats about the essence of the hobby, knowing that you can, and eventually will succeed in getting the car or machine working better than when you started, posiably better than anyone you know ever has either.
yes it may take some custom part, some fabrication or just a great deal of perseverance and time, but you just push ahead until you get it done!
now Im very well aware that most of us work on very limited budgets and can,t just go out and buy parts any time we want too, but thats not what I'm referring to, we almost all deal with that, what Im referring to is when your working on a project and just can,t figure out how something goes together or how to correct a problem, and you step back, look it over and start over , posiably from a different perspective, keeping your goal firmly in mind but not letting previous failures cloud your judgement or prevent you from getting the component or assembly to work.
HERES an example
Ive worked with guys that had a major engine component break, and in an ideal world you might be bill gates and just call up some place and have a new engine delivered, but for most of us , thats not an option so we disassemble the engine , inspect, and discover the failed component and either replace or repair it, thats standard, procedure, it may cost you some time and money but its certainly not beyond the skill level of most experienced guys in this hobby, but lets say you find a slightly bent connecting rod, like one of my friends did shortly after starting his newly rebuilt engine, that discovery ,obviously requires major engine surgery, and according to what he remembered,theres no obvious reason it bent and so you purchase a new virtually identical connecting rod, install it and find that the new connecting rod bends, within 30 minutes? now what? I know most guys would just assume its a "bad engine" and start looking for a new engine and darn few would do more than pull the engine down to the point they were sure that was the problem, but at this point its frustrating to be sure but its also going to be a learning experience, that many guys avoid like the black plague.
thats a real shame because even if they never rebuild that engine, at least in my mind theres a couple huge questions,
WHAT WENT WRONG?,
WAS IT IMPROPER ASSEMBLY?
WAS IT DEFECTIVE PARTS?
WHAT CAUSED THE PROBLEM?,
HOW CAN IT BE AVOIDED?,
HOW CAN IT BE CORRECTED?
, I had a friend go thru this about 30 years ago and he just pulled the engine and stuck it in the back of his shop and ignored it. for 30 plus year it sat under a work bench wrapped in a tarp, ignored.
I ask him about it and he just looked at me like I was a bit insane and told me I could have it as it was just a P.I.T.A. and taking up space and he was tired of ignoring it!
now if you need to get the car back on the road time and money dictate your options , but I find it curious that many guys just don,t see the need to find out what went wrong, do,you still get a sense of satisfaction when, you eventually find out? do you bother to even look?
well he gave me that engine (it was a 370 pontiac out of a 1959 tempest he used to own) these were decent engines that preceded the more common 389 of the mid 1960s and I had a few spare hours so I tore it down and started measuring, it turned out to be basically shoddy/defective machine work, the block deck was milled at an angle and the quench distance was only .008 on one end of the cylinder bank and .047 at the other end, so the problem was both his failure to observe during assembly and a badly machined block.
(he really should have noticed, (but I remember being new to engine building and this could easily be over looked by a new builder, the FIRST TIME)
now the engine was not it good condition as it had been stored badly but I found a great deal of satisfaction in solving a mystery that he had been pissed about but never bothered to research for years.
yes I can easily see why it pissed him off at the time, and he certainly would not be the first or last guy to just stuff a defective engine out behind a shop and ignore it, but it proved to be a learning experience for both of us after I showed him what I found
related threads
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=5893&p=18037&hilit=reluctance#p18037
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=7296&p=24821&hilit=over+head#p24821
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=7422&p=25168&hilit=satisfaction#p25168
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=3183&p=9403&hilit=salvage+inspect+engine#p9403
viewtopic.php?f=53&t=5487&p=16482&hilit=quench#p16482
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viewtopic.php?f=50&t=5180&p=24886&hilit=+learning+getting#p24886
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=4687&hilit=learning+getting
do you get a sense of satisfaction when you find the cause of a problem?
do you keep looking or just give up if things take awhile?
I just don,t understand, or relate to guys that get totally frustrated and abandon projects , that simply take time and effort, or a bit of research into how the part or components supposed to work. to accomplish, a repair or modification, to me thats about the essence of the hobby, knowing that you can, and eventually will succeed in getting the car or machine working better than when you started, posiably better than anyone you know ever has either.
yes it may take some custom part, some fabrication or just a great deal of perseverance and time, but you just push ahead until you get it done!
now Im very well aware that most of us work on very limited budgets and can,t just go out and buy parts any time we want too, but thats not what I'm referring to, we almost all deal with that, what Im referring to is when your working on a project and just can,t figure out how something goes together or how to correct a problem, and you step back, look it over and start over , posiably from a different perspective, keeping your goal firmly in mind but not letting previous failures cloud your judgement or prevent you from getting the component or assembly to work.
HERES an example
Ive worked with guys that had a major engine component break, and in an ideal world you might be bill gates and just call up some place and have a new engine delivered, but for most of us , thats not an option so we disassemble the engine , inspect, and discover the failed component and either replace or repair it, thats standard, procedure, it may cost you some time and money but its certainly not beyond the skill level of most experienced guys in this hobby, but lets say you find a slightly bent connecting rod, like one of my friends did shortly after starting his newly rebuilt engine, that discovery ,obviously requires major engine surgery, and according to what he remembered,theres no obvious reason it bent and so you purchase a new virtually identical connecting rod, install it and find that the new connecting rod bends, within 30 minutes? now what? I know most guys would just assume its a "bad engine" and start looking for a new engine and darn few would do more than pull the engine down to the point they were sure that was the problem, but at this point its frustrating to be sure but its also going to be a learning experience, that many guys avoid like the black plague.
thats a real shame because even if they never rebuild that engine, at least in my mind theres a couple huge questions,
WHAT WENT WRONG?,
WAS IT IMPROPER ASSEMBLY?
WAS IT DEFECTIVE PARTS?
WHAT CAUSED THE PROBLEM?,
HOW CAN IT BE AVOIDED?,
HOW CAN IT BE CORRECTED?
, I had a friend go thru this about 30 years ago and he just pulled the engine and stuck it in the back of his shop and ignored it. for 30 plus year it sat under a work bench wrapped in a tarp, ignored.
I ask him about it and he just looked at me like I was a bit insane and told me I could have it as it was just a P.I.T.A. and taking up space and he was tired of ignoring it!
now if you need to get the car back on the road time and money dictate your options , but I find it curious that many guys just don,t see the need to find out what went wrong, do,you still get a sense of satisfaction when, you eventually find out? do you bother to even look?
well he gave me that engine (it was a 370 pontiac out of a 1959 tempest he used to own) these were decent engines that preceded the more common 389 of the mid 1960s and I had a few spare hours so I tore it down and started measuring, it turned out to be basically shoddy/defective machine work, the block deck was milled at an angle and the quench distance was only .008 on one end of the cylinder bank and .047 at the other end, so the problem was both his failure to observe during assembly and a badly machined block.
(he really should have noticed, (but I remember being new to engine building and this could easily be over looked by a new builder, the FIRST TIME)
now the engine was not it good condition as it had been stored badly but I found a great deal of satisfaction in solving a mystery that he had been pissed about but never bothered to research for years.
yes I can easily see why it pissed him off at the time, and he certainly would not be the first or last guy to just stuff a defective engine out behind a shop and ignore it, but it proved to be a learning experience for both of us after I showed him what I found
related threads
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=5893&p=18037&hilit=reluctance#p18037
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=7296&p=24821&hilit=over+head#p24821
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=7422&p=25168&hilit=satisfaction#p25168
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=3183&p=9403&hilit=salvage+inspect+engine#p9403
viewtopic.php?f=53&t=5487&p=16482&hilit=quench#p16482
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=808&p=1180&hilit=salvage+inspect+engine#p1180
viewtopic.php?f=53&t=726&p=1023&hilit=deck+height#p1023
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=5180&p=24886&hilit=+learning+getting#p24886
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=4687&hilit=learning+getting