hotrod

Thanks, I was just hoping someone had some laying around and wanted to get rid of them before I started the calling around thing. I seem to recall someone here mentioned they had a drill jig for drilling the wheels, anyone recall who that might be? How does the offset work out on the Chevy rims ? Larry

Curious if anyone has any spare 15" 4 hole wheels laying around that would fit an 86 GL-10 turbo? Steel don't need to be pretty. I live in the Denver area so local would be better. Larry

I have used E85 in both my WRX EJ205 and and in my 88GL EJ82. They both do fine on blends less than 30% E85 by volume. The WRX was run on 100% E85 for over a year using larger injectors and the engine was VERY happy with the fuel. Inspite of looking for problems I have found absolutely none on the WRX. I cut a fuel line apart a few months ago that had been in the car since new, and seen 2 years of E85 blends ranging from 30% - 100%. It looked like it was brand new. I let it dry for a week and then bent it back double so the inside of the split line was on the outside of the bend and there was no checking cracking or softening of the fuel line. Same goes with the fuel injector O-rings. There a quite a few folks around the country now running the late model Subaru's on mixtures of E85 and I have not heard a single problem reported. The actual energy content of E85 is about 72% of gasoline on a volume basis, but the fuel milage DOES NOT drop in proportion to the fuel energy content. E85 is a far more effecient fuel than gasoline, and everyone who has kept records has reported fuel milage of about 90% -92% of the milage they get on gasoline. Yes there is a small drop but not any where near what some of the internet experts would like you to think. Especially on the turbo charged engines it is a good deal. My 88GL has only been running for a couple months on E85 blends, but no problems other than a lean stumble at mixes over 30%. It runs much leaner fuel air mixtures than the WRX so I need to richen it up to make it happy on E85. I think if you have easy access and local prices are in line you will find it a good move. Larry

That is an overly broad statement and is not correct. If you run over 10% ethanol you won't be covered under warrantee --- not many of us driving older subies have to worry about that. It will not eat the rubber hoses if the car was manufactured after the early 1980's. All manufactures switched to ethanol compatable fuel lines, O-rings and fuel system components at that time. (there were some isolated issues with older cars pre-1976 with non-ethanol compatible fuel lines etc. For example the fuel hoses on my 1969 VW did not play nice with ethanol) The modern Subies run very well on blends of E85 and gasoline. I have run up to 50% blend in my 88GL but that was a bit too lean. It hesitated a bit, but other wise ran fine on the highway with slightly better power. It did very well on lower blends (around 30%). In the WRX it will run on up to 30% with a noticable improvement in performance. 30% - 50% the car runs very well with a strong improvement in performance but it triggers a CEL. With larger fuel injectors it "LOVES" 100% E-85. On 100% E85 the WRX got 92% of the milage per gallon it did on straight gasoline, but cost per mile dropped due to the lower total fuel cost. I will be converting my 86 GL-10 to run on E85 here in the next year or so. Larry

Interesting links! The first two are good examples of even engineering level research that still uses the Ricardo model of knock proposed in 1919, that the auto-ignition of the fuel air mix occures in the unburned fuel air mix that is being compressed and heated by the advancing flame front. Serious doubt (to my mind proof that this model is faulty) was developed by NACA (predecessor agency to NASA in the early 1940s ). I have yet to see a paper that still supports Ricardos "guess" about the mechanics of knock and in any way refutes very strong physical evidence that it is not correct. In 1943 NACA researchers studied knock with a high speed camera taking pictures at (the then unheard of ) speed of 40,000 frames a second. This was still not fast enough to capture any significant portion of the knock event. But it did allow them to prove that knock always begins in mixture that is actively burning, such as the still burning mixture behind the primary flame front, or in pockets of burning mixture secondary to autoignition, and not in the unburned fuel air mix. Subtle distinction but important regarding control of knock and why anti-knock additives work. http://naca.larc.nasa.gov/reports/1943/naca-report-761/naca-report-761.pdf In 1946 they revisited the photographic study with a 200,000 frame per second camera. http://naca.larc.nasa.gov/reports/1946/naca-report-857/naca-report-857.pdf http://naca.larc.nasa.gov/reports/1948/naca-report-912/naca-report-912.pdf In any case detonation is a very complex and interesting subject and the fact its cause and mechanics are still debated by Phd's engineers results in many "theories" floating around out there. I personally am very satisfied with the conclusions NACA came up with in 1943-1946 and have yet to see any research paper explain why they might be in error. Larry

Sorry ping is not pre-ignition. ping is simply knock (detonation) that happens at high rpm, when knock occurs at low rpm it changes sound to a heavy rattle, knocking sound. They are both the same thing but occuring under different conditions. "If" you hear pre-ignition which is very rare it causes a low rumbling sound that is hardely detectable, but is very quickly fatal to the engine. This is pre-ignition due to a hot spot, not ping. There are actually several different intensities of knock, light, moderate and heavy. Some engines can tolerate light knock(ping) almost indefinately, moderate knock if brief "usually" does little harm. Heavy knock, is very hard on an engine and quickly damages bearings and pistons or blows head gaskets. If you look at a pressure trace of a cylinder that is knocking (pinging) you will see that the cylinder pressure rises smoothly much like it does under normal condtions until just before TDC, then the rate of pressure change increases faster than normal. Shortly after TDC there is a sharp pressure spike which creates a powerful shock to the top of the piston in a time interval of about 1/20000 of a second, as the detonation occurs, followed by a high frequency ringing (which gives light knock its pinging sound). That ringing sound is a characteristic of the bore size of the engine. Large bore engines have a lower pitch compared to a small bore engine. That is the time interval that "normal" ignition takes place. That is incorrect this would be on the intake stroke, as the compression stroke only lasts 180 degrees of crankshaft rotation (actually less since the intake valves close when the piston is already moving up the bore). Unfortunately there is a "HUGE" amount of bad info out there on detonation. Not picking on anyone here, but just trying to correct some misunderstandings and urban myths that have been floating around for decades. Larry

The length of coax you have is probably not long enough for a proper setup, but it has nothing to do with that 18' concept. The web page link listed above has it correct. You can use any length of coax you want and the best length is the shortest run that is just easy to install without putting extra stress on the connections. I have mounted both amateur radios and cb's on the passenger side of the transmission hump and I found it in many cases to be the best spot for several reasons. It is easy to wire, usually not in the way, generally easy for the driver to read the display (although you do have to take your eyes off the road). With a side hump mount a microphone hook on the dash just to the right of the radio works very well. Keeps all the wires out of the way etc. If the radio starts doing stupid things the side hump mount is easy to get to the wires and fix things -- not the case for roof mounts. On roof mounts the microphone cable is always swinging in your field of view and in the case of a back country vehicle on hard bumps it may pop out of the holder and bonk you or the passenger upside the head. Hard on the mic and equally hard on your concentration when side hilling a spooky road. The 18' coax thing came about because folks were at one time driven to get the perfect SWR of 1:1. This is very difficult to do but an SWR below 1.2:1 is nearly always good enough. (law of deminishing returns here) Selecting the proper length of coax created a way to fool the SWR meter and show a low SWR even when the true SWR was high (old installers trick). (wont' go into the details but that web page has good info on it). Antenna location -- depends on what your priority is. A roof mounted 102" whip is mighty tall and will be banging on every tree you go under and if you go under a low branch it will wreck your antenna mount, bend the antenna or put a big kink in your roof. I personally like passenger side rear fender / bumper mounts. In CB frequencies your antenna propagation pattern (how it hears and sends a signal) will be strongest across the longest axis of the car body from the antenna. In a right rear mount you will send the strongest signal to the front and slight to your left, and be weakest off the sides and down a bit off the back. In most cases you want to talk to folks who are infront or behind you so this pattern works out well. 2 shorter whips "co-phased" one on each side of the car is even better (like the truckers do on thier mirrors but a bit more difficult to wire. I'd stay away from the roof mount --- they also have a nasty habit of leaking at the worst times. Larry (Amateur radio operator)

First check the obvious! Check you dip stick to see if your low on oil. Look and see if the oil looks like it has metallic flecks in it (bad sign). Look over the engine compartment to see if you have signs of a catastrophic oil leak (blown oil filter etc.) The smell and smoke could have been your fan not being happy with the current wiring. Melted wiring and oil soaked hardware could give you the smoke and smell if you had an electrical short (burn up wire and explain the jerking if the ignition was cutting out due to the short) My 88 GL shows very low oil pressure on the gauge near idle when it is hot but quickly builds pressure with rpm. If cold it displays over 40 psi. If you know you have oil in it and see no signs of a major leak, I'd be inclined to fire the engine up (while prepared to quickly kill it) and see if you have good cold oil pressure. The jerking could also be explained by you starting to spin an engine bearing or the oil pump eating itself. Larry

Ethanol should not have anything to do with your engine ping. The ethanol is an octane improver, when added to gasoline its blending octane is 118. We have been using ethanol blended gasolines in Denver Colorado for almost 30 years --- it does not cause ping. Ping and Knock are different terms for "the same effect"! Ping is light detonation,at high rpm, Knock is heavy detonation at low rpm. (in europe ping is known as "pinking") Same thing, same cause, only difference is the severity. Pre-ignition and knock (detonation) are different but closely associated effects, and frequently occur together. Pre-ignition occures when the fuel air mixture is ignited prior to the spark, usually due to a hot spot in the combustion chamber, ie carbon build up etc. Detonation occurs late in the combustion process when the end gases that have not completely burned spontaneously detonate due to high temperatures and pressures. A very large amount of information out on the internet regarding detonation/knock/or ping is either bad or flawed. It is a very complex subject and even after nearly a century of research is not completely understood. Some of the best research on knock was done near the end of WWII for high performance military aircraft and the reports available on the subject would fill a small book. Many of the lessons learned during that research are still the best available info for application to performance automobile engines. Larry