[geeks] Re: Need an opinion

[Michael Schiller]

alex j avriette wrote:
> 
> Yep. No amount of computer changes are going to net more than 15-20
> horsepower without hardware changes, i.e., intake manifold, exhaust
> manifold, cylinder heads, etc. Unless you have computer controlled valve
> timing (the northstar motor supposedly has this, but i havent seen it).
> You can continue to add fuel and spark advance to a car with the
> computer, but until there is more air and more turbulence to match that
> fuel, and less resistance to evacuate it, you are going to make small
> gains in power. Oh, this does not of course apply to forced induction
> vehicles.

Well, as I said before, I've owned almost 20 or possibly more Dodge
Diplomats (or the Plymouth or Chrysler versions of the same vehicle),
mostly police versions, a couple of civilian versions, also owned 2
Crown Vics, one civie, one cop car. I've driven all the cars I've owned,
some more than others. Most of the Dodges had the 'lean-burn' computer
systems in them, and in one instance in one of the civie cars the
computer died, so rather than spending money to buy a new one, I
replaced it with one from a crunched cop car, and it had substantially
more power, and even got better mileage too.
> 
> Exactly how are you qualified to judge the performance of any of these
> vehicles objectively?

It depends on what you called qualified. I'm not ASE certified, I'm not
even a mechanic, but I've driven lots of these types of cars (not just a
single cop car) and I know how they feel. Also, these cars made me
money, so I needed them to work. As far as objectivity, I could care
less if the car was a muscle car, or had a 4cyl VW engine in it, as long
as it made me money without me having to spend most of it keeping the
car going (as happened with the Crown Vics), that's all I cared about.
> 
> Gearing changes acceleration but not power.

Not actual power, but it sure makes a difference in apparent power. Sort
of like how an Ultra-1E/140 (did they make these?) with a creator card
will 'feel' faster than an Ultra-2 with dual 300's with a CG-3 (would
this even work?).
> 
> As indicated by the speedometer, or calculated by gearing/rpm/tire
> circumference? Depending on the weight of the car and the coefficient of
> drag, it is ... unlikely you were actually exceeding 160mph with a
> sub-300hp engine. Furthermore, unless you had VR or ZR tires on the car,
> traveling in excess of 154mph for any length of period is likely to
> explode one or all of your tires.

As indicated on the Certified speedometer (certified with the Police
Eagle-GT's that I got on the car). There's another area where there's a
difference. Cop tires. Goodyear makes a special version of the Eagle for
police use. I have no idea what their actual rating was.

As a side note, many police departments won't plug a tire. I used to get
police pulls that had a single nail in them, thereby making them junk to
the PD, but many of them were like brand new, and I ran the heck out of
them. Goodyear also makes a special tire for Taxi use that they normally
don't sell, but rather lease to cab companies. I looked into it, but my
fleet wasn't big enough to qualify for the lease. I've bought several of
these tires directly from Goodyear, and they're great tires. If I was
still in FL my car would have 4 of them on it, as it is, it's only got
them on the front, as I have snow tires on the rear.
> 
> alex

-Mike
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