Is the high cost of fuel endangering our hobby

[Fatchuk]

I was just wunderin bout that....I has been thinkin lately with summer commin an all...bout every time I fills the big pig it takes bout a hundred bucks and I use it up in a week-end...I know my kids is sota gone and I an..da miss.Di..goes ridin on the weekend an we is broke all week feeding the global warming pig...And It ain't workin cause it's still friggin cold so I figures you guys ain't payin yer share to da global pig ta warm duh place up so we Canadian rodders get more cruzin time...

Truth is...I have seiously been thinking about building my original "A" engine for my "A" any body done that? or is that worth considering..Will that bolt up to any modern tranny and is there any better carb or intake system or would that just be silly??? I can't say I have ever noticed any performance model "A" stuff....With gas over $5.00 a gallon this must be diggin into our hobby for a lot of guys trying to pay the bills and raise a family...and what does the future hold for the all we put into our cars ..how much longer before our hobby is a dinasaur or the good old government squeezes us out of this hyobby??..just wondering if anybody else has this nightmare, do yah all think our hobby will die off with the baby-boomers??..Just a nightmare I been havin to often lately..fatchuk

[Ralf Motorsports]

You know Chuck, Ive been having this same thought lately. I do know after paying my bills and raising my family I find it hard to have gas money right now. Not saying my s10 is a pig on fuel but its still not as nice a 4cyl beater car. Ive been thinking on how to build a certain little truck taking all of this into perspective. And all i can see if a 4cyl with overdrive and some nice highway gears. Thats all I can see for now. But I do know my s10 is in need of a tuneup so maybe the fuel milage will increase a bit.

[Fopar]

Maybe it's time to think outside the box. There are some real nice performance 4 cyl. OHC engines out there that will move a light car along real nice and give decent mileage while doing it. I don't think our hobby is in danger but we may have to change the way we do things.

[wrascal]

I think it is the rodders ingenuity to make things better........ the blown big blocks and hemi's may be replaced with smaller, more efficient engines. The only thing carbon taxes seems to do is to give the government more money to squander. My next door neighbor went to Mexico for a holiday and as they are under the same "NAFTA", maybe some of our politicians who swear there is no price fixing, can explain why gasoline is $0.15 /liter down there and $1.26/liter here.......... Also, since the government taxes are based on a precentage, they get more money the higher the price of gasoline. Some would call that "conflict of interest", that borders on bribery. Kind of like having the fox guard the chicken house, don't you think?

Russ:eek:

[Ford_Fellow]

Me fifty five is going with the original six is my plan. My LTD stay's with the four sixty. My hope to build 56 Vicky will have a four twenty eight and will just use the credit card and let the boss pay for the gas on that one at the end of the month. Just run a line from the motor home to the Vicky to fill it and her not even question the motor coach........

Hugh..............

[PG409]

We went through something similar in the early seventies.....Rod and Custom ran an article called "Gas Crunch sedan" putting a Chevy 11 4 cyl in a Model A.
So, I did it too!! The thing was a pig on gas. Went to a V-6 Buick and way better mileage and some performance too!!
Our Explorer gets 22 mpg on a good day. I figure our 54 Wagon will get about the same on the hwy.....2.79 gears and a 351W.
I have friends that pay 150.00 for a round of golf!! And that does not include flying or driving to do it.
So, the next time I fill the Impala, it will be my "round of golf".:)

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q101/pg409/scan0009.jpg

[stovbolt]

well it's not going to make me change much cause i don't get to go far any way and a little more in the tank for bucks has to be for now

[PG409]

I should have added the 70's oil crisis was the Arab oil embargo.

Re 4 bangers.....we are not driving slippery Honda's thru the air here.
A Model A, for example, is like driving a barn door through the wind.

At the Dragstrip in the A with the V-6 and a TH350, when it hit high
gear near the end of the traps, it was like someone popped a parachute.

[gmccruzr]

this is also why I am building a Chevette, for my next project. There apparently is a racing league for these cars in the states, so there is some performance parts available for these cars. Unfortunatly I haven't found a source for these yet but would like to find a perfromance cam fro mine. Also the early Chevettes had a better flowing head on them then the later ones(1976-1980)
If the 4-banger goes out then i will be thinking about trying to put in either a big 4 banger from gm (Newer) or a v6 2.8 from a S10.

[John in Oz]

Chuck I think it does have an effect on the sport but the price of fuel really is still the cheapest thing you put into your car next to the free air at the gas station. Out here we are paying around the $1.31/Ltr for pump gas. But when I built the 33 with the BBC I set that whole car up to run on Propane and the reason was pure and simple the price of Propane or LPG (Liquid Petrolium Gas) as we call it stays less than half the price of normall pump gas. Sure you have to build the engine to suit the gas such as cam design and ignition etc but it works a lot more efficiently when the engine is built than a normal engine. Propane is a higher octain rating as well.

For instance when we did our cruise down the inland New South Wales roads to Sydney and I was concerned about not being able to get LPG all the way around but that was not a problem and when I was in Canada last time I noticed the price of LPG was a cheaper than pump gas and available every where we went from Calgary to Vancouver. You have less frequent oil changes as well because the oil doesn't go black as quick with carbon build up.

The other thing when we did the trip down south was everyone else on the trip was watching and the car was cheaper to run than a mild SBC (small block chev) The down side is the size of the tank and where you fit it.

I had wondered at one stage about converting the Galaxie to LPG but I didn't think it was worth my while converting that car because it really didn't do enough miles to pay for the conversion and the cost factor of the change over. For instance I would have to fork out another $3,500 to convert that car and you can get a long way with that much normal fuel. But when you are building a new car (rod) and building a new engine then that is when it would be worth making the change over. The other draw back is I'm guessing for you guys up there would be the warm up time for your engines because the gas converters rely on hot water from the engine.

However there are now conversions out where the LPG is direct injected into the engine as a liquid and not just a gas and the experts tell me that gives a huge increase in power over the system I am running at the moment but that conversion is not available out here for a BBC.

Out here you can buy a brand new Ford to be just dedicated LPG.

I was recently looking at a conversion for Deisel trucks and they say that depending on what stage you go (there are 3 different stages available) to how long it will take to pay for itself. This works in conjunction with the deisel and also give better torqure to the deisel engine. It allows for much cleaner fuel burn and the charge is burnt right to the bottom of the stroke and not just an explosion at the top dead centre. Plus the trucks have fewer oil changes and travel further on the same cost of fuel.

I have sometimes thought that some of the twin cam 4 and V6 Toyota engines would be suitable for a T or A for instance. But it is what jerks your chain as to what you run really, I'm afraid I like the sound of a V8 and the Big Blocks because I like them.

The other thing to consider is maybe running taller diff gears for instance in the 33 I run 2.75 gears and even around town you can still spin the wheels if you want to because the car is a light weight. Those gears are just a bit tall for around town but hey the cam is still lumping then and it gives the if you want a race I'm ready attitude. On a 3 lane quiet part of a linking road around Brisbane for instance there were 2 Turbo 6 cyl Japas who had been racing each other and I came across these guys I had the middle lane and when we took off from the lights all they saw were my tail lights (opps that's naughty eh). Even at the next set of lights they were all reved up ready to go and they still weren't in the hunt. (childish very childish I thought after wards) but I was snickering anyway.

So I think that the died in the wool rodders will still find a way to run their cars no matter what. If they can't afford to run a V8 for instance I see nothing wrong with a person running a 4 cyl engine. A V6 can run very cheap as well and you know not everyone wants a lumpy big block chevy anyway, it's just tools like me who get their kicks out of doing skids and a bit of fun in safe areas where the seeing eye of the law and public don't see us anyway.

That Buick of yours wouldn't be too hard on fuel anyway would it? Just put your rates up at the workshop say .50c and hour and there wont be any hardship to anyone and you'll get to drive the Buick on the CR run without being out of pocket too much.

I see guys who go fishing a lot and those boat motors are not cheap to run so it really doesn't matter what the cost of fuel is or what your hobby is, if you want to do something you will but just have to maybe choose the runs a bit more carefully which ones you really want to go on.

Just my thoughts, John

[wrascal]

You should check out "Hunter"s little prefect with a pinto 4 cylinder. Gets great gas mileage. I would think seriously about the Thunderbird turbo 4 banger, keep your foot out of it for decent gas mileage and let the turbo give you power when you want it...... Your gear ratio's make a huge difference with the 4 bangers and you have to find one without too much emmision stuff. They were bragging that the new hybrid cars can get 48 mpg...... big deal, the old mini's and VW bugs did that easily without even a computer... have we progress that much?

Russ

[Hammer396]

It's all relative, in the 1980's, when gas was cheaper, my wage was a third of what it is now. gas is up but my wage is up too , and to quote a friend of mine in high school " there's always enough money for beer and gas , and if you have to rent comes last".

[dale48mrc]

Personally I think fer the amount we drive our rides the price of gas shouldn't be a worry.I had to put my lowrider GMC back on the road because our pontiac has developed some problems.The truck has to run on premium,and doesn't get the best mileage.You know what I really don't care,I still love that truck!!!!

[wrascal]

HI Hammer396,
I also did a little comparison. When I started working in 1972, I was making $2.50/hr (don't laugh) pumping gas that sold for 52 cents/gal.... so with a little math, I could buy almost 5 gallons of gas with 1 hour of labor. To fill that same 5 gallon container will cost over $30 now....... At first I though it was just the increase of gas, so I remembered that beer was 20cents a glass in the pub, now how much of an increase would that be.... You could also buy a nice house in 1972 for about $18,000, look at the average price now. Our standard of living has slid back big time and the only way we didn't really feel it was that the wives got jobs too and added a second income to make ends meet.

Russ

[playin hookie]

Hi Chuck, craziness runs wild around here.
Here is the thought I've had rolling around in my silly head.
Model A or T, ford escort engine turned around, manual transmission/bell housing from a ranger, use the rear-end while you're there.
You can either use a F.I. one or a carbed engine depending on the donor. The F.I. has a cool tubular intake and I think a matching header would be neat.....a shot of juice or a hair dryer could turn it up if needed.......time to go to bed and see what else I dream up.

[64krusty]

Not just gas thats going up,my Dodge just got $132.00 of diesel.Good job it wasn't empty.Its $1.29 per litre here today.

[John in Oz]

Krusty last week Diesel was $1.53/Ltr here and the truck I used to drive (love that part, used to drive) used near $240.00 a day and that was just a town and around Agitator, the interstate boys must need pace makers every time they fuel up.

Cheers, John

[PeterB]

We are getting ready to put the boat back in the the Salt Chuck for the season. Called up the marina to get their price on fuel. Answer was $1.35 a L. and come July we will be paying 2% more with that carbon tax. I guess its the price we have to pay for our toys.:eek::eek::eek:

Cheers
PeterB

[Fatchuk]

Peter: how come you don't like Polish people???



Then back to the subject ..I am definitly feeling the cost of rodding with the price of fuel..and will for sure not be drivin as much as I used to be able to.
I am tryin to get rid of most of my stuff and in fact most is gone...I am for sure lookin at some type of 4 banger for my "A" but not very enthuiastic about that...I love the sound of a v8 but....times are-a-changin and I can no loger afford to spening $150 bucks a week to play..And that $150 only is the cost of fuel for the toys..that don't count the grocerie getter/family ride..doesn't even talk about the other costs invilved with the hobby...It's startin ta git outa my reach if I want to do anything else ...looks like tougher times in the future.......:(fatchuk

[PeterB]

Hey Fatchuk,

You and 34ford are thinking the same way. He passed that on to me over the phone last night. Too bad their both spelt the same. May be I will have to re- think that one.

Cheers
PeterB

[Cword]

Chuck

If you want to go banger, and have a good time doing it look up the "Secrets of Speed"
You are the kind of hand on guy who'd likely get down and dirty with all the hop up options available for early banger engines. If the tinkering get you as much as the cruising it's definitely worth looking into. The only "upgrade" you might consider as far as a newer banger goes is to ditch the A engine for a B.

Read these;
http://www.1149.ca/banger/Fundamentals.pdf
http://www.1149.ca/banger/resurrecting.pdf
http://www.1149.ca/banger/TheHal.pdf

Mike

[Fatchuk]

Thanks Mike ..Appreciate that information...I think a lot of guys are gonna have ta make some new decisions in in the years to come ...Don't know where we are headed..just thought it might be interesting to get other ideas and opinions..I personaly do not suscribe to the global warming school of thought...How-ever I do believe we all need to take better care of our world and be more responsible about how we consume and waste our natural resources..But the realization of the cost of fuel to run high horse power engines just to go cruzin on week-ends is going to be more and more expensive in the very near future ...I do not think this energy thing is going to go away anytime in the future...This is the new reality we face in the future...I doubt I will be building any more fat engines ...I am looking to learn to have fun with reviving some old four bangers...Sucks ...but ..I can see $10.00 a gallon not to far away...:eek::eek: fatchuk

[MR HANEY]

i dont care if gas is $444.44 a spoonful i have waited my whole life for a hot rod and the nasty old big block stays:cool::cool::cool:

[cam383]

Check out the price on deisel.Its more than gas here in ptp land

[Brendan]

The price of Diesel here in Newfoundland is now at $1.47 per litre. I've got a 45 gal. drum for heating oil for my garage and a couple of days ago it cost me $216.67 to fill, $1.16 per litre. I'm glad I sold my 74 Olds 98 with 455 and 66 Caprice with 396. Gas is $1.27 per litre(regular). Inline 6 and 4 cylinders are looking better everyday.

[..77.]

The motor in my street strip car with 366 cid gets 11 mpg , the over 400 inch mill, gets 8 mybe 9 miles to the gallon.
As for fuel mileage I never worried too too much . My old 6 cyl G Cherokee with power steering a/c power windows , brakes , tilt , leather seats cruise pulse wipers ...Uses less fuel to get to TMP , towing my street car on a trailer then driving the car there itself .
All of my stuff is getting over drives though .Mainly cause a lotta these manual o/d trans have better ratio spreads and can cut down the highway rpm,s nicely .
For me to cruise at about 65 mph is about 3300 rpm,s , dropping that by 28 percent looks prety good .
Plus a t5 styled trans is proven 2- 3 tenths better then a Ford top loader in the 1/4 .
My 50 chebby truck is running a b/w super t10 right now , but I,m switching it to a 700r4 and 3.70 gears for towing a car trailer . My model a project is gonna get a 700r4 also . partly the truck an A are getting auto,s so my wife can drive em if,n she wants too..77.

[CDNflatlander]

I'm with Haney.....untill the bank takes my house!! :( Then I might have to find the cars without the locking caps:eek:

The part I could do without, Newfoundland DOES have it worse, is the high price of Diesel $1.22 L................Sorry, but I use my truck daily, no longer than two days per full tank of fuel! Now if 'cruizers' were all using the premium fuel, AND the gov would knock down the regular comuter fuel prices, I would gladly pay a 'premium' price for the luxury of 'kruizin', but lets keep the every-day fuels at a 'normal' cost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't see this rant over.....:mad:
Greg.

[E83w]

The 4.3 in my truck got 15mpg to the U.S. gallon on the hiway at cruisin' speed last summer.(whole different story when I bury my foot in it!) ;) Now I have installed the Gear vendors unit and am hoping to get about 18 mpg this summer. Sort of one of the reasons I went with a V-6. You know gas ain't never going back to when we started driving's prices.

The price of gas is just one of them little omens of having and driving our toys!

Russ

[Gramps]

I have a 350 in my "A" and I am getting not only probably over 30 mpg but I also get double that in smiles per gallon!!

[wrascal]

Well boys, the day where you have a secret still and moonshine out the back to run your car off straight alcohol may not be all that far away. It would come down to the choice of drinking or driving......... never both.

Russ

[..77.]

On another site that I go on there is a dude in N Cali who is into road racing with a sedan type car and he brews his own fuel . I dont know the details , but some others have witnessed the set up . Legality in Canada who , knows , probably right up there with the new " street racing " laws.
If,n you brewed your own fuel , there robably some kinda road tax laws involved..77.

[Techhead]

There are guys out there who brew their own Bio-Diesel. What would be the difference?
After my car hits the road, I will see then how deep my pockets are to keep filling up the tank with Premium. :eek:

[cherrymerc]

...I have bought outdated avgas from air charter guys pretty cheap...has a 2 yr legal lifespan in drums ... 100LL perks up the ole ponies and good for the old high compression engines or with valve seats that haven't been updated...:D

[Fatchuk]

Well as spring is approaching and a young mans thoughts turn to girls and cars..nothing can stop the little head..

But for this old guy as spring is approaching this oldmans thoughts turn to $25.00 to cut the grass every week, $100.00 to $150.00 bucks for a week-end of cruisin, plus eatin out, plus insurance, + + + + is startin to = abig bunch of ----'s in me bank account...gettin to be I can only afford to have every second week-end to enjoy the cruizin anymore...guess I kin still wash on the week-ends I can't afford to gas the biggest expense I have up..:(:(.fatchuk

[Dribs]

I plan on yanking out the original 216 from my 50 but will replace it with another 6 for sure...250?

The 216 with 3 on the tree sounds like an old Vancouver Trolley Bus pulling into a stop. Need an open drive shaft, more gears for cruising and something with pressurized oiling!

I'll pass on the V8 for now thanks!

[MR HANEY]

hey bud i happen to have a 250 6 complete with 40,000 k on it hei ignition alt/motor mounts/hooked to my engine hoist for fast loading $1 per cubic inch!!!

[30sx]

yo mr. haney if dribbs doesn,t want that motor i will take it off yourhands!

[34ford]

:eek:Hey FATCHUCKLES:DMy Buick Roadmaster gets 33MPG .I'm surprised your caving in on a four banger .If you cut my V8 in half you should get 66MPG but you won't ,so stick with the big cars and big motors . Like one of the guys said ,in 1960 I was making $55.00 a week and paid .35c a gallon or about 10c a litre . Today I'd make $1500.00 a week and that translates to $2.80 a litre. So we are ahead of the game right now. Even if I only made $750.00 a week that would be $1.40 a litre .We would still be ahead of the game. My Buick has a 350 in it and an overdrive tranny in it with 2:50 gears in it .So with that kind of thinking build something similar . It still lays rubber . :eek:
Bob

[Dribs]

hey bud i happen to have a 250 6 complete with 40,000 k on it hei ignition alt/motor mounts/hooked to my engine hoist for fast loading $1 per cubic inch!!!

I'd take it for sure but how the hell would I get it here???

Do you offer FREE delivery? :rolleyes::D

I'm gonna check to see if anyone travels between PG and Van on a regular basis that may have some room for it.

[Fatchuk]

34ford says....
in 1960 I was making $55.00 a week

Thats the whole trouble Bob..I am still only making $100.00 a week...and paying $5.00 a gal..fatchuk

[rustbucket]

I don't think it will damage the hobby just put a dampener on it for a while until we all realize that without our cars we might as well drink ourselves stupid,and booze costs more than gas.
England now pays around $2.20 per litre and the average wage is only $12 ph.

[34ford]

:eek:Hey Fatchuckles .no wonder your knees are killing your :rolleyes:your praying for more wages and cheap gas.Go apply for your early pension and more than double your wages .Between you and me your boss is a cheapskate.:rolleyes:
Bob

[spock]

yep,Rustbuckets right.
its really painful trying to run a v8 over here...thats why i don't.
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee285/spockbrum/Rubyengine.jpg
this will return about 40mpg and has run a low 15sec at the drags..with bonneville gearing:D
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee285/spockbrum/IMG_0209.jpg
this is my everydayer..4cyl turbo..200bhp..fantastic fun....everyday.
honestly..4cylinders isnt the end of the world;)
spock

[Fatchuk]

34Bob said...
"Between you and me your boss is a cheapskate."


He is a real jerk...:( but what can I do? I can't leave him ...I'm waiting for him to croak so I will get the inheritance..but he may live longer than me...:mad:

[stovbolt]

well I don't drink ,don't smoke ,don't chase wimmin no more so to hell with it I'll keep cruzin

[shaune]

Around town my 59 F100 with the 223 3 spd gets more miles than the 96 Vortec 305 Chev truck. I can go a month vs 2 weeks for the same dollar. Here it is a one barrel Holley with 3 forward gears against an injected, oxygen sensor stuff, overdrive trans but the 59 goes longer on $60 than the Chev.
Maybe a 6 cyl vs an 8 is that much of a factor ?

[cherrymerc]

...my grocery getter in the summer is my old manx dune bug...goes forever on a tank of gas.... might have to get one of them saskatchewan credit cards again tho hahahahahaha:D

[UGLEE 33]

jist filled up my truck today. cost me $ 992.20.I can burn that off in a day:mad:

[stovbolt]

overdrives are not always the answer my comet has one and runs on the flat at around an idle at 100 k's but as soon as you hit any kind of mole hill "and there are lots of them here you have to give it gas and watch the gage go down I find myself not even using it most of the time cause it can't be good for the engine lugging all the time!!

[John in Oz]

jist filled up my truck today. cost me $ 992.20.I can burn that off in a day:mad:

You obviously don't have the long rang tanks there Lee or was the truck already half full.

Cheers, John

[UGLEE 33]

can,t put on any bigger tanks John cuz I would jist beat them up in the bush iffin they got any bigger around,at bone empty it will hold 1000 ltrs

[Dribs]

hey bud i happen to have a 250 6 complete with 40,000 k on it hei ignition alt/motor mounts/hooked to my engine hoist for fast loading $1 per cubic inch!!!

Thanks for the offer but I have no way of getting it down here. I'll keep looking around the lower mainland.

-Dribs