conan
624
Electric cars are good for driving little woman and feminist men around in there little enclave but real world demands real world equipment.
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WuWei
626
Sure, I donāt use them much. I aināt a carpenter.
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Samm
627
My first battery tool was a B&D drill. The batteries were crap ā¦ one was defective and shorted out the charger. So I bought a Mikita ā¦ 9 volts was inadequate and I ran through batteries at a disappointing rate. When I retired (2003) my crew gave me a Ryobi set (drill, circ saw, jig saw, recip saw, chain saw etc.) which I still have and use considerably. Iām only on my second set of lithium batteries. A couple of years ago I bought a Dewalt 20/60 volt chainsaw. Love it! As a consequence, I purchased a Dewalt 20 volt blower and intend to get several other yard tools as well. As the Ryobi tools wear out, I will likely replace them with Dewalt.
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conan
628
Still have my old old 1/2 500 RPM Milwaukee drill that I bought back in 78 or so. Was drilling a 4inch hole for fan vent about 4 weeks ago and popped my thumb in both joints. 
Getting old man.
conan
629
Yeahā¦they came long ways with those batteries but in demanding work environmentā¦they just donāt hold up.
But having said thatā¦needing a quick tool without having to plug it in itās great. But be prepared to be replacing batteries if youāre using em hard.
Samm
630
Good tools are like old friends. I still use my Craftsman tools that I bought in ā71 so I could work on my Camaro, pretty much everyday.
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conan
631
As for China ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā just ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā
I refinished couple long guns for a friend. In payment he gave me new PC pancake air compressor and nailer.
Compressor lasted around 6 months if that before having to heave it. So9meone gave me Bostitch compressorā¦that lasted even less.
While my old Thompson still running after 40 yearsā¦and it was made in Wis USA,
Those cars their making are just like those throw away tools.
conan
632
I just think vehicles today are all part of throwaway culture.
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I beg to differ.
LS motor all the way. Itās like a 350ā¦ only better!
In all seriousness, small block chevys are great. Being a younger chap though I prefer the LS. They fixed most of the common issues the small block hadā¦ except the oiling system. They went backwards weirdly enough. The lifters in the back two cylinders get starved of oil. Thatās why almost every 5.3 you see has lifter tap lol.
The ultimate Chevy V8 would be an LS block and heads using a Small-Block Oiling system.
conan
634
Maybeā¦I heard some pretty good things about them but never worked on em.
In some ways they are. In other ways, they tend to last longer now than they used to.
The difference is that in 1985 almost anyone with a brain cell could work on a vehicle. They were far less complicated. You worked on them more often (god I hate Carburetors) but a man (or woman) with a basic tool set could perform 90% of the jobs on a vehicle. Specialized tools were only required when torquing head studs, or setting valve clearances, or stuff like that. Stuff I donāt even do.
But nowā¦ Mechanically speaking they arenāt too much more complicated but itās the electronic control systems that make it very difficult for anyone to work on them. Theyāre harder to diagnose now. And you have to reflash the PCM or BCM to do simple repairs, which requires specialized scan tools to do.
That and these companies insist on going down the rabbit hole with flawed designs. For example, GDI. GDI combined with MPFI is a good thing. But GDI by itself is fundamentally flawed. Because the fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber the valves are never cleaned by the fuel, which is something that does happen in MPFI design.
I get why GDI is so popular. At lower RPMs it really helps with drivability and the PCM can get real radical with the fuel trim and engine timing to maximize fuel economy. You can run higher compression rations with pump gas using GDI.
But it should always be combined with MPFI so that the valves are cleaned by fuel passing from the intake into the combustion chamber. Thatās what Toyota started doing with their engines. The new GR variants have 12 fuel injectors. Six GDI injectors and six MPFI injectors. When you get in the later part of the power band the MPFI injectors open up.
Itās mainly the rotating assembly, crankcase, and block design that has made them so popular.
A stock LS bottom end can take up to 1,000 horsepower worth of mods. The bottom end is stout. Six bolt main bearing caps and the block strength on aluminum block LS engines almost match the strength of iron block small blocks. The iron block LS engines are dramatically stronger than the older Gen 1 and Gen 2 blocks.
Basically, for mods, you can get a lot out of an LS without having to go to a custom block and rotating assembly. That makes them cheaper to build for the power you get out of them.
Samm
637
I used to fix everything on my cars. Nowadays, the only thing under the hood that I recognize is the battery. 
Iād be in good shape to work on EVs if they put the battery under the hood. 
I felt that way the first time I looked under the hood of a customerās Audi V8 Twin-Turbo. I was just checking it out because I had never seen one in person and he said I could look at it.
I donāt get how anyone could do any work on that engine while itās still in the car. It was mind blowing how little space was in there. And I felt like my 99 Trans Am had a cramped engine bay but it was nowhere near as bad as that damn Audi.
Craziest part of that engineās design is where they mount the turbos. They mount them under the intake valley. So you have these insanely designed exhaust manifolds that run behind the engine and above the bell housing and then up into the valley.
Looked at some pictures of one sitting out of a vehicle. The engine is tall as hell despite only being a 4.2L. A 7.0 LS7 takes up less space.
conan
639
Motors do last longer because they learn over time but youāre right about electronics/electrical part. Iām still trying to figure out fuel ejection since I own one, first I every one one with fuel injection.
I know they ran into problem with 87? Chevyāsā¦but 92 or so they figured it outā¦again Iām just guessing on those dates.
my 94 box truck is still a carburetor.
zantax
640
I never understand home repair guys with battery powered tools. Itās not that much work to plug it in and get much better torque. Nobody should be using them if there is an electric outlet in the vicinity imho.
More freedom of movement I think. With a corded drill youāll have to change plugs at some point unless you want to trace extension cable through the work space. And a lot of simple jobs donāt require the torque.
IMO, I do prefer a wall plug in drill whenever possible though. My granddad has this old Makita that we always used when I was younger. That thing had stupid amounts of torque.
Iām not a carpenter or anything like that but Iāve helped build a few decks for house trailers. Me and my eventual brother in law (if him and my sister ever decide to get married) built my deck a few weeks ago.
In the 1970ās the automakers were building Diesel cars like mad.
That should tell you everything you need to know.
