Why is it?... A rant/observation

[Jrgunn5150]

Why is it that car guy's nowadays want to leave everything up to a shop? People are afraid to assemble their own motor's, tear into a trans, rear end, or learn to tune. The stock response is to leave everything alone, or let a "pro" do it, or otherwise you will surely destroy your car...

Head's can only be CNC ported now (a nice piece of propoganda there), mod motor's are best assembled by engineer's, tuning can only be done on the dyno. Hell I've run acrossed people on the board's afraid to swap an alternator or waterpump. And people want a damn write-up on flippin wikipedia for everything, complete with pics. I mean I'm all for learning and researching, but people seem to want to be able to do it in their sleep before they even pop the damn hood.

I'm just wondering whatever happened to getting out there and actually flipping getting your hands dirty, doing something, and figuring it out as you go?. I was not born with the knowledge on how to rebuild an auto trans, set up a rear end, degree cam's, or measure crankshaft end play. Nor did I achieve the engineering degree I was pursuing.. yet I can do these thing's now.

A guy in his basement can port your head's, yes even your modular head's, better than some lame, cheap CNC program. You CAN tune on the street, by yourself, especially now that widebands are so cheap, but even 5 years ago, widebands were unheard of, yet people still had 4-500 rwhp car's. You CAN assemble a motor yourself, probably better than the "pro's", you can do your own gear's, a pair of calipers and a mag-based dial indicator is all you need.

I think the interweb is turning car enthusiasts into a bunch of pansies afraid to do anything, yet chock full of worthless "knowledge", like you just can't run boost on a stock block, it will surely blow... But I'm all about healthy debate, so feel free to go at it.

 

[94Pro-5.0]

i totally agree. being only 20, i see this a lot. people my age are scared to break their cars, so they have other people do it.

i had my block line bored before putting it in my car, and i left him the cam etc i was putting in so he could check everything. when i got the motor back he had the cam in the block, even though i didnt ask him to. well i take it home and decide to pull it out and make sure he did everything right. THERE WAS NOOOO LUBE ON THE CAM. this is a shop that was recomended to me by several people. if you want it done right do it yourself.

 

[ba96gt]

My first post here so I'll try not to go crazy. But, I think it is understandable that many people dont' want to work on cars today. The parts are becoming more complex, and more special tools are required. It is not like the days of muscle cars when with a set of sockets and wrenches you could do just about everything. I think it is a cultural change as well. People are busier (less time available) and want things done faster. As far as having a pro do the work. On somethings it makes sense. A guy in his basement is not going to port heads better than a CNC. He may just make them worst. And street tuning is loved by some, but I hate it. There are too many variables on the street that cant be eliminated. Those are another topic though.

 

[SRT Handz]

I have had my SN95 ever since i was 16... Now 4 years later i am still the only one that has modded my car.

anytime i have have had to change my oil, it have been my hands getting dirty.

Every Mod on my car (Except for a Few things like My Rear End Build) i have done myself, and i am very proud of that <

 

[Downshift]

To be honest I cant stand it either. Ya so freaking what if your car has 400hp. Did you make it have 400hp or did you just pay for it to have 400hp. I would rather drive a 300hp car and lose to some wanna be who pays "his mechanic" to put it on.

How can you be a car enthusiast when you don't even put your own springs or control arms or intake on. Not knocking anyone, but if you pay someone to do things that you can do short of $1k tools, you just like driving a faster car you are not a true car enthusiast.

Hell I live in an apartment complex and I have pulled my transmission out of both my cars and my friends here. On top of my intake, springs, control arms, oil changes, and on and on. And im not even supposed to do more than check my oil level in here.


Your not alone jrgunn lol.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

My first post here so I'll try not to go crazy. But, I think it is understandable that many people dont' want to work on cars today. The parts are becoming more complex, and more special tools are required. It is not like the days of muscle cars when with a set of sockets and wrenches you could do just about everything. I think it is a cultural change as well. People are busier (less time available) and want things done faster. As far as having a pro do the work. On somethings it makes sense. A guy in his basement is not going to port heads better than a CNC. He may just make them worst. And street tuning is loved by some, but I hate it. There are too many variables on the street that cant be eliminated. Those are another topic though.

STFU NOOB!!! :santa_grin: Naw I'm just kidding dude, lol. Feel free to express your opinion, I don't get all butt hurt about it.

Lemme dissect you post a bit. As far as specialized tool's go, I owned the same Sn95 for 11 year's, off the top of my head, the only special tool's I had were the pertinent ones for the trans (I also have Chevy special trans tools), and a 35mm? (I think) socket for the nut that hold's the unit bearing on. Everything else, I can use on any of my car's. You do need more than wrenchs and socket's go, but I don't see how that was ever any different.

Busier/Less time I concede that point. However, to me, wrenching is 70% of the fun of having a car, but then I am an odd one...

A guy in his basement porting.... Maybe I should have been more clear, an experienced guy in his basement. A head is a friggen head, be it modular, Hemi, wedge, canted valve. A person with experience can look at the design and tell you what it takes to make it work better. And how does one get experience? Well the same way you get to Carnegie Hall, practice. I for one would not be afraid to try to port my own head's. I might make them worse, yes, but they only cost 200 bucks. And why take on faith that the fool running the CNC today was on top of his game? What if he said ".050 under here and .077 over there, close enough" and chucked it in the box? I ran CNC's for year's, and the most common thing out of my boss's mouth (at several shops) was "we're not scrapping that". So I have less faith in the almighty CNC than the general public.

As for tuning, well it's 6 one way and a half dozen the other. I will say this though, I'm not going to drive the car on the dyno, I'm going to drive it on the street. I used SCT pro racer, figured it out myself, and managed to not blow up my boosted motor.

Some of my point's were just in the face of so-called "knowledge" people have, that they read off a board. Far too many speak on what they have read, not what they have done. Which in turn snowballs into a big myth that you can never get rid of. Like Fram being a good oil filter, but I digress.

But my whole intent here was to stir debate, because I am bored < So keep em coming.

 

[94 DropTop]

I love working on my car. but stuff like my rear end and things I dont have tool for I have somone else do. I do sit watch and learn anyway that I can though. Im going have a guy come over and help with the heads. The way I see Learn from othere mistakes. Having somone watch over you and show you things is better than messing it up and having to do it again. Everything that has been done to my car i have had a hand in though.

 

[ripper]

You go out and STREET tune a blown car with just a wideband and an xcal2 and 1 of 2 things will happen.

1. You will have a 325hp car that should be 450

2. Or you will learn ALOT about engine rebuilds.

I agree that you should do things your capable of. But if your not leave it up to the guy that does it every day. Everyone here knows a guy with a motor laying around in his garage in pieces because he JUMPED into it.

 

[Whistler98]

I do most of the work on my car. That is why I bought a 98 so I could mod it and learn about working on them. I like it when I am done and the car is faster/better b/c I did it myself. But there are somethings I will leave up to ppl with more experience like the motor & tune.

 

[95Grandtouring5.0]

Most of your older muscle cars didn't have 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Electrical hoses and wires anywhere and everywhere. And when something does go wrong with a fuel injected car, there is a thousand possibilities as to whats wrong and you NEED a computer in most cases to find the problem and fix it. Im going to go out on a limb here and say that not everyone under the sun has a scanner.

 

[Paul]

I agree with most of what Jrgunn has been saying. The Mustang community is dominated by young men who would rather hang out all day on message boards, talk about their cars and post pictures of them than actually work on them. The import craze of the 90s brought about a new phenomenon where cosmetic changes to a car suddenly became a critical part of 'performance'.

The internet has brought about a wealth of knowledge that people can use to head down the right path with their cars, but it has also raised a generation of "experts" whose entire knowledge base comes not from experience, but from what they read on some message board.

IMHO, the reality of the situation is this:

If you have a pushrod car, (like I do, several of them) you don't need lots of fancy tools and equipment to work on your car. An OBDI scanner can be purchased for $30. A complete set of sockets and wrenches will go a long way on a Mustang. I may have a few more tools than your average weekend warrior mechanic, but that's just because I make it a point to never rent tools. I always buy them so I'll have them again the next time I do something.

I used to have someone work on my car for me, until I realized most people, and most shops, are just a bunch of hacks who could give a shit about your car. The only person who has never cut corners on my car is me. Now I do almost all my own work. I don't do paint/body because it is grueling work and I hate it. I don't do gears/rear axles because it's a pain in the ass and I have a friend that does it for cheap. I'm currently building my own motor. When my T5 fails, I'll rebuild that too.

Honestly, I don't really like working on cars that much. However, if I have a friend with me, then I have a good time because I enjoy the camaraderie more than working on the car. That's really what cars are about for me. I'm not out to be the fastest car, or the shiniest car, or whatever. I just want it to be mine.

Paul.

 

[2slo95fiveoh]

i agree with most of what is being said. i get super frustrated when a buddy of mine with a 92 5.0 asks me where the
cheapest place would be to swap intake manifolds. I told him my house, and he responded with " I'm too lazy to work
on it" i told him to go buy a cavalier. As far as the "i don't know how to do rearends" kinda stuff, now I'm not bashing on
anyone, but they do make books like haynes so you can learn how to do them. i have never worked on a rearend myself,
since i bought my car with gears installed, but i need to assemble the rearend of my fox, and i will be reading up in
my haynes manual on how that works. the bottom line: save money, have fun, learn something : do it yourself.

 

[Black97GT]

I enjoy working on my car. The only thing I haven't done myself was my clutch install, but the reason for that is this is my daily driver and I needed it done. If I had another car to bomb around in I would gladly attempt to tackle that job. I think this reason may be part of what is being observed as well? There are a lot of younger guys that own these cars and a lot of them don't have a second car. I always do a lot of research before I dive right into doing something. Does this make me less of an enthusiast? I would say no.

 

[Twista]

i let the pros do it. Sorry, i will not take apart my only car that i need for work. When my clutch went out i had to depend on the public bus. Do i not have the confidence that i can fix my own car? Nope, i dont and im fine with that.

 

[94Pro-5.0]

My first post here so I'll try not to go crazy. But, I think it is understandable that many people dont' want to work on cars today. The parts are becoming more complex, and more special tools are required. It is not like the days of muscle cars when with a set of sockets and wrenches you could do just about everything. I think it is a cultural change as well. People are busier (less time available) and want things done faster. As far as having a pro do the work. On somethings it makes sense. A guy in his basement is not going to port heads better than a CNC. He may just make them worst. And street tuning is loved by some, but I hate it. There are too many variables on the street that cant be eliminated. Those are another topic though.

i have a 69 mach 1 and a 94 gt. i dont think working on one is harder than working on the other. its just different, not harder.

 

[QTRHRSE]

I do all my own work beseides...
1. Shortblock
2. Gears
3. Tune

everything else happens in my driveway... EVERYTHING

 

[ripper]

i agree with most of what is being said. i get super frustrated when a buddy of mine with a 92 5.0 asks me where the
cheapest place would be to swap intake manifolds. I told him my house, and he responded with " I'm too lazy to work
on it" i told him to go buy a cavalier. As far as the "i don't know how to do rearends" kinda stuff, now I'm not bashing on
anyone, but they do make books like haynes so you can learn how to do them. i have never worked on a rearend myself,
since i bought my car with gears installed, but i need to assemble the rearend of my fox, and i will be reading up in
my haynes manual on how that works. the bottom line: save money, have fun, learn something : do it yourself.

Im not bashing here either but. Say you do the rear, fill it with 40 bux worth of purple, drive down the road and your backlash aint right and its whinnin like my wife wantin to go to Florida LOL. Now you gotta pull it all apart, minus the fluid, minus your time, you get it back together and find it still aint right. You will be kickin yerself in the ass for not payin the 150 bux to have a guy that does this all the time do it for ya.

I wouldnt wire a kitchen addition if I didnt know how. And im not gonna do work to my car just so I can say I did it.

 

[gt96stang]

I don't mind doing my own work on my car. It really is fun. I've torn apart my rear end, and if I had the correct tools, I could have had it done.

But I also am too busy to have my car down for more than one day if something goes wrong with what I'm doing. Plus I cannot afford to keep doing things more than once. So I leave some things up to the professionals. If I had spare time/another car and plenty more tools, I would try and tackle everything myself.. I LOVE the learning experience, but it is also nice to have a write-up as sort of a guideline for someone that hasn't done it before and are a little nervous about tackling the job.

 

[jfor441]

There is a big difference between working on your car when you want to versus working on your because you have to. If my car breaks on Sunday, I have to drive it Monday. It will go to a pro to get fixed if it is something I can't do fairly quick. That being said, when it comes time for me to get my new motor installed, I won't be doing it. I will have a local Mustang shop do it as well as the header install and the tuning involved with it. Cost for motor and header install? 400 bucks. Cost for tuning? 400-500 bucks. Time for them to get it done? A couple of days. I don't have to worry about hurrying to get my car done.

And my motor will be 100% assembled by me. The headwork I will leave to someone who knows how to port and polish. Assembly I can do because I can still drive my car while I am putting the motor together. Same thing when it comes time for my rearend work. I will buy the parts I want for the new rear and then take it to someone who knows how to put them together.

Not to mention that I have done my share of side of the road repairs, keeping junkers running and installing motors just so i can drive to work the next day. I am at a place in my life that I can afford to pay someone else to do the work for me if i want. That does not make me any less of a car enthusiast.

 

[TRUUBLE]

I do as much of my own work as is practicable.

But, when it comes to building a motor like the one that's in my car, I leave that to the pros.

Let them build it, then I'll put it in. 8)