Built like a Mercedes (?)

Then you didn't see the core of America where our systems get raked over the coals continually. We criticize ourselves enough, we need no help from armchair politicians.

Btw, one right we do have is the right to be offended . . . .by those that decide they know our system better than we do. You don't live here so all your knowledge is from hearsay, not experience.

Budd

The Allison V-1710 was (and is) an excellent engine. What the Merlin had that the Allison never did was a superior mechanical supercharger and aftercooler. Credit for that goes to ONE British engineer- "Doc" Hooker, who later played a key role in the design of numerous Bristol and then Rolls-Royce turbine engines including teh Olympus (Concorde, Vulcan) and RB.211 (TriStar, 747, 757, 777, etc.) The Merlin supercharger is about two times the size (physically) and far more advanced in turbin/stator design than the Allison unit. The Allison did fine when its mechanical supercharger was augmented by a turbocharger, as in the P-38 Lightning. But the availability of turbochargers at the time was very limited. All the B-17s and B-24s HAD to have them, and the P-38 and P-47 were already getting them, and production was maxed out. When the Mustang came along, it was arbitrarily decided that it would NOT be turbocharged because of the limited availability of turbochargers, so it had to limp along with essentially the same powerplant configuration as the much older P-40.

The Allison actually has a number of design advantages over the Merlin when it comes down to strictly the piston engine part of the design. The Allison has much stronger connecting rods, a stronger crankshaft, and a more rigid crankcase. Its also got much simpler accessory drives more like the Rolls Royce Griffon than like the Merlin, which was something of a kludge with drives hanging off all sorts of strange places- some off the supercharger gear case, some of the cam drives, etc.

In recent years, the most successful "Merlins" in air racing are actually hybrids built from post-war "transport" Merlin blocks, Allison connecting rods with custom bearings, and -9 Merlin superchargers.

I should have said 'poor performance' of the Allison engine.

Thanks for your interesting post.

Graham

What makes you think that all Nazi slave labourers spoke German ?

Graham

I don't think it's confined to Europeans. There are dickheads on both sides of the pond. Fortunately, it usually isn't too difficult to work out who is worth reading and who isn't.

Were it not for America, Europe would probably be made up of Soviet Republics and god knows what would have happened post European War.

Were it not for America and the Battle of Britain, Germany would have had the Atomic bomb 18 months before America, and the Third Reich would currently be looking at the new millennia with renewed confidence.

Were it not for Europe, America would still be almost entirely populated by indigenous Indians.

Anyone can play this game.

They have finally figured out how to re-smelt steel instead of just heating it up and re-rolling it, which , from the results, appears to be about all they did in the seventies. Todays quality steels can contain large proportions of remelted scrap.

Well, I saw the oil when I drained it from that 1969 Dart slant six. It had run wide open, over 100mph for several hours of that trip. It did stop once for a few hours at -40F to wait for the pass to be blown out. The oil was in a vey grungy condition when drained. Worse than I have ever had oil on my vehicles appear in 40 years.

Get out from under your rock. The oils specified by the european manufacturers for their engines in europe are NOT the same oil we buy here in North America. Particularly when talking the high end models.

Pardon? I said Haiti and Burkina are two of the poorest countries in the world. Where am I wrong??? I've been to Burkina. I don't need to go to Haiti.

OK serious answer: It's todo with mixing quotes and replies, which can be very effective.

No, and that's why it's not just top-posting that's annoying, but bottom posting and not editing away superfluous material is at least as bad. A badly edited bottom-post-thread can be very annoying to read. So cut away access fat and create a post that is readable be itself. Like I tried to make this one.

Ximinez

Things have changed a bit since 1969 though. At least, they have over here :-)

Most manufacturers specify exactly the same oil up to 12000 miles as is the minimum US standard. That is API SL. It is a standard which is current and set by the *American* petroleum institute. For goodness' sake, back in 1984 I was running UK built cars with 12,000 mile/1year oil change intervals on high sulphur fuel and far inferior oil to SL, I think it could have been API SF but I'm not sure. I had a VW Golf GTi

1.8 back in 1982 which had 10,000 mile intervals on the standard of the time. It was still running last I heard, which was a while ago, with around 180,000 miles on it.

Yes, from 12000 miles up a better oil is usually specified. So what? Many people choose to use a better oil in any case. Long drain oils are increasingly common and are now almost the standard oils for diesel engines. Witness API CH4 which is equivilent to ACEA E3 or E5 or what used to be called 45000km super high performance oil.

Oil is not rocket science for the consumer. One just uses the oil standard and viscosity as specified by the car manufacturer. It's that simple.

Huw

But a '69 engine under thouse conditions shouldn't have inordinately fouled the oil. *MY* '66 and '69 Chrysler engines go for 7000 miles between changes, and hard running is easier on the oil than loafing. If his slant-6 really did foul its oil that badly on one trim, then the engine had some other problem- broken ring, dead PCV system, blown head gasket, who knows what. But it had a problem that caused the dirty oil.

Perhaps you can, but its not classed as a pickup at that level. From there on up to 24k or so, its medium duty. Pickups are light duty. Both the government and the manufacturers make this distinction.

Thanks for confirming what I felt was the case, most pickups in Europe are very light weight.

I'm inclined to agree with you but I don't know those engines. I do remember Ford Escort engines of that period which did need 4500 mile oil changes because by 6000 miles the oil was basically f****d. Mind you, the engines generally didn't last more than 100,000 back then without a rebuild as I remember it, no matter how often the oil was changed. There are still plenty of rebuilt Escorts of that age running around here of that vintage. My nephew works with a specialist company that just rebuild them for enthusiasts, or "sad gits" as I call them.

Huw

Confirm all you like but the fact remains that most European pickups have a one metric ton payload. Even the huge numbers of extended or king cabs on the road today have a one ton payload or near enough. I run some and am in daily contact with many customers who run almost every non American brand under the sun, and Ford. The Ford/Mazda one tonner is built........ is it in Malaysia? No. Singapore? Maybe, but somewhere in that general region in a factory jointly owned by the two corps. Thailand perhaps.

new version of the L200 has recently been launched This is the extremely ugly new one

The bestselling Land Rover. The short wheelbase pickup and van is the best seller in the range in the UK but worldwide the 110inch wheelbase is by far the best seller, including the rest of Europe. Not that this variant is not a good seller in the UK either. What are the others in the market? Hmm. The Toyota Hilux which launched a new model back in June. This is an ugly son-of-a-bitch too. It is also underpowered in comparison with its contemporaries. Try then find the tab for hilux across the top of the page.

Please let me know of any small pickups that sell in any volume apart from the slow selling VW Caddy which themselves are a rare sight on our roads. I know of only one relitively new one in the area, and that is over 5 years old, and that belongs to an employee of mine.

Huw

Huw

Regularly. As in frequently. Not, oh once a week or so.

Sure, as long as the Taurus is running on 30 year old spark plugs, with 2 cycle gas instead of regular, and towing a 40,000 boat behind it.

A neighbor of mine just got rid of his truck, F150, which NEVER got better than 8MPG. EVER. If you think ANY CAR averages less than 8MPG you need to get a clue.

************************* Dave

No, you said they are two of the poorest countries in the world and the most prosperous.

************************* Dave

Agreed. Top posting is occasionally done in a manner that is acceptable, but not very often. Bottom posting is usually done well, but there are always idiots who can't. Inline is really best.

ALL OF THEM must be done with proper snippage, or they don't work.

************************* Dave