The car

[Mortblanc]

Back in the '90s I was teaching at a school were one of my Co workers had a Ford Thunderbird with a 3L V6.

I drove, at that time, a Ford Ranger pickup with the same exact 3L V6

The president of the institution drove a Jag with the exact same 3L V6.

My truck made 150HP and got 25MPG (US 4 qt gallons)
My coworker's Thunderbird made 225 HP and got 35 MPG
The bosses Jag made 350HP and got 30MPG

My truck got 25mpg because the government regulation said that a pickup had to get at least 25 mpg.

My co worker got their mileage for the same reason. The government regulation said that a passenger car of a certain weight had to get a specific mileage minimum.

Every part in those engines was interchangeable, except the computer control modules. By modules I mean that particular engine had 5 different, separate electronic control systems. All of them had to interface before the things would run.

Yep, it's a farce.

[Pete Grey]

MB That’s interesting about the V6, did they lower the compression ratio for the pickup so it would run on a lower octane gasoline ?.

[CharlesHarris]

The pickups are normally detuned and optimized for low-end torque and not for highway gas economy or top-end speed.

But I can tell you that when you have the heavied-up Ford Explorer SUV with the US police intercept package it has the same computer chip in it as the Jag, with 4-wheel antilock disk brakes and a computerized suspension which enables you to take Interstate exit ramps in a full 4-wheel drift at 200 km/h without rolling the vehicle over. Of course it also has specialty tyres and rims which enable it to perform miracles which James Bond would have expected from his Austin-Martin.

[Pete Grey]

I’m having to keep an eye on the front wheels of the car, tyres are slowly loosing pressure, something like 3 or 4psi a week, not when parked (no loss during the months of self isolation) only when being driven.

The alloy wheels are showing signs of corrosion around the rim (must affect the seal) and i believe while driving with flexing and the cornering side forces some air is lost.

The cost of renovating the wheels is nearly as much as a new set so i’ll carry on with weekly checks until new tyres are needed then reassess the problem.

[Mortblanc]

Nothing the matter with the tyres, its bad air!

[Pete Grey]

(7 September 2020, 14:20)Mortblanc Wrote: Nothing the matter with the tyres, its bad air!

Air must be corrosive...........HELP

[Pete Grey]

(7 September 2020, 19:52)Pete Grey Wrote:

(7 September 2020, 14:20)Mortblanc Wrote: Nothing the matter with the tyres, its bad air!

Air must be corrosive...........HELP

Spoke to my local tyre depot the other day, they suggest i go and have the tyres filled with Nitrogen, evidently it holds pressure better.

[Mortblanc]

I have always thought that was a good con.

The atmosphere is already 78% nitrogen.

[Skean Dhude]

It's not really a con but in reality a waste for general users. It is more stable but we wouldn't notice.

It's like everything, you pay 50% of the cost to get 90% performance and the extra 10% costs an extra 90%. This is like that.

[CharlesHarris]

When I was in public works we had a substantial vehicle fleet which included 56 over the road lorries with 100-cubic yard walking floor trailers for hauling municipal solid waste to our waste-to-energy facility, which produced 80MW daily and processed about a millions tons of MSW annually. We also had 200 pickup trucks, 50 SUVs, and 100 other pieces of mechanized equipment. They did not use ambient air to inflate he tyres. They used only CO2, because ig a tyre overheated and caught fire the CO2 would quench the fire.