Have you ever committed to a platform?

[swampratt]

For years I loved my Oldsmobile engines and TH 350 transmissions.
I knew every nut and bolt size and every engine was awesome.

Then I built my first small block chevy after 2 years of researching it.
I went mild with it a 268H cam some milled and ported heads and ported exhaust manifolds and a ported intake manifold single point distributor and Quadrajet carb of course carb and distributor were tweaked on.

WOW!!!
I called a buddy, I built his 455 olds and it was in an early 70's skylark.
I told him this 350 would beat his 455.
NO WAY.
It almost did.

I thought man if I went a bit more compression and a larger cam this SBC would have some potential.

I have choice of what I wish to build and for me it has been the chevy and the TH 350 transmission and to take the power my vehicles always ended up with a Ford 9" rearend from a truck.
Not that is must be from a truck but that is what I have wheels for

For milder stuff give me the ford inline 6 or the Nissan/Datsun inline 6.

 

[TerryP]

At any point in your life have you decided to just stick with a certain model/type/platform or engine? If so, how did it go?

With the cost of new vehicles being outrageous, it doesn't make sense for some people to buy newer cars. Not to mention the cost of repairs going through the roof and the problems most of them seem to have.

Yes
Toyota 4x4’s late 80’s to 2008
Gen 4 Chevy trucks, prefer 92-96

 

[Gideon]

LONG STORY:
In early Feb of '22, I drove an '08 Tacoma (Prerunner, nothing fancy). An ice storm came through early in the week but by Friday morning as I got off my night shift the roads were 90% clear and dry.
I hit the last remaining patch of black ice at 0715hrs on I-44 around Harvard, slid sideways, hit the center divider and spun around. Airbags didn't deploy, no injuries, just a crunched front end.
Limped to the nearest exit and found all the tranny fluid and coolant running onto the ground. Engine sputtered and died.
Insurance company said to leave it, they'd send a truck to get it once one came available. It was a busy week for the tow truck guys. I leave it there, dead in the water, after taking all my belongings out.

On Monday morning the salvage yard calls: "hey man where's your truck we're coming to get it."
"Uh, I thought you guys already got it? It was gone when I drove back by there with my wife yesterday."
"Ok, we'll check with StateFarm."
I put it out of my mind.

I worked at a casino. I was the night shift Security Manager. I go to work Monday night as usual. Drove the wife's car.
At ~0500hrs, I'm sitting at the security desk conversing with coworkers, when suddenly I just get the urge to get up and get some fresh air.
I step out onto the valet area and see a silver Tacoma pull up. It has a crushed front end. It has black spray-painted factory wheels. It's MY TRUCK. I freeze for a second, helpless as it drives away after stopping for a second.
I call my surveillance team and they tell me the truck parked in the garage.

Cops come, driver gets an out of custody warrant for unauthorized use (he did eventually go the prison). I get my truck back.

He had wired 2 LEDs in place of my headlights, left me half a case of Corona in the back seat. He drove it around for 2 days with no fluids. When I started it up to move it to the parking lot for the tow truck, it started and drove away like nothing happened to it.

Tacomas can survive ice storm crackheads. I'm never not going to have at least one in my garage.

I've tried to calculate the odds that I, the only person who would recognize my truck and the only person who would know it was missing, would just happen to step outside at the exact moment it pulled up? It's beyond astronomical. What are the chances that you'd steal a car and then take it to the place the owner works, AND works in security, AND is the manager who can request police and surveillance help?
Was God helping me get my truck back or was he punishing the thief? Both?

 

[adamsredlines]

Called about a truck today that would be my 3rd 3rd gen Ram. It's out of state...looking for more info as it looks great in pics. It's been repainted, which is why it looks so good...but the kicker when I asked about undercarriage "there's a rust hole about half the size of a baseball in the middle of the frame. Nothing structural though "

What?!?!?!?! Yeah thanks, bye.

 

[montesa]

LONG STORY:
In early Feb of '22, I drove an '08 Tacoma (Prerunner, nothing fancy). An ice storm came through early in the week but by Friday morning as I got off my night shift the roads were 90% clear and dry.
I hit the last remaining patch of black ice at 0715hrs on I-44 around Harvard, slid sideways, hit the center divider and spun around. Airbags didn't deploy, no injuries, just a crunched front end.
Limped to the nearest exit and found all the tranny fluid and coolant running onto the ground. Engine sputtered and died.
Insurance company said to leave it, they'd send a truck to get it once one came available. It was a busy week for the tow truck guys. I leave it there, dead in the water, after taking all my belongings out.

On Monday morning the salvage yard calls: "hey man where's your truck we're coming to get it."
"Uh, I thought you guys already got it? It was gone when I drove back by there with my wife yesterday."
"Ok, we'll check with StateFarm."
I put it out of my mind.

I worked at a casino. I was the night shift Security Manager. I go to work Monday night as usual. Drove the wife's car.
At ~0500hrs, I'm sitting at the security desk conversing with coworkers, when suddenly I just get the urge to get up and get some fresh air.
I step out onto the valet area and see a silver Tacoma pull up. It has a crushed front end. It has black spray-painted factory wheels. It's MY TRUCK. I freeze for a second, helpless as it drives away after stopping for a second.
I call my surveillance team and they tell me the truck parked in the garage.

Cops come, driver gets an out of custody warrant for unauthorized use (he did eventually go the prison). I get my truck back.

He had wired 2 LEDs in place of my headlights, left me half a case of Corona in the back seat. He drove it around for 2 days with no fluids. When I started it up to move it to the parking lot for the tow truck, it started and drove away like nothing happened to it.

Tacomas can survive ice storm crackheads. I'm never not going to have at least one in my garage.

I've tried to calculate the odds that I, the only person who would recognize my truck and the only person who would know it was missing, would just happen to step outside at the exact moment it pulled up? It's beyond astronomical. What are the chances that you'd steal a car and then take it to the place the owner works, AND works in security, AND is the manager who can request police and surveillance help?
Was God helping me get my truck back or was he punishing the thief? Both?

Wow. That's like a coen brothers movie or something. I'm waiting for the rest of the plot. Crazy.

I agree Tacoma's are the best. Drove one for 18 years 230k miles without one single problem.

 

[Hooper]

Growing up on a farm and doing custom harvesting of wheat and stripping cotton, and having a commercial trucking company our whole family of the men, were professional of either auto body work, welding, fabricating metal, carpentry, wheel and tire repairs, engine rebuilding, processing meat, milking cows, we never used a mechanic or a veterinary, I am surprised we didn't make our own fuel. Grandpa was a bootlegger back in depression day. I can oversee and trouble shoot about any pre 1979 pickup, Ford or Chevy, or 379 Model Peterbilts, not engine work so much, but about any other issue, I can change rods and main bearings, do overheads, in B model catterpillars, a lot of the other stuff you begin to run into needing specialized tools, for pump work and things.

I am not bragging, it is just part of living in poverty for generations. You learn to make it, fix it, or do without.

It is a good thing, if people have not experienced it they seem helpless to me.

I detect quite a few gentlemen on this forum to be cut from a similar cloth. That is why I hang out here, mostly.
People of this nature are way more interesting to me.

Times are much better now a day and it is really causing our country problems. Most of, but not all, of todays' younger generations are spoiled from living in this land of plenty. A big part of our social problems are coming from spoiled people. They fall for about anything, making it easy for the propaganda regime to influence them.

I apologize for the rant, but I have a respect for people who learn a platform and become familiar with it.
Any time you can go against the grain of major corporations and learn the function of a platform better than the one who made it, it is a brick in the wall of Freedom in my opinion.

Hope this came out like I was trying to explain it, as you might be able to tell, public education was secondary growing up at our house. So communication skills of English may be a little weak.

Now a day my Mechanic skills are fading too. Age and Mobility problems seem to make a man become a professional bullspitter and observationist, of life situations.

 

[Hooper]

For years I loved my Oldsmobile engines and TH 350 transmissions.
I knew every nut and bolt size and every engine was awesome.

Then I built my first small block chevy after 2 years of researching it.
I went mild with it a 268H cam some milled and ported heads and ported exhaust manifolds and a ported intake manifold single point distributor and Quadrajet carb of course carb and distributor were tweaked on.

WOW!!!
I called a buddy, I built his 455 olds and it was in an early 70's skylark.
I told him this 350 would beat his 455.
NO WAY.
It almost did.

I thought man if I went a bit more compression and a larger cam this SBC would have some potential.

I have choice of what I wish to build and for me it has been the chevy and the TH 350 transmission and to take the power my vehicles always ended up with a Ford 9" rearend from a truck.
Not that is must be from a truck but that is what I have wheels for

For milder stuff give me the ford inline 6 or the Nissan/Datsun inline 6.

I have a 95 f150 with an inline 6, the last year it was in production I believe. Best engine ford ever made possibly.
For practical use any way.

Some of there big blocks are pretty awesome too. 428 interceptor,429's, then all the Windsor and Boss engines.

If you are ever in Mineral Wells, Texas, make sure you go to a place called the Blue Oval, He has about 30 or so Mustangs from 1971 mostly, showroom quality, some original paint. He will let you look at them in his old Ford dealership floor, well worth it if you get there to look at them.

Blue Oval Car Barn

The Blue Oval Car Barn is home to one of the largest collections of 1971 Ford Mustangs in the nation in addition to muscle cars and motorcycles of all makes, and is the lifelong passion of muscle car enthusiast Finley Ledbetter. The Blue Oval Car Barn is located under the Crazy Water Sign just a...

www.youtube.com

 

[Profreedomokie]

Land Rovers, I guess. I have two now and have owned two others. I've owned them for almost 30 years.