Questionable Engineering

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The88

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I would have loved an rsx s. Instead back then I had an 01 blown v6 accord. Was a fun car....
 

Vbb199

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Lol. I just wanted to see where you'd go with that. This is Mexican country. With beer goes tacos and with tacos comes "real" salsa, hence the sore ass reference.


Ouchy
 

AuroraGirl

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lets all make this a safe space so peoples feelings dont get hurt

except matt69olds, his feelings are allowed to be hurt here.

Dont ask why.

You shouldnt be asking questions to things you dont wanna know the answer to.
 

Salty Crusty

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The bastard I want to meet in a dark alley is the one that decided in the next generation (GMT400) that every bolt holding the trans to the engine HAD to be a double threaded stud with clinch nuts on the outer threads that have to be turned every single turn with a wrench until the very last.
Hell, man, there's no room in there to even work on the old style bolts, adding the clinch nuts was just mean, man. There are only 2 needed, one holds fuel line and the other a heat shield for a wiring bundle.
I hope this guy is married to a mean, lazy, sexless, ugly woman that bitches at him from sunup to sundown.
 

Matt69olds

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lets all make this a safe space so peoples feelings dont get hurt

except matt69olds, his feelings are allowed to be hurt here.

Dont ask why.

You shouldnt be asking questions to things you dont wanna know the answer to.


Huh?! What did I do??

I have broad shoulders, married, and teenage kids. Still, I question if I wanna know!
 
Last edited:

AuroraGirl

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Its actually an old filter supersceded by newer design.. if the filter mounts horizontally its gonna kill your valvetrain
 

Matt69olds

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Got it. When I googled the part number it came up as a LS number. I’m guessing there are probably a few different LS oil filters depending on what chassis the engine is in.

When I first got my Olds the AC/Delco oil filter number was a PF25. When I put the headers on the car I started using K&N filters so I could use a socket to unscrew the filter. Pain in the ass trying to snake a filter wrench around the header tubes.

Since this is a thread titled Questionable Engineering, why haven’t more filter company’s added the nut on the bottom of the filters?!
 

Bextreme04

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Are you SURE? Because some dimwit out there seemingly decided a starter under the intake of a acura (cant remember the line) would be a good idea.

I know theres an issue with that on one of the northstar motors too i believe.


Thats not even a minor change, thats like, hey, how can i **** the end user today?
I know. Lets move it from behind the motor to inside the motor.

As an engineer, that used to be a full time professional mechanic, I can tell you it isn't a malicious thing. The three main reasons I've seen for something like this are:

  1. The engineer has never worked on a car in their life and is just designing something to meet a list of requirements
  2. The engineer designing a component doesn't have access to the entire assembly, they only know the single component(i.e. engine) and have no idea how it is being stuck into a car. When it is stuck into the car, you invariably can't access everything easily.
  3. Compromises have to be made. They have a set area and set number of items to go into that area. They look at the numbers and put the item with the highest mean time before failure in the easiest location to access. Some guy that sold them the starter probably told them that it will last a million cycles and they decided no one would ever need to access it during the life of the car because it will "never fail".

As far as the assembly line thing, there as some truly impressive systems out there that can put together a vehicle very fast and with all kinds of different things. Oshkosh has a crazy cool system where they get a build sheet at the start and put each individual part on at each station. They make all variants on a single production line, so you will see FMTV's, PLS's, MATV's, and regular civilian firetrucks all rolling out on the same production line.

The single best vehicle I have ever seen from a maintenance perspective is the M1 Abrams. It was obviously designed by a group of engineers that knew what they were doing and had extensive experience in field maintenance. You can have an entire engine/trans pulled out and swapped with a brand new one in under an hour, including removing armor. A Bradley on the other hand can take 2-3 days to swap an engine. An M88 recovery vehicle is also a complete shitshow to work on(designed in the 50's and all kinds of changes since), but has the benefit of almost never breaking anything, unlike a Bradley that is basically always broken.
 

AuroraGirl

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As an engineer, that used to be a full time professional mechanic, I can tell you it isn't a malicious thing. The three main reasons I've seen for something like this are:

  1. The engineer has never worked on a car in their life and is just designing something to meet a list of requirements
  2. The engineer designing a component doesn't have access to the entire assembly, they only know the single component(i.e. engine) and have no idea how it is being stuck into a car. When it is stuck into the car, you invariably can't access everything easily.
  3. Compromises have to be made. They have a set area and set number of items to go into that area. They look at the numbers and put the item with the highest mean time before failure in the easiest location to access. Some guy that sold them the starter probably told them that it will last a million cycles and they decided no one would ever need to access it during the life of the car because it will "never fail".

As far as the assembly line thing, there as some truly impressive systems out there that can put together a vehicle very fast and with all kinds of different things. Oshkosh has a crazy cool system where they get a build sheet at the start and put each individual part on at each station. They make all variants on a single production line, so you will see FMTV's, PLS's, MATV's, and regular civilian firetrucks all rolling out on the same production line.

The single best vehicle I have ever seen from a maintenance perspective is the M1 Abrams. It was obviously designed by a group of engineers that knew what they were doing and had extensive experience in field maintenance. You can have an entire engine/trans pulled out and swapped with a brand new one in under an hour, including removing armor. A Bradley on the other hand can take 2-3 days to swap an engine. An M88 recovery vehicle is also a complete shitshow to work on(designed in the 50's and all kinds of changes since), but has the benefit of almost never breaking anything, unlike a Bradley that is basically always broken.
Without reading the whole thing, idk man, it sure sounds malicious to me!!!! infact, its personal. you thought "lets **** with her" when designing something far before i was alive
 

AuroraGirl

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Got it. When I googled the part number it came up as a LS number. I’m guessing there are probably a few different LS oil filters depending on what chassis the engine is in.

When I first got my Olds the AC/Delco oil filter number was a PF25. When I put the headers on the car I started using K&N filters so I could use a socket to unscrew the filter. Pain in the ass trying to snake a filter wrench around the header tubes.

Since this is a thread titled Questionable Engineering, why haven’t more filter company’s added the nut on the bottom of the filters?!
pf58 is for a oldsmobile 260 :)

And a lot of smaller gm small blocks
 

Vbb199

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As an engineer, that used to be a full time professional mechanic, I can tell you it isn't a malicious thing. The three main reasons I've seen for something like this are:

  1. The engineer has never worked on a car in their life and is just designing something to meet a list of requirements
  2. The engineer designing a component doesn't have access to the entire assembly, they only know the single component(i.e. engine) and have no idea how it is being stuck into a car. When it is stuck into the car, you invariably can't access everything easily.
  3. Compromises have to be made. They have a set area and set number of items to go into that area. They look at the numbers and put the item with the highest mean time before failure in the easiest location to access. Some guy that sold them the starter probably told them that it will last a million cycles and they decided no one would ever need to access it during the life of the car because it will "never fail".

As far as the assembly line thing, there as some truly impressive systems out there that can put together a vehicle very fast and with all kinds of different things. Oshkosh has a crazy cool system where they get a build sheet at the start and put each individual part on at each station. They make all variants on a single production line, so you will see FMTV's, PLS's, MATV's, and regular civilian firetrucks all rolling out on the same production line.

The single best vehicle I have ever seen from a maintenance perspective is the M1 Abrams. It was obviously designed by a group of engineers that knew what they were doing and had extensive experience in field maintenance. You can have an entire engine/trans pulled out and swapped with a brand new one in under an hour, including removing armor. A Bradley on the other hand can take 2-3 days to swap an engine. An M88 recovery vehicle is also a complete shitshow to work on(designed in the 50's and all kinds of changes since), but has the benefit of almost never breaking anything, unlike a Bradley that is basically always broken.


1. Thats M.E. vs M.E.T. (DOWN WITH THE M.E.'s) :p

2. Another engineers fault, just not the one who drew the starter assembly.

3. Paper theory and bean counters

Im really jusy here to start **** because i happen to like you, and you stated youre an engineer;)
:893Chainsaw-Smilie-
 

AuroraGirl

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I havent found anything that was really bs to work on a square except the oil pressure sensor being at the back of motor, transmission not clearing its tunnel with x over exhaust on a 2wd, and maybe the obsurd location of the heat/ac box bolts in the engine bay (cant think of anything else right now)

But i dont have many complaints anyways because i have ALOT of tools, and the tools i dont have when i encounter a situation, i either make them, or buy them.

One gripe i will forever remember, but have overcame with a shorty 1/2 drive socket and pair of vice grips, is the spark plug on cyl 3 on my s10's 4.3


Its behind the steering shaft.

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so i sazsawed the steering box off to move it out of the way and the shaft because it didnt give enough clearance, now i cant figure out how to put it backtogether. do i weld the frame section back in closer, i already cut it off, but if i can use bolts that would be great
 

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