4/09/03
Distilling just over 1200 posts in a 14 day span into one incredibly weird, wild and long post - it's the Official Non-Flammable Digest! (events are roughly in chronological order... except for when they aren't.)
- More Klez fun 'n games ended the month of March on a rather "viral" note.
- Tim has more computing power in his office than CentCom, and he uses every nanosecond to the max... Just don't get him started on his *power supply*, if you know what I mean... ;)
- New diversion found: NASCAR fantasy racing. e David Deines for more details...
- Illinois camfest: Holly again created a schedule that worked perfectly for everyone (that's why she's VP of scheduling, and gets the alleged big bucks...;) Tim got the snap back in his whistle after being Kirk'd and having about 40 or so extraneous hose clamps removed. Brent decided to try a little practical joke, and something backfired (but at least it wasn't his car) Justin, John Stout, Rob Z.and Paul M. posted after they got home. (Did I miss anyone?) Buford woke right up when someone mentioned free beer at Don's, and a headlight comparison test rounded out the festivities. Kirk may have set another land speed record of some kind... something about doing it in the middle of the night for 3.5 hours? (Oh puh-leeze... we are talking about an engine teardown/rebuild here people... LOL!) Overall, another very successful camfest, a good time was had by all, and Don Mallinson was a great and gracious host (as anyone who has attended Convention can attest).
- Corporately we agree to park it if it ticks. Those of us who are 'puter nerds will remember the infamous Iomega Zip drive "click of death"... now we have the "tick of death" for the V8SHO. Bumpersticker for our Generation: "Don't tick and drive".
- The whole Cortina conversation brought out a lot of reminiscing about "English" cars in general (for those of us on the west side of the pond. Rav prolly was just LOL!) and their "charming" quirks. SPOUSE ALERT: The V8SHO list cannot/will not be held responsible/liable for the purchase of any "formerly glorious" foreign vehicles by nostalgic spousal units.
- Pencil it in: Everybody to Rob Ziehm's house during convention for Brats 'n Beer! ;)
- Steve Andriks & John Stout managed to somehow make Sarah feel 2 years older in the space of about 2 days. The math they used is a bit suspect, but being overwhelmed with other RL stuff for the last two weeks, Sarah let them *think* they were onto something... <VBG>
- Headlamp upgrade - good results with Sylvania Silver Stars, and high output (100 watt) wiring harness. Tim recommends the PIAA Superwhites; see PIAA X-Treme Headlights for SHOs (what? you actually want to *see* where you are going at night?) Paul posted that " On the GEN 3s there is a bolt under the headlamp and towards the center of the car that is an excellent place for a ground. Headlight guru Herman of V6 fame suggest for the optimum power to the headlights to solder the wires directly to the bulb and run the grounds back to the battery using 12ga wire. " During the Illinios camfest, a side-by-side comparo was judged "no difference" between the PIAA and the Silver Star - and the consensus was to get the Silver Stars, the 100 watt harness, and save the money. No more excuses for fumbling around in the dark... ;)
- Change your tranny fluid every 30,000 miles or else. And we aren't kidding.
- AOL is still eating V8SHO posts. Might be language/SPAM filters, or could just be that AOL really sucks. Whatever the reason, AOL users are strongly counseled to get another email address for V8SHO email. You'll be surprised at how everything makes sense when you get *all* your email... <evil grin>
- SPAMmers hit again last week, and tried to spoof email off the SHO Registry to addresses found on SHOClub.com. Don got right in there, and made some changes to insure that can't happen again. Don M. and Tim are just two shining examples of the integrity and honesty that make the online SHO community as great as it is. :)
- Discussion on the 2004 Tauri turned serious when Jim M. pointed out that had Ford treated us a bit better about the cams, we might all be chomping at the bit to get at a whole new Gen. Talk then turned to the overall reliability of the SHO engine vs. the standard Taurus/Sable SLO setup.
- Regarding the "Odd Failure", Tim gave a brief lesson on the inner workings of the V8SHO engine, and why an "Italian Tune-Up" won't work on our cars. The three bent valves seem to indicate that carboning of the secondaries may be another issue we have to watch for... Then, on the heels of this, Greg reported that his engine with only 65k on it appeared to eat a valve... SHO owners everywhere felt that odd little prickle at the back of the neck that signals danger...
- Just in time for April Fool's day, Tim found an important new TSB. Added to the previous year's April offerings, it makes for some great reading when you need a laugh:
This year: William Wallace TSB 04-01-03
dont' miss: Ford Has a Better Idea
2001: Ford Announces Major Recall
2000: April1st ( good news, Bad
Noose)
- Eric recycled a busted up Gen I into a SHO-fa, and now we all want one!
- Oil filters, how they work, and which one is best took up some bandwidth. As in RL, we learned that bigger isn't always better, and when things get hot, it changes the way they flow. (Hey, I don't make this stuff up - I just regurgitate it...)
- Steam cleaning the innards of your engine could kill more than just the mosquitoes in the yard. David D. indicated that it will probably (among other things) kill the cats (catalytic converters, not critters) Use the right combination of chemicals, and you could probably kill off a few brain cells as well...
- "Cars that hit the mark" prompted more reminiscing about first rides, and favorite cars from the past. Carter was getting a little paranoid about all the references to VEGAs that kept popping up...
- We saw pictures of Troy's death-defying (for Troy at least) SHO, and everyone agreed that the car did an excellent job of taking care of Troy.
- Jim Bledsoe gave everyone a scare when he revealed that his rear exhaust cam sprocket was loose and had already begun to move without the "tick of death" that we all expect. It was discovered when his cams were welded (obviously just in the nick of time) This could be referred to as SSSDS (Sudden Silent SHO Death Syndrome) whereby there is no warning before cam failure.
- Twisted/Nick (or is that TwistedNick? ;) started a thread asking about how OLD everyone is. :::ahem::: I happen to personally know the ages of several list members here... and am pleased to report that I am no where near the oldest! LOL! It should also be noted here (for the record) that if you get John Stout and Steve Andriks to do the figuring, (see above) you will shortly have no idea exactly how old you really are...
- Once again boys and girls: Politics, religion and money are all flammable topics. Things that are safe to discuss: Um... Well... There's something, I'm sure... Wait - I hear you, Buford. Let's try one more time - Things that are safe to discuss: FREE BEER. Oh, and cars. Specifically, SHO's. That's about it. :)
- Last, but certainly not least, please remember to keep Frank, TYK, Matt H. and all of the military personnel here and overseas in our thoughts and our prayers. They serve our country, and defend our freedom, and do so willingly with honor. We are all the better for them and their sacrifices.
(Amen - Buford)
There ends the digest... :)
Sarah :)
Sarah Locker
'97 Performance White 109k aka "SHO White"
w/ Freshly Welded Cams for my Driving Pleasure ;)
Have you seen a LockerSHO today?
AWA of Chuck Jr, '91 Mocha Frost
DIL of Chuck Sr, '99 Black
SIL of Holly Bailey, '96 Willow Green
SIL of Chris '98 Red
HS (Honorary Sister) of Kirk Doucette '97 White StormTrooper