Here's the deal, this week @Tim and I was talking about timing and I said that we probably needed a little lead in the motor in question. This led to a discussion about what I meant which in turn led to advancing the timing. Since then it has occurred to me that we all come from different places and we all speak engine in a different manner. Maybe it would help the new comers (or the old technicians who don't understand a word that is coming out of our mouth) if we each choose something that we say that may not be understood by the next dummy. Now on the lead deal, that is from the old magneto guys who talked about lead and lag on ignition timing. I could also say something long the lines of it is timed too slow or we need to add some time into it. It would all mean the same thing that we need to advance the timing. There are no doubt other things that I say but its now your turn. if you got the intestinal fortitude to chime in. Note: this is not a discussion about who is wrong or right. lets keep the drama to a minimum. Remember I got a report button and I am not afraid to use it.
I had to read this three times before I decided we were talking lead ( leed ) not lead ( led ) . So I've already proved I'm not perceptive enough to participate in this conversation. Just for the record though in this neck of the woods I would add timing or take some out. Bill
The classic seems to be a southern thing, when folks there talk about how their engine "won't crank", by that they really mean "start"; so there's usually a little bit of back and forth nailing that down.
Autocorrect I still can't get it turned off and it thinks that it knows what I am thinking. So I edited it again and maybe this time I got it posted prior to correcting. Yep it is hard to get sometimes. When I lived in the Ozarks it was won't fire. Sometimes it was firing just fine if you are talking about ignition, but it still wouldn't start often because hit aint gawt no gaissss en it. Hit jus din't have no far in the motor.
Some times you need to pull some more timing in, sometimes you need to take it out. As far as "Won't crank", I've talked to customers for 5 minutes before I tell them just to tow it in and let me look at it.
I sometimes say that one is running fat when I am talking about it being too rich. If it is running way rich I may say that its an eye burner. I was called to the local Chevy dealer to consult/diagnose an older Corvette a while back. I looked at the plugs and said, "well its running a little fat, maybe check the choke or the float." The kid looked at me like a cow lookin' at a new gate so I had to back up and regroup with my diagnosis. As I recall I also mentioned that he needed to trim the carb once we got it started. he had no idea what I was talking about then either, so I showed him how to adjust the idle air/fuel mix.
How about "clips"? Somebody is always going to put a Camaro front clip on their truck or whatever. I wanna see a picture of that. Around here, a front clip is all the sheetmetal from the cowl forward, fenders hood grille bumper, etc. The frame is a "subframe", not a clip. But it seems to be acceptable terminology in some places.
Yea if I say clip I am talking about sheet metal. the front chassis from a Camaro is a sub frame. Climbing up on the cam, that is when your cam profile and RPM begin to match. Or you have begun to make torque. For example a Boss 302 (ford) doesn't start to make real power until about 4,000 RPM, that is when it stats to climb up on the cam.
When I crewed on an altered and a funny car got out of shape, grazing the wall and damaging the headers we'd say this- Uh oh, he just knocked the curb feelers off that thing. Some of you younger guys may need to Google "curb feeler".
Mr.. Beaner a buddy and I were at a car event a few years ago and a street rod was coming toward us and belching black smoke like a diesel! I looked at my buddy and said wow here comes one and it is waaaay FAT! Then I looked and damn if there wasn't a chunky young lady walking behind him! She needless to say was not amused! Even though I was not speaking to her or about her I was totally embarrassed! Joe
I'm old. First time a young guy looked at my car and said "that thing's SICK man" I was ready to tell him to shove his opinion where the sun don't shine. Then my buddy said that was a compliment. Really? Sure didn't sound like one. But I guess it is nowadays.
I was at a track a few years back and a friend was making his first pass with a new car. I was there when he was staging and hollered, "keep it off the rail." everyone looked at me funny, until he climbed the guard rail then they all understood. My dad purchased a brand new pair of silk stocking for my mom when I was really little. We were on market street in San Francisco and she snagged a stocking on a curb feeler, then reached in her purse and pulled out a large pair of dykes (not lesbians) and proceeded to cut the kick stands off the car.
I'm probably asking too much, soooo: 10 = degrees "lead" + 10 would going from 60 degrees to 70 10= % nitro so maybe from 78 % to 88% 10= blower speed so maybe from 45 over to 55 over...just saying! Thus the old nitro guys sayin we need 10 10 and 10!
Here's one I never really understood some one will say "I have a 3/4 race cam in it" what the hell is a 3/4 cam? Joe
LMAO That's rich. One of my Ol'Man's friends an old cam grinder explained it to me this way, a cam is just a circle and a circle is 360 degrees. A cam in the 300+ range of duration would be considered a full race cam and somewhere in the 270 degree range of duration would be considered a 3/4 race cam. Back in the early days lots of lift was pretty rare and the old cam grinders used the ramps and duration to get more fuel in or out. I have been known to call gears in the 3.0:1 or taller (lower numbers) airplane gears. I have no idea why, must have heard it somewhere. low gears like say 4.11: 1 or lower I call a deep gear. I think that everyone says it pretty much the same. @Gene Boul that is one that I have never understood. Thanks for the explanation.
I ran across this on the Tilden Technologies website some time back- What's a 3/4 Race Cam? In the early 1950's the most popular original camshaft designers were the legendary Ed Winfield, the father of hotrodding, and Cliff Collins of Harman-Collins. If you look a Huntington's 1951 book you will find the specs for their cams listed. We've also listed some of their cams on our Flathead Performance Cams page. There were lots of cam grinders that copied Winfield and Harman-Collins cams, but these two were the designers and innovators in the early days. It was popular to refer to cams as a 1/2 Race or Semi grind and a Full Race grind. Later, there was a call for an intermediate grind between these two. To fill this demand, Ed Winfield took the intake lobe from his full race cam and the exhaust lobe from his semi cam and called it a 3/4 Race cam (see Flathead Performance Cams). It was literally half way between a full race and 1/2 race cam. Since that time, 3/4 Race has become a generic term for a high performance street cam, i.e. something less than a race cam.
"On the pipe" was always thrown around when I was into two stroke stuff. Nowadays if you got "the chronic" you're on the pipe.
Along those lines is this one often heard in the fuel pits- Lean 'er 10, meaning we'll probably send a sacrifice to the aluminum gods but we might just win the final.
A car with a radical camshaft was said to ''have a cam in it'' and would ''load up'' if it idled too long. Then ya gotta "blow it out'' somewhere isolated. So the next time it's revved up you don't make the black soot smokescreen. Never cool. The 4:56 gears I used to run were ''too steep'' for the street. If it wasn't ''feathered out of the hole'', the street tires would get 'blown off'.
The Jalopy Journal
