rkmdogs

And I say, "Amen", I mean that with a capital AMEN !!!! You have not only hit the nail on the head Captain, you done sunk it in one blow! Stick around and stay on the soapbox!

I am about to "nudge" 189,000 on my '95 Caprice 9C1. I don't know anything about its first life, as an F.B.I. unmarked, undercover car. I got it with 144,000 on it which is an anomoly, for fed cars! The latest edict is that they are now supposed to be turned in @ 110,000 miles. (It used to be 100,000). The only reason that we can figure is, it was envolved in some kind of operation that a change would have compromised, or 2 it had recently had something major replaced and they had to keep it to justify the expense, or 3 the agent it was assigned to loved it, knew he could not get another one, so kept it "hid out!". The body did not have one straight panel on it when I got it! It looked like it had been used for road block practice! That has all been fixed now, and outside of a major tuneup, and a new set of brakes---- nothing has been needed! I still get over 22mpg @ 80mph on the highway! And that is with over 5300 lbs. The bean counters sure screwed up when they dropped this car for more SUVs!

The [+/-] button can also be the tow-mode switch that has been on current 4l60E trannies! Crew cabs also became popular as work trucks because a lot of jobs need a 3 or 4 man crew, and it is always cheaper to send one truck, than two. Utility companies were the ones who pushed this!

Hey Sly, I just sicced my new neighbor on you to come here and join the Tight Whips and get a decal. HER name is: lowridergirl91 She has a '91 Caprice that has been made into a low rider. I told her to send in a pic for you. Thanks,

You people all talk about these truck features as if they were chips in a poker game! And everybody is playing a bluff hand! Trucks first, foremost and always are work vehicles. The ability to perform various tasks is the primary objective of any fleet manager, who has to buy the most bang for the buck! He couldn't give a rats' ass what shade of grey the dash is, does it give the information that he needs for his operators to do their jobs! You all assume functionality is an add-on accessory that you can buy and add to your frew-frew queen. Looks? To most fleet managers, they couldn't care less. It is the wanna-bes who worry if the upholstry will clash with tonights outfit! I looked closely at the pics of the dash, and even tho this was a spy photo, and had an add-on trailer brake controller on the left of the column, I did not see any built-in! Guages? seems to be a contest to eliminate as many as possible! Let'em add them on as aftermarket if they want that info. Someone said that this truck had an Allison transmission. But I didn't see a trans temp guage in the array! One of my pet peeves, ---- if the drivers know how to use'em, is no vaccuum guage! Especially now with gas prices going thru the roof! Your loyalty is commendable guys, but you need to wake up and take a dose of----- reality!

Well, the plot thickens! Here is the latest poop from Edmunds Inside Line. IL Insider: Camaro Concept Guru Goes Down Under on Secret Assignment Date posted: 04-28-2006 PORT MELBOURNE, Australia — The plot thickens. Inside Line has learned Chevrolet Camaro concept Lead Exterior Designer Sangyup Lee is on a special one-year assignment with General Motors' Australian subsidiary, Holden. Why is this move significant in a business that moves people around the world like pawns on a chessboard? First, if it reaches production, the Camaro will be built off of a derivative of the Zeta platform — a new rear-wheel-drive chassis. GM's Holden division is currently spearheading the development of that platform. Rear-wheel-drive vehicles continue to be popular in Australia, and represent a significant share of Holden's product portfolio, so its lead role on Zeta development is logical. Second, the recent report from Canberra, Australia confirms that further development work is being done Down Under on future American rear-wheel-drive vehicles. Third, Sangyup Lee's involvement in the Camaro concept was significant. We interviewed Sangyup in the days following the Detroit Auto Show, and found he had a clear understanding of the direction on the production car, if approved. It doesn't take much imagination to look at the above facts and infer that Sangyup is in Australia working with Holden on the production Camaro set to debut in 2008 as a 2009 model. What this means to you: General Motors remains coy about announcing production plans for the Camaro. But if Vegas had odds on whether the Camaro will be built, we'd solidly bet on production.

Capriceman, you need to go on line to some of the "B" body sites, and read about the differences. No, you cannot use LT1 headers--- if you could find them, but you could use L98 equipment. The big difference is, you do not have the reverse-flow cooling system used with the LT1 design, and therefore your coolant ports in the heads will not match the intake manifolds. Go read some of the back files in Hot Rod, to see what you can do with a 305. BUT, performance costs money. How fast do you want to go? AND.......... 100 bucks might buy you a good tune-up, and not much more! I just spent over $600 wholesale, for parts for a major tune on my LT1! The biggest and most economical performance change that you could make is an engine swap! Go find a good 5.7L from a wrecked Camaro and do a swap. :AH-HA_wink:

If this is supposed to represent Chevy's answer for a WORK truck, then they have blown it again! You guys are all concerned about appearance---- what about functionality? Work trucks, a lot of them pull trailers-- with equipment for on the job. Where is the integrated trailer brake controller? --- Ford has one! And while on the subject of trailer towing, this isn't exactly interior, but more functionality, when will GM or Chevy offer decent EXTENDABLE mirrors? Ford has'em! On these two points alone, as a truck user, not just a looker, I would say that Chevy needs to get out on the job! As a supposed suggestion of this being a work truck---- they have missed the mark by a country mile!

Well, I can add to those box scores; '88 Astro - rebuilt @ 167,000. Still going now @ 313,000. '95 Astro AWD - sold @ 187,000 w/ all orginal stuff except Alt. & fuel injection octopus. '00 Astro - traded in @ 96,000 mi. for current Chrysler T & C, 'cause GM stopped making a true minivan! '95 Caprice Classic 9C1, ex-FBI car --- has 188,850 on it as of this morning. Has only needed major tune & brakes since I got it at 144,000. Classic one - 1962 Buick Special w/ all-alum 3.5L engine - traded @ 96,000 for a '67 Mustang GT, cause I got tired of putting tires on it! But it still was only costing 2.2 cents a mile to drive!

No, that was done to pacify the loose nut on the end of the steering wheel!..... and to play the "my guns bigger than your gun" game! Like I said before, Jim Hall did it with two gears...... do you want to get angry at him for that? AND, there is a BIG distinction between race driving @ 9/10 or 10/10, not street driving where you barely, if ever get above 4/10!

Well can you get anybody at the GM ivory towers to listen?

Not to flog a dead horse Ponchoman, but I just got my April 24th issue of the New Autoweek. p.26 article on Mitsu Eclipse GT makes my point on engine/gearbox packages. It states: "Every tester on staff had similar opinions. A V6 of nearly four liters is usually about torque more than horsepower."( The new Eclipse V6 is 263hp,260 lbs.-ft, froma 3.8L V-6) "Why have six speeds when the torque peaks at 4500rpm? To prove it could be done without working at it, I drove 40 miles without topping 2500 rpm. You can shift it 1-3-6 and skip half the gears." "One tester at the track agreed: Sixth gear and to an extent even fifth are almost useless even on the freeway. I use fourth gear to pass. This car does not need six speeds. I can cruise comfortably in fifth gear on the freeway." Now maybe GM needs to offer a better gearbox selection than what may be current with the Colorado, but I would prefer if they stepped up and give the truck a more potent engine first! I think most folks would even be happy with the 4.8L LS2 engine.

All some very good points, ponchoman, especially your driving experiences with the Colorado. But I still say that it goes back to the engine first for drivability. I totally agree with you, whoever had the wet dream of the 5 cyl. engine--- should get transferred back to Volvo! Maybe a bean counter got the numbers mixed up? Maybe it was supposed to be---- 5.3L, not 5 cyl.!!! Your comments about more gears in the tranny is also valid---- with this current puny engine, --- it needs all the help it can get, and wide-spaced ratios definitely do not help a weak engine!

I don't know your background ponchoman, but you are way off the mark with your first comment. Drivability is a combination of engine and transmission. If you have a good engine with a wide torque band, you don't need 6,7 or 8 speed automatics. The number of gears in the transmission is a cover-up for a limited torque range of the engine! That's why the wimp motors with narrow torque bands NEED all those gears! To stay within the limits of the engines' torque range as loads change. The rest of that rowing is strictly to appease a mind set! Big trucks have multi-bands and lots of gears, because most have low-speed motors that need lots of help moving heavy loads. On the other hand, Jim Halls' Chapparel race cars only had two-speed Powerglide trannys! -- But BIG engines, for the size of the load. 4-wheel discs, when they first appeared seemed to be the answer. But latest thinking is that with big wheels, and bigger brake drums, on the rear, the extra cost and mechanism complications of rear discs are not necessary! On tow capacity---- we come back to the engine choice again. In this truck, the 5.3L V-8 would answer many problems. Above I showed the Woodward Cruise show truck that GM built. Somebody there had their head screwed on straight when they did that one! But, nobdy up top appears to be listening..............

If GM would just listen to the people who can make the company great again, this is what they should build! Then eyes would roll!

Done with you usual excellence, Sly! Thank you very much

Grow up, punk! Use you mouth for something besides your anal gases!

Oh Sly!........................... it's Tuesday :AH-HA_wink:

Sounds like you might have a valve hanging up. When you put the cam in, did you check all the valves to make sure that you had no spring binding on any one of them? If the installed height on the head was not checked, you could have some problems with your valve geometry. If you did this change yourself, you need to read up on all the ins and outs of a cam change. It is not just a simple pull-- you're out & push-- you're in!

Obviously you don't read much, or you would not say that about Hitlers "MeinKamph", or Maos' Red Book! And let me know when you are going to yell. "Fire" in a theatre, so that I can watch you tell the cops that words don't mean much! Oh yeah, and tell it to those old boys who put it on parchment over 200 years ago, ...... It starts out, "when in the course of human events......" You been watching too much kiddie TV, bv!

Hey Sly, Still waiting for the rendition on my '69 VW Sunroof custom StingRay! Didya forget about it?

Confusis had an old saying, that the weaker the mind the stronger the language. Grow up kid, who are you trying to impress, ......... your mother?

One of Gm's major problems has been its loss of focus on the market that made it great --- the USA! They are worrying too much about market growth in emerging areas, i.e., India and China, to the point of losing market share where American jobs are at stake! Those foreign places are not going to let a "foreign company" make money in their country and take it away. If you think so, you have been reading too many fantasy novels!

Anybody hear tonights news, with the nonchalant announcement that gas will hit $3.00/gal in the next few weeks, but that by next summer, it could be up another $.25 ! Then the newscaster said that "the Big TWO" are pointing fingers at the large oil companies and accusing them of gouging, and the oil companies are answering back that Detroit has not done anything to improve efficiency in the past 10 years! Who in the hell cares?!!!! I'd throw them both in jail for raping the U.S public! This nonchalant attitude about these sky-rocketing prices, with no rational explanations is going to kill American industry, and cause one helluva crash! Then nobody will be buying cars or driving anywhere because they won't be able to afford to do so. Ever hear the story about eating the seed corn, and then starving to death? Well, that is what we are doing here in America. Wake up, everybody......... especially you head-in-the-sky legislators, and you crazy tree-huggers! No available inexpensive fuel = no jobs!