why cant we leave well enough alone?

-

Baxter61

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2006
Messages
1,175
Reaction score
120
Location
Oregon City, OR
So I bought a complete running 318 about two weeks cuz it was a good deal, "smoked when started" so I knew it was valve seals. Was cleaninI it up and confirmed it was valve seals so start thinkiI'll just throw seals and gaskets at it and call it good. Now I've got a performer intake, 1 head ported, a chrome dress up kit, and am looking at cams! I really don't need to do this with the limited time I have and other builds to do. I hope some local guy can cough up some dough for a nice motor, but why'd I have to open this can in the first place?!? Half sarcastic rant over
 
its a disease we all here have it serious and called "carguyitis" the good news is its cureable, the bad news is its only cureable through projects, usually many at a time.
 
I hear you, we all have it, what helps me is weighing pros and cons if I can, step away for a bit. Sometimes perfect is the enemy of the good.
 
Symptoms:

Mussed hair, greasy streaks on forehead

Oversized right foot

Overdeveloped left calf muscles

Tennis elbow in right arm

Permanent curl in left fingers shaped like steering wheel
 
TELLLLL ME ABOUT IT!!!! It's about as common as gov't projects going over budget! And the icing on the cake is when you realize you've spent as much as you could've for a fresh 408. LOL
 
LMAO...I am glad to see that my condition is not unique to me. I'm affraid it may be a passed along from generation to generation...my poor daughters are 12 now and are both showing early symptoms. :eek:ops:

Pat
 
Well...if you're gonna go thru that much trouble, you might as well...
We do these things 'cause they are there.
I have been known to build houses for myself that go 70,000 over budget.
No matter what it is, if you do a good job it's all worth it.
 
why cant we leave well enough alone? you ask :-k

................:coffee2:........:-k................:coffee2:......
....Because we are a sick bunch of people that continue to
enjoy the adventure with out a road map I guess :thumleft:
 
We can put the same orniments on a Christams tree year after year but we can't put one used part back on a motor. New senders, new dist' new wires, new belts, new hoses, and on and on. Cam will mean timing set, water pump, possible new radiator, etc..
A year later the bottom end comes apart. We can consider the new bottom end as a new tree. We might reluctently put some of those slightly used orniments on it.
If this is a sickness there isn't a pill for it. Good luck
 
Isn't that the truth!?

I do the same thing, I end up getting much deeper into it than I anticipated.
 
Hear, ya. Started out pulling engine to have engine compartment reapainted, as long as engine is out, I'll rebuild it, as long as I pulled the k-member, rebuild front suspension, as long as I have everything apart, paint it and make it pretty... It never ends. But it is fun!
 
Yep, I already have a cam/lifter kit for my 318 that I planned on using in the build. I've used the cam before in a 318 and it worked great........however, now that I've ported the heads and had the block decked for more compression, I've picked out another cam, that of course, costs more than what I purchased this cam for,lol.

Like everyone else has said, it's a disease, for which the only cure is..... death.

I thought I beat it once. Sold my 71 Swinger. Moved to Colorado to go to Bible College. Was just driving an 87 Olds gas mileage getter for the next few years. However, I found myself creeping over to the magazine section of the grocery store or Wally World only to pick up the latest edition of Mopar Action or Mopar Muscle. It was just glances at first, then to reading full articles, then to buying the magazines. Eventually, I ended up buying an 86 Ramcharger 4x4. Then came the axles swaps, rear disc brakes, the 440 build. But soon, that wasn't enough. I wanted to go fast. Fast with a 2wd. I then bought my first FERD, an 04 Mustang GT. I didn't know a lick about Ferds so it helped to curb my appetite for spending on performance stuff. I did run the nuts off of it at the drag strip though for the first Summer I had it.
I then met the woman whom I ended up marrying. Sold the 440 and ended up trading the mustang in on a Hemi Jeep Commander. That curbed the disease again, only momentarily. :-({|=
In 2011 we bought the 66 and I ended up selling the Ramcharger. Now $$$$ into it, even my wife yells at me when I think I might want to sell it. lol :burnout:
I'm now pretty confident it's contagious and hopefully my wife never finds the cure :eek:ops:
 
My "budget" 440 project went from reusing a low mile .030 1978 shortblock adding a hughes whiplash, to balanced .040 over 9.4:1 compression with a voodoo 60304. I had to draw the line when I started contemplating stroker kits. Lol.

We are men. 'Nuff said.
 
there's a reason we can never 'leave well enough alone'.
Because 'well enough' is never 'good enough'. Once we get it to 'good enough' we're ready to leave it alone.

Well, until good enough is no longer good enough and we have to make it gooder so it will be good enough to leave well enough alone again.

Follow that?
:D
 
We can't look at something and be satisfied with it. And it's one of the few things we have the ability to change. Gotta be faster, stronger, and louder than it was when we touched it 5 minutes ago WOOOOOO
 
So many projects and so little time!
I'm looking forward to finding all the stuff I know I have somewhere and a bunch of stuff I forgot I had, when the shop is finished and my wife can reclaim the garage....
 
Just buy my 318 and call it a day.
 
My wife calls it "Mad Car Disease"

I know exactly what your talking about. 7 years ago I bought my dart just to have "something to mess around with".

Well it turned into a full blown restoration/restomod. Including a /6 to 318 swap, suspension rebuild, rear end swap, interior redo, moved shifter to floor, modified steering column so it looks like a floor shift car, a full paintjob, new door seals, roof rail seals, trunk seal, window fuzzy's, a big bolt pattern swap, new wheels-tires, swap out the bench seat for buckets, swapped out flat hood for a powerbulge hood, ect, ect, ect, ect......
 
-
Back
Top