Not long after I retired from a career as an ASE Master Technician having been trained at the GM Training College in Atlanta and worked at Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac dealerships I bought a brand new Marauder in 2004, lol. Mine was one of the last ones off the floor of the St Thomas assembly plant in Canada so it has the 4R75W transmission. Since they discontinued them for the 2004 year the first things I did was install an automatic parking brake release and an electric fuel door release (no "thumb" bend on the door). The next things I did were all suspension and brakes. First I got a KVR 14" front rotor kit with cross-drilled rotors and stainless steel braided hoses front and back. The car now comes to a complete stop from 60 mph in less than 100 feet. Next I installed Metco billeted aluminum rear control arms and Watts links that have polyurethane bushings, they're all tighter than Dick's hatband: No lateral movement at all from the Watts links. Then I put in an ADDCO 1" rear stabilizer bar and QA1 dual adjustable shocks front and back and got some rear rims that were widened 1-1/2" to take Nitto Street Drag Racing 305/45R18's on the back and matching 235/55's on the front. The sidewalls of the rear Nitto's clear the shock rods by only 1/8" but they never rub the tire, that's how tight the Watts links are. Last but not least I had a Torsen T2 differential with 31 spline axles installed. These mods turned the car into a roller skate on a rail. I can go into a hairpin turn with one of those 500 horse 2-seater Mercedes' or BMW's right on my butt, wait until the last second to hit the brakes and scrub off just enough speed to make the turn, then downshift full throttle from 3rd to 1st gear and those Nittos not lose any traction because that Torsen is doing it's job, differentiating, NOT locking up, losing traction on the inside wheel like the factory Traction Loc differential did. I'll come out of the turn with the chase car 40 yards back! They ALWAYS stop trying and often turn off the road like they were going that way all along, lol. The Torsen is THE thing for street racing. Traction Loc and Positraction is for 4-wheelers on muddy farms and straight-line drag racing, not the street. On wet or icy roads they're both flat out dangerous, especially at low speeds and increase the chances of spinning out dramatically. But if yours is still factory, you already know that.
Oh, the PCV system is the one thing (and the first) that the DOT required for emissions that actually is a benefit to the durability of the engine. *Matter-of-fact it is a GREAT benefit because it lubricates the intake valve stems!* That little bit of oil your thing-a-ma-gig is catching would have been in the intake charge, going past the open intake valve stem, lubricating it perfectly. That tiny bit is not enough to foul your plugs anyways and is better being burned and catalyzed by the catalytic convertor than to be winding up in your garbage. Before PCV, the intake valves used to have no umbrellas on them so hopefully the oil splashing inside the valve covers would get some oil on the stems so they wouldn't wear out the guides in the head. One drop every ten minutes or so would do the job but not every valve stem could get the drip so before PCV, we used to get valve jobs all the time. Many engines need one every 30 or 40 thousand miles and most engines would foul the plugs when the guides got loose, sucking tons of oil in through the worn guide.
Hey ladamyre: Sounds like you made a badass Marauder. They are a pretty nifty vehicle. Damn comfortable too. Anything done with the engine? Do you still have it? I was going to do much of things you mention but then I was "terminated" from my job at Rogue Valley Manor for refusing the jab. So I pulled my horns in a bit. The Panther platform is one of the best ever. Without a doubt the panther platform was the vehicle I worked on the least at the Ford dealer (I was a driveability tech). You went the GM route while I went the Ford route. Interesting. Although years ago I did go through the GM Automotive Electronics and Semiconductor Devices classes. Interesting take on the oil separator. Aspect I did not consider. Good point though. Don't know if you saw my short video, "what's in the box" which shows I got a complete Gen 3 Coyote engine. To be honest I was thinking of putting it in the Marauder but after some research and it is so original and in excellent shape I decided not to. Giving thought of selling the Marauder and getting a project Mustang that I'm not concerned about altering. Plus I want something that is a bit quicker. Great write-up ladamyre. Thanks for sharing my ASE certified brother 🙂
@@lencac7952 Jerry Barnes made a supercharger kit (the "Trilogy") for the Marauder back in 2002 and a lot of guys got them, it's an instant 75 extra horsepower and probably 100ft/lbs more torque somewhere low, maybe 3500. But I didn't get one because in my opinion the car is too heavy for that kind of power as is. Cops were wrecking their Panthers all the time and they pretty much had the same brakes and tires. That's why I went the suspension/brakes route first. And I'm glad I did. "Quicksilver" (that's her name, she's Silver Birch) *_is_* badass and always surprises those rich boys in their BMW's. I do think I have the record ET for an un-modified engine on a Marauder: 14.455 seconds and if I remember correctly about 96 mph. I did that at the Bradenton Motorsports Parkway back in 2005 on test and tune day right after I had put a Diablosports 2004 Mustang Cobra tune in it (same engine), but I had also taped the grill off with clear shipping tape to get the air to go up and over the hood, an old drag racers trick, so I think most of that 1/2 second improvement over stock (almost all of the Marauders over the 3 year run ran right at 15 seconds at 92 mph) was the trick tape. I got the Diablosport tune to remove the RPM limiter in the PCM. I once had her going the full 140 coming down off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at 3AM. I had gotten an MMX 200 mph driveshaft back with all the other suspension mods and had gotten a set of vr speed rated Yokohamas on it (up to 149mph) for everyday street driving (I have two sets of rims, long story) so I got the full speedometer reading, once. Here's where those dual adjustable shocks paid off big time. I had them adjusted so the compression stroke was easier than the rebound stroke, and at speed, unless the road is smooth as glass with absolutely no ripples in it at all, those little micro dips and rises cause the shocks to compress lower and lower making the car squat down closer to the road. At a buck-forty the car sits about an inch lower! I wrecked her ten years ago, some mom with her kids in the van turned into me as I was passing her going about 100. Lucky nobody was hurt, she even drove her van away. My right front tire hit her left rear and broke the lower control arm. It's been sitting in my garage on the back burner for ten years, but the new house got built and soon I'll be putting a lift in it (it's a one car garage) and that will be just right. I'll get Quicksilver fixed, get the body work done at Costantino's and be able to park her on the lift and then park my 2009 Grand Marquis underneath her. Or vice-versa depending on my mood. lol Next project after that - mounting a Powerglide transmission to the pinion of the rear-end and driving the 2 speeder with electric motors, motors charged by two 48 volt alternators running off a serpentine belt mounted on the rear of the engine. By my math, 200 ft/lbs going into the input shaft of the Powerglide and being multiplied by the 1.82 first gear ratio (364 ft/lbs output) and that multiplied by, say a 5.88 gear (I'll be running the transmission and the rear end on ATF so I can run it through a cooler) should make for 2140 ft/lbs at the axles, almost enough to strip those 31 spline axles! But here's the rub. You know what the formula for a 1/4 mile run is: After the lights turn green it's how much power the engine can make divided by the weight of the car. Almost every run will fit into this formula within 1 tenth of a second no matter what else is done to the car. But with electric motors driving the transmission, we can put in a bank of super capacitors and store up megajoules of energy _before we even get to the starting line!_ And running those electric motors through a well built Powerglide, there will be no RPM limit and that 2000+ ft/lbs of torque will be smooth throughout the run, no gaps and no hesitation. Full G's from start to the finish. My guess is we can get Quicksilver the world record at 9 seconds flat and still be 4500 pounds, street driveable and sleeper as hell. Now about how to hide that mandatory roll cage... oh, she'll be crossing the line at 150+ easy.
I forgot to specify the rear end part of that plan. It will, of course, have to be an independent suspension rear end, probably a Corvette 12 bolt. (So long Metco Watts links and control arms. I'll put them on my 2009 GM.) And I'll have to have an engineering firm make an electric front pump drive to run the pump on the tranny since I won't be using the torque convertor. These should not pose too much of a problem. With enough gear reduction those electric motors will be able to put out 200 ft/lbs through an RPM range well adequate enough for 200+ mph, and that before the thing shifts into drive! If things pan out like I think, I may wind up at Bonneville so I plan to rebuild her solidly, no plastic "buttons" holding the bumper covers and fender pants in place. All blind nuts with bolts torqued in place. Quicksilver may gain 10 pounds in fasteners alone, not to mention the matching leather padded roll cage.
I feel pretty good then. I got a 14:77 @ 93.79 mph just the way it drives on the street. The DA was 2200 ft. pretty hot evening. 4:10 axle and a tune, 3/4 tank of gas. Still had the stock throttle body and air cleaner. I trust you've seen the video. I think just lighten it by maybe removing the seats and spare, low fuel and a cool evening I think 13:90's is real possible. So are you telling me your Marauder is wrecked and been sitting for 10 years?
So you live at 2200 feet? Where is that? Maybe someday I could bring my Springfield M1A Standard and we could do some shooting at the range. I have mine set up with a M6 Bayonet lug flash suppressor, I've epoxied a bipod lug into the drain hole of the stock for a 25" Harris bipod and I have a Springfield 4th Generation aluminum scope mount mated to my receiver with a Sig Saur Sierra BDX scope on it. My aim was to have a Florida jungle gun that I can hunt wild hogs with, bayonet ready for a boars rush just in case, and yet have a scope and bipod in my backpack in case I come to a clearing and see a 12 point buck 2 or 3 hundred yards away. I have the bore sighted in but I haven't programmed the scope and rangefinder for my ammo (I'm shooting M80 ball, reasons for that later) and I need a spotter. I figure to get the scope dialed in for a 200 yard shot with a cold barrel, and then get the barrel hot and put a second program in the rangefinder (or is the computer in the scope?) for where the barrel is gonna put the bullet when it's hot. The BDX system is why I got the standard instead of going for a National Match. If the computer will compensate for the different ballistic characteristics of different ammo, it can certainly compensate for the different temperatures of the barrel, right? And besides, I won't be trying to shoot a deer from 500 yards away. A gust of wind in this Florida humidity can leave a wounded animal I might not find later. I want to be able to reliably put one in the heart of a deer, or just behind the ear of a hog, breaking his neck, so I won't have to track a wounded animal down. I'm not at all like Elizabeth Warren _says_ she is. I do have 1/16th Cherokee blood, but my tracking skills suck.
No, that's the DA (density air) meaning the physical altitude is 1400 ft. but at that particular time and conditions the air was like being at 2200 ft. I don't hunt dude. I just shoot paper at this point.
@@lencac7952 Carburetors were never my thing, but I understand them. Still I missed out on the "missing part" contest that Nick Panaritis (Nick's Garage) had on his bone stock Hemi he built. I was kicking myself for not noticing, but he built that whole engine and showed it close up from top to bottom and everything was there: The ballast resistor, the condenser, the coil, all where they would have been on a factory Mopar, except one thing he said was missing. Spot that missing part and you won the contest, but *_I missed the little asbestos wrapped choke heater tube that goes from the little hole in the drivers side exhaust manifold to the choke box!_* Drivability was not my thing. I was first a suspension and brakes expert and then was promoted to Automatic Transmission. Suspension and brakes are not considered anything a dealership service department needs any experts on. Hell there's still guys taking a pick and pulling the boot on rear wheel cylinders to let the assembly lube out and then going and getting the customers and showing them the "leak" to sell them new wheel cylinders, *_and half of them really believe they're helping their customer!_* And here's the real crime: *These guys get made "Employee on the Month" over and over because they're flagging 100 hours a week!* I averaged 40 hours a week, but I humped to get it as a "front end man". I always went the extra mile and I almost never got a comeback. For instance, you may have heard the old "less caster on the left" to compensate for road crown, right? Well that only works on cars with that old Saginaw steering gearbox. Take any Rack & Pinion car and dial in 1/2 degree less caster on the left and that sumbich will pull to the left on a flat road. But it won't on a properly adjusted Saginaw gearbox, and here's why. You may have seen one apart before, so I'll assume you can visualize this but the sector shaft that is the output of the gear and has the Pittman arm attached to it, has five teeth and the center tooth is the biggest. They engage with the piston that the fluid pushes back and forth for hydraulic assist. There's an adjustment for the sector shaft because that center tooth is tapered: push it down and it will push the piston towards the side of the cylinder. The piston is sealed with teflon rings that fill the gap so the fluid won't leak past the piston, just like piston rings in an engine. Here's where the adjustment of the sector shaft comes in to eliminate any pulling to the left from the "less cater on the left" that all the specs called for on those cars. To adjust the sector shaft (on the bench) you would put an inch pound torque wrench on the shaft and turn it as you adjusted the sector shaft bolt with an Allen wrench *so that it would take an **_extra 100 inch pounds_** to turn it as the sector shaft went over center.* This sets up the gearbox to resist going over center: As it gets closer to center it starts to "bind" a little. It's not actually binding, it's squeezing those teflon rings. Now when you do the alignment and set the caster less on the left, you're not done yet! The "rest of the story" requires you to make sure when you set the toe in that the steering wheel is about 1/2 degree to the right when you're going straight ahead. I never had a customer complain his steering wheel was crooked, but every time I insured the gearbox was properly adjusted and the toe in was correct, I had a car that would compensate for road crown pretty darn good, but when on the flat interstate it went straight as an arrow and once pointed straight, it would not pull to the left. So I'm damn good at suspension and brakes. About brakes, you know what "cross drilled" and "slotted' rotors are all about? Those two things are *_ONLY_* about wet braking, when the brakes are wet as hell. Under hard braking those pads will boil the moisture out so fast that the steam coming off them will oppose your pedal pressure! So if you drill holes in a pattern or cut slots and see that the steam gets let out constantly, you'll have better braking under wet conditions. But don't be fooled, dry braking will be compromised. You see what we're doing with brakes is in actuality turning the kinetic energy of the vehicle into heat, and the heat has to go somewhere. That somewhere is mainly the rotor and when you remove mass from the rotor you reduce it's ability to absorb that heat. So my advice is to just do the drilling and do a pattern that covers all sections of the pads without too many holes. Slots lose effectiveness as the rotor wears down and they take too much contact area away from the pads. Holes are best. When they promoted me to A/T's I did very well there. The thing about A/T's in a dealership is the ability to scam expensive parts from warranty that you can then give to paying customers so you can competitively rebuild transmissions instead of just R&R'ing SRTA's (Service Replacement Transmission Assemblies). I'd have a $700 pump I got from warranty for an oil leak causing a shift concern that I called a failed pump, turn in a burned up pump from a pickup for instance that the TCC never engaged on, in to warranty, and have a brand new pump to give to a customer that needed a new one. If he had to buy a new pump, the price would be $400 more than a SRTA R&R. But if I had a pump to give him he'd save $300 and I'd get a 14 hour transmission rebuild job that I could do in 8 hours, instead of 6 hours R&R'ing a SRTA that took me 5 hours. I was good too. My transmission rebuilds NEVER came back. The thing bout A/T's is if you know what to look for and are meticulous in your rebuild, they will last as long as any new one, and I had one of the best "Automatic Transmission _Men"_ I have ever run across as an instructor at the Atlanta GM Training College, 'Dot' Huff. (the 'Dot" stood for Dorothy and she was a Black woman) You could take a 440T4 with the most innocuous of shift anomalies to her, and just by driving it, she would tell you what one part to look for and sure as hell she would be right. So call me Robin Hood, the Transmission Man, that's what I called myself. So glad to be out of that crooked business. I'm proud that I never crooked a paying customer. Scamming warranty? Sleep like a baby.
That's a good one. I am very well aware of those tube covers from back in the day. Don't know if I would have caught it either. Can't begin to even tell you how many carbs I've done. You front-end and transmission guys, I tell you what, you look like 20 miles of bad road @5:00. I spent my days chasing down check engine lights, evap systems, ign. sys, fuel sys, you know driveability. At the end of the day Paul Inman, who was the trans guy, good one too, would ask me "well sparky did you get any spark plug dust on your hands today?" I'd tell him "you're welcome to come over and get you some "drive" work any time you want. He'd say no thanks. There's a lawyer a doctor and a Ford technician. They go out on 3 hour pleasure cruise in the Caribbean. The boat springs a leak and sinks. They find themselves on a deserted island. The doctor will keep you alive long enough to starve to death. The lawyer will make you rich suing the boat company. The Ford tech will have you back by lunch because he's working flat-rate.
@@lencac7952 "20 miles of bad road @5:00" LOL! I've got a drivability story I'm sure you'll be able to relate to. Early in my career, when I was the front end man at Youman's Chevrolet in Macon, GA, Robert Watts the Service Manager gave me a Policy R.O. (warranty time, the dealership is gonna eat it) for a 1988 Chevrolet Full Size Conversion Van that had a 350 4bbl in it with 24,000 miles on it, and a "consoled" dog house and said, "I want you to replace the EGR valve on this." So I went to parts to draw the valve and the "Hi Tech" Mike Hooks (appropriate last name) who was a cocaine freak came in and said, "Watt's wants you to put an EGR valve on that van, right?" and I said yeah and he said, "When you get the dog house off, you're gonna find the hot air pipe from the exhaust manifold is off. *Don't put it back on."* I asked him why and he told me all about the Thermac system! I didn't know about it at the time. You can skip over this but I'm gonna explain it if there's anybody else reading this. The Thermac system was designed to control the temperature of the air going into the carburetor. There was a small valve inside the breather, on the inside after the filter, that measured the temperature of the air going into the carburetor. When the engine was cold, it closed a door to the snorkel of the breather and got all of it's air through that 1-1/2" pipe Mike mentioned that went to a metal "stove" that pulled air from around the exhaust manifold. That manifold got hot real fast and heated the air up within a minute or two and the little valve inside would sense that heat and start to open the door to the outside "fresh" air from the snorkel that was cool. As the engine warmed up that valve would find a stable temperature and just the right blend of air from the heated stove and from the snorkel would be just the right temperature. All of the other calibrations for the jets in the carburetor were based on that temperature, not to mention the engine's need to get enough air when you floored it, trying to pass somebody on the interstate going 75 mph. And this is why Mike didn't want me to put that pipe back on. He said, *_"I told them they needed a carburetor overhaul and I'm gonna get my 8 hours."_* (Customer pay time for that job was 8 hours. Warranty doesn't pay for carburetor overhauls, never has.) The van had 24,00 miles on it and he's telling the customer he has to pay $850 (dealer rate was $100/hr then) *because his carburetor is dirty and warranty won't pay for it! **_AT 24,000 MILES?_* This was the complaint: "Van doesn't have the same power when trying to pass or go uphill." And this is what caused the comeback complaint. We had a guy, Robert Justy who was the LOF, wiper blade, air filter guy. He made 8 hours a day humping those 0.3 hour jobs all day long. He looked like 50 miles of bad road at 5! lol! That van had been in for maintenance 2 days before for an LOF, wiper blades and an *_air filter!_* See it yet? Robert had found out (maybe Hooks told him) that if you take off the top of the air filter and remove that long rod that goes down to the carburetor, that you can move the 3" spacer and shift the breather over and get the air filter out *_without having to take the dog house off_* which on those conversion vans was a bitc#. *_But doing so would pull that hot air pipe off the stove!_* ...and Justy didn't know that, hell he never got past the 3rd grade in school, his dad had him plowing as soon as he weighed 150 pounds. Great guy though, one of those friends who would get out of bed at 3am and come help you get your Ox out of a ditch. And since the pipe was off, that little valve inside the breather sensed cold air all the time and kept the snorkel closed, choking the engine for air through that 1-1/2" pipe! THAT's why the engine had no power going uphill. And that crook Mike Hooks knew it! I put the pipe back on and the van was never back that I know of. That's when the assistant Service manager saw what I was capable of and sent me to all those GM schools in Atlanta and trained me to be the A/T specialist. I got Special Electronics, Engine Diagnosis, Vibration Analysis, 30 classes along with Automatic Transmission basic and advanced. So when I decided to move the family to Bradenton after my father got a heart transplant, on my vacation I went into Conley Buick and asked the service manager if he needed any techs, he said no. I told him I was an ASE Master Technician and he said he didn't hire anybody who wasn't a Master Tech, and then I handed him the computer printout of all the classes I had taken at the GM Training College in Atlanta. He looked at it and without looking up from it while still reading, held his hand out to me and said, "When can you start?" Good managers know the industry is jam packed full of crooks like Mike Hooks, and many of those managers act like the three monkeys, "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil". But Herb Holley who was the Service DIRECTOR at Conley Buick at that time knew that guys like us who have brains and are well trained, are their saviors when the crooks get the dealership in trouble. And as soon as Herb found out a guy was crook, he fired them.
Not long after I retired from a career as an ASE Master Technician having been trained at the GM Training College in Atlanta and worked at Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac dealerships I bought a brand new Marauder in 2004, lol. Mine was one of the last ones off the floor of the St Thomas assembly plant in Canada so it has the 4R75W transmission. Since they discontinued them for the 2004 year the first things I did was install an automatic parking brake release and an electric fuel door release (no "thumb" bend on the door).
The next things I did were all suspension and brakes. First I got a KVR 14" front rotor kit with cross-drilled rotors and stainless steel braided hoses front and back. The car now comes to a complete stop from 60 mph in less than 100 feet. Next I installed Metco billeted aluminum rear control arms and Watts links that have polyurethane bushings, they're all tighter than Dick's hatband: No lateral movement at all from the Watts links. Then I put in an ADDCO 1" rear stabilizer bar and QA1 dual adjustable shocks front and back and got some rear rims that were widened 1-1/2" to take Nitto Street Drag Racing 305/45R18's on the back and matching 235/55's on the front. The sidewalls of the rear Nitto's clear the shock rods by only 1/8" but they never rub the tire, that's how tight the Watts links are. Last but not least I had a Torsen T2 differential with 31 spline axles installed.
These mods turned the car into a roller skate on a rail. I can go into a hairpin turn with one of those 500 horse 2-seater Mercedes' or BMW's right on my butt, wait until the last second to hit the brakes and scrub off just enough speed to make the turn, then downshift full throttle from 3rd to 1st gear and those Nittos not lose any traction because that Torsen is doing it's job, differentiating, NOT locking up, losing traction on the inside wheel like the factory Traction Loc differential did. I'll come out of the turn with the chase car 40 yards back! They ALWAYS stop trying and often turn off the road like they were going that way all along, lol.
The Torsen is THE thing for street racing. Traction Loc and Positraction is for 4-wheelers on muddy farms and straight-line drag racing, not the street. On wet or icy roads they're both flat out dangerous, especially at low speeds and increase the chances of spinning out dramatically. But if yours is still factory, you already know that.
Oh, the PCV system is the one thing (and the first) that the DOT required for emissions that actually is a benefit to the durability of the engine. *Matter-of-fact it is a GREAT benefit because it lubricates the intake valve stems!* That little bit of oil your thing-a-ma-gig is catching would have been in the intake charge, going past the open intake valve stem, lubricating it perfectly. That tiny bit is not enough to foul your plugs anyways and is better being burned and catalyzed by the catalytic convertor than to be winding up in your garbage.
Before PCV, the intake valves used to have no umbrellas on them so hopefully the oil splashing inside the valve covers would get some oil on the stems so they wouldn't wear out the guides in the head. One drop every ten minutes or so would do the job but not every valve stem could get the drip so before PCV, we used to get valve jobs all the time. Many engines need one every 30 or 40 thousand miles and most engines would foul the plugs when the guides got loose, sucking tons of oil in through the worn guide.
Hey ladamyre: Sounds like you made a badass Marauder. They are a pretty nifty vehicle. Damn comfortable too. Anything done with the engine? Do you still have it? I was going to do much of things you mention but then I was "terminated" from my job at Rogue Valley Manor for refusing the jab. So I pulled my horns in a bit. The Panther platform is one of the best ever. Without a doubt the panther platform was the vehicle I worked on the least at the Ford dealer (I was a driveability tech). You went the GM route while I went the Ford route. Interesting. Although years ago I did go through the GM Automotive Electronics and Semiconductor Devices classes.
Interesting take on the oil separator. Aspect I did not consider. Good point though. Don't know if you saw my short video, "what's in the box" which shows I got a complete Gen 3 Coyote engine. To be honest I was thinking of putting it in the Marauder but after some research and it is so original and in excellent shape I decided not to. Giving thought of selling the Marauder and getting a project Mustang that I'm not concerned about altering. Plus I want something that is a bit quicker.
Great write-up ladamyre. Thanks for sharing my ASE certified brother 🙂
@@lencac7952 Jerry Barnes made a supercharger kit (the "Trilogy") for the Marauder back in 2002 and a lot of guys got them, it's an instant 75 extra horsepower and probably 100ft/lbs more torque somewhere low, maybe 3500. But I didn't get one because in my opinion the car is too heavy for that kind of power as is. Cops were wrecking their Panthers all the time and they pretty much had the same brakes and tires. That's why I went the suspension/brakes route first. And I'm glad I did. "Quicksilver" (that's her name, she's Silver Birch) *_is_* badass and always surprises those rich boys in their BMW's.
I do think I have the record ET for an un-modified engine on a Marauder: 14.455 seconds and if I remember correctly about 96 mph. I did that at the Bradenton Motorsports Parkway back in 2005 on test and tune day right after I had put a Diablosports 2004 Mustang Cobra tune in it (same engine), but I had also taped the grill off with clear shipping tape to get the air to go up and over the hood, an old drag racers trick, so I think most of that 1/2 second improvement over stock (almost all of the Marauders over the 3 year run ran right at 15 seconds at 92 mph) was the trick tape.
I got the Diablosport tune to remove the RPM limiter in the PCM. I once had her going the full 140 coming down off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at 3AM. I had gotten an MMX 200 mph driveshaft back with all the other suspension mods and had gotten a set of vr speed rated Yokohamas on it (up to 149mph) for everyday street driving (I have two sets of rims, long story) so I got the full speedometer reading, once. Here's where those dual adjustable shocks paid off big time. I had them adjusted so the compression stroke was easier than the rebound stroke, and at speed, unless the road is smooth as glass with absolutely no ripples in it at all, those little micro dips and rises cause the shocks to compress lower and lower making the car squat down closer to the road. At a buck-forty the car sits about an inch lower!
I wrecked her ten years ago, some mom with her kids in the van turned into me as I was passing her going about 100. Lucky nobody was hurt, she even drove her van away. My right front tire hit her left rear and broke the lower control arm. It's been sitting in my garage on the back burner for ten years, but the new house got built and soon I'll be putting a lift in it (it's a one car garage) and that will be just right. I'll get Quicksilver fixed, get the body work done at Costantino's and be able to park her on the lift and then park my 2009 Grand Marquis underneath her. Or vice-versa depending on my mood. lol
Next project after that - mounting a Powerglide transmission to the pinion of the rear-end and driving the 2 speeder with electric motors, motors charged by two 48 volt alternators running off a serpentine belt mounted on the rear of the engine. By my math, 200 ft/lbs going into the input shaft of the Powerglide and being multiplied by the 1.82 first gear ratio (364 ft/lbs output) and that multiplied by, say a 5.88 gear (I'll be running the transmission and the rear end on ATF so I can run it through a cooler) should make for 2140 ft/lbs at the axles, almost enough to strip those 31 spline axles!
But here's the rub. You know what the formula for a 1/4 mile run is: After the lights turn green it's how much power the engine can make divided by the weight of the car. Almost every run will fit into this formula within 1 tenth of a second no matter what else is done to the car.
But with electric motors driving the transmission, we can put in a bank of super capacitors and store up megajoules of energy _before we even get to the starting line!_ And running those electric motors through a well built Powerglide, there will be no RPM limit and that 2000+ ft/lbs of torque will be smooth throughout the run, no gaps and no hesitation. Full G's from start to the finish.
My guess is we can get Quicksilver the world record at 9 seconds flat and still be 4500 pounds, street driveable and sleeper as hell.
Now about how to hide that mandatory roll cage... oh, she'll be crossing the line at 150+ easy.
I forgot to specify the rear end part of that plan. It will, of course, have to be an independent suspension rear end, probably a Corvette 12 bolt. (So long Metco Watts links and control arms. I'll put them on my 2009 GM.) And I'll have to have an engineering firm make an electric front pump drive to run the pump on the tranny since I won't be using the torque convertor. These should not pose too much of a problem. With enough gear reduction those electric motors will be able to put out 200 ft/lbs through an RPM range well adequate enough for 200+ mph, and that before the thing shifts into drive! If things pan out like I think, I may wind up at Bonneville so I plan to rebuild her solidly, no plastic "buttons" holding the bumper covers and fender pants in place. All blind nuts with bolts torqued in place. Quicksilver may gain 10 pounds in fasteners alone, not to mention the matching leather padded roll cage.
I feel pretty good then. I got a 14:77 @ 93.79 mph just the way it drives on the street. The DA was 2200 ft. pretty hot evening. 4:10 axle and a tune, 3/4 tank of gas. Still had the stock throttle body and air cleaner. I trust you've seen the video. I think just lighten it by maybe removing the seats and spare, low fuel and a cool evening I think 13:90's is real possible. So are you telling me your Marauder is wrecked and been sitting for 10 years?
👍👍........... Ya ever use Varget for a K-31 ?? my LGS has a bunch of it...... MB.
Hey Mega: I have used Varget, but not in a K31. If I could find some I would. I think Varget would be a terrific powder for the K31.
@@lencac7952 ;)
I would have painted the upper intake while it was out.
Now why would I have wanted to do that?
So you live at 2200 feet? Where is that? Maybe someday I could bring my Springfield M1A Standard and we could do some shooting at the range. I have mine set up with a M6 Bayonet lug flash suppressor, I've epoxied a bipod lug into the drain hole of the stock for a 25" Harris bipod and I have a Springfield 4th Generation aluminum scope mount mated to my receiver with a Sig Saur Sierra BDX scope on it. My aim was to have a Florida jungle gun that I can hunt wild hogs with, bayonet ready for a boars rush just in case, and yet have a scope and bipod in my backpack in case I come to a clearing and see a 12 point buck 2 or 3 hundred yards away. I have the bore sighted in but I haven't programmed the scope and rangefinder for my ammo (I'm shooting M80 ball, reasons for that later) and I need a spotter. I figure to get the scope dialed in for a 200 yard shot with a cold barrel, and then get the barrel hot and put a second program in the rangefinder (or is the computer in the scope?) for where the barrel is gonna put the bullet when it's hot. The BDX system is why I got the standard instead of going for a National Match. If the computer will compensate for the different ballistic characteristics of different ammo, it can certainly compensate for the different temperatures of the barrel, right? And besides, I won't be trying to shoot a deer from 500 yards away. A gust of wind in this Florida humidity can leave a wounded animal I might not find later. I want to be able to reliably put one in the heart of a deer, or just behind the ear of a hog, breaking his neck, so I won't have to track a wounded animal down. I'm not at all like Elizabeth Warren _says_ she is. I do have 1/16th Cherokee blood, but my tracking skills suck.
No, that's the DA (density air) meaning the physical altitude is 1400 ft. but at that particular time and conditions the air was like being at 2200 ft. I don't hunt dude. I just shoot paper at this point.
You might find this interesting. Maybe not.
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@@lencac7952 Carburetors were never my thing, but I understand them. Still I missed out on the "missing part" contest that Nick Panaritis (Nick's Garage) had on his bone stock Hemi he built. I was kicking myself for not noticing, but he built that whole engine and showed it close up from top to bottom and everything was there: The ballast resistor, the condenser, the coil, all where they would have been on a factory Mopar, except one thing he said was missing. Spot that missing part and you won the contest, but *_I missed the little asbestos wrapped choke heater tube that goes from the little hole in the drivers side exhaust manifold to the choke box!_*
Drivability was not my thing. I was first a suspension and brakes expert and then was promoted to Automatic Transmission. Suspension and brakes are not considered anything a dealership service department needs any experts on. Hell there's still guys taking a pick and pulling the boot on rear wheel cylinders to let the assembly lube out and then going and getting the customers and showing them the "leak" to sell them new wheel cylinders, *_and half of them really believe they're helping their customer!_* And here's the real crime: *These guys get made "Employee on the Month" over and over because they're flagging 100 hours a week!*
I averaged 40 hours a week, but I humped to get it as a "front end man". I always went the extra mile and I almost never got a comeback.
For instance, you may have heard the old "less caster on the left" to compensate for road crown, right? Well that only works on cars with that old Saginaw steering gearbox. Take any Rack & Pinion car and dial in 1/2 degree less caster on the left and that sumbich will pull to the left on a flat road. But it won't on a properly adjusted Saginaw gearbox, and here's why. You may have seen one apart before, so I'll assume you can visualize this but the sector shaft that is the output of the gear and has the Pittman arm attached to it, has five teeth and the center tooth is the biggest. They engage with the piston that the fluid pushes back and forth for hydraulic assist. There's an adjustment for the sector shaft because that center tooth is tapered: push it down and it will push the piston towards the side of the cylinder. The piston is sealed with teflon rings that fill the gap so the fluid won't leak past the piston, just like piston rings in an engine. Here's where the adjustment of the sector shaft comes in to eliminate any pulling to the left from the "less cater on the left" that all the specs called for on those cars. To adjust the sector shaft (on the bench) you would put an inch pound torque wrench on the shaft and turn it as you adjusted the sector shaft bolt with an Allen wrench *so that it would take an **_extra 100 inch pounds_** to turn it as the sector shaft went over center.* This sets up the gearbox to resist going over center: As it gets closer to center it starts to "bind" a little. It's not actually binding, it's squeezing those teflon rings. Now when you do the alignment and set the caster less on the left, you're not done yet! The "rest of the story" requires you to make sure when you set the toe in that the steering wheel is about 1/2 degree to the right when you're going straight ahead. I never had a customer complain his steering wheel was crooked, but every time I insured the gearbox was properly adjusted and the toe in was correct, I had a car that would compensate for road crown pretty darn good, but when on the flat interstate it went straight as an arrow and once pointed straight, it would not pull to the left.
So I'm damn good at suspension and brakes. About brakes, you know what "cross drilled" and "slotted' rotors are all about? Those two things are *_ONLY_* about wet braking, when the brakes are wet as hell. Under hard braking those pads will boil the moisture out so fast that the steam coming off them will oppose your pedal pressure! So if you drill holes in a pattern or cut slots and see that the steam gets let out constantly, you'll have better braking under wet conditions. But don't be fooled, dry braking will be compromised. You see what we're doing with brakes is in actuality turning the kinetic energy of the vehicle into heat, and the heat has to go somewhere. That somewhere is mainly the rotor and when you remove mass from the rotor you reduce it's ability to absorb that heat. So my advice is to just do the drilling and do a pattern that covers all sections of the pads without too many holes. Slots lose effectiveness as the rotor wears down and they take too much contact area away from the pads. Holes are best.
When they promoted me to A/T's I did very well there. The thing about A/T's in a dealership is the ability to scam expensive parts from warranty that you can then give to paying customers so you can competitively rebuild transmissions instead of just R&R'ing SRTA's (Service Replacement Transmission Assemblies). I'd have a $700 pump I got from warranty for an oil leak causing a shift concern that I called a failed pump, turn in a burned up pump from a pickup for instance that the TCC never engaged on, in to warranty, and have a brand new pump to give to a customer that needed a new one. If he had to buy a new pump, the price would be $400 more than a SRTA R&R. But if I had a pump to give him he'd save $300 and I'd get a 14 hour transmission rebuild job that I could do in 8 hours, instead of 6 hours R&R'ing a SRTA that took me 5 hours. I was good too. My transmission rebuilds NEVER came back. The thing bout A/T's is if you know what to look for and are meticulous in your rebuild, they will last as long as any new one, and I had one of the best "Automatic Transmission _Men"_ I have ever run across as an instructor at the Atlanta GM Training College, 'Dot' Huff. (the 'Dot" stood for Dorothy and she was a Black woman) You could take a 440T4 with the most innocuous of shift anomalies to her, and just by driving it, she would tell you what one part to look for and sure as hell she would be right.
So call me Robin Hood, the Transmission Man, that's what I called myself.
So glad to be out of that crooked business.
I'm proud that I never crooked a paying customer. Scamming warranty? Sleep like a baby.
That's a good one. I am very well aware of those tube covers from back in the day. Don't know if I would have caught it either. Can't begin to even tell you how many carbs I've done. You front-end and transmission guys, I tell you what, you look like 20 miles of bad road @5:00. I spent my days chasing down check engine lights, evap systems, ign. sys, fuel sys, you know driveability. At the end of the day Paul Inman, who was the trans guy, good one too, would ask me "well sparky did you get any spark plug dust on your hands today?" I'd tell him "you're welcome to come over and get you some "drive" work any time you want. He'd say no thanks.
There's a lawyer a doctor and a Ford technician. They go out on 3 hour pleasure cruise in the Caribbean. The boat springs a leak and sinks. They find themselves on a deserted island. The doctor will keep you alive long enough to starve to death. The lawyer will make you rich suing the boat company. The Ford tech will have you back by lunch because he's working flat-rate.
@@lencac7952 "20 miles of bad road @5:00" LOL!
I've got a drivability story I'm sure you'll be able to relate to. Early in my career, when I was the front end man at Youman's Chevrolet in Macon, GA, Robert Watts the Service Manager gave me a Policy R.O. (warranty time, the dealership is gonna eat it) for a 1988 Chevrolet Full Size Conversion Van that had a 350 4bbl in it with 24,000 miles on it, and a "consoled" dog house and said, "I want you to replace the EGR valve on this." So I went to parts to draw the valve and the "Hi Tech" Mike Hooks (appropriate last name) who was a cocaine freak came in and said, "Watt's wants you to put an EGR valve on that van, right?" and I said yeah and he said, "When you get the dog house off, you're gonna find the hot air pipe from the exhaust manifold is off. *Don't put it back on."* I asked him why and he told me all about the Thermac system! I didn't know about it at the time. You can skip over this but I'm gonna explain it if there's anybody else reading this.
The Thermac system was designed to control the temperature of the air going into the carburetor. There was a small valve inside the breather, on the inside after the filter, that measured the temperature of the air going into the carburetor. When the engine was cold, it closed a door to the snorkel of the breather and got all of it's air through that 1-1/2" pipe Mike mentioned that went to a metal "stove" that pulled air from around the exhaust manifold. That manifold got hot real fast and heated the air up within a minute or two and the little valve inside would sense that heat and start to open the door to the outside "fresh" air from the snorkel that was cool. As the engine warmed up that valve would find a stable temperature and just the right blend of air from the heated stove and from the snorkel would be just the right temperature. All of the other calibrations for the jets in the carburetor were based on that temperature, not to mention the engine's need to get enough air when you floored it, trying to pass somebody on the interstate going 75 mph.
And this is why Mike didn't want me to put that pipe back on. He said, *_"I told them they needed a carburetor overhaul and I'm gonna get my 8 hours."_* (Customer pay time for that job was 8 hours. Warranty doesn't pay for carburetor overhauls, never has.)
The van had 24,00 miles on it and he's telling the customer he has to pay $850 (dealer rate was $100/hr then) *because his carburetor is dirty and warranty won't pay for it! **_AT 24,000 MILES?_*
This was the complaint: "Van doesn't have the same power when trying to pass or go uphill."
And this is what caused the comeback complaint. We had a guy, Robert Justy who was the LOF, wiper blade, air filter guy. He made 8 hours a day humping those 0.3 hour jobs all day long. He looked like 50 miles of bad road at 5! lol! That van had been in for maintenance 2 days before for an LOF, wiper blades and an *_air filter!_* See it yet? Robert had found out (maybe Hooks told him) that if you take off the top of the air filter and remove that long rod that goes down to the carburetor, that you can move the 3" spacer and shift the breather over and get the air filter out *_without having to take the dog house off_* which on those conversion vans was a bitc#. *_But doing so would pull that hot air pipe off the stove!_* ...and Justy didn't know that, hell he never got past the 3rd grade in school, his dad had him plowing as soon as he weighed 150 pounds. Great guy though, one of those friends who would get out of bed at 3am and come help you get your Ox out of a ditch.
And since the pipe was off, that little valve inside the breather sensed cold air all the time and kept the snorkel closed, choking the engine for air through that 1-1/2" pipe! THAT's why the engine had no power going uphill. And that crook Mike Hooks knew it!
I put the pipe back on and the van was never back that I know of. That's when the assistant Service manager saw what I was capable of and sent me to all those GM schools in Atlanta and trained me to be the A/T specialist. I got Special Electronics, Engine Diagnosis, Vibration Analysis, 30 classes along with Automatic Transmission basic and advanced.
So when I decided to move the family to Bradenton after my father got a heart transplant, on my vacation I went into Conley Buick and asked the service manager if he needed any techs, he said no. I told him I was an ASE Master Technician and he said he didn't hire anybody who wasn't a Master Tech, and then I handed him the computer printout of all the classes I had taken at the GM Training College in Atlanta. He looked at it and without looking up from it while still reading, held his hand out to me and said, "When can you start?"
Good managers know the industry is jam packed full of crooks like Mike Hooks, and many of those managers act like the three monkeys, "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil". But Herb Holley who was the Service DIRECTOR at Conley Buick at that time knew that guys like us who have brains and are well trained, are their saviors when the crooks get the dealership in trouble. And as soon as Herb found out a guy was crook, he fired them.