F250

See #66

I don't know but I'm pretty sure the type of person who buys a $180,000 car doesn't wash it or change the oil etc himself. He/she has "people" for that kind of work. On the other hand a true enthusiast with the means to afford this car would consider working on it a labor of love not a chore.

Maybe because Ford is not pissing away money on the PAG like they used to.

"The Titan is a woefully disappointing me-too effort aimed at a market that has no room for me-too of anything." "The new Titan is a derivative, let’s-throw-everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink Hail Mary pass at the pickup truck market that manages to come off more like a pathetic cry for help."

Since we're talking about the Mustang II I'll give y'all a little history on those since I'm old and remember them. The first year was 1974 and the Mustang II was introduced with only 2.3L 4-cylinder and a 2.8L V-6 engines. More importantly Ford never intended to offer a V8 in the Mustang II so even the small for its displacement 302 V8 would not fit. This was a Mustang Ford's most popular performance car since it's introduction with no V8. Ford realized they screwed up and needed to cram the 302 in the Mustang II ASAP. So they had to totally re-design the new car from the firewall forward after just one year. You can tell without opening the hood the '74 has a deeper header panel and shorter hood while the '75-'78 has a shorter header panel and long hood. They had moved the core support forward and the engine itself used a unique short water pump and accessory locations. Did Ford repeat this mistake or did they learn from this failure? Nope, they repeated the no V8 mistake with the Thunderbird/Cougar in 1989 forcing a redesign and this time a unique EFI intake manifold to fit under the MN12's low flat hood.

Well I have to remember there is no accounting for taste. But I will say the Mustang II is quite rare today because they were toasters (no Pinto pun) they were transportation appliances with 13inch tires little German 2.8L V6 engines and zero enthusiast interest. A look through Barrett-Jackson shows quite a few 1971-73 Mustangs bringing good money like a '71 J-code 429SCJ Mustang fastback that sold for $63,800 and the yellow Boss 351 that was owned by Bill Elliott (he must have good taste) that sold for $84,700. Can you imagine anyone paying anything near that for a Mustang II no matter who owned it? Didn't see many 1974 Mustang IIs on the Barrett-Jackson site.

You don't know what you're talking about on the 1971-'73 Mustangs. I owned a red '71 Mustang Mach-1 351C Ram Air and a '71 grabber blue 302 V8 coupe. The 71 was a Bunkie Knudsen era Ford of course but you have to remember at the time the design was approved Ford was loosing money on every Boss 429 they built because the engine was too wide to fit in the 1969-70 Mustang and those cars were modified by Kar Kraft at great expense to fit the engine. Decisions made in 1968-69 when the muscle car wars were at their peak didn't play out as planned when the '71s hit the showroom. Ford wanted the '71 to be able to fit any engine in the Ford arsenal including the Boss 429 which of course ended production in 1970. And with the bias ply tires of the era a little extra weight actually helped traction while the extra width didn't hurt handling when the performance suspension was ordered. The 1971 Mustang was not "floppy, rattley, slower, and poor" they had a modern integrated power steering system far superior to the seperate leaky power cylinder and valve system on previous Mustangs. And The 1971 Boss 351 Mustang was faster accelerating than both previous Boss 429 and Boss 302. Yep, check it out it is a fact read road test of these cars when they were new. The '71 was also available with the 385 big block 429 SCJ for drag racers. And the Mustang II...well it just sucked. The 1974 Mustang II was just a fat pinto, it was the only year a V8 was not available and the first year without a convertible. In 1974 the 2-door Maverick 302 V8 and straight 6 was FAR closer to the Mustang spirit than the Mustang II.

http://www.ford.com/cars/mustang/specifications/engine/ To get the power and mileage that Ford is claiming they specify 93-octane premium fuel for the 2.3EcoBoost. IF you can use regular the numbers may fall even closer to the standard V6.

Unfortunately I think this is correct. It would be interesting to compare back to back dyno pulls for the 2.3Eco vs the standard V6 on actual production cars. Pay more for the 2.3Eco up front then pay more for premium fuel every month to get marginal real world improvement over the standard less complicated V6. It's not that the 2.3Eco is a bad engine it's just that the base V6 is so damn good.

Jeep Wrangler sales I assume since were talking about Bronco August 2014: 17,988 CYTD 2014: 120,113 Oh, and Toy Tundra... August 2014: 11,834 CYTD 2014: 80,133

Translation: Now that Ford has recovered and profitable they are looking for ways to waste money (resources) just like they used to. This isn't 1964 NASCAR and NHRA have no connection to production cars and nothing learned on the track improves the Ford in the showroom. F-1 is high end Euro snob playground. Today racing doesn't improve the product rather big money from manufacturers improve race cars for marketing purposes only. Seems like a very limited return on the investment for bragging rights.

In this reply I hit the (quote) option to your post and tried to copy and paste an accessory hood mounted pict link HERE: Noting happens. No quote and the paste will not show. Below I manually typed the entire link and it shows: http://www.torinocobra.com/parts/hoodtach1.jpg

Cannot use the box at all Richard in fact I cant even close the box once it opens it locks me out and have to close the whole thing and start over.

My '06 F-150 XL 5.4L 4x4 has no tach being an XL automatic. However you can bring up a digital tach on the odometer display by using the diagnostic mode. Hold the odometer reset button while turning the key on and the diag mode will begin starting with gauge sweeps then keep pressing the odometer button through options (including DTC codes) to the tach function.

Internet Explorer 11 Windows 7 Click on the Image or Link options and the box opens but after I enter the link info none of the controls function and I cannot even close the box.

Well Richard I used to be able to post links and pictures etc but apparently not any more. cant even copy and paste a link. Anyway if you're interested do a search for 1970-71 Ford Torino tachometer. They had a horizontal speedometer and in a small rectangle horizontal tachometer below the left side of the speedometer. I grew up with cars of this era and it was a rare option. Ford also sold an over the counter accessory dealer installed hood mounted tachometer but they were not factory.

Yes, and no tach just a big analog clock. However the 1970 Torino Cobra had a horizontal speedometer and an usual matching horizontal tachometer.

The answer is obvious. Ford engines run so smooth a check of the tachometer is necessary so the driver doesn't try to start an engine that's already idling! How's my fanboy impersonation?

They beat the hell out of those test mules, at 0.23 on the Silver Creek video the inside edge of the wheel is bent and they zip-tied something (possibly a sensor) to the lower control arm. Happened to hit pause at the right frame to see the bent wheel.

Mil Spec aluminum? Well, the Humvee's body is aluminum and it's proven tough enough. Interesting though, Ford used cast aluminum lower control arms on the 2004-08 F150 front suspension going to great length describing the benefits to handling by reducing unsprung weight etc...then abandoned it in 2009 returning to stamped steel control arms. Cost?

Red Team sticker: Call your dealership's service department and ask if they are on a team system, if so ask which team did the pre-delivery prep on your car. Some shops have team color stickers but they usually have the dealer's name and service etc on them as well.

No. It's Broke Man Walking or Bust My Wallet

Yes, but it kind of irked me to pay hundreds of dollars for shipping/delivery when my dealer was only 5 miles away from the assembly plant!

Very...Educational... I've been riding motorcycles since I was 12 years old so the legendary Sturgis rally became one of those "bucket list" things. Fortunately my wife rides her own bike and was just as excited about the rally as I was. We stopped by the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee on the way out and spend a day there. Went right through your town on the way to Sturgis. Beautiful riding in South Dakota and Wyoming...followed by seriously wild partying every night! The Badlands, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer state park, Devil's Tower Wyoming, what a ride! Stopped by Harley's final assembly plant in Kansas City (where her bike was built) on the way back and did a little kayaking at Norris dam in Tennessee. 2 weeks very well spent!

Lets see...for $16,800 I could get a brand new Corolla that drives like a 6 year old used Corolla and tell the world "I just don't give a shit" ...OR for $16,600 a cool looking Focus or for $17,895 an all wheel drive Subaru Impreza.