dumb questions #32, 33, 34

[BBBurban at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/11/2001 12:38:18 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
bahnrokt at hotmail.com writes:

<< #32: Not unless your realy untra serious about racing will oil weight make 
a 
 differance nore should you worry about it as long as it lubes the engine.
 
<<How can that be?  On a hot day running hard on the track oil temp will 
increase.  Oil that is too hot will still lube your engine but not as well.  
When it thins out and starts to roast damage will to occur whether you can 
detect it happening or not.  Maybe I am being over cautious but I want all 
the protection I can get ( 20v motors aren't cheap).  
  
 <<#33 Yes its illegal but when was the last time a cop checked your car for 
 one?  Exactly
 
Can't argue about this one but would be interested to know how you know 
this... Tire tread is checked at inspection (those states that have it) for 
depth but they don't seem to care about the tread depth or existence of a 
spare)

<< #34 I got pulled over in my 16v GTI with no back seat and two people back 
 there sitting on the floor. Cop didn't say a word since NY has no rear 
 seatbelt rule for people over 13(?).
 
 <<If you wanna cut weight out jack the car up and start pulling heat shields 
 off.  They don't do anything ultra important besides keep the heat outside 
 the car. Its not like the car will catch fire without them. Thats a good 30 
 pounds there easy.

Heat shields on catalytic converters are important (park a low car with no 
cat heat shield over dry grass and see if it doesn't catch fire) as well as 
all the others.  The cat on my car is right underneath the rear driveshaft.  
The cat and the rest of the exhaust system could heat up the shaft and add 
heat to other components. OK kinda far fetched I admit but that is the basic 
idea.  You could damage other heat sensitive things inadvertently.  And 
undercoating will burn if it gets hot enough to drip on the cat or other 
exhaust components.  You may not "need" heat shields but do you really want 
to remove them?  They are there for a purpose and I don't think it is just to 
keep the heat out of the car.  Can't see the weight loss of 30 lbs (think 
that estimate is kinda high) being worth it.
 
 Hank 90q20  $0.02