Maniacs at seaports, engine abuse

[Mike Arman]

> >
> > Just because they treat it like they don't own it does not
> > mean that it is in the best interest of the vehicle.


>I once watched cars being taken off a ship at Felixstowe docks. A minibus 
>full of people
>drove on, then twelve cars appeared down the ramp - engines stone cold and 
>screaming - each
>being driven by a Juan Fangio wanna-be, followed by the minibus.
>Then the procedure was repeated.



Same phenomenon noted at Port Elisabeth, NJ, when I was working for an 
MG/Jag dealer, summer of 1964. Cars were absolutely stone cold, all the oil 
drained off the lubricating surfaces, Mongo and his buddies get paid by the 
car, not the hour, so they would wind the p*ss out of these cars and play 
grand prix driver to get them off the ship as quickly as possible.

Later, I ran the warranty department for Max Hoffman when he was importing 
BMW (when the pre-fuel injection 1600-2 door was the hot setup). The cars 
didn't take kindly to this treatment - these engines had steel inserts in 
aluminum rocker arms (the steel slid on the cam lobe, SOHC engine), and 
they started coming loose. Most of the time we caught them before delivery 
to the dealers - most of the time. We changed a LOT of rocker arms on brand 
new cars.

So then we started driving some of the cars back from the docks ourselves. 
Some of them steered funny - REAL funny. Turns out they were tied down to 
the scaffolding and ramps in the ships with thick ropes at each suspension 
corner. When Mongo retrieved the car, it was too much effort for him to 
bend over and cut the rope at the suspension end, so he cut it at the ramp 
end, leaving the ropes, with large knots, dangling under the car.

The ships had adjustable "shelves" - the ramps and scaffolding could be 
raised or lowered to adjust for the height of the cars, so if you had tall 
cars, you could get X into the ship, if the cars were short, you could get 
more into the ship and thus increase the ship-owner's profits.

Anyway, every once in a while, the dangling rope end with the big knot on 
it would snag in one of the joints between the ramps - ever see a BMW sedan 
do a carrier landing? *Instant* full stop . . .

It took a long time to figure this out, because after the cars were 
unloaded, someone went around and cut the ropes off at the suspension ends, 
and we never had the "evidence" as to why all these suspension members were 
so bent on brand new cars. It took a day of snooping around, watching them 
unload our cars, and then we were able to watch this happening. Aha!



Engine break-in. Yes, it is still needed. Remember that the manufacturer is 
only interested in the car surviving to the end of the warranty plus one 
foot or one second, whichever comes first. We'd like to get a little more 
out of our cars than that, so care taken at the beginning will pay us back 
ten-fold or more later. Point is, just about anything will last three years 
or 36,000 miles, no matter how badly it was treated during the break-in 
period. After that, it is OUR problem, not theirs.

Modern engines are not as touchy about this as older engines - production 
tolerances are tighter and materials are better, but engines STILL need a 
little extra care when they are new. Rings have to seat properly, and the 
engine needs to go through several expansion and contraction cycles to 
relieve internal stresses.

The amazing thing is that breaking in an engine COSTS NOTHING! All you have 
to do is drive gently and vary your speed from time to time for the first 
1,000 miles or so. Is that SO difficult? Of course, if you plan to trade it 
in when the ash trays are full, this doesn't matter . . . but if you plan 
to keep the car, you need to do it!

Something else often neglected is warm-up. During the great fuel crisis of 
1974 (composed of equal parts of hysteria, jingoism, stupidity, greed, and 
oh yeah, a 1% drop in oil production), the advice was "drive off as soon as 
the engine starts - idling to warm up the car wastes fuel." Guess what - 
this is DEAD WRONG. A cold engine must be run richer to run at all (that's 
what the choke does, richens the mixture at start), and has major 
drivability issues - and pollutes like crazy. It also wears out more 
quickly - the excess fuel (if not completely vaporized) can wash the oil 
off the cylinder walls, and shorten engine life.

Air cooled engines are even more sensitive to this. Failure to warm up an 
air-cooled engine means many of the tolerances and running clearances will 
not be correct, and when you attempt to develop rated horsepower, things 
break. The old air-cooled VW engines lasted MUCH longer if you just let 
them warm up for a minute before driving off. Going to full throttle on an 
air-cooled airplane engine which has not warmed up is asking for a HUGE 
repair bill, and possibly an accident.

Break it in, warm it up, treat it like you own it. If you drive it like you 
stole it (as the saying goes), it WILL break - and YOU get to pay for it.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman