<VV> Fwd: Cylinder assemblies vs Pistons/rings + rebore/How Long Do They Last

[Tony Underwood]

At 09:23 PM 2/13/2011, Ken Pepke wrote:

>The state of Michigan requires a mileage certificate for all cars 
>that are junked either from accident or just being used up.  When 
>dealing with hundreds to thousands of cars per year, patterns emerge 
>... some brands regularly run up more miles and some less.  Back in 
>the day when most Corvairs were used for transportation they met 
>their end with nearly as much mileage as the best such as Lincolns 
>and Buicks.  AMCs, Hondas, Toyotas, and Datsuns were well below 
>average mileage so they were not even in the running.


AMC?   I dunno...   got an '85 AMC Jeep Cherokee 2-door (only reason 
I bought it was because it was the scarce 2 door version) that has 
almost a quarter-million miles on it now and it's still doing just 
what it always has.   And it's not treated with kid gloves.    It 
gets driven longer and more often these days since it's my winter and 
bad weather driver, and the winters are lasting longer these days and 
there's more snowfall as well... the '60 stays parked until the 
weather warms, since they're dumping more chemicals onto the roads 
around here to chase away the increasing amount of snow and ice and 
the 'Vair can't tolerate too much more of that kinda exposure.

It used to be that we almost never had real snows here where I 
am.  Once in a while...  but up until about 6 or 7 years ago there 
would often be winters where we had NO snow.  I'd drive that '60 all 
year 'round.   Not anymore.   I parked it last November when it 
started getting really cold, and we've had 6 snowfalls so far this 
year (last year we had over 30" on the ground at one time) and I'm 
not driving the '60 in that sorta slop anymore.   For that matter, 
the days in summer when temps went over 90 have dropped remarkably... 
used to be we'd have a string of days where it was over 100, but 
those were before.   No 100 degree temp days around here for years now.

End result:   Winters here are lasting longer than they used to... we 
were still having frosts here in May, with damages to local 
crops.  And frosts started this fall at the end of 
September...  kinda ticks me off.   So, that Jeep has been getting 
more use than usual.   And, it's holding up well in spite of getting 
pretty old these days, particularly for being a stiff-geared Jeep 
that's seen 26 years of use with no major replacements performed 
except for a clutch and the radiator (previous owner had all the records).

The Ramblers of old (and their AMC brethren) seldom got much respect 
and were often treated like disposable items.   Treat any car like 
that and that's what you will get.


>While there is no doubt petrochemistry and metallurgy are the 
>greatest factors in improvements in today's cars, in their day the 
>Corvair was a much better car than it is given credit for today.
>Ken P



That much certainly is true.   I demonstrate it every time I'm out 
running around in that '60 4-door.   But I'm still going to keep it 
away from slush and chemicals and winter slop.    After all, it's not 
gonna be able to take much more of that without getting pretty 
thin...  the old boy is a half-century old now.




tony..