Welcome to the dissimilar materials edition of Tool of the Week. Specialty sockets to remove oddly shaped oxygen sensors or inner ball joints are less common choices than the oft used spark plug socket. The genius of this specialty socket is the rubber donut that grabs onto the ceramic bit of the spark plug. The donut not only makes fishing the spark plug out of the hole an … [Read more...]
Slant Six Power
The eight cylinder dynasty has long presided over drag racing. A trip to a drag strip reveals lanes full of V8 race cars. There are exceptions to every rule. With two fewer cylinders and a tilt to one side is the mighty slant six engine. Even with all the talk of hemispherical heads and no replacement for displacement, the slant six came as standard equipment under the hood so … [Read more...]
Datsun by Nissan
One of the more amazing things about moving to the west coast in the eighties was seeing 20-something year old cars driving around that looked as if they had rolled off the assembly line only a week before. No road salt? No rust! Original hubcaps. Shining paint. Occasional Malibus and Novas were then punctuated by an odd Barracuda or similar economical yet stylish choice from … [Read more...]
Global Economy! Starlet in Poland
From the worldwide economic trends department comes the news that the Toyota Starlet is still a reasonably priced car. Piotr from Poland sent in these shots of this new-to-him 1982 Toyota Starlet in white. The KP61 is all original, and according to the rear deck lid window sticker, a totally fantastic Toyota. With 300,000 kilometers on the clock the K-series engine should be … [Read more...]
Replace Oxygen Sensor
Joining Space Invaders, the personal computer, and perhaps Sputnik in the pantheon of modern technological achievements is the oxygen sensor. Most every modern fuel injected automobile has one or more of these sentinels threaded into its exhaust pipe. Elements inside the oxygen sensor tip measure the amount of oxygen gas in the exhaust, and convert the ratio into a signal that … [Read more...]