Ace-Garageguy

Which is why I specifically said the CURRENT state of IoT security. But to foist this crapp off on a largely ignorant public BEFORE the security vulnerabilities have been adequately addressed borders on being criminally negligent, if it's not entirely so. I don't give a damm if somebody thinks they HAVE to have an app to flush the internet-connected toilet or start the internet-connected coffee pot or communicate meaningfully with the internet-connected dishwasher...people have historically wasted money on garbage like beanie-babies and any number of other trendy but essentially useless acquisitions too...but the potential problems and risks of the IoT need to be addressed, and at least UNDERSTOOD by the consuming masses being targeted...and I mean that in BOTH senses.

The current reality of IoT security vulnerability...but hey, it's cool, it's hip, it's happening...and it's beyond stupid. https://qz.com/901823/the-easy-way-your-smart-coffee-machine-could-get-hacked-and-ruin-your-life/ https://www.iotforall.com/5-worst-iot-hacking-vulnerabilities/ https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/01/500253637/an-experiment-shows-how-quickly-the-internet-of-things-can-be-hacked

Which reminds me of a totally unrelated but kinda sad story...many of the decommissioned B-17 and B-24 bombers at the end of WWII (some planes were BRAND NEW, and flown straight from the factory to the graveyard in Kingman, Az.) were sold for the value of the fuel in the tanks, and scrapped, stripped of SOME useful components like engines, then melted down on the spot. Bombers-to-beer-cans doesn't sound quite as noble as swords-to-plowshares.

Some things that one would believe should be self-evident apparently aren't. PS. I had a brain-fart once here myself, and posted the answer. Dumbguy moment.

I guess I should have specified... The AMT KIT he's most likely starting with has a centrifugal supercharger as in the illustration I posted. Here's the kit-style supercharger so you get a better idea of what you're looking at. The carb is on top (though the kit has a different carb) and the intake manifolds are behind. And this is the supercharger inside... There was also a turbo-compound version (3 were built for experimental aircraft in 1944-46) ...and many have been set up with non-factory turbochargers for non-aircraft installations...

The Allison engine already HAS a huge centrifugal supercharger on it...

How appropriate...

If you had one of these "Clapper" key-finder things strapped to your phone, you'd be in like Flint.

So when the crossword needs two short words meaning "political rhetoric"...

No, but it ought to me able to melt a Mac.

I first thought you said a brown NOSE weapon.

Heresy. Everyone under 35 KNOWS that if it's not insanely complex, it's useless crapp from the dark ages, and only ignorant Luddites hopelessly stuck in the past have any use for things with no touch screens, or that can't be accessed from your phone. Repeat after me: new is good, even if it defies all common sense. For instance: a digital camera and an LED screen, with a microprocessor to run them, are VASTLY superior to a ridiculously outdated mirror. Consume...consume...consume...dispose...dispose...dispose...

I'm working on an EMP app...

Boy oh boy. You can be sitting on the can across town and flush the one at home. Multi-tasking at its finest.

Thanks to Casey for posting the Surfin Van and the Horse's thing. I had no idea either existed (yech) but they do give me some other interesting ideas.

The circles are freeze plug locations on the block. Without the heads, it's difficult to identify that one unless somebody recognizes the specific kit. Identifiers of the BBC are evenly-spaced exhaust ports, intake ports spaced like a smallblock Chebby, distributor in the rear, and a timing cover that also looks rather like a smallblock Chebby, starter on the RH (passenger) side. On the photo below, note the even exhaust port spacing, paired intake ports, distributor in the rear. and 4 bolts on the lower valve cover rail. Oil filter is on this side (driver's), starter on other side.

Just to be pedantic, the blower itself is a GMC. The Potvin part of the equation is the drive, mount (special timing cover), and the manifolds. The ancient Revell parts-pack smallblock Chebby engine also has a nice one.

The LS is overall a very worthy successor to the old smallblock Chebby, it's a great engine in most ways, but there are a few weaknesses and some things I just find to be annoying. Not deal-breakers, but can be a PITA. 1) There is an oil pressure relief valve in the oil pump that has had a nasty habit of sticking wide open. When this happens, all the oil bypasses the oil galleries, and the crank and cam starve. Very expensive noises follow. 2) The engines were designed to bolt to the usual Chevy bellhousing pattern, but lack the upper RH bolt hole or even a boss for one. This is fine when the engine is installed, but when you go to put one on a stand, I just don't like the load distribution on the holes you have to use. I made a custom adapter that spreads the loads out better. 3) The cranks were also mostly designed to bolt to many GM flywheels and flexplates, but one version of the crank requires an adapter to bolt up to some, and it's critical to get the right flexplate for the application. It's absolutely necessary, and some guys miss it, or use the wrong flexplate. Again, very unpleasant noises. 4) The nose of the crank on every factory LS I've seen so far has no keyway or key to index the balancer. It is a tight interference fit, and requires a use-once-and-throw-away bolt, plus a kinda special tool to install it. This makes installing a balancer with an integral degree wheel into a needless PITA. You CAN machine a keyway, but why should you HAVE TO? The way the old Chebby engine retained its balancer worked just dandy for 50 years+. 5) Some of the early LS engines had a too-shallow hole where the a coolant temp sender screws into the block down low on the RH side. I once had a devil of a time modifying the water jacket up inside this hole to accommodate a particular temp sending unit. 6) The oil pan rail and some oil pans have bosses for bolts / studs, but none are present. Look at the underside of the C5 pan, and it appears as though each side of the engine was designed by a different guy, in a different town, and they weren't sharing their work. 7) Not all the engines have identical accessory holes in the heads and blocks. This can make it hell to get everything mounted correctly on some swaps. That's all I can think of right off the top of my head, and like I said, not deal breakers, but you need to watch this stuff. Swapping parts around from different versions of the LS can also cause some very interesting problems. The heads are the best part of the LS, and are so much better than old-school Chebby heads, there's just no comparison. To get the benefits of the LS heads and still be able to use stock Chebby mounts (and bulletproof, tried-and-true internals from the "traditional" smallblock) there's a super trick block that accepts LS heads. http://www.hotrod.com/articles/hrdp-0902-motown-ls-engine/

I've read several places that breakfast cereal is something millennials don't buy because "it's too hard to clean up" afterwards. Really. Running a little water in a bowl and wiping it dry. Damm...just the thought of it is exhausting. Perhaps the fascination with eating Tide stems from a simple lack of knowledge of what it's actually for. The entire concept of "washing clothes" may be alien to a mind-set that views rinsing out a cereal bowl as a stressful activity. The colorful swirls, seen out of context (read labels? READ??) surely look as appetizing to semi-adult morons as they would to mindless babies.

And fake body parts in general...that still seem to be remarkably popular with a certain (or is that cretin?) mind-set (and whom I would suspect of having had somewhat limited interaction with the real versions).

Yugos were essentially Yugoslavian-built Fiat 127s (a smaller version of the 128, which also has a mostly undeserved bad reputation in America) and shared many parts and engineering. The Fiat 127 worked VERY well in the free part of Europe, but when the generic version went into production under a Communist mind-set, there were problems with quality and materials. The single biggest failure of the early Yugos in the USA was a crankshaft made from the wrong spec material. Some crankshafts broke. And like Fiats, the Yugo suffered over here because Americans typically ignored the need for more intensive maintenance...like timing belts every 40,000 miles, and periodic valve-lash adjustments...that big ol' US cars simply didn't require. Naturally, the cars were blamed for the effects of poor maintenance. There were loads of other minor quality-control issues, and lots of warranty claims, but the car is really just not that bad. It is harshly bad-mouthed mostly by people who don't know what they're talking about...and who engage in the mindless parroting of other's opinions (which is the mainstay of the internet). It stayed in production as pretty much the same car up until 2008, so how bad could it really be?

OK by me. I've always liked the whole "outlaw" 356 thing anyway. Though I like the wheels, I'm curious about the wide-5 bolt pattern. The shape of the car identifies it as a "C", which would usually have the smaller bolt pattern of the 911 series. I'd also prefer an "A" coupe nose, but that's just me. I like this better... And then there's this one...

While some of these examples of off-the-charts stupidity are entertaining, it's the creeping dumb among AVERAGE Americans that's the REAL problem: Automobile technicians who don't have a basic understanding of how an internal-combustion engine operates. Licensed electricians who have passed the licensing exam, but can't read and understand installation instructions. Millions of people, maybe tens of millions, who can't do simple arithmetic with a pencil and paper. Office workers and managers who are incapable of writing a coherent business letter. High school graduates who can NOT read at first-year college level, and have to go to remedial reading classes. Voters who have no knowledge of the history of this country, or the rest of the world. These are typical of what we need to be focusing on.

I've always thought they were good looking, not overdone, and often notice them on the road. I'd kinda thought about looking into finding one. What kinds of problems have you guys been having with it?