My mechanic is Bob. He’s quite a guy. He’ll tell you his honest opinion and won’t rip you off or upsell repairs you don’t need. He is blunt and does not suffer fools lightly. He has a soft spot for stray animals. I rarely let anyone touch one of my vehicles besides Bob
I just Bought an old farm truck, an 89 Ford F-250 with 79,000 original miles. It has the 5.8 L V8, which needed (among other things ) spark plugs and valve cover gaskets. These are two maintenance items I’ve done to other vehicles many times. The more I Looked this engine over The more discouraged I became with the amount of pollution control apparatus as well as the intake that would have to be removed in order to get to the task.
so I asked Bob “Can we just take all this crap off and leave it?” To which he responded “I would leave it on. It’s on there for a reason” I sarcastically asked “is the reason so it will take me all day just to change my plugs and valve cover gaskets?” Bob replied “it may take you all day, but I can do it in three hours.”
So I got The old Ford on Bob’s schedule. Long story short, it took him five hours. We split the difference. He only charged me for four.
When I picked the vehicle up, it was running great and no more oil smoke on the exhaust manifold. I’m very happy. Bob further explained that removing all the smog Control would confuse the computer which regulates fuel air mixture, and my truck would not run optimally.
This leads me to my question. Has anyone successfully modified one of these old engines with the maze of anti-pollution apparatus in order to make it easier to maintenance without losing performance?
if it was up to me, i'd get rid of all that power ridding crap and put the engine back to the pre politically correct era, just my two cents.
Would the intake need to be Refitted with a carburetor?
I'd do that too, but you'd have to completely rewire and rebuild the motor to function normally without those things, it can be done, it's just tiring.
Your mechanic is right. You can't just rip those components off as it will throw your computer out of whack, amongst other things.
Best idea is to leave it.
I believe you. You ARE the mod man, after all.