Iron or Alluminium head

In >, Bob G. > writes:
>On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 03:41:34 GMT, Diode >
>wrote:
>
>>Bob G. spoke thusly...
>>
>>> ALL Convertibles had aluminium heads...
>>>
>>WTF? Why would GM decide on heads by body type?? Let me
>>guess...because the verts were heavier than the coupes, GM used the
>>slightly lighter aluminum head motors in them to take a little weight
>>back off?
>=========================
>Maybe because the Federal Government or some other "wonderful"
>agency though convertibles were rather unsafe they (the rag tops)
>completely disappeared from 1976 thru 1985...(I honestly do not
>remember why...
>
>Anyhow...
>
>The convertible returned to production in 1986 and Not a single one
>was produced EARLY in the model year... By the time the 1st
>convertible came off the line the aluminum heads were being used on
>all Corvettes thus all convertibles got a few more Hp and aluminum
>heads and the late production coupes got them also...
>
>Bob Griffiths
>

Being over 70 may keep me from knowing what a fuse looks like but
I can shed some light on two sides of this. The '80s saw the rise of
CAFE and paranoia about weight (smaller batteries, plastic headlights
etc.). While the Al heads were an all-round better idea, Chevy used
up the old iron castings on the lighter C4 coupes that didn't have the
'x' brace. 'Engineering decisions' like this and CAGS seem to impress
the feds from the CAFE police. It looks like all the cast iron
heads were used up by '89 since the shop manual (pp 6A1-1)
seys aluminum on all engines. Mine (March production) are Al.

Reason for no 'verts for several years was a '70s lawsuit filed by
Nader's Raiders (yeah--same guy as running for Pres.) against GM,
Chrysler and Ford on behalf of rollover victims. The big argument
back then focused on seat belts. Some folks claimed not wearing
them in a 'vert made sure you were, "safely thrown clear of the
accident." (I thought this was OK since it got the anti-seatbelt idiots
out of the gene pool--their argument goes along with, "it's better to
be dead drunk in an accident since your body is more relaxed!")

The "shocking stats" showed that rollover accidents in a ragtop were
more deadly than in a coupe or sedan. Nader's folks published fotos
of 'killer' convertibles. These showed a dozen or so ways to
dismember human bodies when they contact phone poles, bridge
abutments and other stationary objects following ejection from a
convertible. With such 'overwhelming' facts, Congress's Office of
Technology Assessment (OTA) cranked out a report concluding that
convertibles were evil and bad news. Nixon had just re-organized the
DOT (adding cars, NASA, the FAA and the Coast Guard to what had
been an outfit that looked after trucks and trains.) The NHTSA was
flexing it's new muscle. Convertibles became a target of the
bureaucrats. GM, Ford et al caved and convertibles went away. The
Targa was popularized by Porsche.

It took almost a decade for us to rewrite our owner's manuals to
include mostly dire warnings and put yellow seatbelt stickers on the
sunvisors. These acts of contrition satisfied the lawyers and it was
then OK to build convertibles again. The big punch line in all this was
that it made the post-production & van-conversion guys very rich
while producing sun roofs, moonroofs, split tops and finally convertibles
again.

Regards, "Mike"
-- mikeellison3xxxatzzzyahoo.com --

Snip
> It took almost a decade for us to rewrite our owner's manuals to
> include mostly dire warnings and put yellow seatbelt stickers on the
> sunvisors. These acts of contrition satisfied the lawyers and it was
> then OK to build convertibles again. The big punch line in all this was
> that it made the post-production & van-conversion guys very rich
> while producing sun roofs, moonroofs, split tops and finally convertibles
> again.
>
> Regards, "Mike"
> -- mikeellison3xxxatzzzyahoo.com --

Good assessment Mike, but let it go. It can't be good to let the
government worry a 70 year old body. ;-]

When Nader put out his book I picked up a Corvair with 2300 miles
on it from a Chickenlittle that was one of the three best cars I ever owned.

--
Dad
04 C5 CE Z51
72 Shark Black/Black/4spd

Mike spoke thusly:

> etc.). While the Al heads were an all-round better idea, Chevy used
> up the old iron castings on the lighter C4 coupes that didn't have the
> 'x' brace. 'Engineering decisions' like this and CAGS seem to impress
>

Wait a minute...you're saying that my guess about the weight thing was
correct?? Holy crap.

--

Shut up, Dave.

-|>|- Diode -|<|-
'68 L-79 Coupe
'79 Triumph Bonneville

My guess is that the fact that Convertibles went from 65% of sales in
'68 to 12% in '75.

Bob G. wrote:

> =========================
> Maybe because the Federal Government or some other "wonderful"
> agency though convertibles were rather unsafe they (the rag tops)
> completely disappeared from 1976 thru 1985...(I honestly do not
> remember why...
>

> Why don't you just kill-file him, like I did? Or at least don't reply to
> the taunts? It's pointless.
>
> AJM
> '93 Ruby coupe, 6 sp
>
>

Very true,,,,especially that everyone knows that monkey.
Have a great weekend..

Dan
89 Coupe Blk on Blk

In article >, Bob I >
wrote:

> My guess is that the fact that Convertibles went from 65% of sales in
> '68 to 12% in '75.

And back between '62 and '63 the convertible to total sales ratio
plummeted from 100% to 50.7%...

Here's waving to ya - \||||

Owen

"Black Bomb" > wrote in message
...
> Hi
>
> What year was it when GM switched from Iron to Alluminium heads in the
> middle of the production. I think it was in 86. My buddy keeps telling me
> that his 89 has Cast Iron & his 91 ZR1 has alluminium heads. I'm sure my
89
> has alluminium heads.
>
> Thanks
>
> Dan

Around 1967, on the L-88

Al

The truth is that you (and your pal with a ZR1) are to cheap to buy a
factory service manual, so you spend your time leeching here for
information and using this news group as your personal factory servce
manual. If you had just HALF a brain your would do research in prior
threads on various websites and do basic troubleshooting on your own
car instead of asking rudimentary questions which do nothing more than
demonstrate how cheap and stupid you really are. You are wasting your
own time and the time of everyone else here who has to (wants to) read
your lame ass posts. Ii you had even a quarter of a brain you would
not have paid a mechanic to remove the plenum & fuel rail on your car
to replace ONE injector, and then later have to pay the same mechanic
to later replace all the injectors...you should have figured out using
basic logic that it would have been better to have them all replaced
the first time around. In a nutshell that's the REAL problem here.

================================================
On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 09:54:06 -0400, "Black Bomb"
> wrote:

>Thanks Bob,,
>
>It's nice to know that I had a very good idea about what I asked. Someone
>here acts like a know it all, but yet lives off google & Die Cast 90 Vettes
>for searches. That's what I call a Cereal Box mechanic.....
>
>Cheers,,,to a great weekend....
>
>Dan
>
>"Bob G." > wrote in message
.. .
>> On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 10:45:35 -0400, "Black Bomb"
>> > wrote:
>>
>> >Hi
>> >
>> >What year was it when GM switched from Iron to Alluminium heads in the
>> >middle of the production. I think it was in 86. My buddy keeps telling me
>> >that his 89 has Cast Iron & his 91 ZR1 has alluminium heads. I'm sure my
>89
>> >has alluminium heads.
>> >
>> >Thanks
>> >
>> >Dan
>> >\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
>> You are correct....
>>
>> ALL Convertibles had aluminium heads...
>>
>> But the early coupes had iron heads... later coupes
>> all came with aluminum
>>
>> Bob Griffiths
>

On Sun, 15 Aug 2004 09:49:37 -0500, X-Eliminator
> wrote:

>The truth is that you (and your pal with a ZR1) are to cheap to buy a
>factory service manual, so you spend your time leeching here for
>information and using this news group as your personal factory servce
>manual.

Either give him a hand, or ignore his posts.

Wayne "****ing and moaning is a waste of time" Johnson

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"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."
- last words of Pancho Villa (1877-1923)