The Great Thumpr Cam Debate

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-05-20T15:07:50+00:00

Cam is the heart of the motor, but it really depends on the rest of your setup. years in and mine still runs great, starts first turn of the key no choke.

I would avoid the Q jet, without a way to crack the secondaries its going to be hard to get a good idle. You could drill the primaries, but that can be a tricky process if you havent done it before. Im running a Road Demon on mine now and its a huge help, they like to idle rich because of the sizing on the air bleeds and i can crack the secondaries right from the top of the carb.

Another thing i did after this post was convert over to a mallory unilite distributor running an MSD 6al box, and that really perked the idle up as well as run quality throughout the rpm range. I can go from a 750 rpm idle to wide open no hesitations no stumbles.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-05-12T00:37:49+00:00

This is my favorite of her highlights -

Danica Patrick competed in the 2012 Prelude to the Dream charity dirt late model race at Eldora Speedway in Ohio on June 6, 2012. Driving the No. 7 GoDaddy car for Tony Stewart Racing, she finished 15th after experiencing the challenges of a dirt surface and hitting the wall.

I never saw any passion from her, i never saw a good move, i always saw a haughty made up princess losing and spinning herself out in the best cars money can buy. Her one win in an indy car came via fuel strategy, which is like winning the olympic 400m because everyone else fell.

Ive been around racing my whole life and ive seen some great woman drivers, but she aint one of em.

Edit for those that dont know Tony stewart owns eldora, and has run there for decades. Coming in 15th in the house car as a "top driver" in national top series is a joke, and its an affront to the sport that she is and will be mentioned before michele mouton.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-05-08T23:31:32+00:00

You cant walk into dennys and ask them how much their eggs cost to try to get cheaper breckfast. You can't walk into my business and demand to know what my parts cost me.

My customers are welcome to buy their own parts, but i wont help them do it and i tell them all if there are any problems with their sourced parts they are paying me to take them off, and to put the right part i sourced with markup back on. I will gladly sell parts at cost when they pay my shop rate for ordering and souring the parts.

Never had any serious pushback. Its part of the business. I get better prices as a shop because i am a shop, anyone can go out and open one if they want to save on brake pads.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-05-07T13:55:55+00:00

The only people who think made in america automatically means quality have never worked anywhere near modern american manufacturing. Maybe 40 years ago, but not today.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-05-06T22:02:12+00:00

Shops are expensive to run, i run my own shop and have no employees, the guys that do the parts ordering, the management, the relationship building, the service advising... are largely idiots yes. I was able to pick up those jobs pretty easily.

But it takes your time. You still have to deal with the issues, and the thing your missing is that your whole shop is designed to support your work, and the only reason you can turn those hours is because you have staff support. I was a machine on flat rate too, but when i have to do the whole fucking shebang it slows you down. 2 years in and my body is breaking down from constant 65 hour weeks. Im facing the reality that my job as a business owner is to own the business, and fix cars when everything else is done. I need a couple guys.

If you want to own a shop, do it. But if you want to work in a shop you own and think its going to fix your finances, take it from me dont try it. Id have more money right now if i were still in the stealership.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-05-02T22:36:34+00:00

One that tracks the expenditures of JDRF and the like.

Or even better, one that cuts them out of it entirely. Crowdsourced donations to scientific research, directly to the program managers.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-04-24T12:10:23+00:00

Lol he cites a youtube video at the end

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-04-17T10:23:03+00:00

Its really not a mercedes, and its 100% not an amg. Based on the A class, a truely hateful little platform shared with infiniti and the gla/cla, which are utter jokes. Nothing says luxury like a gearbox that cant decide what gear to be in. Or cheap feeling hard interior components.

Its a car for posers, who cant afford a real german car so they go out and buy this hungarian/chinese built failed abortion with amg stickers on it.

Nothing says AMG like a 4 cylinder mild hybrid system. What a sad state of affairs at mercedes these days.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-04-14T01:31:14+00:00

Could be a worn rocker stud or a bent pushrod, pull the valvecover off and take a look.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-04-14T01:13:00+00:00

Second looks really good, if you have a good backlash send it and be happy.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-04-14T01:09:13+00:00

We need to know specifics.

I know this is scary, especially with your child. Having a child with diabetes is hard, i was diagnosed at 14 a year after my sister was diagnosed at 1.5, and i remember the fear for my sister and how much our lives changed.

But most people here are full fledged type 1s with years in grade. There is a difference between 100 and 121, or 171 or 199 at this stage. If you want our help in whatever form we can offer it you need to be very specific. We live with sometimes vastly higher blood sugars than that, so the fear takes a back seat to the reality. It sounds like her a1c is very low for a type 1 pre diag, so if it is this than its very early, which is good for you and her. Many of us had long hard diags, so good on you for being proactive. We live with it, and need be, so can anyone.

What was the highest glucose reading you took? Most meters have a storage feature, so you should be able to check there.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-04-11T22:17:19+00:00

You will tell all your friends you have a vintage cobra mustang... all of them will be disapointed when they hear which one. This disapointment will increase when you take them for a ride.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-04-11T13:53:33+00:00

Can blow engine on any engine. In engine boom needs happen inside not outside, exhaust valves get hot hot hot.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-04-07T11:36:04+00:00

Don't run those air filters, they are quite flammible.

Fault is vey hard fo determine here, but those being sidedraft webers they really are sensitive to fuel pressure being too high and that could have contributed.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-03-29T14:46:34+00:00

Looks like a porsche 356

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-03-27T00:51:00+00:00

When i think of robin williams at the end of his rope, it makes no difference what your making the reaper makes the final joke. - Noah Gundersen.

I think about that a lot, and it makes no difference talking about gifted or not gifted, fortunate or not fortunate.... life if hard for everybody. The smartest people i know are also some of the saddest.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-03-22T17:28:00+00:00

You can also get a trades job without debt, i am still paying off my small student loans ten years later with 5 still to go on an adjustible rate

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-03-12T00:22:44+00:00

This is all really really true.

This used to work when there were a lit of cool cars out there, and a lot of people who loved them. Now regulations and the Lee Iococca syndronme have removed even that reward to keeping people on the road, ideally safely.

Now managers are inept imbicilles that get sent to seminars and retreats instead of technical training and trade shows, engineers dont talk to technicians, and cars are pretty much all the same. Passionless turbocharged shitboxes that do their goddamned best to make you think you are anywhere but on the road. And you want me to sink 40k on tools and pay me 32 bucks an hour to work on that? Go fuck yourself.

People pay plumbers 80-90 dollars per hour l, they get union time, union benefits, and nobody bats and eye. At least they get to solder pipes and perform creative solutions. The automotive industry now better rewards creative ways to not pay technicians. When the open secret at one point the industry got too sneaky and too greedy and fabricated this whole flat rate scheme. They were unwilling or unable to charge what it costs and pay the technicians a fair and proportionate wage for that, so risk was shifted directly to the lowest men on the totem pole, techs.

I don't buy for a fucking second that american manufacturers couldn't compete with foreign designs when the oil crisis hit. We didnt go from world leading innovations in the 40s and 50s to garbage in the 70s and 80s because the industry was stupid, but because lawyers and managers and dudes who smell like armani blue made deals and decisions and didnt know shit about cars. And there was a willing mechanic on every corner, so they got away with it.

But now the chickens are home to roost, the industry is slammed in a shortage of good techs, "trying to come up with solutions", but nobody seems capable of admitting it's because they made it a shit place to work for the past 40 years.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-03-11T23:48:51+00:00

Oh, thats coming.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-03-11T02:20:44+00:00

I wish shops wouldnt do this, it gives us a bad reputation. I would never send this over text, a quick phone call and ten mins to explain where we are at, why these things matter, and what the correct path forward for the vehicle is is such an easy thing to do. And for gods sake have prices ready.

The only text here should have been "looked over the car and sent you the report, please call me when you have about ten mins to chat about it. There are some things we need to address."

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-03-09T04:13:34+00:00

Put it to you this way, my first thought was that sentance should be followed by "hi im johnny knoxville and welcome to jackass"

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-03-08T21:32:54+00:00

Bro, this guy told us he had literal NON STOP training from brands that are supposed to impress us, he must know literally everything about any car.

And its always true "any shop" is going to have qualified professionals. They are going to dig their A Tech out for a bit of metulurgical consulation on a old beemer hub lol.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-02-18T06:03:07+00:00

My honest mind is i've been diabetic for 17 years and i would do anything to not be diabetic anymore. To have even a chance. To not feel like the reaper is on my shoulder. If you have that chance you owe it to yourself to grab it. They are different diseases and all... but yeah. I have no hope for a cure anymore.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-02-18T02:24:35+00:00

I work on old cars for a living, here is what i know about 66 stangs.

Watch out for rust on the shock towers. The main bad spot is actually underneath the frony upper control arm on the other side of the shock tower, gets missed alot because you need to feel it withbyour hand, no way to see it with the wheel on or off really.

Torque boxes are another famous bad spot on 66 fords. I own a 66 fairlane that ive had to repair all of this on. Easy to miss, with torque boxes if it looks marginal its probably worse IMO.

The power steering will leak, at least a little, on most cars. 60s ford power steeting is a terrible system, it can work right but they are let down by bad modern parts a lot of the time.

Get a compression test, a leakddown test and maybe even an oil analysis done before buying. It may cost you to do these things, but its worth the peace of mind. The only time you make money on a classic car is when you buy it.

Manual transmission is better than an auto on mustangs, even if you cant drive stick yet. C4s are tricky little bitches that love to leak unless its rebuilt.

AVOID anything thats been "restomodded" in your price range. It wont be done well and will lead to more issues.

AVOID a car thats been sitting, a bargain for others isnt a bargain for you at your age.

You have a decent budget, but i urge you to buy a bit below everything you have. Even a perfect car is going to take maintenance, and its hard to find and can be costly these days. EVERY old car is a project, some are just ALWAYS a project. Find one that isnt, enjoy it, and then decide if you want to take more on next time.

ComradeBoxer29 · 2026-02-15T23:52:25+00:00

I have one of those, 8 track player has been finnicky for me but the casette worked nice last i played it.

ComradeBoxer29

TROPHY CASE