21 thoughts on “Carolla and Ganz on the Phone”

  2. Jason

    Adam love the show GET IT ON. I hate to say this but the M coupe is based on the Z4 not the Z3, and has the E46 engine 300+hp. Sandy get that Gt40 on the road love to see the Ferrari killer rolling

    1. CarCast Post author

      As soon as Adam and people start talking ‘E’ Numbers and BMW I tune it all out! The GT40 is coming next, waiting for a few suspension parts on The Ripper and the slot in the shop is going to be changing from Mustang to GT40.

      Sandy

        1. Dave T

          Rusty is correct. The 1st gen M coupe and roadster were based on the Z3 and were initially available with the S52 and later with the S54 (e46 M3 engine).

  3. Chris from Lakeland, FL

    I think the caption to the main photo, above should be:
    Carolla: You wanna fuck with ME? (note his posture and raised eyebrows)
    Ganz: You wanna FUCK with me? (note his facial expression and hands, placed protectively)

    Professor, I have a couple of suggestions, maybe fun ones. What I have observed is that radio car shows suck, anymore. They are all about, “You should take it into your shop and ask them to check the ____….”. If the listeners wanted to take their cars into the shop, they wouldn’t be sitting around on hold.

    Callers and listeners want tryable solutions of their own, for stuff that may not require a trip to the shop. A perfect example is the floor jack against the exhaust pipes, to create clearance for the new skid plates on the guy’s 4-wheeler.

    That’s suggestion one and you are already doing that.

    Suggestion two is that you consider a Q&A “column” , where people send in questions and you build them into a column with some answers and, maybe, some links. If you have the time to consider it.

    Separately, I have a maybe fun idea for a troubleshooting project. I have a late 1980s Audi A80 in the carport that has been sitting around in my sister’s yard for 10 years. I pulled it down from NC to make it a project-car for the eldest boy and we have made progress, but I need to get over a hump.

    I tore everything off the front, once I figured out that the main problem was that the harmonic balancer/vibration dampener pulley was shot. Took a while to find the part and got one from Texas. Now everything is back in and looks right, (except I fucked up on the radiator and have to take that all back out, to flip something around), but it won’t start; won’t even hint at starting, though my brother in law says he was able to drive it around, even with the terrible noise from the “flywheel” (vibration dampener pulley). I can’t just sit the boy at the ignition key while I try every idea that occurs to me, so I bought a remote switch so I can bump it over as I test things. Except the way the starter circuit works, there is no easy access to the solenoid or anything else; only the Hot cable, because everything is under the fuel pump, intake manifold, injection system, exhaust manifold, EVERYTHING. So, my next move is to cut an access hole in the plastic rock shield beneath the engine, so I can get at the starter, and install the remote starter switch. Then, these are the things I need to test, that I have thought of:

    1] (Though probably last): The timing. I had to remove everything on the front to get the pulley off, so I marked the pulleys and replaced the timing belt, while I was at it. The new belt, no matter how hard I tried, wouldn’t quite go on where the marks were, so I may be one tooth off, in either direction, on the top pulley. Hell, I don’t know. It was tough, I tell ya!

    2] Fuel. The car may or may not have had fuel in it, when I pulled it down here. I don’t know, because the fuel guage does not appear to work. I have added another gallon or two to the tank, while trying things, and the guage doesn’t budge. Either way, I have tried to address the fuel filter, first, but the fasteners are pretty danged frozen on this 20-year old car and, really, what if it’s fine? I’ll still replace the fuel filter, but how do I tell if I’m already getting fuel to the engine on an injection motor? It’s not like a carb motor where you can smell the fuel and know it’s flooded. Crack a fuel line coming out of the injection pump to a cylinder? I’ve done that on big, easy diesel motors, right at the injector, to get air out of the lines, but I’m nervous about getting air into the system in the wrong place on this cramped 4 Cyl. motor.

    3] Air. Well, I assume I am getting air. I can just pull the air cleaner off.

    4} Sparkles. Well. My GUESS is fuel, but this is a fucking late 1980s car and who knows what I either didn’t reconnect properly, or what kind of other gadget is interrupting spark from getting to the plugs? I know that I can remove a plug and keep it attached to the distributor, then bring it close to the motor, close enough for a ground to leap across and me to see a spark. Or something like that. That will tell me if I am at least getting sparkles. I have a problem with that as, my understanding is that coils put out something like 30,000 V, at amps I don’t know about, but, seriously, even here in Florida we have retired Old Sparky, our electric chair. I DON”T WANNA hold something in my shaking hands, trying to get it closer to the engine, to see if a spark jumps across, if I don’t have to. How they Hell do I figure out if my spark plugs are sparking?

    IF I find that I have fuel getting to the motor and I am sure I have air and IF I have sparkles, then I will attack the potential timing issue; that’s my problem. However, can you maybe walk a guy through the fuel and spark challenge? We could actually probably do this over the phone, while you record it as a call to the podcast. My home office is in a shed (to get away from all, outside of the house), next to the carport where the Audi sits, and I make my own hours, within reasonable notice. It might be fun; I could email you photos and do my best at a running commentary. You would have to edit out silences when I need both hands, because headsets sound like crap on radio, so I would have to set the phone down, from time to time.

    Honestly, I think it would be a fun and funny project. Worst comes to worse and you get me killed by suggesting something that I do badly, there is no way there would be any ramifications for you. My family, not one single member apart from me, it turns out, is capable of remembering “righty-tighty” from day to day. I’ve removed engines, installed engines, torn down engines, and helped to rebuild one, so I know my way around a motor. What I don’t know my way around is troubleshooting an unfamiliar motor. Nobody around here would wonder much if they found me out in the carport on the ground, smoldering. They would be sad, but Mom would say, “See, I told you not to mess with those thiings”, and chalk it up to another day with me having a lawn tractor in the air and it not looking like fun, to them.

    We live WAY in the country, now, and all of my neighbors are engine dingbats that moved from cities. Their tractors and vehicles are all serviced by dealers and if a hurricane hits my area, I can already tell, they’ll come bearing orange extension cords (many, it’s rural) asking to plug in their fridges, XBoxs, and TVs, to my generators and solar panels. I have an old friend that is motor savvy, from back when we lived in the city. He’s the one I helped rebuild a 454 with, that we put back in his $500 boat and got more than 50 mph out of, which is screaming, in a boat. However, he’s two counties away, now, and can’t lean over the fence and make suggestions.

    I suggest that you lean over the fence and offer suggestions. We could make a fun hour or two of it, running through the basics of how to troubleshoot a fuel injected, spark plug motor. I’ve worked on regular gas motors and I’ve worked on diesels, with no spark, but injection. Right now I have too many variables and I have never worked on an injected, sparked motor.

    Whaddaya think, guys?

  4. Darrin

    whats the point of the show if all your going to do is tell everyone to go online and find out or go to the dealer. damn i should get my own car show. i can do that

    2. weskanaloa

      C’mon Darrin. They don’t know everything, but I rarely think “All they do is send you online” – Maybe I’m wrong though. I’m not a car guy, thank you single-mother upbringing, so the show works at a lot of levels. Obviously you’re far more advanced and should stick with Tom & Ray on NPR.

  5. chuck

    I suggest the Cadillac XLR for the ‘upscale car on a budget’ request. It is inexpensive to fix given the domestic drive train, and it looks different enough to convince a bimbo that your dad is rich.

  6. Jack Duha

    Great to hear the GT40 is moving forward!
    I can’t wait to see it, and hear how much you enjoy it!

    The 240Z does look “70’s porn” awesome!

    Jack

  7. Ford Prefect

    What do dead guys regret? Yes, that’s a stupid question, because dead guys are dead, and so they regret nothing. But I think it’s the right question. Plenty of charlatans will offer you answers — for a fee, of course. So you’ve got to answer it yourself. It’s your question… your answer.

    Lost love. Nine times out of ten, lost love. Which brings me to this: I don’t think Adam really loves his Lambo. It’s a trophy wife, a mere toy. His enthusiasm seems antiseptic. My guess, he loves his much-maligned Datsun truck the most. Why? Utility.

    Me, I want an ’84 Stanza. They broke the mold with that car. Put pennies under the tires; let me drive around the block and I’ll come back and park over those same pennies. Precise, efficient, reliable. That car had really big tits, but it was ugly as sin — beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

    1. Minesh

      Oh, man, I remember watching the original broadcast of this episode. Damned near wore out the VHS tape. Thanks for the memories.

    2. Rick F.

      Now I know where Sandy got his “it eez like a beeutiful woman…” Italian accent. Great video!

  9. McCheese

    No pictures of the Miura carnage? Speaking of the Miura, what ever happened to the plan of lifting it into the living room?

    1. CarCast Post author

      I don’t think Adam took any pics (none he is sharing), and by the time I was over the parts were off to Bodie’s for repairs. Bodie might have a before an after, but it will have to wait until he is done to see.

      Sandy

  11. Slavik

    Regarding the guy that called about the Explorer that was getting sideways, the first thing to look at is alignment. If his toe is off it’ll drive exactly like he’s describing… That should have been the first thing you told him to get checked.

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