Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) : Discussion and Group Therapy Thread

[Zenith]

There have been warnings on the site about capacity limitations for a time. It could be a server problem.

[bd139]

Probably had the plug pulled. The thing was pushing 2Tb a month a decade ago.

Not the best distribution model for that sort of data if cost is a consideration. It was on 1and1 a while ago at least on a static plan.

CloudFlare in front of a shit VPS is provably the best. Can push 10TB a month easily on that for $5

[MED6753]

Every other Saturday evening in the Spring/Summer the local Ford Mustang club has a “cruise and meet” at a vacant parking lot that is open to all makes of cars and trucks. So the Civic gets to play with the big boys. It was sandwiched in between a 1980 Chevy Corvette with a custom 383 (6.3 liter) Stroker motor and a red 2006 Ford Mustang GT with a 302 (5.0 liter) motor. The blue car next to the Mustang is a late model Dodge Challenger with a monster 392 (6.4 liter) Hemi. Makes the Civic's 1.7 liter motor seem like a lawn mower. The true muscle car freaks tend to walk right by and ignore the Civic but many appreciate that any clean car is worth the look.

[Specmaster]

Every other Saturday evening in the Spring/Summer the local Ford Mustang club has a “cruise and meet” at a vacant parking lot that is open to all makes of cars and trucks. So the Civic gets to play with the big boys. It was sandwiched in between a 1980 Chevy Corvette with a custom 383 (6.3 liter) Stroker motor and a red 2006 Ford Mustang GT with a 302 (5.0 liter) motor. The blue car next to the Mustang is a late model Dodge Challenger with a monster 392 (6.4 liter) Hemi. Makes the Civic's 1.7 liter motor seem like a lawn mower. The true muscle car freaks tend to walk right by and ignore the Civic but many appreciate that any clean car is worth the look.

Those big American V8s are rubbish at extracting the HP, I bet you're getting far more HP per litre of engine capacity then they are getting and your getting far better mpg in the bargain.

[MED6753]

Those big American V8s are rubbish at extracting the HP, I bet you're getting far more HP per litre of engine capacity then they are getting and your getting far better mpg in the bargain.

Better fuel economy without a doubt. Better HP/liter? That depends on how they are set up. There is an old drag racers saying that goes "there is no replacement for displacement".

[Specmaster]

Those big American V8s are rubbish at extracting the HP, I bet you're getting far more HP per litre of engine capacity then they are getting and your getting far better mpg in the bargain.

Better fuel economy without a doubt. Better HP/liter? That depends on how they are set up. There is an old drag racers saying that goes "there is no replacement for displacement".

Well, I'm assuming that these are all as standard according to data I got, a 2006 Mustang 5 Litre gets 300hp and 320 ft/lbs of torque and a 1.7 litre Civic gets 98hp and 162 ft/lbs of torque and doing the maths, there is not a lot of difference in hp per litre but plenty more torques.

So working it out, your Civic gives 58 hp a litre, so 5 times is 290hp and for torques, Civic gives 95.3 ft/lbs x 5 = 476ft/lbs.

[MED6753]

Those big American V8s are rubbish at extracting the HP, I bet you're getting far more HP per litre of engine capacity then they are getting and your getting far better mpg in the bargain.

Better fuel economy without a doubt. Better HP/liter? That depends on how they are set up. There is an old drag racers saying that goes "there is no replacement for displacement".

Well, I'm assuming that these are all as standard according to data I got, a 2006 Mustang 5 Litre gets 300hp and 320 ft/lbs of torque and a 1.7 litre Civic gets 98hp and 162 ft/lbs of torque and doing the maths, there is not a lot of difference in hp per litre but plenty more torques.

So working it out, your Civic gives 58 hp a litre, so 5 times is 290hp and for torques, Civic gives 95.3 ft/lbs x 5 = 476ft/lbs.

Actually my Civic is rated at 115 hp @ 6100 RPM. I don't recall it's torque numbers.

Edit.....found it. 110 ft/lbs @ 4500 RPM.

[Specmaster]

Better fuel economy without a doubt. Better HP/liter? That depends on how they are set up. There is an old drag racers saying that goes "there is no replacement for displacement".

Well, I'm assuming that these are all as standard according to data I got, a 2006 Mustang 5 Litre gets 300hp and 320 ft/lbs of torque and a 1.7 litre Civic gets 98hp and 162 ft/lbs of torque and doing the maths, there is not a lot of difference in hp per litre but plenty more torques.

So working it out, your Civic gives 58 hp a litre, so 5 times is 290hp and for torques, Civic gives 95.3 ft/lbs x 5 = 476ft/lbs.

Actually my Civic is rated at 115 hp @ 6100 RPM. I don't recall it's torque numbers.

Edit.....found it. 110 ft/lbs @ 4500 RPM.

Ah so my original feeling was right , they can't get as much HP per litre, so if your HP per litre and torque per litre remained the same then a 5 litre Civic engine would yield you 338 HP and 323 ft/lb of torque.

[bd139]

I'd love to turn up to one of those with a Moskvitch or somethign

[AVGresponding]

Those big American V8s are rubbish at extracting the HP, I bet you're getting far more HP per litre of engine capacity then they are getting and your getting far better mpg in the bargain.

Better fuel economy without a doubt. Better HP/liter? That depends on how they are set up. There is an old drag racers saying that goes "there is no replacement for displacement".

I've had this argument with mnem, where he completely misses the point. Displacement is only one way of extracting more power, and is pretty much the simplest and easiest, hence it is often the first port of call.

It is however, not the best way of extracting more all-round performance; weight reduction is the best, first used, and simplest method for this, and is used by every form of competetive motorsport, including drag racing.

[bd139]

The best way of extracting the most energy is to is make cars that go round corners without having to slow down as much as American muscle cars

[AVGresponding]

Arguably that's a specific use case. The point about weight reduction is that it's a general principle.

[Cubdriver]

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." - Colin Chapman

[bd139]

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." - Colin Chapman

Works on humans too

[Cerebus]

Those big American V8s are rubbish at extracting the HP, I bet you're getting far more HP per litre of engine capacity then they are getting and your getting far better mpg in the bargain.

Better fuel economy without a doubt. Better HP/liter? That depends on how they are set up. There is an old drag racers saying that goes "there is no replacement for displacement".

Well, I'm assuming that these are all as standard according to data I got, a 2006 Mustang 5 Litre gets 300hp and 320 ft/lbs of torque and a 1.7 litre Civic gets 98hp and 162 ft/lbs of torque and doing the maths, there is not a lot of difference in hp per litre but plenty more torques.

So working it out, your Civic gives 58 hp a litre, so 5 times is 290hp and for torques, Civic gives 95.3 ft/lbs x 5 = 476ft/lbs.

That's a joke. My BMW 330e gets 252 bhp and 310 ftlb out of 2 litres. (398 ftlb in hybrid boost mode)

[MED6753]

If I were in the market for a performance car it would be one of these.

https://www.caranddriver.com/honda/civic-type-r

https://automobiles.honda.com/civic-type-r

[25 CPS]

Where have I been?

It's been months and months and months since I've checked the forum or posted. Basically, what it boils down to is work. It's been a combination of after hours shifts or being sent out to field locations on the road when I'm not scheduled for afternoons/nights/weekends. It looks like that might be calming down a bit and I also have a couple weeks off coming up.

The only test equipment fun I've had for most of 2024 was when I fixed an alarm clock I was given about 30 years ago. The power supply filter capacitor in there finally deteriorated so much that the clock stopped working. I honestly over-geeked-out on a single capacitor replacement repair but it's the only bench and test equipment time I've had in almost half a year. The way it failed though had me thinking about that little HP nixie counter that's been waiting to go back on the bench so I'm thinking of making a point of taking the covers off that and digging into it once I'm on holiday. The other thing that needs to go on the bench is an active speaker from a mosque that apparently died spectacularly. One of my college friends does the sound at that mosque and asked if he could bring it over so both of us could dig into it so we're going to do that as well. About all we've been able to do with that is look at the diagrams. It's an interesting system with a Class H amplifier powering the tweeter and a Class D amplifier powering the woofer, with a pretty comprehensive preamp and equalizer built in. Unfortunately getting any further than going over the service manual is something that's been in the works for months but slipped because of my over the top schedule. Hopefully both result in some good test equipment material to post.

Unfortunately the over the top schedule, which is temporary stable because of my vacation booking and a couple of outside things affecting operations, doesn't look like it's going to improve any time soon. Everyone had been lead to believe the shift rotation was going to increase by one since a new employee has just finished training but they posted an internal job that would be ideally hired out of our group. If that's where the successful candidate for it does turn out to come from, we're looking at add one, subtract one, no change to the status quo which means no improvement. This promise to increase the rotation staff as soon as the new employee is trained and then oops, someone's coming off bait-and-switch routine has been going on for a long time. One of the guys and I tallied up how many times it's happened and it's so frustrating. Some days I wonder if we all have "I'm a technician! Kick me!" signs on our backs.

[Cubdriver]

Good to see you at least poke your head up. Fingers crossed that you get a bit of a break to decompress and enjoy yourself a bit. I suppose that feast beats famine where work is involved, but neither can be a permanent condition!

-Pat

[AVGresponding]

Better fuel economy without a doubt. Better HP/liter? That depends on how they are set up. There is an old drag racers saying that goes "there is no replacement for displacement".

Well, I'm assuming that these are all as standard according to data I got, a 2006 Mustang 5 Litre gets 300hp and 320 ft/lbs of torque and a 1.7 litre Civic gets 98hp and 162 ft/lbs of torque and doing the maths, there is not a lot of difference in hp per litre but plenty more torques.

So working it out, your Civic gives 58 hp a litre, so 5 times is 290hp and for torques, Civic gives 95.3 ft/lbs x 5 = 476ft/lbs.

That's a joke. My BMW 330e gets 252 bhp and 310 ftlb out of 2 litres. (398 ftlb in hybrid boost mode)

I'm surprised you would attempt to be so disingenuous. It gets 181bhp from 2 litres (petrol, turbocharged), and the rest comes from the electric motor.

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-revie ... 0e-hybrid/

[AVGresponding]

Where have I been?

It's been months and months and months since I've checked the forum or posted. Basically, what it boils down to is work. It's been a combination of after hours shifts or being sent out to field locations on the road when I'm not scheduled for afternoons/nights/weekends. It looks like that might be calming down a bit and I also have a couple weeks off coming up.

The only test equipment fun I've had for most of 2024 was when I fixed an alarm clock I was given about 30 years ago. The power supply filter capacitor in there finally deteriorated so much that the clock stopped working. I honestly over-geeked-out on a single capacitor replacement repair but it's the only bench and test equipment time I've had in almost half a year. The way it failed though had me thinking about that little HP nixie counter that's been waiting to go back on the bench so I'm thinking of making a point of taking the covers off that and digging into it once I'm on holiday. The other thing that needs to go on the bench is an active speaker from a mosque that apparently died spectacularly. One of my college friends does the sound at that mosque and asked if he could bring it over so both of us could dig into it so we're going to do that as well. About all we've been able to do with that is look at the diagrams. It's an interesting system with a Class H amplifier powering the tweeter and a Class D amplifier powering the woofer, with a pretty comprehensive preamp and equalizer built in. Unfortunately getting any further than going over the service manual is something that's been in the works for months but slipped because of my over the top schedule. Hopefully both result in some good test equipment material to post.

Unfortunately the over the top schedule, which is temporary stable because of my vacation booking and a couple of outside things affecting operations, doesn't look like it's going to improve any time soon. Everyone had been lead to believe the shift rotation was going to increase by one since a new employee has just finished training but they posted an internal job that would be ideally hired out of our group. If that's where the successful candidate for it does turn out to come from, we're looking at add one, subtract one, no change to the status quo which means no improvement. This promise to increase the rotation staff as soon as the new employee is trained and then oops, someone's coming off bait-and-switch routine has been going on for a long time. One of the guys and I tallied up how many times it's happened and it's so frustrating. Some days I wonder if we all have "I'm a technician! Kick me!" signs on our backs.

We have a not dissimilar situation here; for every new sparks or heating engineer etc, we lose one to either the office or to outside influences (better pay).

[Cerebus]

If I were in the market for a performance car it would be one of these.

https://www.caranddriver.com/honda/civic-type-r

https://automobiles.honda.com/civic-type-r

For the avoidance of doubt, it wasn't your Civic I was referring to as a joke, but the Mustang posturing as a performance car when my boring four door sedan with 2/5 the engine capacity has almost as much power and even more torque.

[Cerebus]

Well, I'm assuming that these are all as standard according to data I got, a 2006 Mustang 5 Litre gets 300hp and 320 ft/lbs of torque and a 1.7 litre Civic gets 98hp and 162 ft/lbs of torque and doing the maths, there is not a lot of difference in hp per litre but plenty more torques.

So working it out, your Civic gives 58 hp a litre, so 5 times is 290hp and for torques, Civic gives 95.3 ft/lbs x 5 = 476ft/lbs.

That's a joke. My BMW 330e gets 252 bhp and 310 ftlb out of 2 litres. (398 ftlb in hybrid boost mode)

I'm surprised you would attempt to be so disingenuous. It gets 181bhp from 2 litres (petrol, turbocharged), and the rest comes from the electric motor.

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-revie ... 0e-hybrid/

Not being disingenuous, if I was I wouldn't have quoted the model number would I. I'm just comparing boring 4 door saloon to supposed muscle car.

Edit: the primary advantage touted for 'more cubes' is the ability to deliver torque. On that front the Mustang turns in a particularly poor specific torque performance.

[MED6753]

I agree that the Mustang GT with that trim and motor is mediocre in terms of total HP and torque. And Mustang's have never been known to have superior handling. They are considered a "pony car", not a "muscle car".

The current Mustang can be optioned with a 500hp engine and supposedly "track ready" but I have my doubts.

https://www.ford.com/cars/mustang/

[Zenith]

If I were in the market for a performance car it would be one of these.

https://www.caranddriver.com/honda/civic-type-r

https://automobiles.honda.com/civic-type-r

I'd always imagined you to be a souped-up 1970 Plymouth Barracuda kinda guy.

[Cubdriver]

I remember the answer given to the question "what do I need to beat a Mustang?" asked in the late 90s on the Miata mailing list. The reply? "A corner!"