BowTied

Every reminder to work safe is worth it. Thanks for the post.

burn!

Indeed! Great shot.

You are right in the accidents are not common occurences, or the compressed air would be banned or have much heavier safety around it. The calculation I showed is not the stress. Is is simply sum of the force on the vessel. The point being that if there is a breach, where a pc of the metal, the connector, the fitting that fails, whatever, has an incredible amount of force available to make it a projectile, just like the piston example. The size of the tank relates to the volume of the compressed air. The force that is acting on the vessel is only about pressure and surface area. You shut-off 120psi with your barehand? - I hope you didn't mean you put your hand over the the leak? That can kill you as it can force air bubles into your bllod stream. OSHA and other safety sources train people to not use an air gun to blow dust of their clothes for reasons such as this. I have personally witness a service tech removing a 1.5" ball valve from a 120psi airline that he thought was isolated. The blast of air that came out not only sent the valve flying chipping the concrete floor but the air hit the back of his hand hard enough to force blood out of the pores of his skin. B, you personally may have sufficient training and experience to handle compressed air just fine, but for newbies - around air please, please take caution. If you are reading this and are new to using compressed air - here is a 3 minute video that save you injury, maybe your life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdVx220PNRE Again, no intent to rag on you or anyone in this great site, just relaying my experience and training from mechanical engineering plus 20 years in a manufacturing environment. /soapbox

Please don't be too quick to discount the power of compressed air at only 100 or 130 psi. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69953 An air pig tank that is 12" diameter and 24" long has an internal surface area of about (roughly) 1300 in.sq. x 100 psi = 130,000 lbs of force total. A little moisture cuases some rust at the welds over time... could be a pin hole leak. Could be cause the parent material in the heat affected zone of the end cap weld to tear and ... boom. Treat compressed air like you would with electricity, with respect. Not trying to be a hard-ass, but I have seen air cylinders for machines fail at under 100psi and it shoots the piston across the shop and embeds into a skid of product. Not pretty.

Wow, that would have been around 150lbs of metal just for the "bumper"! nice.

Get a pc of rubber hose that just fits in thru the hole and tape it to a shop vac hose.

Yes, this is true. See my write up here on how to do this. Yes. Comapring notes with a buddy who has an '01 I think he said his manual says that 91 is required whereas mine says recommended. I am not aware of any engine differences, though perhaps there is in the ECM programming. When using less than 91 the computer retards the timing a little bit and there is a loss in performance by doing so. I have not had the time and patience to do a proper study to see if there is difference in fuel economy. I am sure there would be some, but is the increase in fuel economy running premium worth the surcharge for the premium? I have my doubts, especially in Canada.

For those that like to read from authoratative sources: http://www.api.org/certifications/engineoil/pubs/upload/1560.pdf http://www.amsoil.com/articlespr/2007/article_gearoilbasics.aspx I have found conflicting info on the net as to whether or not the sulphur content is corrosive to the brass synchros. I'd be inclined to avoid the GL-5 just in case.

FWIW we run our 02 exclusively on 89 octane with no issues for 4 years now. If you like the power of 3.5 get the '01. If you want a simpler engine get the other one. If they are the same price I presume the 01 has higher miles?

I tend to agree with Silverton. I would take it to a reputable bodyshop for a frame check. If tweaked they can likely pull it. I also agree with the spring expert and what was noted above about the spring support. Sux, but should be very fixable with new spring packs and u-bolts. The body shop should be able to give you an idea if the box is worth saving. If that is bondo, you are only seeing a portion of whats there in all likelihood.

For sure, any industry is like that. My point is in this case that the reliability increase off adding a filter is not significant.

Plus I don't want to have to service the filter all the time for fear of mold and crap collecting blocking off air flow. If I had filters I'd likely remove them.

Sure evap failures happen all the time, not saying they never fail - I am saying failure due to small stones coming through the cowl are not common. If that was the case, fine cowl screens and other protective measures would have been common in the 60s and 70s.

Air condition in cars has been around for decades, it is not a recent development. Nor is cowl screens recent. The common use of cabin filters is recent. Failures of the evaporators prior to that are not common. So I am not sure I see the relevance of your post.

Your previous experience was probably a fluke. Cars have been made for several decades with course or no cowl screen at all and no HVAC filters. HVAC filters being common is a very recent development in the history of automobiles.

The R50 already has the finer cowl screen though.

Oh well, if the early WD21s have that as a common failure mode by all means WD21 owners should get an upgraded cowl screen or see if they can retrofit a filter. Most R50 owners don't report this as an issue that I have heard about.

I bet your right about that, there'd be a small amount of crap in there after years of use. And I bet that is the case for millions of vehicles on the road without HVAC filters. Doesn't make it a typical failure mode.

Tons of trees where I live - hell my city is called the forest city there are so many trees. I am not aware of this being any broad reaching issue.

OP - any updates?

There is a correlation to geograhpical region and failed evaporators? Explain please.

So what did you trade it for?

Meh, lasted this long without it and lots of guys have lots more miles than I have with out issue.

You posted again while I was typing, you are fast!! Still, NOT getting a filter.