The Unofficial "Ask a Stupid Question" Thread

I started moving some stuff to sections as their own threads starting from page one, only weird part is many of the first posts at the time start with "stupid question", so we're going to look very low self esteem in search engines lol
 
If I get bored while working I'll pick through and move stuff too.

Work... ugh... guess that means I have to be an adult now and go to bed...
 
XR7-4.6 said:
I started moving some stuff to sections as their own threads starting from page one, only weird part is many of the first posts at the time start with "stupid question", so we're going to look very low self esteem in search engines lol
Click to expand...
You could probably do as TSTSNBN did and filter the phrase out. :rofl:
 
Impossible just like not being able to let us edit posts over there still.
 
They know we would have nuked their site, lol.
 
New stupid question, when is the correct time to reset the trip odometer? When the car is moving or when it's sitting still? I thought I'd read before that only when the car is moving but then someone here (can't remember where) said that it's only when not moving. I have new gears in there so I'm not so worried about breaking old brittle gears but I'd still like to know if there's a definitive answer.
 
It's been said that the odometer gears break most often when resetting the trip odometer while the vehicle is moving. This is presumably due to the stepper motor trying to advance one half of the gearset, while the trip reset mechanism locks the other half.
 
^ yup.

That's how I broke mine. Pulled out of the fuel island and reset it while I was moving.
 
If resetting the odometer at speed breaks the gear the gear was on the verge of breaking sooner or later anyway. The gear that fails is in constant mesh with the main odometer gears, and all you’re doing pressing the reset is moving the freewheeling trip gears away, it never locks or binds while in motion, but maybe there’s a shock component that gets to them.

That said I only reset standing still superstitiously.
 
My stupid question is this, I have a 1990 3.8l NA with a clutch rad fan and am thinking about putting in a 180°F thermostat, my temp gauge is always in the normal range but opening the hood after driving it seems like its really warm, can i put in the cooler t-stat to help it cool better? I read the tech article and it says nothing about clutch fans, also my engine is stock except for the air silencer delete which doesn't really count. Thanks
 
Same thing applies with a clutch fan as it does an electric fan really, a colder thermostat will start circulation through the radiator earlier but if the fan isn't engaged you're not really reducing the cooling system temp. With a clutch fan you unfortunately can't simply change the settings electronically, so with a lower temp thermostat you'd need to either find a clutch that engages at a lower temp use a fixed fan or convert to an electric fan/controller (my recommendation)

My question is how warm and what are your expectations? A early 3.8 obviously has the notorious head gasket issues so I can see your concern and desire to reduce temps but if the temps are in the normal operating range (190-210 depending on conditions) as measured by a real temperature gauge you're not likely going to preserve them with a simple lower temp thermostat. Before I'd throw parts at it I'd first make sure the AC condenser and radiator fins are clean and not blocked by years of grime and make sure the air dam under the bumper cover vents is still there intact, that's where the bulk of the air comes in to cool the radiator. It's actually a common retrofit on early MN12s to upgrade that air dam to one sourced from a 90s Grand Am which can be trimmed a little and put in place to grab more air.
 
Stupid question, I know. Do our hoods have a wire type hood latch and the home in the good for the safety mechanism? I haven't looked at my hood in 2 years and need to know for the fiberglass unit.
 
I'm not sure if its what you mean but its a cable actuated latch. On a fiberglass hood I'd use pins regardless
 
XR7-4.6 said:
I'm not sure if its what you mean but its a cable actuated latch. On a fiberglass hood I'd use pins regardless
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I can't think of the name, but it's like the striker on the door. What the latch attached to. I know the upper part of the latch goes into the hole in the hood, but wondering if there is a wire loop that is the "striker"
 
That was my thought, but the latch seems to have 2 clamping points. It looks as though when you pull the handle inside it releases the lower one and the three slide lever unlocks the upper latch point
 
There is the actual latch, released by the cable, and the safety latch, actuated by the slide under the hood. These are known to fail, thus the recommendation for pins. Racing twists the body around, and several people have trashed their cars by having the hood fly up.
 
Yeah, even the fiberglass hoods with a steel plate have had failures where it just tears through the fiberglass surrounding it. It's not body flex, its just aero, at speed wind gets underneath and pushes up against the hood and eventually it cracks and goes up like a sail, then its bye bye hood, bye bye see through windshield. I don't particularly like the look of pins but its the best insurance to prevent it
 
Is this only true on fiberglass hoods or is there potential for the sail effect on steel hoods also?
 
XR7-4.6 said:
Only if you leave the hood unlatched
Click to expand...

Is there a way to adjust that latch? I've noticed lately that when I tried to close the hood it won't catch correctly, I have to really snap that thing down hard to make it latch. I mean, it does latch, but is there something that can be moved around so that it doesn't need so much force? It wasn't like that when I bought it.
 
on my other Cougar the front end got smashed up. When I replaced the hood etc that latch didn't line up quite right. I remember bending the latch some to get it lined up better.
 
XR7-4.6 said:
Check the height of the rubber stops on the fenders, if they’re too high the hood is harder to latch
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Aren't they all the same size, or do you mean the stops on the radiator support? :unsure:

Joe
 
XR7-4.6 said:
Same thing applies with a clutch fan as it does an electric fan really, a colder thermostat will start circulation through the radiator earlier but if the fan isn't engaged you're not really reducing the cooling system temp. With a clutch fan you unfortunately can't simply change the settings electronically, so with a lower temp thermostat you'd need to either find a clutch that engages at a lower temp use a fixed fan or convert to an electric fan/controller (my recommendation)

My question is how warm and what are your expectations? A early 3.8 obviously has the notorious head gasket issues so I can see your concern and desire to reduce temps but if the temps are in the normal operating range (190-210 depending on conditions) as measured by a real temperature gauge you're not likely going to preserve them with a simple lower temp thermostat. Before I'd throw parts at it I'd first make sure the AC condenser and radiator fins are clean and not blocked by years of grime and make sure the air dam under the bumper cover vents is still there intact, that's where the bulk of the air comes in to cool the radiator. It's actually a common retrofit on early MN12s to upgrade that air dam to one sourced from a 90s Grand Am which can be trimmed a little and put in place to grab more air.
Click to expand...
Ok, thank you so much, in terms of changing to an electric fan, what all is involved? Is there a bunch of wiring? and lastly, where would I check the cooling system temp with and actual thermometer? the radiator? thanks
 
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