There are a lot of really lame and widely believed myths out there about cars. Everything from the effects of dumping sugar in someone’s gas tank to the existence of a mythical 100-MPG carb have been discussed at length on the internet and for years before by people who don’t know their ass from the elbow when it comes to cars or the automotive world. Chances are that you, a certified BangShift reader have encountered at least one of these people in your travels at an event, car show, gas station, buffet line, or other social event. We tend to handle them in one of two ways. Option one is to nod knowing fashion and hope that they make their point and leave. Option two is to listen to them rant on and on and then absolutely bury them with a Muhammad Ali-esque flurry of facts that totally blow any dumb myth out of the water.
We’re not the only ones who have heard all these whack-ass theories, myths, and blatant false stories. People taping $100 bills to the dash and betting their friends that they can’t grab them under acceleration, stock Jeeps pulling wheelies on the street, and on and on and on!
YOUR TURN! TELL US WHAT THE DUMBEST OR MOST ANNOYING AUTOMOTIVE MYTH IS!
This myth will never die – “I always use premium gas in my (insert name of low compression crap car) because it runs much better and I get better gas mileage !!!”
Yes, A 383 hemi did exist. It was a specially weld up block to accept the hemi top end. Very few were welded and produced most all exploded due to such high rpm. They didn make any power till 9,000 rpm. They were designed and used in the Mini Pro Stock Era. Dodge Omni, Plymouth Arrow stuff. There was a cubic inch/weight break that allowed these to run. You were lucky to get three passes out of one. Yes, I have seen them face to face. One just got off the dyno last year and is on a stand waiting to be install to finish the authentic resto of a documented Sox and Martin Mini Pro Stock. When completed it will be in Mopar Mags.
As a Mopar guy I often have heard about the “383 Hemi”, I think Hitler owns it. Then again he also has a A12 convertible Road Runner.
383 Hemi . . . that’s the low-deck version of the “440 Hemi” they used to put in ’70s conversion vans . . . .
(You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard the my-old-hippie-van-had-a-440-Hemi story)
Don’t argue with me I got my FACTS straight from the INTERNET
. Auto Trans cars are for SISSIES- everybody know 4 on the Floor is the way to go
That Chrysler can make a quality automobile.
My car has a Pontiac big block ….
Growing up many years ago it was always the new Corvette a couple towns away that somebody died in and was in there a month before anybody found him. The price was always $100.
Ah, that $100 new car smell!
That all Hondas last forever.
That explains all of the Honda 600s, CVCC Civics, and ’80s Preludes that clog my daily commute . . . . (Seriously, when was the last time you saw one of those?)
The most annoying thing…Prius owners!
Not a myth, though.
waaaaait….what was the question again?
Some fool with out fail will always say I got this buddy who has this car and it is so built that it runs on jet fuel. I always ask them something stupid back, like is it a diseal as jets run on a higrade fuel that is kind of like kerosene, then they get this dumb ass look on there face like they don’t know what to say as they should have not talked in the first place.
I once knew an ASE certified tech who swore he’d built an engine that ran on “jet fuel.” Apparently he cut class the days they discussed properties of hydrocarbon fuels and detonation.
I thought there used to be some low compression tractor engines that ran on kerosene… which is pretty much jet fuel. I’ve also seen military diesels that run on the stuff.
We used to use aviation fuel for piston engine planes, the fuel was called 100 low lead and was advertised at the time as approx 110 octane, which ran well in our high compression engines and was cheaper than racing fuel, but it was not Jet Fuel, it was for propellar planes.
Honda’s are cool
Not in any universe.
3/4 and full race cams. Has anybody actually seen one? LOL
A 3/4 cam supposedly has racing profile intake lobes and street profile exhaust lobes.
I’ve heard of one shop where some joker chopped 4 lobes off a Chevy cam and pulled it out any time someone asked for a 3/4 race cam. Best part is, several customers didn’t get the joke and tried to buy it.
A handful of moth balls dropped into your gas tank will turn gasoline (any grade) into something akin to nitro or hydrazine.
One of the most persistent and ridiculous myths that I know of is the claim that you can make an overheating car run cooler by slowing down the flow of water through the radiator. “So the water has more time to absorb the heat” Well, if that’s true why don’t we slowdown the flow of air through the radiator as well. so it will have more time to absorb the heat.
Awesome one!
I always hated the guy that had a truck, camaro, whatever, with one of those high horse ‘corvette’ motors from the ’70s..
that some car would go so fast it would twist the speedo cable–if you ever took a speedometer apart you’d know it just spins a magnet in a metal cup—the twisting is lack of lubrication
A common myth is a battery left on a cement floor will discharge or otherwise be damaged. It won’t.
Oh, that one is true! I put a battery on the concrete floor of my garage and when I tried to use it four years later it was stone dead…
lol…
The myth has roots in truth, as bick in nineteen-dickety-two when batteries were made of soft rubber and tar, putting them on a concrete floor would in fact ruin the battery. But it hasn’t been that way since, what, the 40s probably?
I pulled the almost 1000cca batteries from my diesel burban and replaced them with deep cycle marine batteries at the end of january. I packed the less than three month old batteries into my garage and stuck under the bench, I ended up in the hospital for three weeks and forgot about them. After another week I went out to put them on the bench and decided to test them, both where not dead but neither of them would have started my corolla let alone the cranky when cold suburban. Although it was cold those batteries would start it if it was plugged in. the Marine batteries only complained a little about starting it in the coldest of weather and not being plugged in. ALSO dont leave your batteries on a cold concreat floor.
There is a rumor in trucking that if you put three golf balls inside your steer tires they will be perfectly balanced.
What about putting 305 heads on a 350 just to up the compression ratio! Smaller ports and smaller valves did em good
I hate “they always run best before they blow” wtf yeah they seemed good a few minutes ago because we are now walking
The mysterious lock out plate that shuts off cylinders in your big power car so the little lady can handle it………………….. That engine of coarse was balanced and blueprinted and built with the previously mentioned 3/4 race cam.
all new cars get better mileage the the cars from the 60’s
“No really, I don’t pull the wheel dureing burnouts! Its just that squirrelly!”
30 yrs ago a x girlfreind’s father told me mothballs would give my car more power. not trusting him i did’nt try it. anybody heard of this?
I once looked up the data sheet for STP’s fuel system cleaner. It was nothing but moth balls dissolved in kerosene.
Nonsense about a Prius doing good for the enviorment. What about the big ass frieghter that had used to bring it here from Japan!?
Dual quad manifold in the trunk of all 69 Z28’s
3/4 race cam–suuuurrree!
Just give me a box of plugs for any small block Chevy “THERE ALL THE SAME” You Dumb Ass Parts Guy….
I am an ASE 30 Year Parts Guy I could fill a book with em!
I go down to the airport and ran her on Jet Fuel too. Quaker State Gums up Yer engine. Synthetic Oil makes you burn oil and you can mix em either. Put some kerosene in the crankcase to get the sludge out while your taking the negative battery cable off to check the charging system.
I know know you can do it and the voltage spikes can kill the powertrain modules or the ABS modules. Just fill er up with 90wt and trade her in. We put 4 cans of STP in it and drove it to California. I did calculations and I never change oil just the filter twice a year. Oil dosent wear out it just gets dirty so I dont waste money on oil changes. There is no difference between rebuilt and reman parts. They sell rebuilt spark plugs.
Oh, that negative cable one killed me when I worked at Autozone! Doesn’t mean crap, some cars will run some won’t, in either case you are risking damage to the alternator if it was good at minimum and damaged electrical parts else where at most.
HHO generators and buying new cars to save money.
I had a buddy that knew a guy who heard of a lady who sold a 1000 mile 69 Baldwin Motion 427 Camaro (Blue) that was her sons car that had been in a garage wrapped in plastic since her son left for the war and never came back. I guess the guy was hunting mushrooms in the area and happened to see the car in the garage and went to the door and asked if it was for sale. The lady asked him in he cooked her some of the shrooms and he bought the car for next to nothing. He took it out and was killed in it the next day. He ran off the road and into a pond. I guess it still sits at the bottom of the farmers pond.
When they pulled his body from the pond he still had the Hurst T handle in his hand.
Then I guess he neighbor has a almost no mileage 66 Corvette in the basement. They pulled it in the basement garage and her husband died she forgot it was there and had a addition put on the house and now they cant get it out.
Hey people are CRAZY……..
That 305 heads on a 350 are ever a good idea…
That you owned a “350 big block” …
That you owned a “350 hp 350” …
That Pontiac “big blocks” exist…
Various “Hemi” engines that never existed, including 350s, 383s, 440s… Everyone’s favourite, the “427 hemi”…
That Cop cars had “special cop engines”… I heard everything told TO me about my 9c1, from “it has a 454 doesn’t it?” to “it’s got the cop computer chip”….
Cop Computer Chip, Take hands off wheel, set cruise, drives to nearest dunkin donuts.
I don’t know what you fools are talking about, my race car has an actual 3/4 cam in it. i’m not joking. .750 lift yo.
People telling you there car makes some ridiculous amount of horsepower and the car has never been on a dyno or ran a timed qtr mile or 1/8 mile, just basing there horspower on bolt on parts, chrome air cleaner, exhaust tips, loud muffler on junk ricer car and from the seventies like the other guy said I got a vette motor what a joke.
Hey that BANGshift sticker DOES add 20hp!
The biggest myth for me is the hybrid and electric cars are best for the environement…
Diesel cars are best for the environment.
How much pollution is required to make electric car batteries and what’s the point if the electricity to charge it comes from fossil fuel anyways?
Diesel all the way and it’s not just for large trucks either.