Why hop up a motor?

Because you can have a built-in, natural instinct to never, EVER leave "good enough" alone.
well...at least I do.
remember: You can ALWAYS go faster, or find the next weakest component that way, too...

 

Oooooooohhh! You make my head hurt. I give up on most of you. You still don't get the question!! You are so eager to flame a guy. I shall go back to lurking for a while and let you rant on in your oblique fashion!!

Regards, Twobit

 

It's the American way. For the chicks, for the glory, ***** envy, and because not everyone can. Any dud can drive a car with a motor someone else built, but I'm the only dude that gets to drive the **** I build. And guess what... when I tear it up, I'll do it again. Most likely to be faster, bigger & better.

The same reason I have a 520" big block ford motor in my 21' boat. The stock 460 just wouldn't do it for me. I'm sure that a little boston whaler with a 25 Johnson on the back would scoot along the lake just fine, but I seek a little more excitement... and I found it, 740 hp later... (and thats WITHOUT the NOS)!

 

That was pretty well put

 

If your gonna cry when you don't get the answer you want then dont ask the question at all. Plenty of people on her have given legitimate reasons why they hop up their engines. Do whatever the **** you want to to your car but if you dont like the answers here, then ask your questions somewhere else. This forum is about hot rods, which were built to go fast, the reason is as simple as that, to go as fast as you can.

 

Keep your stocker...we'll be waiting at the finish line!

 

Everyone that has hopped up or swapped an engine has done it for all the reasons listed.

You will not find answers here that will tell you not too...it is just that kind of place.

Thats like going to a concert and asking them to turn the volume down....
Or telling any motor sport they should run stock engines....

If YOU dont think you need it...dont do it Period

I am sure there are other forums out there that have to do with restoration and historical significance that will give you just as many reasons to keep it stock, but i dont know where to point you.

If you want something to take you around the block there are many cars and engines that will do that.

If you want something that you have thought out, planned, built, fabricated, often times refabricated...It is truely yours, you know the history and here you found every part....the people you met finding those parts....the people that helped you figure out how to hook this part up to that part.....Something to truely be proud of that is truley yours....and at the end of the day when you step on the gas it makes you smile...and when you park it you cant wait to drive it again....Then you really need to listen to what these guys are saying because that is who we are.

And it is probably just a coincidence that most are smart ***es too...but Ill bet you if you ever need any help with your hotrod.....You will get all the help you need RIGHT HERE on the HAMB.

Jimmy

 

To elaborate on the answer of "why not"....

Why would you put a "stock" engine into a car that never had it? If you're going to improve that '31 with a modern powerplant and drivetrain, and if you're planning to improve the suspension (one of your other posts talked about the parallel springs), than WHY NOT improve the engine? I'm sure you don't want oil leaking all over the car you've been waiting 43 years to improve, so why not tear down that 305, bore it out a little, rebuild it, learn something, have fun with it, make a little power while you'r at it. Engine technology has come a long way in 30 years, I'll bet you may even be able to improve the economy of that thing if that's more what you're after.

Take some pics, start a thread called "My first engine build" and perhaps some other lurkers or FNGs will get to benefit from it too. You've been lurking all this time, as many do, learn a little something while you're here, teach a little something while you're here. Then, do the right thing and send Ryan a few bucks for making sure this is all here! (Even the smart-***es and the ball-busters).

 

How old are you? Serious question. You sound like some of the 15 year old kids that I teach in high school, whining because we're not giving you the "35 reasons" you want to hear/read. There's been numerous answers to the question you asked. Your responses are pretty much beating this dead horse of a question. You keep getting frustrated and it's "making your head hurt." Maybe you're not fully communicating whatever little significant question you're trying to ask very well. "Why hop up a car?" is an extremely generic question that will bring numerous responses ranging from "because stock ****s" to "because I can and that's my choice" to "because once you experience it you'll know." If you're asking this in a generic sense then you've found just about every answer you'd want.

If you're asking something more specific, then can you elaborate on what it is in your head that you're specifically trying to ask? Because outside of playing the name game I haven't seen any elaboration outside of "go back, re-read it, study it, and try again."

And yes you should probably do something to that stock 305 that you boldly pointed out you were using if you want your car to be "motivated." Especially when my mother's 94 grand cherokee can spank it.

P.S. It's your choice because it's your car. Hop it up or not. As long as it looks neat and doesn't have computer bs in it, I'll give it a second and third glance.

 

Because everyone else is doing it.

 

Amen, Brother!

 

1. There are speed parts made for em so why not use em 2. The purpose of a hotrod is to make it go as fast as possible 3.it looks cool 4. Its been a TRADITION for almost a century to make cars go faster 5. its just unexplainably cool 6. i can keep going if you want me too haha

 

Please elaborate on this point. Quantify "good". I'm of the opinion that a 305 with bumped compression, ported heads, a more aggressive cam profile, 4bbl carb, aftermarket intake, etc, etc is "gooder" than the anemic, neutered weezer that rolled off the ***embly line in Detroit.

Honestly, your question is pretty dumb. Why replace the motor at all, what's wrong with the 4-banger? What made you choose a 305 over say a 350?

 

Twobit, you keep asking for intelligent answers. Well, I felt my answer, as well as many others on here were well worded and made their point quite eloquently. For those who don't write with the same eloquence, it doesn't make a crudely worded answer any less acurate. In fact, sometimes the point is better made when it isn't hidden in rhetoric. So now you say that the dozens and dozens of people who have responded to this just don't get the question. Well if so many don't get it, then it seems to me that it's you who doesn't know how to intelligently word your question. As I said in my first post, build what you like and I'll build what I like. That's it. Don't worry your precious little head about what makes me tick. I'm doing just fine. And if I leave you in a cloud of smoke at a stoplight someday, just smile to yourself and remember that I just don't get it.

 

The question for me is why not hop a motor ?

 

Oh, man. The teasing and messing with our pals in the garage is part of the whole enchilada for a lot of us. Refine your question and ask what you want to know. There's a whole world of knowlege that some VERY smart people are willing to share on the HAMB. FOR FREE!! A thin skin will not serve you well here.

And don't insult the handicaped by calling me a retard. I'm not retarded, I am an ***hole...

 

It's probably been covered, but I'll pile on just the same...
1) Because we can. The other 34 reasons don't reall matter.
I appreciate the http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/for/568695179.html of your question, but it's really a matter of builders choice.
Pat

 

Oh ****. Never mind that little cut and paste of the Caigslist ad. Fat fingers.....

 

WOW,six pages for this He must huff thinner, Why hop up a motor HAHAHA I know why FOR THE HELL OF IT

 

here in australia, alot of us still play with the old holden six, we could buy a more powerfull, economical and reliable japanese six but its kinda like a thing to see who can make one of these old sixes go better even though it cost a fortune in parts and machining,
if you were going to spend $80k on a hot rod so you could go fast, why dont you just buy a ferrari?

 

Some may argue that at some point every engine will exceed its usefullness, Apparently your stock motor exceeded its usefullness and you opted to place a 305 in your car. At some point that 305 may reach that point also. Now you have a few choices:

1) Discard the 305 for the next best greatest engine thats meets your budgetary requirements or just what ever you have laying around.

2) Rebuild the 305 with over the counter speed parts which are redily available and end up with something better than you had. This approach will garner some additional attention and communication from your neighbor at the car show. It will also put a little more get up and gogo to it.

3) Your third and final option is to rebuild the engine with OEM stock parts. This approach will yeild you a dependable auto that can be driven on any given day. This approach will cost just as much in machining, time, and frustration as option #2, Except without the additional attention and getty up gogo.

I believe this can explain one of the 35 your looking for. Now considering all 3 options I have listed, your typical rodder will opt for either #1 or #2 or heaven forbit a combination of #1 and #2.

Given the history and soul that hotrodding posesses, rodders will allways want to obtain that which is just beyond their reach and budget. It seems only human to do it better next time, which triggers many to hop up in the ever persuit of what is just beyond their reach, speed and kinship with other rodders.

Hope this helps you.

 

For me, I do it because its fun, a waste of time, satisfying, relaxing, aggravating, stress-building, money ****ing, love affair with a ****ing metal mess.

Hell, I don't even know why I do it, but I love it!

 

Well, time to go crying on one of the other boards how you got your face blown off on the HAMB!-MIKE

 

short , sweet and to the point ..

 

That has got to be the most straight forward AND honest answer to this near-to-insulting question!


WHY? WHY??!!! This guy has got to be kidding asking that question here. His next post is gonna be "Why chop a top?" or "Why pound dents out?"

C'mon man!!! Tell me yer kidding! Hurry up!

 

At least he didn't ask "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

 

I've never met a motor I didn't want to stroke. Its a guy thing.

 

Well its like dating a fat chick,at first its ok but when she starts to shed some weight and tones thing up its a little more to handle and a lot more fun to ride.

 

This who hobby was started by people wanting to go faster. Back in the days when it started they tried anything to get a little more power to go a little faster. Why? To get that time slip at the flats, to have the fastest car in the area, to win that trophy and kiss the girl giving it away in front a crowd full of your peers at the local circle track. Or to be like that guy that achieved some of those things. The car you described, a model a with a bigger engine, but stock would in my book be a street rod.
A hot rod has a third pedal, an auto trans is nicer but not as much fun.
A big cam makes a few chalenges tuning for the street, idles faster, kills a little low end torque so you need a low gear to get more rpms, but it's fast, and fun.
The rush you get driving an old school hot rod with some serious horsepower is life changing. It's like being a junky. You need that fix, then you need more, and more.
I'm semi recovered.
Jeff

 

Um, hey guys...

...when someone asks a simple question and gets 100 answers, and keeps responding with: "well you don't understand the question, try again" it's not that he doesn't know, he's playing a game with you.

I had enough of inferiority complexes from my grade school teachers. No thanks.

Also, mental retardation is not funny. Just my view.