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Here's an odd General Vehicle Modification for folks to ponder: a motorcycle. Yes, really. Years and years ago there was an ongoing Epic Ride Report from a female inmate on ADVrider.com (name I don't presently recall) that featured a somewhat controversial aspect for the time: the ride...

It's not uncommon knowledge that several decades ago Ford built a few experimental pickups (either Rangers or F150s, I don't immediately recall which) equipped with air cooled Deutz diesels under the hood. A quick YouTube search reveals a few videos of some of these surviving prototypes that...

A Belgian chap over on the Speed Talk forum posted this a few months ago: "The gov here implemented tech inspection every 2 years for oldtimers between 30 and 50, every 5 years when older than 50. The sad thing is that all mods are banned. They may only be original. Right now about 50 % of all...

Fair warning: long post, maybe not for the faint of heart. I'm a luddite, but not an unreasonable one. You can like what you like, that's cool with me...but it's not okay for you to try forcing your likes to be my likes, too. We can disagree agreeably. I think electric everything is blind...

Tuners of vintage Porsches, tuners of vintage VWs, tuners of Harley-Davidsons, pretty much tuners of any air cooled big bore engine being it vintage or modern-ish vintage likes to convert to dual plug heads for better flame propagation, especially in hemispherical combustion chambers. The...

A very experienced high performance thumper tuner of the old school sort has advised against manual decomp releases for high comp single cylinders, citing problems with apparent ingestion of dirt particles into the engine. As off road specific motos such as the Yamaha XT500 and Honda XR600 are...

Several years ago there was some buzz in the Suzuki 4x4 community surrounding a truly wacky engine swap. A Suzuki SJ (known as the Samurai to North Americans) had been equipped with, of all things, a Harley-Davidson v-twin mounted longitudinally. I think the engine must have been poked and...

Advanced Materials Technology is a metallurgical development company in Germany; they say they've developed some proprietary titanium alloys that are suitable for engine components such crankshafts and camshafts. Various deep-pocketed racing teams and manufacturers of high spec engines from...

Whether it's the DRZ400 or the Jeep TJ or the Samurai or the Land Cruiser or the HD Sportster or any other vintage-to-almost-modern vehicle with a five speed transmission it seems like the majority of operators are constantly clamoring for a sixth gear. Each one of these mills has much power...

Years ago S&S offered a vtwin called the SS100; like all engines of its 45 degree kind it had no counterbalancer but was still a performance unit, so the square bore and stroke were used to find the "ideal" ground between torque and horsepower and vibration. Reviews of the time reported the...

Obviously today GM's LS range of engines proves that sticking with refinement of 2 valve pushrod architecture is both commercially and technologically viable--the LS V8 is the world's most popular crate engine for anything from old Jeeps to old Nissans to brand new boutique supercars like the...

The Suzuki SJ (Jimny, Samurai, Gypsy, Drover, has different names in different markets) is my favorite old 4x4 of all time. Likewise, the Suzuki G13 and G16 that powers the SJ and various SJ cousins like the Vitara, Tracker, S90, etc is also one of my favorite old engine groups, too. All of...

I tried this in Fireside Chat, so now I'm asking in Mods. Even a cursory search in...

In the USA laws technically vary on a state-by-state basis. However, in practical application the USA is overall very lenient in regards to rigs having every inch of big fat mud tires covered by fenders and/or mud flaps; and of course in some places, where off-roading fun is ubiquitously...

Preface: I've already emailed the company with this question, but they haven't responded. I recently noticed that Startwell in England (manufacturer of mechanical starters for diesel engines, also known as spring starters and clockwork starters) have their lightweight Mini model listed for...

For reasons of simplicity and DIY user-friendliness I vastly prefer carbed, air cooled engines to their EFI, liquid cooled counterparts. I'll personally allow for a CDI with the carbed air cooled mill, but that's the extent of my tolerance for electronics. The problem with carburetors and...

I have a friend whose company makes completely custom engines and parts, including engine blocks. One of their specialties is taking factory iron blocks, scanning them into CAD, and then CNCing all aluminum recreations, with whatever over-bores and stroke clearancing the client may want for his...

If you could purchase a brand new Pinzgauer 710m or 712m, would you do it? Let's say each truck still had dual carburetors, but was upgraded with all the goodies the Pinzgauer aftermarket has spawned in the last 30 years: a blueprinted 2.7 liter engine, six speed transmission, power disc...

My fave engines are always old, tough, stone simple, and air cooled. In the world of full size truck mills this of course can only mean the air cooled diesel units from Tatra, specifically the V12 in the 111 and the subsequent V8 in the 138 and 148. The V12 was engineered to be hand crankable...

Among the aircooled VW and general buggy crowds the most prevalent aesthetic trend for the last 60 years has been big rear tires and small front tires. Makes for a cool stance, undeniably. However, whenever I see these buggy people traveling overland, even in uber remote places like the...