Episode 3 Transcript: A Perfectly Cromulent 940
The International Race of Hammpions Episode 03 - A Perfectly Cromulent 940
Caleb [00:00]: Good evening Hammpions, and welcome to another episode. This week’s episode. Episode 3, A Perfectly Cromulent 940. I’m Caleb and I’m joined here with Geno and justin. And we will be taking you through the tale of a perfectly crumulent 940. Take it away, Geno.
Geno [00:22]: All right, so now I’m thinking back. This was probably a little over 10 years ago now. My brother bought a car from a guy on a volvo board we frequent. He bought it from Mr. Thou, who lives. Yeah. Who lives not close to me, but not super far. And my brother lives in washington state, which is one end of the country. And I’m smack in the middle of the country. So Mr. Thau brought. And his brother brought the car out and dropped it off at my house after my brother bought it. And the plan was for my brother to buy some parts to fix it up and send them to me. And then I would fix it up and he’d be there in a month or so. And then we would drive the car to his place in washington.
Geno [01:28]: So the car gets dropped off, the parts show up, and my add ass ignores it for the most part. You know, I drive it here and there. It’s got a couple little issues. It had sat. There was a. Some sort of a fuel injector issue. It never. It didn’t always run quite right, and it didn’t always overdrive. Didn’t always work. So. I sit on the parts for a while. My brother shows up, and that lights a fire under my ass. And so I spent some time. We managed to get the midwest rust that’s on some of these parts off the. The rear sway bar was a particular pain in the ass. But I figured out a contraption to soak the mounts in, evaporust under while on the car. And that finally got that off. I put on the.
Geno [02:37]: The bypass plate for the overdrive and that solved that issue. And it had been running pretty well. So we decided. We got up early one morning after that gotten. He got new tires, got in alignment. We had the ipd shocks, sways. It was nice. Brand new tires on a set of clean hydras red 940 sedan. I slapped an 850R wing on the back of it. It was beautiful. And we got up early in the morning and we hit the road and we made it 15 miles before the injectors started acting up again. And he wanted to take it somewhere to diagnose it because weren’t positive it was that. But I had a. It Was fuel related for sure. And shop looks at it, yada, you know, a couple hours, hundred bucks later, like, oh, we think it’s this.
Geno [03:36]: At the time I had a 780 Turbo sitting at home that I had just put fresh injectors on. So we get, we limp it back to my house, we throw in the fresh injectors from my car, and away we go. We’re on the road and it’s running like a dream. Just, just a great time and you know, going across the barren wasteland that is southern Minnesota and South Dakota. Late start. So the first night we make it into Sioux Falls,.
Caleb [04:17]: I’ve been there and.
Geno [04:18]: You know, spend the night in a motel with, you know, the standard black mold and what have you. I think we got dinner at a, at a hoo hot Mongolian barbecue. Somewhere along the.
Justin [04:32]: Is a Mongolian barbecue in South Dakota.
Geno [04:35]: It was either there or it was in Montana. At some point went to a Mongolian barbecue.
Justin [04:40]: I. Montana even like that just sounds.
Geno [04:43]: A place you wouldn’t expect it, but.
Justin [04:45]: It’s a place you wouldn’t want it. Yeah, it’s probably sus.
Geno [04:50]: At least you knew the food was.
Justin [04:52]: Prepared fresh, I mean, I guess. Yeah, because nobody else is going there, you know.
Geno [04:56]: Then, then Day two, we’re continuing across South Dakota. We took that route a little longer because I wanted to go see, I wanted to go past Rushmore. I had never been. It was underwhelming. It’s smaller than you think it’s going to be. And also it’s a bunch of slave owners and Teddy Roosevelt’s faces and Lincoln,.
Caleb [05:21]: I guess I was going to say, regarding visas. I mean, that is what she said.
Justin [05:27]: Yeah, yeah.
Geno [05:28]: So we do that. We’re switching off. He insists on listening to. Nobody outside of this area is going to know the common man. But he’s a local radio personality and so most of the time I’m just reading when he’s driving and then I’ll put on something I want to listen to when I’m driving. But yeah, I’m kind of regretting this choice because most of the trip was fairly uneventful other than the injector issue. Let’s see, day two, we go past. We go to Rock.
Justin [06:09]: You wanted something to go wrong.
Geno [06:12]: We divert past. We take another little detour going through Wyoming to see Devil’s Tower because it’s important and it means something. And then up into Montana. And as we’re going into Montana that night, it’s Getting late. And we’re driving in the dark through these mountain passes. And I’m getting swoopy. Like it’s. You know, you’re driving. It’s like. And I was like, I’m gonna put this thing right off the side of this mountain. So I wake him up because he’s asleep. And I was like, we’re gonna stop. We’re getting off at the next exit, and we are finding somewhere to park. Sleep. I don’t care if it’s a motel, but we’re stopping because if I don’t, we’re gonna die. And we stop in. I wanna say we made it to Bozeman and went to bed in Bozeman and woke up in the morning.
Geno [07:24]: And I walk out of our motel and I see the Rockies for the first time. And I get it. Like, yeah, I’m from the Midwest. It’s the flatlands. The highest point of the state, I want to say, is just over 2,000ft. And I’m probably lying. It’s probably lower than that. Shout out Eagle Mountain. And, yeah, just magnificent. And we go. We gotta go drive through the actual mountains now. So we go to the. The Bozeman Walmart and find the last set of tire chains that fit it. Because we are in tire chain season. To go through the passes, you need to be care. You know, you need to carry them. You don’t need to have them on.
Justin [08:13]: I was gonna say, did you need them?
Geno [08:15]: We did not need them, but they lived with that car as long as he owned it. Yeah. So we go through. We get through Snoqualmie Pass, and the weather was fine. It held. We saw there were a few flakes up in the pass, but no actual snow. And then we come down and get into the Seattle area. And I know every. Every single place that you live in the United States, locals say they have the worst drivers. I know. I’m sure you both have that experience.
Justin [09:02]: Yep.
Geno [09:04]: Seattle residents are correct when they say it. I have never seen such trash driving.
Justin [09:12]: I would. I would say. I would argue Miami.
Geno [09:15]: I’ve not been, but I’m sure they’re also terrible. We’re driving through Seattle. It’s pouring rain because it’s Seattle,.
Justin [09:27]: And.
Geno [09:28]: I forget which street we’re driving along. But as we’re driving down this street, the same car next to us attempts no less than three times to change lanes into us. He’s pacing us the entire time, and three times he tries to change lanes and sideswipe us. And we have to honk at him and slam on the brakes. It’s just. Yeah, it was obscene.
Justin [09:53]: He’s. He’s living Groundhog Day. But, like, once every, like, 30 seconds, like, oh, I gotta merge.
Caleb [10:03]: Bless his heart.
Geno [10:05]: Yeah. It was absolutely ridiculous. Then. Yeah, then we stop. We do one more stop so we can get up and arrive at my brother’s house up in the northwesternest corner of the northwest. Fresh. And not at 3 in the morning. So we get back on the road the next day, drive up the coast. It’s a nice, beautiful drive from Seattle up to Bellingham.
Justin [10:32]: You had to drive through. Did you have to drive through Idaho to get there?
Geno [10:35]: We did. We went through. Across Montana. We went through Idaho. We went through. What’s the. What’s the town there? That. It’s a beautiful town that’s full of a lot of Nazis.
Justin [10:48]: Coeur d’. Alene.
Geno [10:49]: That’s the one.
Caleb [10:51]: Yep. I’ve been there.
Geno [10:53]: It’s a beautiful town. Lake’s gorgeous.
Caleb [10:56]: And.
Geno [10:58]: Don’t talk politics with anyone in the hills.
Justin [11:02]: Did you. Is that. Is that the part of Idaho that has, like, black sand dunes and shit, that looks like the moon or something?
Geno [11:10]: No, this is the mountains. And there’s a beautiful glacial lake.
Justin [11:14]: Idaho’s wild. Yeah, I think it’s the. I think in terms of geography, it’s the most insane state in the country. Just from the. The differences it has.
Geno [11:24]: Yeah, yeah. No, Coeur d’ Alene’s, like, up in the middle of the. The panhandle there and. Yeah, yeah, just a lot of. A lot of narrow mustache enthusiasts up there.
Caleb [11:40]: Bless our hearts.
Justin [11:41]: You know, Geno, that narrow mustache comment got me thinking. You should. If. If you ever encounter a Nazi, you should just tell them to widen their mustache a bit. You’re like, bro, like, if you need to tell them to calm down, you’d be like, bro, I think your mustache needs to be a little bit right now.
Geno [11:57]: You know, given our. Given our local airport and the fact that this involves the Dakotas, they could also widen their stance. Yeah, that’s another. God. What was that guy’s name? I want to say it was Larry Craig, wasn’t it? Senator Larry Craig. Sounds. Sounds right to me.
Justin [12:18]: He was the one, right.
Geno [12:20]: Tapping his foot in the MSP men’s room trying to. Trying to get some strange.
Justin [12:27]: You know, I don’t. I. I’m. I am not aware of whatever this is.
Geno [12:31]: Oh, it was a Republican senator from one of the Dakotas. Yo, your stand. It’s your standard anti gay Republican story where he gets caught trying to get some. Some very homies.
Justin [12:44]: Trying to get some gay.
Geno [12:45]: Yeah. Trying to get some gay. Like, I want to try it out so I can know how bad it is. Yeah.
Justin [12:53]: I mean, can’t blame them. But, like, stop being a piece of shit.
Geno [12:57]: Then there was a. So for a while, you. I think you can still check in on Facebook when you’re at MSP International Airport, the number one airport in the country, by the way.
Justin [13:10]: By what metric?
Geno [13:13]: You can look it up like it gets voted num. Like, best airport pretty much every year. It’s fantastic.
Caleb [13:19]: Huh? All right.
Justin [13:20]: More. You know.
Geno [13:22]: But I believe on Facebook you can still check in to the Larry Craig memorial restroom.
Caleb [13:33]: Well, that’s his heart.
Geno [13:36]: It’s a good laugh. I do it every time. And my wife rolls her eyes as she does that many things. I do.
Justin [13:49]: Oh, my God. I think I need. I think I need to fly there just for the occasion.
Geno [13:53]: You. You could fly to a lot worse places. Like Atlanta.
Justin [13:59]: Yeah.
Geno [13:59]: Or Denver.
Justin [14:01]: Yeah, I’ve been to Denver. I actually haven’t flown through Atlanta.
Geno [14:04]: Or SeaTac.
Justin [14:06]: Haven’t flown through.
Geno [14:07]: SeaTac is garbage.
Justin [14:10]: Newark. Newark sucks. I can confirm Newark sucks.
Geno [14:13]: I believe that.
Caleb [14:16]: I have personal reasons for this, but I am firmly of a belief San Diego is the worst airport in the.
Geno [14:22]: US Feel like it wasn’t bad for me when I went there, but I.
Justin [14:27]: Haven’t flown enough to have all that.
Geno [14:28]: I really remember that trip is getting food poisoning. Unrelated to the food poisoning. That great restaurant you sent us to, Caleb, the Argentinian restaurant that you.
Caleb [14:42]: Yes. Yep.
Geno [14:43]: That was fantastic. The food poisoning, that’s not from them, but I won’t name them. Just, you know, to avoid the association was less fantastic. The zoo was great. And I ran into early season starting goalie for the Minnesota Wild, Alex Stalock at a hotel bar.
Justin [15:07]: Nice.
Caleb [15:08]: That’s pretty sweet.
Justin [15:09]: Nice. So I. So Cleveland’s airport. Hopkins is underrated. It’s a pretty decent airport. Nashville’s airport. It’s all right. But I’m. I just. I don’t know why, but I just want to say it sucks because it just feels right.
Geno [15:25]: What is it? New Orleans quality little airport.
Justin [15:30]: Is that the new. Is that the new one?
Geno [15:32]: Yeah, the. What’s it? Louis Armstrong.
Justin [15:36]: Yeah.
Geno [15:36]: Yeah. Nice little airport.
Justin [15:38]: I actually, I think Louis is. Is the new one still Louis Armstrong? Because I knew they built a new one in like 20, 21 or two or some.
Geno [15:47]: And I flew in out there last like a year ago Christmas, and it was Louis.
Justin [15:54]: Okay. It must. It must have been. They must have just kept the Name.
Geno [15:57]: Also just one of the most fun towns in the U.S. yeah, I, I,.
Justin [16:01]: I went there on Amtrak, oddly enough.
Geno [16:06]: Did you take the city of New Orleans to the city of New Orleans?
Justin [16:10]: No, I think it was the Sunset Limited.
Geno [16:12]: Okay.
Justin [16:13]: It was from, I think it’s from New York to New Orleans. And we hopped on in Atlanta because were heading from Knoxville. And the reason why we did it is because I wanted to take an Amtrak trip. She wanted to go to New Orleans. And because it was like Covid. It was like I said, I think it was 20, 21. We were, were wearing masks and it was crazy. Tickets were like 25 bucks each or some for like round trip.
Geno [16:42]: Holy wow.
Justin [16:44]: So were like, yeah, let’s go to New Orleans.
Geno [16:49]: I just. Great times in that town.
Justin [16:52]: It was weird during COVID It wasn’t nearly as popping.
Geno [16:57]: See that Nothing was.
Justin [16:58]: Yeah, but there’s still. It was. Right. It was after the vaccines and stuff. So things were opening up again.
Caleb [17:05]: Yeah.
Justin [17:06]: So like we still like went out to bars and had a great time, but like the shock of seeing crowds again actually kind of both like freaked us out. It was weird.
Geno [17:15]: Speaking New Orleans, I’m just gonna, in case anyone’s listening, gonna shout out Anthony the bartender at 13 on Frenchman. Great dude, Great bar. Makes a killer drink. And it was just nicest dude shout.
Justin [17:30]: Out, ironically, to the guy who gave my ex girlfriend beads and then asked her to pay for him after he put him on her just randomly in the street. And then like probably 15 minutes later. Ish. I threw up on. What is it, what’s the main street?
Geno [17:51]: Bourbon.
Justin [17:52]: Yeah. Fucking. Is it Bourbon Street? Yeah.
Geno [17:54]: Well, Bourbon Party street.
Justin [17:55]: Yeah, the party street. I threw up on like Bourbon street and there was not too many people around. It was at night though. Oh, no, there was a decent amount of people. It was a decent amount of people. I, I, I puked on Bourbon Street. No, wait, no, I have terrible memory. My ex puked on Bourbon street from a grenade. I puked at the hotel because of a grenade that I got on Bourbon Street. I held out until the hotel.
Geno [18:25]: Very nice. Very nice.
Justin [18:27]: Anyway, this was completely. Speaking of trains derailed. You keep going.
Geno [18:32]: It’s all good. We were talking. Okay.
Justin [18:35]: So.
Geno [18:37]: Yeah, we go to Bellingham. We pull into my brother’s place. His roommate also has a 940 sedan and great minds, great mind. Yeah.
Caleb [18:53]: Yeah.
Geno [18:55]: Interesting guy. His roommate, they had, they were co owners of a 26 foot, I want to say it was a Catalina Sailboat which we took out to some of the state parks out there, which was really fun. Went crab fishing.
Caleb [19:12]: Nice.
Geno [19:13]: Oh, yeah.
Justin [19:14]: Oh, that’s fun.
Geno [19:15]: Yeah. Ate my weight in fresh seafood.
Caleb [19:18]: Oh, jealous. Yep.
Geno [19:20]: Like, as a Midwestern boy who does not get fresh ocean seafood that easily, like, when we came back from the island, pulling up the crab pots, we had so much soft shell crab, they were just making like, nachos with crab meat. And I’m like, it’s blowing my mind. This is expensive. We can’t just make.
Justin [19:43]: And they’re like, we literally just drug it out of the water.
Caleb [19:46]: Come on.
Justin [19:47]: What are you talking about, bro?
Geno [19:50]: Big gallon Ziploc bags full of crab. Ridiculous.
Justin [19:57]: That’s. That’s great. I could go, damn, I could go for some crab.
Caleb [20:02]: I could.
Justin [20:03]: Some hot butter.
Geno [20:05]: Yeah. That was the third car he had out there. When he first moved out there, his job, part of the thing was they transported his car out there for him and his car that he had in college and immediately after was, I want to say it was an 82240 sedan.
Justin [20:31]: And they’re like, here’s the VIP treatment.
Geno [20:34]: That had sat for several years in a field. And you know, Caleb is probably familiar with how much kjet loves sitting unused.
Caleb [20:44]: Oh, boy.
Geno [20:45]: It ran great on three cylinders.
Caleb [20:47]: I had a cage at car that did that once. Shout out to Redwood chair. We got my K jet dialed in.
Justin [20:54]: Yeah.
Geno [20:55]: Oh, man. And yeah, then you get a. Then he got my stepmom’s old. I want to say it was a 98 Corolla LE. Just the applianciest appliance that ever applies.
Caleb [21:14]: And you know, by my good appliance, though, yeah, I would say by modern standards, it’s probably a driver’s car, though.
Justin [21:24]: Fair.
Geno [21:24]: Well, not with the automatic.
Caleb [21:26]: No, even with the automatic, I was.
Justin [21:28]: About to say, still, I suppose it.
Geno [21:30]: Still did have, you know, actual input on the steering.
Caleb [21:36]: Yep, yep. It did not have one of those damn push button gear selectors.
Geno [21:43]: Only acceptable on 60s Chrysler products.
Caleb [21:46]: Yes, grade.
Geno [21:47]: Although I feel like the puck you twist is even worse.
Justin [21:50]: Yeah, the knob is worse, but not at least with the buttons. There’s like positive reinforcement that you’re in the gear you’re selecting.
Geno [21:57]: Oh, man. Then eventually he finally. He had that 940 for years, and he eventually replaced it with. With a 2013 S60, which he just got rid of last year when it did the thing that s 60s of that age do when you follow the manufacturer recommended oil change intervals instead of doing them about twice as often, which is load up the rings with oil get a lot of blow by crust up and eventually burn a valve.
Justin [22:37]: Yeah, that’s why I changed my oil on my GTI every 5000 miles instead of every 10,000 like the manual said.
Geno [22:46]: 5000 Is a good number.
Caleb [22:48]: Yep.
Justin [22:49]: The stagia, the oil’s already getting a little dirty at about 3, 700 miles.
Caleb [22:53]: So.
Justin [22:55]: I’m taking it to Tennessee nonetheless.
Geno [22:58]: Yeah. Right now the. The forester I’ve got goes through enough oil that I’m just gonna do a change every 10 when I do the filter. But yeah, it’s a Subaru.
Justin [23:10]: Yeah.
Geno [23:10]: Trying to figure out. My wife wants me to keep it in the worst way and I’m trying to figure out a way that I can make it so I can live with it.
Justin [23:18]: I’m going to say if you’re running 10,000 mile intervals, I’d probably try and run the best oil you can to give it at least a shot.
Geno [23:25]: Well, like I’m saying, the oil doesn’t last that long.
Caleb [23:28]: Oh.
Justin [23:30]: I’m putting it’s a Subaru miles. Okay. Well, I mean, then, yeah, it’s a perpetual oil change.
Geno [23:37]: Yeah. You just need to change the filter every time.
Justin [23:39]: It’s the oil change of theseus.
Geno [23:46]: Once the 245 is driving, I will have to pull the Subaru in here, pull the engine out, and at the very least replace every seal on it. But maybe do something a little more drastic. We’ll see.
Justin [24:04]: All right, so completely. Just. Just banking off that I just want a quick little aside. What is, in your opinion, both of y’, all, the best brand of oil?
Caleb [24:15]: That’s fantastic.
Geno [24:16]: The turbo breaker in me just wants to say Rotella T6.
Justin [24:23]: That’s too stereotypical.
Caleb [24:25]: See, I would say Rotella T5.
Geno [24:31]: What are you a poor.
Caleb [24:34]: Yes.
Geno [24:38]: No.
Caleb [24:38]: I think the extra weight helps when you get to the 300,000 mile brick category.
Geno [24:44]: Yeah, fair enough.
Caleb [24:46]: Especially when you get into the $200, 300,000 mile brick category.
Justin [24:52]: So I understand what you’re saying, but I’m not talking a specific product. I’m talking overall over the whole category. Of all of the oils they make, what is the best manufacturer of oil? I have a specific answer in my head and it is backed up by science. But I want to see what you guys think.
Geno [25:12]: If you say royal purple and turn this into an ad, I’m rage quitting.
Justin [25:16]: All right, so this is a good segue into our sponsor for today. No, I’m.
Geno [25:22]: Going to be. It’s going to be Amsoil. Isn’t it.
Justin [25:26]: Fuck you. Fuck you. Yes, it’s Amsoil. Fuck you.
Geno [25:32]: Got a. Hey, hey, look, it’s Justin with his MLF oil.
Justin [25:37]: Amsoil. Amsoil is over priced bullshit MLM stuff. But it is also tested as the best oil that I’ve seen out of all independent testing.
Geno [25:47]: So essentially what you’re saying, I don’t,.
Justin [25:49]: I don’t run it myself because it’s overpriced, but it is categorically, technically the best oil.
Caleb [25:59]: So I actually ran the Chevron Dello when I could find it over the Rotella and, but the reason I did is because the Delo, at least at the time, had a little bit higher zinc content and also it was typically about a buck or two a gallon cheaper than Rotella when I could find it.
Justin [26:20]: Okay, so is that okay, so let’s take Amsoil out of the question because they’re kind of a meme at the same time in terms of actual shit that you run. I have answer is that your.
Caleb [26:31]: Answer depends on the car. If I’m talking red block, it would be Chevron Dello or Rotella. If we’re talking normal people cars, I usually like to run one change of Penzil to just clean all the shit out and then either, I don’t know, Mobile One or whatever’s on sale if it’s a decent brand.
Geno [27:00]: For me, the red blocks get the Rotella. The white block got Rotella when I had that too, because Volvo habits die hard. My wife’s van gets Mobile One or Valvoline when it’s on sale because that’s a perfectly fine oil brand for a Chrysler.
Caleb [27:23]: Yep.
Justin [27:23]: No, actually, from what I’ve seen, Valvoline’s actually in terms of like normal ass oil is the over all of their weights. It seems to be the best.
Geno [27:33]: Yeah, it’s a perfectly good oil.
Justin [27:36]: Yeah, so that’s what I was gonna say is I, I, I usually run, it’s a little more expensive than other stuff, but I usually will run Valvoline or I’m pretty damn sure O’Reilly’s store brand is just Valvoline. I, I think it’s O’Reilly’s, so I usually run that.
Geno [27:55]: Yeah, that’s the Subaru because of the aforementioned oil leaks and standard Subaru oil usage issues. Gets whatever the store brand is. If I’m at O’Reilly’s, it gets the O’Reilly Oil or FVP from Menards.
Justin [28:16]: Look, if I got A fucking.
Caleb [28:17]: Yeah.
Justin [28:18]: If I got a beater, it’s getting the fucking dollar store bullshit.
Geno [28:21]: Yeah. Honestly, I’ve run the Walmart super tech oil back in the day when I had a Walmart convenient to me and was broker than a joke.
Justin [28:33]: I mean, Supertex. Supertex actually fine. I mean, most oils, as long as it’s like Ilsac or whatever the certified most oils are fine. They’re. They’re perfectly cromulent. As. As the title of this episode says,.
Caleb [28:48]: Like when I drove stuff that was powered by magic spinny Doritos, I used the Fancy Blue Valvoline 2050 Racing Oil Spinny Doritos.
Justin [29:02]: At first when I had my gti, I would only run Motal or Liqu. Moly. Oh, it’s European, so it’s better. But then I saw actual tests and it’s not better. So Valvoline’s better. So I ran Valvoline.
Caleb [29:19]: Yeah,.
Justin [29:21]: I mean, Pennzoil, all of Mobile one, Pennzoil, all of it’s basically up there with like, Valvoline’s just like barely better. But they’re all pretty.
Caleb [29:30]: I know, yeah. Like, why had the Alpha run Castrol?
Justin [29:33]: So Castrol is fine, I’m pretty sure.
Caleb [29:36]: Yeah.
Geno [29:36]: Back in the day, people would rag on Pennzoil all day long. And I’m. I want to say it was like it has a higher wax content than some. Or something along those lines, you know.
Justin [29:50]: Okay, so you know who does good tests on all of it is Project Farm. If you’ve ever watched project farm on YouTube, he’s basically like.
Geno [29:58]: He’s basically like automotive autists are all familiar with Project Farm.
Justin [30:04]: Yeah, absolutely.
Geno [30:05]: Yeah, yeah.
Justin [30:05]: He’s. But like, for anyone listening, he’s basically like Consumer Reports. If it was just a, a farmer guy in like Missouri who’s doing it for free on YouTube and we’re going to test that. Yeah. And a lot of his tests are like more like real world tests that aren’t necessarily as scientific as maybe they should be. But the real world aspect of it is actually super applicable to how you would actually use it. So it’s still helpful knowledge to know. So I really appreciate his oil tests and they are consistent. He does at the same time every time. So it is still scientific enough to be like, okay, yeah, fucking Valvoline or whatever came out on top. You know, it’s probably actually. And he also does send it off to labs and stuff. And it does end up being the best oil.
Justin [30:52]: So that’s what I go By I trust him. Oddly enough, you don’t just sit and.
Geno [30:57]: At night and read arguments on Bob is the Oil Guy dot com.
Justin [31:01]: I do that too, because it’s just because I worked at a Valvoline, and at that point I was like, I wonder if Valvoline is any good. And I went through a month of like, being deep into oil research. It was weird.
Geno [31:14]: Oil research makes you sound like you’re acting out in Texas, you know, not like that.
Justin [31:19]: No, no. But, but, but Valvoline, instant oil change franchises, they are extremely hit or miss. And I just generally say, even though I worked at one and the one I worked at was when I worked there, generally fine. Immediately after I quit, it went to shit. Not just. Not because of me, because. Not just because of me, not my ego isn’t that big, but because a whole bunch of other people quit and management changed and basically, never trust a quick oil change place. If you’re like, if you know people who work there, fine. But other than that, no, like now,.
Caleb [31:58]: Back in the day when I lived in my hometown and drove the great white whale 740 and was running short on time, there’s a. There’s a locally owned quick change place run by an old guy, been doing it about a hundred years across cross street from the muffler guy that’s been doing mufflers since the 60s. And. But what I do is I’d run up there, you know, a gallon of Dello or Rotel or whatever was on sale and, you know, a fresh man W917 filter. Nobody, I’m sure nobody here has had a case of those before.
Geno [32:45]: Got some sitting in the cabinet to my left.
Caleb [32:48]: Exactly. And I just say, hey, you know, can you do it? And he’d be like, yeah, you know, you brought Lowell in. Me 10 bucks and I’ll change it for you. So, all right, I’ll take it. And of course, you know, I pulled the car up on the ramp and he let me hang out down there while I watch the guys do it. So, like, I trusted that work because I could see it. But just going in, you, like, hand the keys, you’re like, change oil, I’ll come back. No, I. I’ve never.
Justin [33:19]: So I take back the thing I said a minute ago about quick oil change places. Never trust them. But that doesn’t mean never use them. If you just don’t give a shit. Actually, it’s great because you don’t have to give a shit. So essentially, like, I took. I had an 07 rabbit and I could not be bothered to change the oil. And I knew it was a pain in the ass because I’ve changed the oil one of them, one of those 2.55 cylinders at a Valvoline before. Huge pain in the ass. I didn’t want to do it, so I took it to Valvoline to have them do it. And I just made sure to check the fucking. I just made sure to check it wasn’t leaking and the oil was topped off afterwards and it was. So it was fine.
Justin [34:21]: But that’s just one of those situations of if you just really could. Can’t be bothered. Yeah, go for it as long as you understand the risk. But I cannot recommend a normie to go there because they’re not going to understand the risk.
Caleb [34:34]: So I have only had one car where I absolutely refuse to do the ultra change. And the reason for it was not necessarily my lack of my confidence in my own abilities, but rather the ability to project blame onto somebody’s insurance if something went wrong. Because I had an O2 Honda Insight, which will be the subject of a future episode, I am sure. And it had a cast magnesium oil pan with notoriously fragile threads. So my way of handling inside oil changes was because through actual testing, the actual Honda branded oil from a dealership was good for an extra one to two miles a gallon on the original inside. So I would go to my local Honda dealer and be like, all right, here’s a keys change oil.
Caleb [35:45]: Because if they messed up the expensive thousand dollar cast magnesium oil pan, it was on their insurance to pay, not me.
Justin [36:00]: Now that’s actually really smart.
Geno [36:05]: Yeah, I’d take it. I’ve. I’ve had dealer oil changes. Now.
Justin [36:08]: Now. Well, wait, what were you saying?
Geno [36:10]: Oh, I’ve said I’ve had. I’ve done dealer oil changes on several of my cars. Mostly, you know, when I get a new. If I get a new car and I know there’s open recalls on it or something, I take it to the dealer for an oil change and then I get that shit fixed too. For free.
Justin [36:27]: Yep, yep. Now.
Geno [36:29]: And they also, like, they’re nice because they do the full, you know, the full inspection because they want my business and I look at the list of all the problems with the car and then I fix them myself.
Justin [36:40]: It’s perfect.
Geno [36:41]: Yeah.
Justin [36:41]: No, no, sometimes that is a decent deal if you know.
Geno [36:45]: What you’re not a Jiffy Lube.
Justin [36:47]: No, it’s not.
Caleb [36:48]: No.
Justin [36:48]: Dealership’s usually fine. But what I was going to say is if you are doing like these days, if you were doing it yourself. If I was doing an oil change on something like an insight where messing it up is going to cost a lot of money. A bunch of money. Messing up the drain plug or messing up the threads on the drain plug. I would use a vacuum system to suck out the oil.
Caleb [37:08]: Yeah. So. Oh hell, you know the, you know like the quick change valves for the, you know, to do oil changes. Yeah, yeah. Those are suit, those are super popular with insight people for that reason,.
Justin [37:30]: You know, I believe it. I believe it. That makes sense. I mean I can’t fault that. Like I, I, I’ve heard people talk about it and it’s like if it works.
Geno [37:38]: Yeah. I got one on my Subaru and on the wife’s van because I’m lazy and it’s nice because it’s got a little thing where you can, I got the one with the little nipple on it and they make a hose that snaps to that and then there’s no mess.
Justin [37:56]: Yeah.
Geno [37:56]: I stick the hose right in the drain pan. I open the valve. I don’t even have to wear like the only thing that there’s any ever any oil on is the filter.
Caleb [38:06]: Exactly.
Geno [38:07]: Like I can do the full oil change without wearing gloves.
Justin [38:10]: Yeah. Maybe I should do that on the stagia honestly because the changing the oil is a little bit of a pain in the ass. I mean everything’s pretty accessible but it’s, it’s hard to not make a mess especially with the placement of the filter. So if I can at least like tamp down on the mess a little bit by making the drain plug situation a little easier, that might not be a terrible idea.
Geno [38:35]: No, I definitely wouldn’t run one on a red block.
Caleb [38:40]: No, not on a red block because.
Geno [38:42]: That oil pan drain plug is already low enough. You don’t need something sticking down an inch and a half off of that. It’s just begging to get knocked off.
Justin [38:52]: Well, I mean like you could specifically get a super extra long bolt so that it would scrape the ground on purpose to make sparks for fun.
Caleb [39:02]: And I think the insights what the Insight application is actually really good for those anyway because it sticks into the side as opposed to down at the bottom. Like a red block.
Geno [39:13]: Yeah. The Subaru, it’s off the back and I think, yeah, I think my wife’s Chrysler is the same way.
Caleb [39:19]: Yeah. And that’s how the inside is. I miss my how old Mansat it.
Justin [39:24]: Would be nice to have one right about now with the gas prices.
Caleb [39:29]: Yep.
Justin [39:30]: Speaking of how what is the, is it. What has been the impact on gas prices down in Brazil? I’m curious. Because in America it’s been pretty brutal.
Caleb [39:39]: It hasn’t been super bad, but Brazil has a lot of domestic production. So kind of what is ended up happening is the government, since the largest oil exporter is the state owned oil company, they have just diverted a lot of the stuff that was for the export market to supply internal demand.
Geno [40:06]: Nice.
Caleb [40:07]: And when you pair that with something like 80% of the cars here are flex fuel capable. So they’ll run on anything from E0 to E100. A lot of the domestic demand has really shifted to alcohol as well.
Justin [40:27]: See they’ve been so prices are pretty stable in Brazil.
Caleb [40:31]: They’ve actually not been too bad.
Justin [40:34]: Interesting.
Caleb [40:35]: They’ve gone up like. They’ve gone up like the equivalent of 10 cents a liter. So about 40 cents a gallon.
Justin [40:43]: Yeah, it’s not bad.
Caleb [40:44]: The whole mess started.
Justin [40:46]: It’s not bad. It’s been, it’s been like over a dollar here.
Geno [40:49]: Yeah, it’s. It’s getting pretty bad. I think most places around here right now are 450.
Justin [40:55]: It was worse like a week ago.
Geno [40:58]: Yeah.
Justin [40:59]: It was like almost 5 for regular. I was paying almost 6 for premium. In some places we’re 5.99 for premium. It’s down a little bit for sure. It is more like 450 regular now.
Caleb [41:20]: Yeah. So our prices. So before the whole mess started for gasoline were around 440 a gallon and now we are around 485, 490 a gallon.
Justin [41:36]: But that’s like I said, that’s closer to normal because normal is 440.
Caleb [41:42]: Right. That’s rough.
Justin [41:45]: We’re dealing with Brazil prices. It’s un American. You know Geno, you should continue the 940 story. We completely went off track. If you have any more, I mean.
Geno [42:04]: That’s, that’s most of it. We kind of. Like I said it was a perfectly cromulent car.
Justin [42:09]: There’s really not much with it. It just was a good road trip with a good car.
Geno [42:13]: The car drove great. Honestly. If you have a chance to get a 940 Turbo sedan in decent condition and throw some Bilstein HDs Koni sway or not Coney Bilstein HD’s IPD sways and springs on it and drive it around do so you won’t regret it.
Justin [42:34]: Did you. Did you do a burnout.
Geno [42:36]: At least there was a burnout or two. Yeah.
Justin [42:38]: Excellent. Excellent. All right. That’s all that needed to happen. Then we’re good.
Geno [42:41]: Yeah, I think we’ve kind of exhausted every possible tangent on this one.
Justin [42:47]: Yeah, I think we’re good to wrap it up.
Caleb [42:51]: All right, so any last words for our listeners?
Geno [42:55]: Check your oil. It’s probably low.
Justin [42:57]: Yeah, check your oil. Check your transmission fluid. That’s what I’m about to check on my freaking car.
Geno [43:03]: And if you haven’t changed brake fluid in the last two years, think about doing it.
Justin [43:09]: Yeah, I need to. But I’m about to take an eight hour road trip with old ass brake fluids, so wish me luck.
Geno [43:15]: Yeah, good luck boiling your brakes. Not fun.
Caleb [43:18]: Not at all. I know from experience.
Justin [43:20]: Yeah, I’ll. I’ll be fine.
Geno [43:22]: I almost put. I almost put an 87244 up the ass of a very clean 242 GT because of boiling brakes.
Justin [43:34]: Look, I sucked out all of the nasty ass brake fluid from the reservoir and replaced it with some fresh ass dot four, which is compatible with the probable dot three that’s in it. And. Yeah, that’s all I did. And it, it’s still. There’s still trash. The rest of the system is full of garbage. It’s. It needs some help.
Geno [43:58]: Well, but the brakes work. They work. They work.
Justin [44:03]: They work. They’re a little spongy, but they work.
Geno [44:05]: I won’t say you did what you could, but you did what you did.
Justin [44:10]: It ain’t fixed, but it’s different.
Geno [44:14]: And on that note, have a good night.
Caleb [44:17]: Bye. Y’all take care now.