Due to my driveway being covered in snow and ice, I was unable to
get my truck up on the ramps, so I spent a couple of days looking around
for a place to change my oil. (I had my own oil and filter.) I went
to one of those quick lube/oil change type places and they said they
could only give a $5 discount for using my own oil and filter. (I
WISH I could get 5 quarts of Mobil 1 for $5! :-) They wanted $21 to
change the oil, so I left there. Today, I went to the garage that
recently did some exhaust work for me and got my oil changed. (Got
my sample mailed in to Blackstone already.) :-) They charged me
$10 for the labor; they disposed of my old oil and filter, and
lubed a couple of places on the truck too! So from now on, I'm
going to support the little guy... :-)
Anyway, after the oil change, I backed out of the bay and parked
alongside the building to take off my open element K&N and put the
stock airbox on again. (I plan to run until my next oil change like
that and then see if there's any difference in the oil reports.) I also
put my stock computer back in because I noticed I was starting to get a
little pinging on the winter gas. I have my cat back in now too. I did
all that stuff mostly to try to cut back on the power and make the
truck more manageable in the snow.
The difference was very noticeable! The truck feels sluggish
now, and when I blip the throttle, I hear my exhaust first instead
of the air cleaner. :-)
On my lunch break today, I was sitting at a red light and I
noticed this nasty blue colored Ranger come up beside me, but
he didn't actually pull alongside, he sort've stayed behind my
window and crept up, as the light was changing. (A lot of
people do that to me; I guess they think they have the element
of surprise in their favor?) Anyway, the light changed, and
he nailed it; I let him creep 1/2 a trucklength ahead of me at
the start just to be sure he was actually trying to race, then I got
into the throttle and spun the tires pretty bad across the white painted
line. On my 1-2 shift, I didn't get any rubber; not even a
chirp; it just bogged, even on the wet pavement. The rest of my
shifts made me feel like I was driving through jello! Throttle response
was bad, and the engine note was rather uninspired. Still, it was enough
to put about 7 to 8 trucklengths between him and me before I hit
50mph. :-) I can't wait until spring when I can get the performance
stuff back on!!! This stock stuff is sucking my Dak's will to
live!! :-P
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ----------------------------------------.
| Jon Steiger * AOPA, DoD, EAA, MP Race Team, NMA, SPA, USUA * RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT CC (14.58@93.55), '96 Kolb FireFly 447 |
`--------------------------- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---'
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