Jules has some very good points.
I mean, its one thing for us to tell each other everything
we know; it doesn't hurt us financially, though it might
help the "other guy" to go faster than us... :-) But with
Jules, its his livelihood. I suspect that most of the stuff
he knows was obtained through years of experementing, blood,
sweat, tears, and cash. :-) He HAS given us some good info
in the past, like the importance of the alignment of the
TB and the intake, etc.
In the past, I've accused Jules of being stingy with his
information, and saying that it should be free, but I guess
I've "seen the light" since then. Sure, I think it would be
great if he told us everything he knows, but I don't expect
anyone to do that. (I'm ok with it as long as he doesn't start
teasing us again with that "if only you knew what I know" talk...
Heh heh heh!) :-)
I don't think any of us could argue that Jules doesn't know a
heck of a lot about the Magnum engines and how to get the hidden HP
out of 'em. Its also no secret that Jules' prices are higher than
many other places, but (for the most part) the other places will
just take your money and give you the product; they probably won't
be able to help you to the extent that Jules could. Its hard enough
to find a Mopar shop, much less one that specializes in our trucks!
If you want that kind of service, its nice to know that there is a
place you can go for it, even though it may cost extra. Some people
want that level of service, some people don't. Myself, I'm sort've
the stubborn type and I like to learn by doing. Sometimes I save
money by not having to pay someone like Jules for the little secrets
(because I discover them myself), sometimes I lose money because I
screwed up and I've got to do it over again, and it would have been
cheaper to pay for the product and the info. I don't doubt that I
would probably be faster than I am now if I had bought all my stuff
through Jules and used his tips and tricks, but I do know that I would
have spent more, and saving money is still more important to me right
now than squeezing every last tenth out of the truck.
No, I'm not on Jules' payroll or anything like that... :-) Actually,
besides a catalog a couple of years ago, I haven't even bought anything
from him. So far, all I've really wanted were products at the lowest
prices possible. (poor college student, you know) :-) I'm still
building up my truck; I have a few seconds to go before I'll start
hitting some major walls. At that point, I probably will need all
the little secrets if I want to suck every last bit of power out of
the engine. Right now though, I'm still doing bolt-ons and such that result
in "large, crude" power increases; sort of like carving a statue... You hack
off big pieces at first, then start to finesse as you get closer to your
final product. (That's my current philosophy anyway...)
Well, that was certainly a huge rambling message... My basic
point though is that I think its quite understandable that Jules doesn't
want to divulge all his information to the list; if I were in his
position, I probably wouldn't either...
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ------------------------------------.
| Affiliations: 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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