I work at a high school auto program.

"Frank Grimes" (FrankGrimes)
10/23/2013 at 17:46 • Filed to: None

Today some kid asked me how big the motor is in my mustang and I said it was a 2.3 4cyl.

He asked me if it was a honda motor. I was really sad.

DISCUSSION (42)

Captain_Overboost > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:48

Dat VTEC yo!

MonkeePuzzle > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:48

Mustang? not a Corvette?

Kinja'd!!!

Gamecat235 > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:48

. . .

Do you have control over his grade? If so...

$kaycog > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:49

Yeah, that really is sad.

Somethingwittyer likes noisy > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:49

Maybe he thought you did a swap? I mean, SVOs aren't exactly well known.

Corey CC97, MAZDA DPI IS STILL BAE JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV VISIT FLORIDA RACING LIVES FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:49

You should have told him your Mustang was a 2000 edition GTR with a rotary and custom pistons.

Nighthawkwill7, Hoon Depot Manager > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:50

Summer school for him then...

mycarneverruns87 > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:51

If he asks if it's fast, show him this...

Kinja'd!!!

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:51

That is what is known as a "teachable moment." Don't waste them, it really can make a difference.

davedave1111 > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:51

Why the sad? Your car was built way before any kid today was even born. You can't blame him for assuming that no Mustang would ever have been built with a 2.3l I4, then going on to guess at an engine swap for something small and Japanese. Or have I totally missed the point.

ddavidn > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:54

JDM your mustang, bro. Crack up that VTEC.

Bandit > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 17:55

Kids like that give gear heads my age a bad name. When I go to a car show car owners always feel they need to explain their car to me in the most childish way possible. Them: "Yep, that's the motor. You can tell it's a ford by the color it is painted." Me: "So what is your lifter duration? What does this thing do on a dyno?"

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > Corey CC97, MAZDA DPI IS STILL BAE JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV VISIT FLORIDA RACING LIVES FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS
10/23/2013 at 18:00

*Golf clap*

YSI-what can brown do for you > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 18:05

Fail that mofo!!

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > Bandit
10/23/2013 at 18:08

It really is terrible. I've impressed so many people when they come to the shop where I work for fuel in some classic. I can actually carry a conversation about the car. It blows them away that I actually know something about anything that isn't on a computer.

Bandit > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey
10/23/2013 at 18:09

You look like a decent guy, you should now be followed by oppositelock so your comments are now out of the grey.

deadpedal > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 18:11

{gutpunch}

I woulda told him it was 23,000mm.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > Bandit
10/23/2013 at 18:11

Thanks man! I actually had another account but I was kicked off during the Kinja mess the other day. I lost the key for it since it was just a burner. I actually used to be Dinger loves his ranger.

Bandit > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey
10/23/2013 at 18:12

No prob, someone else will have to give you authorship privileges though.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > Bandit
10/23/2013 at 18:13

Haha, something I didn't even have on my old account.

hollanddjw 1 > deadpedal
10/23/2013 at 18:21

*2300mL

Frank Grimes > Corey CC97, MAZDA DPI IS STILL BAE JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV VISIT FLORIDA RACING LIVES FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS
10/23/2013 at 18:24

High school is tough and since I currently have a beard all the kids look up to me and I wouldnt want to crush their souls.

Frank Grimes > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
10/23/2013 at 18:25

I wouldn't know how to teach him that a ford will never have a honda engine. But you are right I should make more effort to teach instead of just ignore.

deadpedal > hollanddjw 1
10/23/2013 at 18:27

and then you would be the student who got the joke.

/philosophyBA

Frank Grimes > davedave1111
10/23/2013 at 18:28

I just assumed that he would know enough about cars to know that hondas and fords dont mix. I would like to know why he assumed a honda though maybe there is some logical reasoning there or he actually thought about it.

hollanddjw 1 > deadpedal
10/23/2013 at 18:30

Clown Shoe Pilot > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 18:35

i dunno, jenson button won a world championship in a honda w/ a mercedes engine

davedave1111 > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 18:41

Hondas and Fords don't mix? Hell, I don't even know what you mean by that, let alone that it's true.

Like I said, anyone who didn't know it had been done could be forgiven for not believing that any Mustang was ever built with a 2 litre four-pot. Once you make that mistake, the obvious assumption is an engine-swap, and something high-revving and Japanese is the only kind of small I4 that would make any sense, so VTEC-yo. Totally wrong, of course, but I can see how someone might have got there - although it doesn't mean it has to have happened that way, of course.

Frank Grimes > davedave1111
10/23/2013 at 18:53

You disagree? You dont believe that hondas and fords dont mix? Even if you do disagree surely it is common knowledge that people who like ford mustangs are not gonna put a honda motor in one.

Brian, The Life of > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 19:11

Never say never, Grimey! :D

Kinja'd!!!

Corey CC97, MAZDA DPI IS STILL BAE JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV JOESTACTIV VISIT FLORIDA RACING LIVES FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 19:25

I'm pretty sure high school does a good enough job of crushing people's souls all by itself.

davedave1111 > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 19:27

Is it particularly a Honda/Ford thing? I understand the not-mixing manufacturers thing, and the fact that Ford and Honda cultures are pretty far apar - at least in the US - but to me it's more of a guideline than a hard rule. A VTEC Mustang would be kind of interesting, now you mention it.

Anyway, at the end of the day the problem is that you don't know if the kid was thinking 'wtf, none of this makes sense', or asking a stupid question.

Frank Grimes > davedave1111
10/23/2013 at 19:34

It would never in a million years make sense to have a honda engine in a ford mustang. I dont mean to be rude but that is just the way it is.

davedave1111 > Frank Grimes
10/23/2013 at 19:47

As a matter of taste, you mean? Or for practical reasons?

If it's on taste grounds, I don't quite agree. I'm more opposed to engine-swaps with engines that are inappropriate on quality/expense grounds rather than nationality or culture. So a big cheap US crate motor in an older Aston might make sense, but seems wrong - whereas a Ferrari engine might be mad, but would at least be an appropriate alternative. In my head, anyway.

On that basis, Honda and Ford are both relatively cheap, ordinary-people brands which have done fairly cheap speed - albeit in two very different ways.

Harrison Voorhees > Frank Grimes
10/24/2013 at 02:38

Uhhhhhh wrong. I have actually seen with my own two eyes a K20 S2000 engine in a Foxbody circle track chassis. The Toyota motors are more common but Honda motor + Foxbody = race wins in a circle.

/conversation

Frank Grimes > Harrison Voorhees
10/24/2013 at 19:14

You argument is because you saw a honda in a circl track race car means that you know assume that becaus I have a 4cyl mustang that it must be a honda motor.

And you thought it was over because you post some html code junk after that weak argument?

Harrison Voorhees > Frank Grimes
10/24/2013 at 21:17

No. You said that Honda engines and Ford cars don't mix. I have seen them mix.

Sooooo.....who has the weak argument again?

Frank Grimes > Harrison Voorhees
10/24/2013 at 21:56

You seeing one "Fox body circle track chassis" race car with a honda motor and now suddenly you think it isn't strange that a mustang would have a honda motor swap.

Harrison Voorhees > Frank Grimes
10/26/2013 at 14:22

Nope. I never said it wasn't weird. We were arguing about whether or not they mixed. Those are not the same ideas. Don't go changing the argument so you can win good sir.

Frank Grimes > Harrison Voorhees
10/26/2013 at 14:49

And my reasoning that hondas dont go in fords is because noone does it and noone would want to and you cite for example a single dirt track racing car. Therefor assuming that a 4cyl in a mustang is a honda is just strange.

Harrison Voorhees > Frank Grimes
10/26/2013 at 15:48

So your argument is that " noone does it and noone would want to" yet clearly someone did want to and did exactly that. The odds of someone else having the same idea are probably greater than 0, so assuming it's the only one in the world is pretty silly as well. On the other hand, it was strange that the kid assumed it was a Honda engine, but not as unrealistic as you made it out to be. Again, strange and not mixing are different ideas.

Frank Grimes > Harrison Voorhees
10/26/2013 at 16:48

Yes someone trying to meet a specific class of racing in a race car that races on dirt. Show me another one. Prove to me that even one exists.

My point is that it is unrealistic. Completely and totally unrealistic. People who like fords and mustangs usually do not like hondas and would never consider let alone actually put a Honda motor into a mustang street car.