Discussion The Random Discussion Thread

[gringo2011]

Chinese are on both.

The Future of Fission Reactors May Be Small

Small modular reactors (SMRs) won’t save the day quite yet; depending on the country, there’s still plenty of regulatory and logistical issues to hammer out. But, experts say, the 2020s could help set the foundations for a nuclear blossoming in decades to come.

spectrum.ieee.org

China Breaks Nuclear Fusion Record, Again | OilPrice.com

Chinese researchers set a new record by sustaining a nuclear fusion reaction at 100 million degrees Celsius for 1,066 seconds.

oilprice.com

China has a new technique for extending battery life of L-Ion batteries I saw. Injecting a reviver in at some point that gives them around 18 life spans. I think onsite battery tech will be the future.

There is so much roof top solar coming into the grid during the day and more every day. They are talking of paying to remove it from grid. If you store during the day which can be programmed schedule, you get free electricity. Using your car battery as a storage for your house is going to be legal soon too.

Smaller scale storage to run public infrastructure doesn't need as much size if houses predominantly store their own.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Longer inline engines needed extra balancing, engineering and bearings. V formation engines have shorter cranks and cams.They don't break as much under speed and strain. Chrysler used extra bearings in their hemi 6 in Australia because the old slant 6 motors were prone to breaking cranks and cams in their performance motors.

An inline 6 or 8 is inherently better balanced than their V counterparts.
V8's balance well in 90 degrees , or 60 degrees. ( or 120 degrees, or 180 degrees ).
V6's balance in 60 ( or 120, or 180 ie porsche ).
Buick built a V6 by cutting off 2 cylinders from their 90 degree V8. It shook like the shit.
The Holden V6 was a development, it had balance shafts, and the crank pins were offset ( and not very strong ).

Traditionally a straight 6 cylinder engine had a main bearing at each end and between each cylinder. So seven main bearings.
They could shorten it and cheapen it by leaving some out.
So we got 4 cylinder engines with 3 main bearings, and 6 cylinder engines with 5 bearings, or in the case of the Valient, 4 main bearings. ( It was reliable as hell if you didn't try to "hot it up" ).
The Hemi 6 was a 7 Bearing design, like the Holden and Ford engines.

I worked in engine component development back in the day, and i was a fan of the ford engines, they had a shitload of main bearing area. The factory bearings were basically the cheapest bearing material, and it was fine because the stress was so low. After Ford went to overhead cam, the bottom end was still basically the same as the old original engines, still no stress. ( We developed a new piston for it, and Ford were happy as hell, because as well as lighter and stronger, the piston was shorter, and it let them optimize the counterweight on the crankshaft.

It didn't surprise me that Ford were able to get that engine up to the Barra Turbo spec, and that its now a popular performance engine for drag racers. The old Valient slant engine was probably better engineered to be an economic to produce engine for a low cost vehicle though.

 

[bergholt]

There is so much roof top solar coming into the grid during the day and more every day. They are talking of paying to remove it from grid. If you store during the day which can be programmed schedule, you get free electricity.

Yeah we use the Ovo plan (all energy free between 11am and 2pm) and fill our batteries every day, very rarely need to draw from the grid outside that time.

 

[True Believer]

An inline 6 or 8 is inherently better balanced than their V counterparts.
V8's balance well in 90 degrees , or 60 degrees. ( or 120 degrees, or 180 degrees ).
V6's balance in 60 ( or 120, or 180 ie porsche ).
Buick built a V6 by cutting off 2 cylinders from their 90 degree V8. It shook like the shit.
The Holden V6 was a development, it had balance shafts, and the crank pins were offset ( and not very strong ).

Traditionally a straight 6 cylinder engine had a main bearing at each end and between each cylinder. So seven main bearings.
They could shorten it and cheapen it by leaving some out.
So we got 4 cylinder engines with 3 main bearings, and 6 cylinder engines with 5 bearings, or in the case of the Valient, 4 main bearings. ( It was reliable as hell if you didn't try to "hot it up" ).
The Hemi 6 was a 7 Bearing design, like the Holden and Ford engines.

I worked in engine component development back in the day, and i was a fan of the ford engines, they had a shitload of main bearing area. The factory bearings were basically the cheapest bearing material, and it was fine because the stress was so low. After Ford went to overhead cam, the bottom end was still basically the same as the old original engines, still no stress. ( We developed a new piston for it, and Ford were happy as hell, because as well as lighter and stronger, the piston was shorter, and it let them optimize the counterweight on the crankshaft.

It didn't surprise me that Ford were able to get that engine up to the Barra Turbo spec, and that its now a popular performance engine for drag racers. The old Valient slant engine was probably better engineered to be an economic to produce engine for a low cost vehicle though.

I had a few of the Ford Turbo XR6's, great engine!! Before them I had one of the 5.4L, quad cam V8 XR8 versions and the turbo six was a better car!

 

[SaintsSeptember]

I had a few of the Ford Turbo XR6's, great engine!! Before them I had one of the 5.4L, quad cam V8 XR8 versions and the turbo six was a better car!

I had a Territory Ghia AWD, complete with the 6 speed ZF Auto.
I used to think of it as a poor mans Porsche Cayenne. They had around the same power and more torque than the base model V8 Porsche.

 

[PoppedCorn]

I had a few of the Ford Turbo XR6's, great engine!! Before them I had one of the 5.4L, quad cam V8 XR8 versions and the turbo six was a better car!

Have a turbo and a non turbo
Love em both

 

[gringo2011]

An inline 6 or 8 is inherently better balanced than their V counterparts.
V8's balance well in 90 degrees , or 60 degrees. ( or 120 degrees, or 180 degrees ).
V6's balance in 60 ( or 120, or 180 ie porsche ).
Buick built a V6 by cutting off 2 cylinders from their 90 degree V8. It shook like the shit.
The Holden V6 was a development, it had balance shafts, and the crank pins were offset ( and not very strong ).

Traditionally a straight 6 cylinder engine had a main bearing at each end and between each cylinder. So seven main bearings.
They could shorten it and cheapen it by leaving some out.
So we got 4 cylinder engines with 3 main bearings, and 6 cylinder engines with 5 bearings, or in the case of the Valient, 4 main bearings. ( It was reliable as hell if you didn't try to "hot it up" ).
The Hemi 6 was a 7 Bearing design, like the Holden and Ford engines.

I worked in engine component development back in the day, and i was a fan of the ford engines, they had a shitload of main bearing area. The factory bearings were basically the cheapest bearing material, and it was fine because the stress was so low. After Ford went to overhead cam, the bottom end was still basically the same as the old original engines, still no stress. ( We developed a new piston for it, and Ford were happy as hell, because as well as lighter and stronger, the piston was shorter, and it let them optimize the counterweight on the crankshaft.

It didn't surprise me that Ford were able to get that engine up to the Barra Turbo spec, and that its now a popular performance engine for drag racers. The old Valient slant engine was probably better engineered to be an economic to produce engine for a low cost vehicle though.

The slants and the Hemi 6 were both Dodge truck motors from Canada/US. They were cheap and easy to produce and not in high demand in the US. Chrysler Australia built Hemi 6 racing motors for Bathurst because the US wouldn't send us any excess V8s because they were going through their most successful period at the time and could sell everything they made there.

Aussies turned a pretty basic old clunker into a competitive racing car. They couldn't get enough 4 speed gearboxes or racing quality braking systems from Chrysler though and the brakes seized up on track. They were using 3 speed Borg Warners in the first racing Chargers. Barely ventilated discs with hardly any surface area and finned drum backs too.

It's pretty funny considering modern V8 supercars are barely recognisable from a their street version and doubt a single part would swap over.

Ford kept improving that old block year after year. It's a great engine and shows the reason for upgrading rather than starting again. Those things used to do a million kms in taxis running on LPG. They were a phenomena.

 

[gringo2011]

I had a few of the Ford Turbo XR6's, great engine!! Before them I had one of the 5.4L, quad cam V8 XR8 versions and the turbo six was a better car!

Whenever they did the test runs the 6 used to beat the V8 but the sound of a V8 is hard not to love. Glad I'm not paying for petrol for one now though.

 

[True Believer]

Whenever they did the test runs the 6 used to beat the V8 but the sound of a V8 is hard not to love. Glad I'm not paying for petrol for one now though.

Yeah they used to effectively "detune" the turbo 6's to keep their sales of V8's going. And as pointed out, the song of the V8's is hard to match.....

 

[Saint Ray]

Yeah they used to effectively "detune" the turbo 6's to keep their sales of V8's going. And as pointed out, the song of the V8's is hard to match.....

Love my V8...think it is 6.3 Red Label SS Commodore. One of the last made.

 

[Saint Ray]

Love my V8...think it is 6.3L Red Label SS Commodore. One of the last made.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

The slants and the Hemi 6 were both Dodge truck motors from Canada/US. They were cheap and easy to produce and not in high demand in the US. Chrysler Australia built Hemi 6 racing motors for Bathurst because the US wouldn't send us any excess V8s because they were going through their most successful period at the time and could sell everything they made there.

Aussies turned a pretty basic old clunker into a competitive racing car. They couldn't get enough 4 speed gearboxes or racing quality braking systems from Chrysler though and the brakes seized up on track. They were using 3 speed Borg Warners in the first racing Chargers. Barely ventilated discs with hardly any surface area and finned drum backs too.

It's pretty funny considering modern V8 supercars are barely recognisable from a their street version and doubt a single part would swap over.

Ford kept improving that old block year after year. It's a great engine and shows the reason for upgrading rather than starting again. Those things used to do a million kms in taxis running on LPG. They were a phenomena.

A good engine designer designs the engine for its purpose.
The Buick engine that Holden based their six on was probably great in 1930 when it was superseded. It was problematic when they made it bigger and more powerful, was never all that efficient , and it wasn't something you'd want to try to modernise like Ford did. Back in HQ days, the 4.2L V8 (253) was the family car engine of choice. Powerful enough , very smooth , and not as thirsty as the 308. ( the 253/308 weighed less than the Datsun 6 used in the Z Cars , made a nice engine swap apparently).

The slant 6 was reasonably popular in the USA, it was light and reliable, ( they didn't do race versions of it , why? when they had V8's ) and the slant design let them use manifold designs that made them pretty efficient compared to similar engines.
They kept it going until 1980 when it was replaced by a V6.

The Hemi 6 was a development project that was mothballed when they decided to head away from inline sixes to focus on V8's and V6s.
The Aussie's picked up the design and eventually produced it here. I remember the Charger 3 speeds, they were set up so that they were essentially a four speed without first. On the road they were a bit of a bitch, at Bathurst, once they got off the line they wouldn't have used first anyway.

The Ford engine, along with things like the Chevy V8 were from an era when engineers pretty much knew how to make an engine work but overdesigned them. So performance people loved them. Ford did a good job making them more efficient. First they re-designed the head to make it crossflow ( inlet one side, flowing through , exhaust the other side ).
The block was identical.
A couple of years later they developed an aluminium head. So then they were getting much better thermal efficiency.

The block was still so unchanged, that Australian company "Yella Terra" were selling Aluminium crossflow heads into the USA. Particularly in California, Mustang Convertible owners wanted to keep their 250CI cars on the road, but wanted them to be more fuel crisis friendly.

The move to overhead cam ( 3.9l ) was a much bigger leap, though the block changes were mostly to do with getting rid of the cam/pushrod gear.

I feel kind of forgiving towards some of the more limited engines when its like the Holden ( Pre-WWII design ) and Valiant ( A reliable , economical, cheap to produce engine, like a lot of modern engines, don't try to hot it up above its design limit ).
I hate the ones where they balls it up doing stupid cost cutting things , like GM's USA engines with plastic engine components that go brittle when left in contact with hot oil ( duh ) , GM's small 4 cylinders with rubber timing belts that need to be changed every 100 000 or put the valves through the pistons, ummmm make that 80 000, umm make that 60 000. ( Toyota used timing belts very satisfactorily, though there were some issues on early small diesels ). Then there were hot Mitsubishi engines that were pretty ordinary sort of reasonably reliable things before they decompressed and turbo'd them to heaven without modifying the bottom end. Try to find a second hand Cordia or Starrion engine in one piece .

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Yeah they used to effectively "detune" the turbo 6's to keep their sales of V8's going. And as pointed out, the song of the V8's is hard to match.....

When i worked at Holden they understated the power of the V6s and overstated the power of the V8s.
The VR Commodores always felt better on the road with the V6 to me. The V8's felt heavier and really didn't go much harder.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

There you go Gringo, 1981 Dodge diplomat with slant 6.

1981 dodge diplomat performance mods - Slant Six Forum

 

[SG34]

Do you lot agree the e vehicles have hit a major stumbling block..several big names are changing their tune and timelines now.

 

[Saint Ray]

Do you lot agree the e vehicles have hit a major stumbling block..several big names are changing their tune and timelines now.

E vehicles should be renamed S vehicles with the S standing for shit.

 

[True Believer]

Love my V8...think it is 6.3 Red Label SS Commodore. One of the last made.

I nearly had one of those - it was a toss-up between one of the last Commodore SSV Redline's and the Mustang - I got the Mustang (which I loved, great fun!!) I hung onto that Mustang for 6 years! I normally change cars after 4 years, or 5 if I really get attached. The engine in that Mustang was something else.........

 

[StFly]

Tried to pan fry a chicken breast with dry spices, fair to say....

My ratios were off, it was horrendous.

Had all of paprika, chili, garlic, onion, basil, oregano, thyme and parsley but I think it got overpowered by the garlic and the frying was not clean and the butter maybe wasn't the best butter to use to baste it that it ended up being garlic chicken with some burned leaves and butter.

Was contemplating maybe deep frying it instead to have a crust around it, but decided on pan to try and maintain the greens, failed spectacularly.

 

[ScrappyDo]

On a completely different issue, would the mods be interested in promoting a remedial emoji class for Boomers, and smartarses? Neither being exclusively separate.

Seems some posters don’t understand emojis.

Here’s an example: plus opposite view = scorn.

Not humour.

I think the boomers understand ok, they just went through the education system at a time when people eventually graduated on to using words.

 

[gringo2011]

E vehicles should be renamed S vehicles with the S standing for shit.

They are fun to drive. I want to hate them still.

 

[Saint Ray]

I nearly had one of those - it was a toss-up between one of the last Commodore SSV Redline's and the Mustang - I got the Mustang (which I loved, great fun!!) I hung onto that Mustang for 6 years! I normally change cars after 4 years, or 5 if I really get attached. The engine in that Mustang was something else.........

I nearly had one of those - it was a toss-up between one of the last Commodore SSV Redline's and the Mustang - I got the Mustang (which I loved, great fun!!) I hung onto that Mustang for 6 years! I normally change cars after 4 years, or 5 if I really get attached. The engine in that Mustang was something else.........

Sorry, you re right Redline SSV. Still love it.

 

[SG34]

I think the boomers understand ok, they just went through the education system at a time when people eventually graduated on to using words.

Speaking of words..and music, I’ve been chatting to Chat lately about how song lyrics have changed so drastically this century and how sincerity, emotional transparency, zero word play are IN sand cynicism/ dubious narrator/ambiguity all gone, metaphor allegory gone/ basically NO MISCHIEF ! All the fun has gone out of song writing. People around in the ‘’60s to ‘80s used words to play with. Now? Not on your life! Direct honest no games is Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift etc. and word play like the smiths , Beck or any of the auteurs of th ‘80s like Elvis Costello gone gone gone! No irony!

 

[ScrappyDo]

Speaking of words..and music, I’ve been chatting to Chat lately about how song lyrics have changed so drastically this century and how sincerity, emotional transparency, zero word play are IN sand cynicism/ dubious narrator/ambiguity all gone, metaphor allegory gone/ basically NO MISCHIEF ! All the fun has gone out of song writing. People around in the ‘’60s to ‘80s used words to play with. Now? Not on your life! Direct honest no games is Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift etc. and word play like the smiths , Beck or any of the auteurs of th ‘80s like Elvis Costello gone gone gone! No irony!

Musical nuance and complexity has also gone to the dogs. Popular music is no better than McDonalds now.

 

[SG34]

Musical nuance and complexity has also gone to the dogs. Popular music is no better than McDonalds now.

Chat says it is about Social Media - basically we are sterilized - because anything can be decontextualized and bite us all through our lives! Chat said this ;

Yes, those are definitely key traits of contemporary pop music, especially in the mainstream. The emphasis is on:

• Emotional transparency – Listeners expect artists to openly express their feelings without filters.
• Honesty & sincerity – Lyrics are often confessional, personal, and free from irony.
• Artist IS the voice – There's little separation between the artist and the persona in the song; the assumption is that the singer is expressing their own thoughts and emotions.
• Authenticity – Fans value artists who seem "real" and emotionally genuine rather than performative or detached.
• Relatability – Lyrics are written in a way that listeners can see themselves in the story, often using plainspoken, everyday language.
• Directness – Minimal metaphor, little ambiguity; emotions and messages are typically clear and easy to grasp.

This shift has likely been reinforced by social media, where artists constantly share their personal lives and interact directly with fans. There’s less room for the kind of distance or playfulness that was more common in earlier decades.

me
Seems that there is no room to play now - the narrator of a song is THE artist (supposedly) !

Living in Japan with Kpop and Jpop which is fake as sh*t and produced by producers it particularly horrible to stomach!

 

[Dard Ball Get]

Speaking of words..and music, I’ve been chatting to Chat lately about how song lyrics have changed so drastically this century and how sincerity, emotional transparency, zero word play are IN sand cynicism/ dubious narrator/ambiguity all gone, metaphor allegory gone/ basically NO MISCHIEF ! All the fun has gone out of song writing. People around in the ‘’60s to ‘80s used words to play with. Now? Not on your life! Direct honest no games is Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift etc. and word play like the smiths , Beck or any of the auteurs of th ‘80s like Elvis Costello gone gone gone! No irony!

Oh?