Dumb Engine Size Questions

Back right after the US stopped trying to change to metric, I was taking a class at the local 

Edited by Dusty MI - 28 Nov 2016 at 8:44pm

Well,there's been many great and wonderful things designed and built in the USA over many years using the inch measurement.I couldn't have been that tough on the engineers.Moving a silly decimal point to soften life isn't the American way!!My brother is a draftsman (near retirement) and has little good to say about the metric system. I can see no advantage to metric sized anything.

I didn't care one way or another which system I was using as long as I knew what I was working on. Foreign cars all use metric and as a rule hey use even-sized metric bolts. U.S. automakers simply picked the metric size closest to the old SAE size. They used a 13mm bolt in place of the old 1/2" bolt. You can generally use a 13mm socket on a 1/2 bolt, but you can't use a 1/2 socket on a 13mm bolt. As for engine sizes I can't imagine anything in cubic inches anymore unless I'm dreaming of the days when a muscle car would have a 409, 427 or other such engine. Even the old 350 is now a 5.7 in my mind.

One per peeve, I have is the idiotic 'need' for a 5.5mm headed bolt or nut !! Anyone else have 'fun' with oddball unecessary sizes ?
BTW, you should NOT use Metric on Imperial and vice versa, sooner of later you WILL strip the head on that bolt and end up with a true circular headed fastener, that even NEW vicegrip just can't get a grip on !! While some sizes are really,really close like 19mm and 3/4" you should always use the correct sized tool. or the BFH to get that 5.5mm rounded head out of your life !

Jay

It's not that hard on the engineers, still buttons on a calculator or computer. It is hard on the poor machinist who's been turning the same crank for 40 years and expecting a certain result. He has plenty enough intelligence to "divide by 25.4" but he's lost the feel for what he's doing. That, and the cost, the cost of changing all those cranks and the markings and lead screws and gauges and everything that goes with it. Huge cost, to what gain?

There are some obscure standards in certain "metric" systems, but it's more in the definitions and standards than the units of measure itself. Would have nothing or maybe very very little to do with what it would take to manufacture something. The true system is called SI (Systeme International), and is the most widely used system of measurement, and is the system used by anyone manufacturing anything in another country you would ever encounter. Our company is mandating a change to metric....and it is PAINFUL!

.....And WHY DO WE GO TO THIS DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME???   Hmmm...

Back to engines!

I am in the do it all the same camp. Sadly when I worked in industry we bought most of the normal components from vendors like motors and gear boxes even though we built custom equipment and if you buy a servo motor it is not made in the United States even if it is a Rockwell motor made in Mexico so the bottom line is you either use metric and all the nuts and bolts are metric or you use English and have a mix of what you designed versus what you bought. In the end it is much easier for the person taking it apart if he knows all the tools are metric.
And yes it isn't easy for a machine shop to switch but if the manufacturers in the US had switched back 40 years ago when the talk started we would all be over it now the problem is the decided to stay the odd man out and now we have mixed stuff. Mixed fastener types and sizing sucks. We fired one engineer from a company I worked for because he couldn't get it through his head that you didn't want to use 4 different tools to remove one metal skin about 4 feet square from a machine.

Edited by Dan73 - 29 Nov 2016 at 7:08am

The differences between 5/16" and 8mm, 7/16" and 11 mm, 3/4" and 19mm is smaller than the standard enlargement of the wrench opening for each of those sizes so for those fasteners the metric and fractional wrenches interchange without fastener damage. Other sizes never fit so good, though 5/8" and 16mm should match, but I've never used those with the other wrench. I've had double sets of wrenches for more than 50 years. This week Menard's sale has a couple $9 wrench sets, buy on get the other for free, one metric and one fractional. Fractional isn't the same as Imperial.

Daylight Stupid Time, enough said.

Gerald J.

Gerald J. wrote: The differences between 5/16" and 8mm, 7/16" and 11 mm, 3/4" and 19mm is smaller than the standard enlargement of the wrench opening for each of those sizes so for those fasteners the metric and fractional wrenches interchange without fastener damage. Other sizes never fit so good, though 5/8" and 16mm should match, but I've never used those with the other wrench. I've had double sets of wrenches for more than 50 years. This week Menard's sale has a couple $9 wrench sets, buy on get the other for free, one metric and one fractional. Fractional isn't the same as Imperial. Daylight Stupid Time, enough said. Gerald J.

Yeah, but, a metric wrench has a standard enlargement as well...I've seen it where a 6 point socket or box will fit but a 12 won't. And good luck with those $9 wrenches, God knows what the "enlargement" is on those, and probably not stiff enough to stay on size anyway!    They'll probably fit anything within random anyway and you'd never know.

I just like Daylight time so that when I get home from job 1, I have some daylight to work with at job 2. Driving to work in the dark and coming home and it's dark get's pretty depressing after a while. With Daylight time, I'd drive to work in the dark, but have a chance for some sunlight once in a while, it's nice. Just glad I don't live out East, no wonder those people are so grumpy!

And then you have the air compressor hp ratings. I don't understand how I can see a 8hp new air compressor at Home Depot and the motor or compressor won't be one third of the size of my old Ingersol Rand 3 hp compressor.

All this time I thought my 301 was a 649 since there are six cylinders at 49 cu. inches each.  (I know, it doesn't add up, but who's counting)

Those old 71 serries sure did hammer away forever. A motor you can't beat but that will make you deaf...