16 or 17 inch rims for 1984 Caprice?

Your engine takes half an hour to warm up? Really? You need a new thermostat! In the 88 Grand Marquis, I have heat starting in a matter of 30 seconds, and the car is up to temperature in about 5 minutes, and that is if it is NOT plugged in. If the block heater is used, there is heat immediately the engine starts, and the engine is to full operating temperature in a matter of a very few minutes indeed! That, by the way, is when the mercury is down well below 0 Fahrenheit.

 

That's not quite what I meant, Mike. The car heats up fine in that way, But when it comes to engine heaters it still puts MPGs higher to use them than not to - Particularly when it comes to trips that are under fifteen miles.

 

Well the tires (225/70/R15s) are ordered at Walmart. I don't even have to pay for them, They do orders that way and if they all fit (and I think they will) I'll be buying them. Total quoted price is $610 for all five mounted and balanced, And I may end up getting a road hazard warranty on top of it for $10 extra per tire.

 

Ok time for me to weigh in on this as I have done a fair amount of research because let's face it most of our cars are boxes and need all the aero help they can get. As to aero wheels as some said it can affect brake temps. I was into Fieros quite a ways back and the club I was in had a road rally. Not driving fast just finding clues along the way. One guy used those things to keep your wheels clean from brake dust and he overheated his brakes. It didn't take much. Like I said no high speeds or heavy braking. Now BBS wheels in the 70;s and 80's had special wheel coverings called wheel fans or wheel discs. They actually sucked the air out from behind the brakes. Could actually create some ground effect downforce. BUT it didn't work well with all cars on all ends of the car. You need to watch where you create high or low pressure around your car. And yes there is a way to measure that. Here are some aero tech articles I found long ago.

http://www.autospeed.com/A_3058/cms/article.html
http://www.autospeed.com/A_3059/cms/article.html
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&A=3060
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&title=Blowing-the-Vortex-Part-4&A=3061

http://www.autospeed.com/A_108656/cms/article.html
http://www.autospeed.com/A_108674/cms/article.html
http://www.autospeed.com/A_108675/cms/article.html

http://www.autospeed.com/A_2159/cms/article.html
http://www.autospeed.com/A_2160/cms/article.html
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_2162/article.html

http://www.autospeed.com.au/cms/A_2455/article.html
http://www.autospeed.com.au/cms/A_2456/article.html

http://www.autospeed.com/A_109937/cms/article.html

Now the big question you have to ask yourself is how far do you want to go. Some things are simple and small others are big and complex. Things like lowering your car can actually help your aero because less air going under your car is less air that will be effected by the dirty(aero wise) side of your car. Side skirts(not wheel skirts) can also help. One thing I did was to add a diffuser. Not so much for downforce but to get air out from under the car better. Look under most all our wagons and you will see your fuel tank behind your axle and then a big open area between it and the rear bumper which hangs down like a parachute. The air comes under the tank and then spills into that open area and becomes turbulent(causing drag) and then gets caught by the back of the bumper till is spills out behind your car in one big turbulent mess. All creating drag. So I made a diffuser that took the air coming under the tank and fed it smoothly out the bumper. Have a look.
Here you can see the before and after of where I cut the bumper.






Templates for the side fences of the diffuser.

The first tunnel

2 tunnels

the 2 tunnels connected



Now at the end of the day the wagon was a lot more stable with no buffeting that it previously had. It was much better with little effort.

 

Stickman, I think some people over at Ecomodder.com would like to see that. Few people over there use Station Wagons that I know of yet and they may have only one full-size wagon in their Garage section of the site, at this post time. Do be careful about heating though, I'm not saying "Don't have those on your car" because I like the idea. Just stay safe.

As for the car tires, They arrived and are mounted and balanced! No pics yet though. $718 rounded up (Within a dollar's difference) with a Walmart road-hazard warranty, for each tire. They sound a lot quieter than the last ones I had and have more grip. I asked how old the old tires are and an employee said "They look like they're from 1994." They didn't all match either, I think one of them may have been from 1992!

Edit: This spelling checker programmed into the forum isn't a context checker. I nearly typed "I thin one of them..."

 

Well if they can withstand the heat from the pipes during a 20 minute track session they will be fine. My car was track tested.

 

OK, I've had the tires on for a week now and have put close to 70 miles on them (minus one of them; I wrote that below.) They have more traction than the ones I had on the car (Which were dry-rotted and one was at least from 1994, but others? They may have been from 1992 or earlier!) and I'm glad these work so well. I did switch the spare (Which was also replaced) for the passenger's front tire though, since one of the hubcaps wouldn't fit on the wheel I had.

Also, On subject of hubcaps I was driving and what did I hear? The driver's front hubcap fell off. That was my fault, though; I took it off to add a little tire pressure since the valve stem didn't go out far enough. I did pull over and find the hubcap though, and drove the car to Walmart to have the lug-nuts re-torqued.

On another subject I was trying to get screws off of the trim (is that the right word for it?) around the wheel wells and had a difficult time until my next-door neighbor (who is a mechanic) showed me how. Thanks to him I've learned something.

Here's a photo of one of the new tires. It had something close to seven miles on it when I photographed it. They're all General Grabber HTS 225/70R15s, and it cost $718 (rounded up) to buy them and have them mounted and balanced plus with a road hazard warranty:



The fender's a bit dented in the front and is missing the emblem. I think someone driving brushed against something, it wasn't me though; It's been like that since we got the car.

 

101Volts...... > On another subject I was trying to get screws off of the trim (is that the right word for it?) around the wheel wells and had a difficult time until my next-door neighbor (who is a mechanic) showed me how. Thanks to him I've learned something.

Well maybe you can tell the rest of us how to screw around with wheel trim so others can learn something!:confused::2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Oh. Heh. Well, He took an old screwdriver and put it in the screw head then hit it with a mallet to move the screw. That's one part; The other part was to take a blunt chisel and hit at the screw-head on the sides to move it around in the slot a little bit since it was frozen in there. By doing this the screws were loosened and they do go back in the screw-holes. I expect to be doing this to the other screws which are frozen too, Keeping careful of the finish.

As it turned out, The screws had some salt on them.

 

Next time deal with Tire Rack. They have great prices and get you the tires darn quick. I have often had them the next morning after ordering them in the afternoon they are that quick. Then it's usually $150 to mount and balance.

Better size better performance and better price.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...TARWL2V2&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes

Same exact size all better price
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireS...rformance=ALL&width=225/&ratio=70&diameter=15

 

I was thinking of that and then my Dad suggested Walmart. We compared prices and it would've been around $660 to have the tires bought, paid for and shipped whereas Walmart just ordered them regardless if they would fit the car or not. I didn't even need to pay for them until after they were mounted and balanced, fitting. Thanks though.