Car Krush May 1, 2026

175. The Pile Up: Brain Buster 22

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31:15

Company

Chrysler Corporation

Chrysler Corporation is a big car company. The hosts mention it because it bought another business that had been making/supplying automotive parts.

Car

The Ford Mustang is a sports car made by Ford. Over time, it has been offered with different engines, including smaller V6 options in some “downsized” years. The podcast is mentioning it because those engine choices are part of how the Mustang changed over time.

Car

Ford Pinto

The Ford Pinto is a small car made by Ford. The podcast is mentioning it because it was offered with a smaller V6 engine in some versions. That’s why it comes up when talking about how Ford’s engines were used across different cars.

Car

Buick

Buick is the car brand the story is about. They’re explaining how Buick changed its engine choices when fuel prices and supply became a problem.

Term

oil crisis

An oil crisis is when oil becomes harder to get and gas gets more expensive. The hosts say Buick needed a different engine plan because of that sudden change.

Term

V six

A V6 is an engine with six cylinders arranged in a V shape. The hosts mention it because Buick wanted a smaller engine than a V8 when fuel became more expensive.

Term

bore

Bore means how wide each cylinder is inside the engine. Increasing bore can make the engine bigger, which often helps it make more power.

Term

cylinders three and six

They’re talking about changing which cylinders are used/where they sit in the engine. That kind of change is part of how engineers create a new engine size from an existing design.

Term

production deck

The “deck” is the flat surface on the engine block that the cylinder head bolts to. If it gets altered (like by welding), you often have to resurface it so the head seals correctly.

Term

water hole

A “water hole” is where engine coolant flows through the block. The hosts are describing changes to that passage to strengthen the area and control coolant movement.

Term

dog bone

“Dog bone” is a nickname for a specific metal section in the engine/block area. They’re describing a reinforcement step—basically adding strength where the block is weak.

Term

resurfacing

Resurfacing means re-machining a surface to make it smooth and flat again. They say it’s needed after welding so the engine parts can seal properly.

Term

screw in plugs

Screw-in plugs are small threaded pieces that you install to block a hole. Here, they’re mentioned as a way to stop or limit coolant flow.

Term

epoxy

Epoxy is a strong glue. In this story, it’s mentioned as one possible way to fill a passage and limit coolant flow.

Term

stick welding

Stick welding is a common manual welding method where a rod melts to join metal. The hosts mention it to describe how the reinforcement work was actually done.

Car

Cadillac

Cadillac is a car brand. They’re about to talk about an award that helped change how people viewed the brand.

LIVE

Rose BB22: it's Friday and you're listening to the brain buster brain.

Rose BB22: say the international Piper.

Rose BB22: Chrysler, well, let me go back. I really feel like I should grab this book, but, um, I just don't want to, but there is a really good quote where Horace says, I'm getting tired of being carried around in the pocket of Henry Ford. And I think they were supplying frames and transmissions to Ford. I think that was their deal,

Emily BB22: but Omer.

Rose BB22: now something that was interesting was that he was listening to Dead Moon and I thought it was just on shuffle. But it was only dead Moon songs. And the 54 to 40 or fight song came on last night when I was going to bed, I was watching a video on the Northern Pacific railway,

Emily BB22: No, they're all over the place. Yeah.

Rose BB22: their company remained profitable under the widow's management until it was sold to Chrysler Corporation until eight.

Rose BB22: they were hustlers, you know, supplying two other automakers and making it happen.

Emily BB22: Eater? Eater. Edith.

And they did it to compete with the 2,800 cc version of Ford's European Design 60 degree V six, which was in Pintos and the downsized Mustang two.

Rose BB22: they were that, that they were bringing over. No, I just, that was an extra little bonus.

You don't have independent. That is part of the cool part of the story, but we'll get to that. So. In the fifties, all the way back with Buick doing their aluminum V eight, which leads us back to the ice truck. We keep landing back at Dan Woods and the ice truck. We've tied in. In an episode, you'll, in an episode you'll hear later.

And, uh, it's the two 15 and he liked it. And, you know, this wasn't, by the time that thing was in production, it was a pretty well liked engine. Mm-hmm. Um, and it weighs 350 pounds with a clutch, like with flywheel and clutch on the back of it. Whoa.

Emily BB22: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. You know, we're, we're going from the sixties into the seventies here, folks. Okay. So oil crisis is coming around and Buick is like, shit, we need a V six again, guys.

So, uh, Buick chief engineer, Philip Bowser, found himself, uh, up Shit Creek and he was like, you know what? The old Fireball V six, um, sounds just like what we need. The thing we already did. Sounds just like what we need. So they get to fucking around, they get to calling people, I guess, and talking to people 'cause it's not really clear in this story.

Rose BB22: Found in a local junkyard, an earlier Buick V six, and they took it and they put it into a 74 The, and so they get, they get the president to drive this thing. Now here's what's funny is it says, ed Cole and Steiger then drove the test mule from Flint to Toledo, where Cole arranged for them to inspect the mothballed production equipment at EMC. So they drove this. You know, like this junkyard, clunker

Rose BB22: I'd like to think that they were definitely concerned with selling cars. Yeah.

Emily BB22: and then, Emily BB22: Yeah.

Rose BB22: even if I can't keep apart the 60 and 90 degree versions very well. That part, I forget which is which. I, Joe holds the details pretty good. But there are just so many damn little details. Anyway, that's, I mean, that's part of where this story goes is like they, they move the bore up a little bit from three and three quarter to 3.8.

Rose BB22: They right in the middle of committing suicide with the Rose BB22: How? Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna take this off. I'm gonna go, um, wow. Kat, where? Oh no. Where'd that article go? Maybe I was reading it. Oh, I was reading it on my phone. Anyway, it was a great article, but, um, look. Just a bunch of cool stuff. So the, the four three, same thing derived from the three 50. They just slid cylinders three and six out

Rose BB22: this episode comes out before that, oh, here's the smoky photo. Okay. What does this say? Smoky Eunuch feels it's necessary to weld up the middle of the dog bone, water hole at the rear of the production deck to tie the cylinder to the block.

This step naturally requires resurfacing of the decks. Other builders consider strengthening unnecessary and partially fill the hole with epoxy or screw in plugs to restrict water flow. Either step will be unnecessary on the new heavy duty block. Um, looking at the back of this block that he's welding on and he stick welding mind you. Uh, okay. Oh yeah. Huh? I see what he's doing. Yeah. There's a big gaping hole and I could see that being a weak spot. Um, I'm trying to see the back of this casting to see if it's the four three. I can't tell which one it is.

And they were so flat he had to oil them because when you stuck them together, they wouldn't come apart. You would oil them and they would slide back apart. And the whole thing about that folks, and what's significant about that in machining, the flatter two surfaces truly are, and like grinding things, it's not really flattening them.

Rose BB22: blaster. So my question is what, what award did Cadillac win that completely changed the game for this brand that gave them credibility? They previously did not have

Rose BB22: Yeah, that's, that's it. We've got, we've only got 20 more seconds. They're gonna cut us off and kick us out of the booth. That's it.

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31:15

175. The Pile Up: Brain Buster 22

Chrysler Corporation

Ford Mustang

Ford Pinto

Buick

oil crisis

V six

bore

cylinders three and six

production deck

water hole

dog bone

resurfacing

screw in plugs

epoxy

stick welding

Cadillac

About this episode

Original notes