Puke

I am not an attorney, but some of my clients are.

I believe if you are forced to do something different because the law or government requires it, you can use it as a bit of a defense against something (but how good of a defense, I don't know). I don't believe we would have the VP44 if it weren't for the truck companies wanting to sell their trucks in the great state of california...In fact, I believe we'd have been 1st generation for a VERY LONG TIME.

I believe Mercedes has opted not to make a diesel car they can sell in California (I don't know if they even have the technology). SO if you want one here, you have to buy one with more than 7,000 (not sure if that numbe r is correct) miles on it in another state and bring it in "used". If you try to buy one new and bring it in they call you an "illegal importer" and treat you like a drug runner or some such thing.


As far as the 53 block goes, I read somewhere it was supplied for 235 horse max, or something, and will always be desitined to fail sooner or later if you start trying to put more power through it. My big question on that one is if the block has a habit of failing even when you haven't modded your truck for more power.

BigBlue

The block was never designed to fail when you added power to it. It was just a bad batch of castings, that's all. Not much you can do about that.

As far as the vp44 goes, I agree that it was a sheisty design and was done to please the government and EPA but what can you do about it? Are you really gonna try and fight the government on that? And I don't know if I'd be glad to have first gen technology. The driveability of these trucks has improved quite a bit since the first gens. Now, maybe having the mechanical lift pump and a 215 p-pump still available would be nice, but so would elizabeth hurley showing up at my front door step in a bikini. And not all VP's are that bad. I've got 91,000 on mine and it's still running good (knock on wood). It's had the wire tapped and untapped half a dozen times and has been run with 0 fuel pressure for many a months.

Mercedes most definately has the technology to build a car for california. After seeing some of the behind the scenes stuff going on over there, they've got the technology to make a washing machine fly. I don't know why they aren't making a car that's compatible in california. But then again, I don't know why california is still in the union.

Puke

They have to make it legal for california.

Then they have to ship it to, and sell it in california AND STILL MAKE A PROFIT.

and hope their good name in diesels doesn't go to hell due to something in the car design that they only did to please the governer..