Man i met what i thought was a cool guy he had a 72 chevelle convt.  a 64 imapala, and a 66 stang.  We were talking and he told me that the chevelle had a 307 in it, i kind of got suspicous.  Then i told him i was planning on putting a 455 in my 79 cutlass.  He said to me not to waste a 455, and to put it in a real car.  Then he proceeded to tell me my cutlass was a unibody, and it wouldnt work.  I straitend that out right away, and i started to tell him about a dodge dart i had found for sale, and he didnt know what a dart was.  This man has restored novas, camaros, chevelles, and even a ford,  am i the only one who thinks they should have some law that no matter which breed you prefer, you should still know what the competition has in its line up.  i was so pissed at this guys stupidity, when i left that i wanted to fight somebody.  

Don't pick a fight.  They come in all shapes and forms and I have met them too.  A cheeseburger knows a Cutlass has a frame under it.  My bout was with a kid I per chance met over at one of the car hops that go on in our area during the good weather.  They rotate around - this one was at the Lakewood Mall.  I have been around the pike, and met some real dumb asses in my time, but this one mook took the cake.  My son and I were looking at his mid 70's (I think it was a '76) red Firebird.  It was nice enough, and I was admiring the engine and he came up and tried to tell me that the motor was out of a Ford. He told me that because the engine was painted red, it was a Ford - I kinda went WAAAA - YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. You could plainly tell that it was a Pontiac  right down to the quadrapuke on top.  I help my friend with his Pontiac strip cars (they are both sportsman class cars - GTO and a Tempest).  It's his hobby, and I have seen a few Pontiac engines - blown and otherwise.  The one mistake I made with this moron was to try and set him straight.  Bad choice - the jerk was going to poke me in the chops over it.  For one, I am 290 and 6'2'' and my son is 250 and 5'9".  We aren't mean, but we could have ripped him in half.  I just shook my head, and walked away.  Even when we tried to avoid him, he kept yelling at us and talking smack.  I just couldn't believe the mentality of this creep.  When we ignored him, he got into his car, and left in a huff - all because I called him on his line of crap.  If he ever reads this I have two words for him - BOO HOO.    

Well I was talking to some guy in a Chat room once who told me that all GM 400's were the same short block with different heads but you could make a 400 Buick or Pont or Olds a Chevy by changing the heads and intake . The sad part was he was going to Automotive college.  

Some guy tried that on me too - nice but I've had too many engines apart to know better.  He was bigger than me, so I let it go and chalked it up to his ignorance.  Like I said - they come in all shapes and sizes.   Bowser.  

Priceless!  

If someone tries to tell me something that I know is wrong, I'll tell 'em. If they don't want to listen, I usually just nod and stop wasting my time. Some men, you just can't teach.

"Never argue with a fool; passers-by may not be able to tell who the real moron is".

Steve

Yeah, some people don't know their head from a hole in the ground.  I had a guy tell me I should break my 4000 dollar engine in on straight 10 weight.  I just let him yak, and let it go.

I just want everybody to know my 454 Hemi runs real good in my 65 Galaxy 500! Yeah,you know they only made 10 or 11 of them to make them legal for Bonneville! No,really. It`s true. You can`t make this stuff up.  

galen govier has a story on how he came to own his hemi 68 coronet 440.  we all know the 440 is the model name, but the previous owner told him that meant it had a 440 engine. galen asked him what the hemi badges meant, he said it was because it had a hemi transmission.

a guy at a local cruise night, with a really nice clone hemi cuda, insists its a "rare factory a/c hemi car. one of the few with a single carb." how does he get the bucks to own a car like that?

we like to joke about people like that. saying they make up their own firing order.

I have been reading alot of posts lately.......It seems that people like to pick on  others who do not have as much knowledge as they do.

Well F-U.......We all have to start somewhere.........Didn't you?

Hey no need to call names here smart guy . Look I also did not know alot but I knew I did not know and did not try to pretend I did ok . BIG difference.  

Gotta love the ones that "know what they're talking about"

One of my first vehicles in high school was a '75 f100 with a 360 fe. When I sold the truck one looker really stood out from the rest because when he looked it over he saw the motor and informed me that it wasn't a 360, that 360s were dodge motors and this said ford right on the valve covers!! He informed me that "HE knew what HE was talking about"

He did buy the truck though, and I charged him 400 more than I was asking.

Hey Mouse.. lighten up!
Re-read the post and the responses and they aren't talking about people that are just learning... they are talking about those guys that think they know-it-all and they don't have a clue!
Such as my story:

I wanted to align-hone a 350 so I took it to a local machine shop that specializes in high performance car motors for "hot rod" boats. The owner was out but the 2nd in command (who the other guys called a
motor guru) was there. We started talking about compression and I told him about a motor I was running in my 4x4, the compression was well over 10.5 with iron heads so I controlled pre-ignition with water injection. We talked about the pro and con of water injection and I said "for me the best reason for running it is carbon is almost non-existent" Then he said "yeah but you the need carbon to
protect the motor" So I said "whattttt??" and he said "Yeah, think about it, aluminum melts at a lot lower temperature than what the temperature is in the combustion chamber so the only thing that keeps the pistons from melting is the coating of carbon that forms on the pistons!" Now, this guy was considered the most talented engine builder in the joint!
Then there was another guy (different shop, same services) told me that to increase the cubes in my 400 cid Pontiac motor to 455 was to install some heads with larger combustion chambers!
That is the kind of people that everyone is talking about!
-Wulff

No insult intended Mouse.  Look - there is a lot to be said for people like you who are "just starting out" - are willing to say so - are willing to read some posts and maybe gain some knowledge.  The jab here isn't at you or people in your position.  It is at the people who BS about cars, and don't know anything, or don't have the intelligence to quit talking when they have the chance.  There is a lot to be said for people who know when to talk and when to listen.  In many cases people think they have to "do one better" to stay in the game.  They get way out of their comfort area talking about things they don't have the slightest idea about.  In my example, the guy with the Pontiac simply picked the wrong guy to BS, and when I didn't suck his line, he got pissed off.  Why get mad?  If he was secure with his own knowledge, he should have let it go and written me off as a basket case.  Instead he made a total J/A of himself in front of a bunch of people trying to push his point - a point that was totally off base.  I don't know everything about cars.  I know more than some, less than others, but do have at least 43 years under my belt of experience.  That still doesn't qualify my as a know it all loud mouth that has to flaunt his prowess as an engine builder, and a hot rod builder.  I'd say I'm good, but not perfect.  I learn something new everyday, and if anyone makes the mistake of saying they "know it all", they are full of crap - me included.