On Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:46:35 -0500, Richard Casady
wrote:

On Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:47:06 -0400, HK wrote:

There are many factors involved in the demise of the Big Three. All of
them are attributable to bad management.

What they did that was guaranteed fatal was offer bad product. Lincoln
offered an SUV based on the Ford F-150 truck. So far so good, although
the Navigator rides like the soft sprung truck it is. My question is
why does it need an expensive four cam 32 valve motor? It is no more
powerful than a pushrod motor the same size. 8000 rpm valve train on a
5000 rpm mill. The motor might look cool, but it so buried under
accessories that you can barely see it. Two hours to change the plugs,
not the two minutes a flathead takes. Luckily they look good after 100
000 miles.

Main reason for DOHC is car geeks buy them.
That's pretty much it.
You can get into all kinds of arguments about valve train slack,
aspiration, cylinder head combustion gas flow, better 60-70 mph
passing speeds, etc.
But the reason they sell is car geeks buy them.

--Vic