Matthew Russotto wrote:

Damn. I didn't know GE had bailed on that... too bad.

I think Phillips is still working on theirs, though,
Actually I've seen a few Philips products already on the market. ie.,
their 45W PAR20 that matches 55W conventional incandescent PAR20 in
lumen output.

OK, I'm a little beyond my depth of knowledge here, but AFAIK *ALL*
flat-tappet cams have to be hardened (usually nitrided or some other
surface process) after the cam lobes are ground on the blank. Too much
material has to be removed when the lobes are ground to shape to use a
pre-grind hardening process- all the hardening would be removed except
on the very tip of the lobe and it would get undercut very quickly. I'm
sure that the quality and thickness of the hardening can vary, though.

In addition GM (Chevrolet division engines in particular) up through the
end of factory flat-tappet cams had comparatively high cam wear because
they used a smaller diameter lifter than Ford, Chrysler, AMC, and (I
think) some of the other GM divisions like Oldsmobile and Cadillac.

"Steve" <no (AT) spam (DOT) thanks> wrote

Strange.. that would be only 12 years, and the millenium change would have
been rather obvious, I think, especially in light of all the importance that
was
given to it at the last moment.

Steve wrote:
Yes - of course the nitriding was done after grinding - the treatment is
only microns thick.

I'm just telling you what the word on the street was - I have to think
it would have trickled down from someone with engineering level
understanding - the typical guy on the street back then wouldn't have
thought up the nitriding explanation on his own.

Perhaps that long ago, it was a new process that has been greatly
improved over the years. If other manufacturers were nitriding at the
time, perhaps GM's process or their vendor's process was inferior. But
I know it was a consistent rumor for years. Whether the stated cause was
wrong, it was universally accepted that GM cams had such a problem that
other manufacturer's vehicles didn't - maybe for the reason you state in
your next paragraph...

--
Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

Steve wrote:
I know I heard a news report within the last month about class action
suits being filed or threatened regarding overstated and fraudulent
claims of equivalent light output. I caught the report on the fly -
wish I had caught more details about who was the sue-ee and who was the
sue-er.

After a little Googling, perhaps it was this story that I heard a
version of - sounds vaguely familiar, but not what I was thinking it
was:
http://www.powermag.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/09/ohio-repeats-maryland%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98take-this-bulb-and-shove-it%e2%80%99-fiasco/

But in my Googling, I did come across lots of comments about CFL's not
living up to its promises of life and light output.

--
Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

Bill Putney <bptn (AT) kinez (DOT) net> wrote in
news:7m0u2pF3g0456U1 (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net:

I haven`t had a dam cfl last more than a year yet. KB

--
THUNDERSNAKE #9

Protect your rights or "Lose" them
The 2nd Admendment guarantees the others

On Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:40:28 +0000 (UTC), Kevin
<kevyNOSPAM (AT) netins (DOT) net> wrote:


That was my experience up to about 18 months ago. Since then they
seem to have gotten a lot better. The only problem for me is that I
have a lot of rooms with dimmers and dimming CFL's are pricey and from
what I read they don't work very well.

Someone wrote: I haven`t had a dam cfl last more than a year yet.

I guess I been fortunate, I built a new home 5 years ago and I installed
CFL in a every light socket except for a hand full that took specialty
bulbs. I only had to change maybe one or two. I had more halogen flood
lights burn out then CFL. I also have three fluorescent lights installed in
different location in my home and never had to change a bulb yet.

Kevin wrote:

I've got a few pushing 7-8 years now. But I've had more that didn't make
it 6 months and more than a few that died right out of the box. :-/