Standing in front of a 1940 Ford delivery wagon, Mike McMahon used the tip of his umbrella to gesture into the engine exposed under the raised hood, as his daughter, Maureen, looked on.

They circled the wagon, peering into the windows and gazing hard at the engine, as McMahon explained the subtleties of old engineering.

McMahon was visiting his daughter at Oregon State University as part of Dads Weekend. He drove down Saturday morning from Beaverton, and was planning on spending the day with Maureen, a freshman in exercise and sports science.

Old cars spur old stories, as Maureen found out when the sight of the Ford’s engine reminded her father of the 1949 Willys Jeep that his father owned. The old flathead V-8s and V-6s were harder to work on than modern engines, he explained, because you have to take the engine completely out to tinker with it.

Meanwhile, Maureen was listening patiently, but admitted when her dad pulled out the mechanical jargon she went a little blank.

“I’m like, ‘Alright,’” she laughed.

McMahon and his father used to work on car engines together, but Maureen leaves the tinkering up to her father.

“He pretty much takes care of it,” she said.

McMahon is a graduate of Washington State University and when his old team plays OSU he said he secretly routes for WSU. But since he and Maureen were headed to the OSU-Stanford game, he planned on rooting for his daughter’s team.

Maureen was going to take her dad to lunch at the Pita Pit, one of her favorite college hang-outs, and they were considering going to work out together if time allowed. She said she visits her parents pretty frequently, always bringing her laundry along, which reminded her father that he was under orders to bring a load of her laundry back to her mom. It’s one of the advantages of only living an hour away from college.

Another dad, David Polakowski, braved a dark and rainy drive down from Seattle Friday night to visit his son Michael, a second-year graduate student in statistics. They spent Saturday morning on a bike ride, and were killing some time before the game to visit the car show.

“We’re mostly here for the game,” Michael said, anticipating tailgating with his dad. After the game, they were planning on bowling. Since Michael is so far away, he only visits his parents about once a quarter.

Both father and son enjoyed peering into the engine compartments of the cars stationed around McAlexander Field House.

“I like seeing the different engines,” Michael said.

“I appreciate the work put into this,” David added. Where in the world they have the time to put so much attention into cars, he doesn’t know. But he and his son were happy to enjoy the results.