Monthly Archive for June, 2016

To the Scavenging

Published on June 25, 2016 in car by taro. Closed

So the status of the FX is it ran well enough for me to take 4th place over entire field at the last rallycross. It did occasionally bog down and cut completely out at idle a couple times. Charge & brake light came on once, classic sign of bad alternator. Starting was getting harder on each successive run too. It also was smelling like a two stroke on the drive home.

P1060569Had some time since to check things out. First off the ECU was giving an igniter error. Oil was down about a quarter quart. Did a compression test which showed all cylinder pretty close, which is good, but pressure was around 160psi if I sat on the starter more than recommended. That’s low for this engine, people have reported up to 200. Looks like a rebuild is in order. Continue reading ‘To the Scavenging’

Beer Is Good – Sam Adams Belgian Session

Published on June 24, 2016 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

P1060568From summer variety pack, pours clear medium amber with medium head. Interesting initial aroma and flavor of fruit and spice. Citrus notes and mild hops bitter in the middle that tapers pretty quickly. While there’s some mouthfeel, it finishes clean with some grain flavor just peeking in.

I am quite enjoying this beer!

3+ out of 4 sessioning monkeys.

 

 

Gudis

Published on June 21, 2016 in car by taro. Closed

P1060517BTW, look out for leaving antifreeze in your system and letting it dry out. It turns into this gudis goop.

 

 

 

 

Hosed and Belted

Published on June 20, 2016 in car by taro. Closed Tags: .

P1060520Dumping these posts in here as much as for reference as anything else, so theres a record of the part numbers I used. To fit the 4AGE20v but connect it to the 16v radiator, after much searching at Napa, found these to be almost perfect fit. Napa hose #7600 for the upper and #8379 for the lower. They do need to be cut down. BTW, PVC pipe cutter works quite well to cut hose. Continue reading ‘Hosed and Belted’

Beer Is Good – Sam Adams Heaven or Helles

Published on June 18, 2016 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

P1060558In the summer variety pack, this season helles. Pours clear bright yellow with small head. Floral and slight fruity hop aroma, but not overwhelming. Even bitter through the middle that tapers leaving a clean finish and occasional hints of lingering grain. Crisp mouthfeel.

Nice clean drinking beer, solid 3 out 4 blonde monkeys.

 

 

K&N Filter Filter

Published on June 18, 2016 in car and Gear by taro. Closed

P1060547I still have yet to confirm that the engine failure was caused by ingested dirt that scored the cylinders and rings, but that is my current suspect. When I took off the mystery filter, I saw the intake hose had a decent coat of fine dust, and when I blew compressed air through it, just as large a cloud of dust came out the inside as through to the outside. P1060549In light of that, I ordered a K&N cone filter from Amazon. Amazon really does sell everything. While I was searching K&N’s website for the appropriate part #, I found this, what they call the Air Force Pre-cleaner. It’s a filter for your filter. It’s reticulated foam impregnated with their oil, “perfect pre-cleaning for agriculture. construction and, of course, all forms of dirt racing!” They didn’t have a preshaped one to fit mine, so I got the generic wrap your own and hold closed with Velcro strips one. As a bonus, there’s enough in the one package for two. Continue reading ‘K&N Filter Filter’

Should I Stay Or Go

Published on June 18, 2016 in car by taro. Closed

P1060540P1060538Forgot to finish this. After cutting pieces to fabricate the missing intake stays, next day broke out the welder and welded on the tabs and bolts where the wiring harness will mount. Grabbed can of engine paint had left over from previous engine clean up. Continue reading ‘Should I Stay Or Go’

More Pimpage

Published on June 18, 2016 in car and Gear by taro. Closed

P1060553Was busy with the major work on the car, but finally got around to some of the other little things I got for it. There’s these new lug nuts. Main thing I was looking for was nice lugs in 3/4″-19mm socket size that matches my lock lug key. Found these from Gorilla. They look like those pimp tuner lugs, but they’re not quite. Most of those pretty colored ones are aluminum. I was not confident in the use of that for rallycross. We’ve seen bent and torn steel rims, pulled out studs. These are advertised as forged steel. So these with the extended length ARP studs should be plenty strong. The extended length nuts with the knurled end make installing them quite convenient too.

Continue reading ‘More Pimpage’

Hallelujah

Published on June 16, 2016 in car by taro. Closed

If I were a religious person I’d be praising God right now. Got home, plugged in the ECU, connected up the battery, hopped in, hit the starter and the FX fired right up, faster than the FR-S actually! No error light, good idle. Too late for a test drive. I might actually have time to wash the car before the event!

Bad Caps

Published on June 16, 2016 in car by taro. Closed Tags: .

 Parts arrived, the shipping cost ten times more than the caps from DigiKey. At least they don’t have a minimum order, don’t know what I’d do with a 1,000 roll of 15microF caps. Prepped the board by desoldering and removing the bad caps, cleaning off the green gudis gunk, and scraping off the laquer on oxidized traces. Luckily they didn’t corrode badly and the traces were intact. I then ran it through the ultrasonic cleaner.  Continue reading ‘Bad Caps’