Monthly Archive for April, 2017

Ruff Stuff

Published on April 26, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

The ongoing saga of the rally FX, I was able to put the repaired transmission back in and made the event. Unfortunately had engine driveablity issues, at one point on my last run it stalled out and would not restart. At the end of the day, it did start and I got home under my own power, so that was good. Waiting on a replacement fuel pump ordered from, yes, Amazon. In the meantime, the parts I ordered from Ruffstuffspecialties came in. No, they are not a brand of questionable prophylactics, they sell parts catering to off road vehicle fabrication. I got a bunch of their “bushed DOM sleeves” in custom length of 2″. My plan is to fabricate replacement engine/transaxle mounts with these. The one I welded solid seems to be creating too much stress. In fact when I crawled under after the event, the bracket had come loose from the bellhousing again. No damage to the threads, but this just wasn’t going to work. The bracket was also deformed and not sitting flush.

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Beer is Good – Sam Adams Fresh As Helles

Published on April 25, 2017 in Food and Review by taro. Closed

Pours clear medium telliw with medium head. Fairly strong floral hops aroma. Some grain flavors come through. Thankfully hops bitterness is controlled and pretty low. Medium mouthfeel.

For a “hop forward” beer, its not horrible, I personally give it a little over 2 out 4 helle monkeys because my dislike of strong hop beers. Others might like it more.

 

 

Not Excellent Saturday

Published on April 15, 2017 in Uncategorized by taro. Closed

Got the FX together in time, got to Kualoa ranch. Looks like there had been some rain earlier, but course was dry. Weather was clear all day, blazing hot in the sun, but pleasant in the shade.

Did decently well in the morning runs, the FX was still having random bogs of no power. Every once in a while itll die when coming to a stop and clutching in. Trying to figure if its ECU, which Ive had to do the infamous capacitor replacements. Also noticed the valvetrain still clatters like a diesel, even after the rebuild. Ive read that VVT on the 20v at this age starts to go and sounds like that, maybe its that?

And then on my last run of the day, it completly shut down. Starter would turn engine, but it wouldnt run. Roll starting didnt work. Towed back to pit. Put in the hig battery and it started, but i noticed a pretty loud humming. Seems the fuel pump is going. It runs and im almost home, picking up dinner at Saigons, so its not dead, but better change it. Not really surprised, in the past it sat with old fuel. The 20v injectors were clogged badly when i sent those in for service. This will be fun, have to drop the tank to change that.

Ted’s to the Rescue

Published on April 13, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

Told Ted’s that I have event on Saturday so they came through and repaired the bellhousing. They actually had it done yesterday. I picked it up today and spent the night installing. I tried something a little different in my arrangement of jacks, hoist, and straps, it didn’t seem to make it go that much better. And then I ran into a snag getting the CV shaft to go back in, the spring clip on one side was a bit too open. FInally ended up grabbing a clip from another shaft. It got really late so I didn’t quite get everything together, but all the difficult stuff is done.

Coral Trout

Published on April 8, 2017 in Food by taro. Closed

Found at Don Quixote yesterday, what is labeled as “Coral Trout”, place of origin listed as Christmas Island. Interesting, there were a couple other fishes from there too. Guess they’re experimenting on bringing in fresh fish from varied sources? For a while was seeing some out of the usual from Japan. This one is quite vividly colored, got a couple comments in the check out line. Thankfully for the internet, learned that this is a pretty highly regarded food fish found in western pacific, so I went for it and bought one. At $14/lb it was not cheap, but not way up there like they sometimes charge for something like Nabeta.

Cooked it for dinner tonight, Chinese steamed black bean style. I can report it was good. Firm moist white flesh. The skin is thick though, might be interesting broiled. Steamed the skin was kinda rubbery.

More Snap

Published on April 7, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

Been driving the FX to try and get it to 1000 miles break in to switch to synthetic oil. Almost there, but I noticed some clunking and roughness in acceleration. Got under yesterday to take a look, the rear transmission mount was loose. Dropped the transaxle tonight and here a better look. This is the mount that I welded solid, looks like its too much stress. Case is cracked and stripped out on one hole, bolt snapped off in other. Will be taking this to Ted’s to see if they can repair this. Also been looking into fabricating custom mounts to use polyurethane bushings.

First Hawaiian Auto Show 2017

Published on April 1, 2017 in car by taro. Closed

A little late blogging about this, last weekend I participated in SCCA’s display at the First Hawaiian Auto Show. I put the rally FX on display. I get a kick out of people seeing this unassuming unglamouros vehicle among all the shiny ginamormous turbo and sleek cars. I didn’t even have time to wash it, it still had a coating of steel dust and weld splatter from the rust patches I was working on. Propped the hood open mainly so people could see the cool airbox art courtesy of Scat and Risu. Only Toyota 4AGE geeks would recognize that the engine was something a little out of ordinary. It did have my concession to bling with polished valve cover, but aside from that and the air intake box and tube it looks pretty normal.

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