Angry Chinese Torque

Published on October 10, 2009 in car and rant by taro. Closed

P1010005Oh my throbing middle finger…. I think every begining mechanic should be required to have and use a torque wrench. For some reason everyone seems compelled to over torque oil drain bolts. I guess since they are large bolts they can tolerate quite a bit of overtightening, but if you look in FSMs (factory service manuals) the torque spec is quite low, typicaly in the range of 15 ft lbs or even less. So I was out in the garage tonight, the heat is finally bearable, and was slowly putting things back together with the swapped engine. Figured I better drain the engine oil. Put the small 3/8 breaker on it and tugged at it. Ugh. Alright, fine, I’ll use the 1/2″ 20″ long breaker. I’m working at an awkward angle, so the bigger bar should make it easier. It works, eventually, and suddenly, unfortunately. Going in the pull direction is usually a good habit, but didn’t save me this time since my arms were extended and the angles were wierd. My middle finger met metal car. Amazingly I did not drop the bar, but I was cursing up a storm. Owwie! This was a good one, owwie!

That was it, I could barely muster removing the drain bolt. I’m done for today.

Oh wait, this engine was out of the original FX and the last person who worked on it and did an oil change on it… was me!

New BMX Track

Published on October 9, 2009 in bike by risu. Closed

Root wandered around the homeless encampments out at the end of Sand Island last week trying to find the new BMX track with no success. I had a little time to kill today, so I spun by the small boat launch facility and found the track.  It’s nowhere near done yet, but here are some pictures.  The course doubles back on itself three times, so it is pretty long.  Some of the jumps are made from some recycled earth with a high gravel content.  I don’t know if they plan on covering these with another layer of prime earth, but if they leave it as-is, expect to see some good skin loss on these.

Sauna Ride

Published on October 9, 2009 in bike by risu. Closed

It was intermittently drizzling when I got home yesterday, but I really wanted to get some riding time in.  By the time I was geared up, the drizzling had completely subsided, but the ground was damp here and there, especially in the grass.  The heat and humidity were incredible but not quite unbearable.  Staying inside the house would have been unbearable!

D = 15.40 km (9.57-miles), Vavr =18.3 km/h  (11.4-mph), Vmax = 43.3 km/h (26.9-mph), T = 50-minutes

Monster Mash Opening Reception

Published on October 6, 2009 in Art and Culture by risu. Closed

Here are some pictures of the opening reception of the Monster Mash show at Chinatown Boardroom last Thursday.  There were a good number of pieces sold on opening night.  The show will run through Halloween, so go by and check it out if your’e in the area!  Thanks to everyone who made it down.  Jackie did an amazing job hanging the show solo and stenciling the walls around the paintings.

Tsukimi

Published on October 5, 2009 in Culture and rant by risu. Closed

Darned rain.  Darned food poisoning.  October 4th came and went.  I missed Tsukimi.  Oh, well – maybe next year.  Oh yeah – that reminds me – I didn’t get to enjoy any moon cake this year.

Riding The Tranny

Published on October 5, 2009 in car by taro. Closed

Another car weekend. Saturday was spent cleaning rust off the camshafts, and since I had a spare and the work was more than halfway done already, I changed the headgasket.P1010653 So come Sunday the engine was together and ready to fit the transmission and reinstall. This would definitely need more bodies to manhandle. Tranny work always involves some muscle. Finally got that purdy clutch on. Last time we’ll see it like this. P1010654Tranny mated with minimal fuss and bolted together. Ckucky with his 1 ACP (Angry Chinese Power) output installs the starter, and strips out one of the holes. To be fair he was torquing with wrench set to spec. I think I might need a new wrench.

Continue reading ‘Riding The Tranny’

Oh, What the Heck

Published on October 2, 2009 in rant by risu. Closed

After lunch yesterday, the chills started.  I toughed it out through the day and hung about the office after work until the Monster Mash show opening, figuring a little rest would help.  Feeling no better, I sucked it up and went downtown to drive in circles in search of parking and walked over to the gallery.  I tried putting on my best face even though I felt like krap since this was the first show I’d been involved with in a long time.  I struggled through pizza dinner, then embarked on the painfully long drive home, having to stop for late night gasoline in Kalihi on the way.  A shower and some antipyretics didn’t do much to improve my condition, but sleep did, although interrupted by fits of cramping.  Surprisingly, the expected “blast” so far has not materialized.  In case this was the start of “the dreaded flu” (the incubation period would be about right for me to have picked up something on the airplane from KIX), I was socially responsible and stayed home from work today.  In retrospect, I could have worked through the pain, and  I am now fairly certain this isn’t Novel H1N1.  There goes one vacation day…  Gastroentertis is not your friend.

The Sandbox

Published on October 2, 2009 in bike by taro. Closed

shoesDoh, I should have looked at all the photos first. Yesterday at lunch, I found myself in the area of Sand Island so decided to go look for the new BMX track that is supposed to open. Not knowing much except general area, I drove as far into the Sand Island park as I could then parked and started walking in. I went in as far as I felt comfortable walking by myself, in aloha shirt. Found someone’s tent, quickly left that area. Found large loaders. And found killer nasty kiawe, that went straight through my shoe and poked the sole of my foot. After looking at the photos on the website, it looks like the track is way on the other side, much closer to the boats. AH well, we’ll check it out another time!

If It’s Worth Doing…

Published on September 30, 2009 in car by taro. Closed Tags: , , , .

P1010651then it’s worth overdoing. This past friday I picked up my Exedy Hyper Single clutch kit, part #TH01SD (note that it is speced for later 4AGE so does not include the pilot bearing). Since I have the engine and tranny completely out of the red Corolla, figured might as well change out the clutch. And since this is supposed to be my weekend fun and race car, why not go for something a bit more uprated. I have what Exedy considers their “Stage 1” Sport clutch in the FX right now and with the lighter OEM last gen 20 valve flywheel it’s pretty nice and I kill the engine only a couple times a week. What the heck, skip Stage 2 and go right for “Stage 3”.  A set with a lightweight chromoly flywheel, forged aluminum clutch cover, and 6 puck cerametalic friction pads. Flywheel is about 9 lbs compared to the original stock of 16. Cover, pressure pad assembly is a pound or so lighter. We shall see how dramatically different this feels. Continue reading ‘If It’s Worth Doing…’

BMX Tuesday

Published on September 30, 2009 in bike by taro. Closed

The second BMX tuesday was shaping up and I dug out of work as soon as I could. Scat, Risu, Ckucky, and myself met up once again at Ckucky bicycle storage. I had my pieced together Chase, but in keeping with the theme, I borrowed Scat’s 20″ BMX. Jeff was also there with a freshly built up S&M. WOw, 20, 24, and 26″ BMX was all represented! We eventually cruised out to McBike since Risu had to go to work. Once there, we checked out some of the Redline BMX’s hanging on display. Dang, just how old are we? Talk about regressing! Isn’t this what we did as “kids”?

There is something to be said about cruising about on little single speed bikes. It is fun. We leave McB and head to Ala Wai to check on the little jump that used to be there. The palm trees there were totally gone, a crater where one of the stumps was. Not much fun there, we continued on the bike path, to find that it’s still closed off from the sewer work. Detour along Iolani and come out across from Kaimuki. Dead Guy track calls. Continue reading ‘BMX Tuesday’