Car Enthusiast Club [Now Motorcycle friendly!] - First thread to 150k! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[JoaoPRSousa]

On 6/5/2023 at 6:24 AM, vetali said:

@JoaoPRSousa first

 

Cute way of saying it will never happen 

[Bitter]

15 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

Ha, no worries, car sold already, but thank you for the offer!

If you run into something around Chicago let me know.

[Bitter]

So this was fun, almost hit a boat on my way to work this morning. Yes, I was on the brakes as soon as I saw him pulling out but I didn't really dig into them hard until you see the nose dive when I realized they were total idiot. I wasn't prepared so I didn't hit the horn in the right spot when I started on the brakes otherwise it would have been blasting the whole time. Usually when there's a boat on the side of the road they don't jump out into the lane at you.

[Radium_Angel]

Boat people are fun. I always give them a very wide berth. I had one lose his boat on the interstate (slid right off the trailer) and cause a heck of a mess.

Good times...

[Bitter]

16 hours ago, Bitter said:

So this was fun, almost hit a boat on my way to work this morning. Yes, I was on the brakes as soon as I saw him pulling out but I didn't really dig into them hard until you see the nose dive when I realized they were total idiot. I wasn't prepared so I didn't hit the horn in the right spot when I started on the brakes otherwise it would have been blasting the whole time. Usually when there's a boat on the side of the road they don't jump out into the lane at you.

Noticed some thumping last night at low speed and some extra highway vibration/tire noise. Same this morning, got it on the rack. Flat spotted both front tires.

 

Rears have some rubber, probably from the fronts, stuck on the tread. I ground the lifted front edges down, hopefully they'll quiet down and won't shake too bad.

[Vonrottes]

Got sick of driving to the other side of town and putting up with incompetent employees when I need to rent AC tools from the parts store took a trip to the hazard fright and got a manifold and a vacuum pump 

 

Pulled the system down for about 30-40 minutes in the Sonoma held 29in/hg for an hour before I disconnected the manifold, hoping nothing leaks once it's pressurized, just not confident in the low pressure switch on the receiver.. but  Saturday I've got to replace the condenser on my girlfriend's Cruze and then I get to go belt hunting for the Sonoma and charge the system for the first time... Measurements I got were 122" and 99" using alternative routing on the idler, just not sure the 99" will have enough wrap on the crank pulley to no squeal when the AC is on..

[DasPanda]

[Bitter]

I ordered a 1ZZ pan with the stock baffle plate to stick onto my 2ZZ to slow oil slosh in corners and a set of oil pickup spacers to set pickup depth to the ideal height above the pan, hopefully one less thing to worry about when I'm driving and one step closer to being safe for track use.

Unfortunately it looks like another area of my timing cover is leaking, so I need to gather parts and do that repair. Ideally while we're slow at work but I'd like to replace the oil pump and I don't know what the lead time is on that. Anyone have any experience with or hear anything about Boundary Racing oil pumps?

[bcredeur97]

11 minutes ago, Bitter said:

I ordered a 1ZZ pan with the stock baffle plate to stick onto my 2ZZ to slow oil slosh in corners and a set of oil pickup spacers to set pickup depth to the ideal height above the pan, hopefully one less thing to worry about when I'm driving and one step closer to being safe for track use.

Unfortunately it looks like another area of my timing cover is leaking, so I need to gather parts and do that repair. Ideally while we're slow at work but I'd like to replace the oil pump and I don't know what the lead time is on that. Anyone have any experience with or hear anything about Boundary Racing oil pumps?

just go full dry sump /s 

I remember people saying to use a moroso oil pan on those; but not sure if they still exist. What does/did Lotus use?

[Bitter]

5 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

just go full dry sump /s 

I remember people saying to use a moroso oil pan on those; but not sure if they still exist. What does/did Lotus use?

Lotus is a mystery, there's so many modified models and being mounted in the back the cross member positioning is different so what fits a Lotus probably won't fit a Celica but it appears that stock it's the same pan I have now without a baffler like the engine is a crate motor direct from Toyota to Lotus.

The Moroso oil pans are huge, sit very low, often leak out of the box, and need to be insulated to prevent your 8qts of oil from running cold all the time and sucking all the heat out of your engine when driving on the street. They're really a track part, a liability on the street as it would be the lowest point under my car probably and an oil pan isn't what you want as the low hanging fruit!

The 1ZZ pan is a compromise that should be better than the 2ZZ pan which is a liability near or over 1G sideways especially in a long left sweeper, so I'm hoping that pan with slight baffle + ideal oil pickup depth = better odds at not starving. I'm super picky about always keeping the oil at the full mark which helps a lot, I check it before I drive every time, on long trips I check it before I go out for a drive somewhere spirited, and I check it when I get gas if I've been doing a lot of highway driving.

The nicest thing will be getting rid of the hot chattering VVT pulley, hopefully. Supposedly it's been updated to eliminate or reduce that idle chattering and combined with a new higher performance oil pump I think it'll be fixed.

[Vonrottes]

Got a 99" belt and it was ever so slightly too long, had a spare LS3 idler that was significantly larger than the top one on the bracket, got those swapped out and it works perfectly.

 

Had to run two wires to the PCM to enable the AC tables in the tune since I was running awful standalone, but I'm pretty confident this poor lm7 is dying, with random puffs of smoke on start up, oil soaked spark plugs, really high fuel trims... Just needs to last until I get a new car then I can start looking for a gen 4 6.0.

 

But hey, the AC is ICE COLD like it physically hurts if the vents are pointing at my hands on the steering wheel. I think the upgrade on the condenser and compressor were a good idea instead of reusing the old R4 compressor and tube/fin condenser

 

[WallacEngineering]

A Tuber by the name of "THE SQUIDD" makes some of the best videos about automotive history and just released a video on my favorite super car of all time: The Pagani Zonda

 

 

[Beerzerker]

Was able to continue work on the Model A today and tested the brakes and clutch, both seem fine with no apparent problems with their function.

Bear in mind that was just in the shop to determine if they would work at all, my biggest worry was if the clutch would try to stick but it's free and working through it's full range of motion.
The brakes themselves seem responsive enough but I can tell if on the road they will require a bit of "Leg" to make them work but since they are mechanical that's expected anyway, they are also not wanting to hangup or bind (When tested) which is a good thing. Good thing these cars don't run much over 50MPH anyway so it's not like I'd be running along at interstate speeds with it, come time to give it a real road test.

Changed the engine oil too and the oil pan is in need of cleaning out due to all the goop and "Snot" I know is in it, will need to be up on a lift to remove and clean it out but right now the fresh oil will help with that some because it will help to dissolve some of the crap and when the pan is removed, of course more oil will be used with it being drained again.

The radiator swap went well and no leaks seen, also helps it that with the new hoses that took care of any potential rot of the old ones and was able to let it run for awhile to get some heat into the engine. That in turn helped to seat/seal the hoses since ATM the radiator cap is off, letting the rubber conform to however it needs for proper sealing so once the cooling system is pressurized again, it has a much better chance of not leaking.
Water pump is working like it should. 

Overall it's really a matter of smaller things at this point with it, the engine oil pan drop itself not being anything major since the pan doesn't have a lip towards the back or anything like that, you just drop it and put it back with a new gasket to reinstall the pan like you would with a regular valve cover for example.
Did note the ampmeter is reading backwards but have to guess it was like that before - I never touched any of that and didn't need to anyway but at the same time it's a simple connection reversal to the gauge that would make it right again.

Biggest hurdle it faces right now is an actual road test, that will be done once I get to look things over again, top to bottom and be sure it's ready for it. Not taking it out for a long drive, just enough to hopefully expose any further issues it may have.

May be awhile yet before the road test but that's OK, no need to rush things about it.

[Bitter]

Probably a good idea to resurface the drums and scuff up the shoes so there's virgin on virgin bedding, not rust on rust.

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, Bitter said:

so there's virgin on virgin bedding

That usually ends in disappointment...

[Beerzerker]

18 hours ago, Bitter said:

Probably a good idea to resurface the drums and scuff up the shoes so there's virgin on virgin bedding, not rust on rust.

Big thing is just to make sure they are working and all are braking equally as in not making the car pull to one side or the other.
The shop owner has already said they aren't going to do any more than what's required to get it roadworthy again so that's not my call to make. However if any problems are found at least they will be dealt with, that much is certain but the brakes do seem to work fairly good (So far). 

[8tg]

New battery terminals 

 

because the old positive one was presumably factory original and just loosely comes off, and the negative one was a replacement which was bolted on so tight the entire battery post was squeezed a little, and the bolts over the lead end were tightened so far they pulled the threads through and were loose

now I can actually take the leads off for electrical stuff and not cringe each time 

[Bitter]

A cool tip to keep those nuts from getting pulled through, put a bolt with a washer in through from the bottom through the nut out the top like a stud. It'll compress the top steel part onto the WHOLE lead terminal, not just pull the nuts up through the lead.

[8tg]

Alignment complete, the wheel is in the middle and it doesn’t pull.

Next month will be 4 new tires, I’m not a fan of the stretch low profile tires and I’d like to get some really nice all season tires on here as I intend to daily drive this thing 

[vetali]

My sisters car got the dreaded early VCM misfire. First time I noticed the rings actually being misplaced.

 

[Bitter]

Yeah those gaps are supposed to be 180 out aren't they?

[vetali]

8 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Yeah those gaps are supposed to be 180 out aren't they?

Yeah, going counter clockwise it goes oil ring, 90 degrees, spacer ring gap, 90 degrees, oil ring. Then the top and bottom compression rings being 180 away with the top ring lining up with the space ring gap.

 

Really hate these jobs, but nobody else in the shop does them... plus its my sisters car lol. Spend half a day cleaning the pistons alone.

[Bitter]

8 minutes ago, vetali said:

Yeah, going counter clockwise it goes oil ring, 90 degrees, spacer ring gap, 90 degrees, oil ring. Then the top and bottom compression rings being 180 away with the top ring lining up with the space ring gap.

 

Really hate these jobs, but nobody else in the shop does them... plus its my sisters car lol. Spend half a day cleaning the pistons alone.

I gotta say, I'm really happy with the small ultrasonic I bought, if you're doing pistons a lot it might be a worthwhile purchase for you to get a large one. Toss all 6 in the tank, turn it on for an hour, and eat lunch. I cleaned some injectors and tools and it's great.

[vetali]

13 minutes ago, Bitter said:

I gotta say, I'm really happy with the small ultrasonic I bought, if you're doing pistons a lot it might be a worthwhile purchase for you to get a large one. Toss all 6 in the tank, turn it on for an hour, and eat lunch. I cleaned some injectors and tools and it's great.

How spendy is it? Would be better than slicing my thumb on a broken ring while cleaning. Only do 3 pistons for the issue, unless cylinder 4 needs it.

[Bitter]

8 minutes ago, vetali said:

How spendy is it? Would be better than slicing my thumb on a broken ring while cleaning. Only do 3 pistons for the issue, unless cylinder 4 needs it.

For a big one, under $300. Mine was like $40 and can do 4 injectors or some sockets in it. I turned a set of used universal sockets from grimey grubby mess to looking almost brand new again. It sucked the dirt out of all the lines and details on them. I bought mine to pretty much do my own fuel injectors but then took it work and have been tossing parts in it or tools in it from time to time. Cleaned up a set of my small scrub brushes to looking brand new. You can start off with hot water but mine will heat the water up pretty hot on it's own because it's dumping 30W into about 1/2qt of cleaning solution. I usually do a 5 minute cycle on something then see if it needs more or give it a light scrub to break up anything that's been softened and put it back in for another 5. On the sockets it softened the gunk in the roll pins but I had to push it through myself, a solid plug of grease and dirt.

https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Commercial-Ultrasonic-Cleaning-Eyeglasses/dp/B07DJ23WKV/

 

I'm using this cleaning solution, sometimes a splash of something harsher we use at work to de-grease engines. Honestly you could probably just use 50/50 simple green and be OK or pinesol even, just can't be too viscous cause it'll dampen the cleaning action. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KKGRKPG/