new gen VFR - 1200cc V4?!

z :: fueling pt. II

Spent most of yesterday helping Phong replace the water pump on his 91 Celica. This job turned out to be a real bitch because of the many, many tiny (and very difficult to access) bolts that were involved in the process. We managed to finish it today, but not before this happened:



Yes, that a is a spurt of coolant coming out of the block as we run it. We had completely neglected to tighten one of the mounting bolts!


This would be a good time to mention Taco Bell, one of the unofficial food providers of The Future. The others include that rib place in Lafayette. and my dear mother.


I spent the morning screwing AN fittings into my fuel pump, and mounting it up to the car. This took WAY too long, as I mis-drilled the holes TWICE, and had to file them out to get the pump mounting bolts to clear some brackets on the car.

Now, kids, is when I tell you what happens when a man really loves a car.


First, he goes out and buys beautiful AN fittings and steel braided -6 hose (I had this left over from the blue Datsun).


Then he chucks the securing piece in a vice, and with a screwdriver and a little bit of luck, works the braided hose into the non-threaded side of the fitting, careful not to bend any of the stainless steel strands.


Then, he screws the flaring piece into the threaded side. As he does this, the cylindrical piece to the left of the threads (which is actually a thin aluminum tube) gets flared out into the inside of the hose, creating a fluid-tight seal.

I forgot to take a picture of the completed piece, but you can all imagine the mechanical beauty that comes with clean, clamp-less, red and blue anodized fittings. <3

(also took the oil pan off today to replace the gasket. I'll snap a shot of the bottom of the bottom end tomorrow.

z :: fueling

On Saturday I began putting together the fuel system of the car.


From left to right, the shiny objects above are the big filter, the pump, and the regulator. The fuel tank would be on the far left, and the engine would be on the far right.


Most of the fuel system is located near the rear passenger wheel of the car, so I had to jack the car up on its side to work on it. It never ceases to amaze me how far cars can be jacked up on one side. It looks like Yvonne's ready to fall over!


I had to pull the main fuel feed line off of the tank, and I didn't want it leaking all over the gorram place, so I drained the tank.


At one point, it occurred to me that the drain hole was on the elevated side of the car, and that I should probably lower the car a bit to get the rest of the fuel out. Yes, you probably know where this is going. I went to lower the car slowly on the jack, so that the car would be even. With my expert jack control (easy now) I was able to level the car out slowly. However, as I went to stop the jack from lowering, I had a momentary lapse of dyslexia, and I snapped the jack open, DROPPING THE CAR CATASTROPHICALLY on the bucket I was draining the gasoline into! LUCKILY nothing ignited the fuel, otherwise surely the entire house would have burned down. I think I'm down to 3 cat lives at this point...

Of course, I handled the situation with surgical calm and control, if by surgical calm and control you mean an excess of swearing and frantically searching for a way to control the gallon of gasoline on the floor of my garage.


Eventually, I did manage to remove the stock pump, which looked quite robust and was very easy to get to once the fuel was drained. I've read that on the FD Mazda RX-7 the fuel filter basically sits atop the rear suspension and is immensely difficult to service. Thank god that wasn't the case here.


Oddly, the two wires leading to the pump were not labeled. After scratching my head for a bit, I realized that one of them had to be a ground wire (the pump is mounted in a rubber isolator, so it cannot be grounded to itself) so I used my multimeter to check continuity to another part of the body.


This is the mounting plate for the pump. I will drill this out and mount the Holley pump in this location as soon as I buy and install fittings to it.

Amazingly, this progress on the fuel system has given me a "over the hump" feeling...I'm beginning to see the light on this project. I'm looking forward to putting many more hardworking hours in!

z :: parts and progress

I got this box of parts in a few days ago, but didn't post up about it:


I took a whole bunch of boring pictures, most of which were just pics of the boxes the parts came in. This one is interesting though. On top is the stock exhaust manifold, with low diameter piping and strange "twist" bends. On the bottom are the Patriot block-huggers.


The build diary that I have been predominately using to do my swap said that the oil temp sender "screwed into" the hex extender from the block. However, as this picture illustrates, that is impossible - the threads on the metric piece are way smaller.


I went on another parts run today. I picked up a pair of CarQuest motor mounts for 20 bucks. Here I'm bolting them to the bottom of the engine:


They interfere slightly with the shorty headers, so I had to trim a little bit off with the bandsaw:



href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipqg_DsCvXYjTI2_Cy96Eb0jTa7jBWelFZOXEB2ilv_vMu6pfsq3rFdHxk0UnFTXtcfKRMQiruMTkSV1VVbwV1vkBLRHEQ5J365tjl6NXZno0CufOHUojvNp66gB5NGXX2H6MwXuIF988/s1600-h/parts6.jpg">
Another one of my purchases was this air angle grinder and gasket prep disks. It was a bitch to find these, and eventually I just bought some off of Joey.


Using that gasket cleaner I was able to make these gasket surfaces shiny. However, I did have some issues cleaning up the intake manifold water jacket ports, which were super gummed up, probably from RTV sealant:


While I was cleaning that up, I had to pull out the distributor:


I scribed the block, but I'm not sure how exactly I'm supposed to get it aligned properly again, within a degree.

Also, I picked up this chrome blockoff plate to cover the whole left by the mechanical fuel pump:

5.0 :: good bye (and good riddance!)

Yesterday, I spent the whole goddamn day trying to take care of my Mustang problem.

Apparently the laws in this area state that a car with over 6 months of overdue registration can be towed without warning by the police. Someone on my street had complained to Scott, the local meter maid fake cop CSO, and he wasted no time in hitching the car up. The car was towed to an impound yard in Moraga, and I was told that after a few days they would go after the Registered Owner...the guy I bought the car from.

I had never gotten the title transfered to me, because I never really intended on driving the car. I simply bought it for the engine and the trans, but I didn't want to ruin the credit of this poor guy in San Leandro. I also didn't want him to come and firebomb my house.

So, I decided to pay all the fees associated with the car and get it junked ASAP. This was a little complicated I was a little hungover from my 5 beer + 2 whisky + 1 rum night, and riding through the swelteringly hot east bay was like riding through a wall of fire. Nonetheless, I went from Berkeley to Orinda, Orinda, to Moraga (a surprisingly long trip, because they are only joined by two long ass two-lane roads, Moraga to Lafayette (another long trip that was made longer by a huge construction detour), then back to Orinda...then to Moraga, where I waited in front of an impound yard for 45 gorram minutes for the asshole who told me he would be there at 3:00pm to arrive at 3:45p.

I then went to Walnut Creek to get a junk slip. I thought it would be a very complicated process, since I'm not the Registered Owner, and a super overdue registration would mean huge back fees. Fortunately, I caught my first break of the day, when the distracted DMV lady barely even cared about my shoddy paperwork and informed me that I only had 29 dollars worth of back fees on the car. I then headed BACK to Orinda, presented the junk slip, then paid 220 dollars for them to junk it.

On my way home I saw the CSO and I asked him if the Police would fine the previous RO, and he told me that they would not.

So ends that episode. I ended up paying 250 dollars to get rid of a car that was supposed to bring me a little bit of money.

If I still had a facebook, I would change my "Interests."

I would add "FTL burnouts."

Fuck Walter, Fuck Hoosiers.

sv :: good bye (for real)

Who wants to see a grown man cry?

5.0 :: good bye (for now)

just kidding, it's a three beer evening.

My mustang got towed from the front of my house in Orinda today.

Call me if you want to join, I'm heading to Thalossa soon.

razzle fizzle?

I just got back from the "Hall of Justice," San Francisco's municipal court house.

I was defending myself regarding a violation of CVC 22100 (b). The SF Police Officer claimed that I made a wrongful left turn, but actually I believe that I was innocent. Anyway, despite expert coaching from public defender Hien Nguyen, I still lost. I got the impression that the judge simply took the Officer at his word.

--

Also, the new owner of my dear SV650, Rob, will be taking "delivery" on the motorcycle tonight, so I will be saying good bye.

--

Tonight, then, is a two beer evening.

Hi friends.

I have started a third blog, which will contain my short fiction stories as well as some random musings.

http://liveveloce.blogspot.com

SV :: hard to breathe

I never realized how much time I have spent with this motorcycle.

How much I love this motorcycle.

I will love the Z dearly too, but as I'm putting the bike up on craigslist I'm getting really choked up.

z :: work in the engine bay

Today I climbed in and out of the now vacated engine compartment and began preparing things for the engine. Most notably, the A/C lines heavily interfered with where the V8 will go. One day, I will pay someone to make up new lines to mate the ford A/C compressor with the Datsun lines, but until I have that money, I have to remove all of my AC components.



Pro-tip. Any time you need to apply large amounts of torque to opposed fittings like this (usually on plumbing or machine tools), utilize the offset on two separate wrenches so that the two handles are close together, then "squeeze" both wrenches together with both hands. You can generate a huge amount of torque this way. Surprisingly more torque than if you use your arms to push or pull the two wrenches.



Ok. I know this car is 30 years hold, but how the hell did all this grease get in all these obscure places?! Like...the entire hood latching mechanism was completely covered in hardened grease, as was the entire firewall. I spent lots of time today cleaning this up and there's still tons left. Also, it looks like someone sprayed underbody coating sloppily from the bottom of the car, getting it all over the engine compartment. I'm not sure how I will go about getting this out...


BEFORE:



AFTER:



I just had to clean up the hood latch, which was completely black before.:



Here's where it stands now. Two more weeks!

z :: disaster pt. II

Today began just as any other. I rode the VFR home to Orinda, laced up my working boots, and opened the garage from the inside. The engine hoist (which was carrying the L28) had rolled down to the garage door, and the door nudged the engine on the way up. It swayed gently, and I was surprised how easily the garage door had pushed the 600 lb engine aside.

Then I realized that it wasn't swaying. It was falling.

The leg lifted up and I jumped on it frantically to try to counterweight the motor back, but there was no stopping gravity. I jumped off and watched the motor crash down onto my T5 transmission and a plastic bucket full of parts.



My first instinct, of course, was to be VERY VERY ANGRY. It looked like the transmission case was damaged, which would require purchasing a new transmission. However, I realized that I had only damaged a switch on the trans and most of it remained intact. I also realized that the falling engine had completely obliterated the plastic bucket in dramatic fashion...frankly, it was awesome how exploded the bucket was.




So all in all there wasn't too much damage. I calmed down and started figuring out how to fix Joey's load lifter. Eventually, I found an old 1/2" aluminum clamp-style shaft collar that clamped on with a little clearancing with a dremel.

Aside form that, just cleaned up the Future.

z :: L28 is out!

Another good progress day. I finally got off my ass and got some estimates for building the motor cradle. The most promising is Albany Steel's in-house fabrication shop, which will probably ask for about 350-400 to do the part. Driving between shops really reminded me of how much more I'm willing to pay for friendly, helpful service. The difference in experience is staggering, and that's why I hate places like Fry's and Radio Shack.

Pulling the L28




First, I hooked up the snap-on load leveler I borrowed from Joey @ Orinda Shell Auto Care.



Then, DISASTER STRUCK! As I tried to level the load, one of the nuts that secures the screw shot off dramatically and the load leveler fell apart. I spent a good amount of time searching for this piece but could not. I had to figure out something else.



Eventually I rigged something up out of tow straps and chains, and tried to pull the motor again. I had detached everything properly, but there was a leveling issue. Eventually, I enlisted my sister's friend Garret and him and I climbed into the engine bay (much to our peril) and dead lifted the trans out while my sister dragged the lift out. My back hurts now.



BUT IT WAS WORTH IT! THE PROJECT MOVES ON! WAR DATSUN Z!

close the fucking deal

"The only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary." - Mark Twain

"Coffee is for closers." - Blake, Glengarry Glen Ross

"You know it's a funny thing, the harder I work the luckier I seem to be." - Abraham Lincoln

z :: goal setting

[22:44] killbam: anyway, just always remember your powerful reason why
[22:45] killbam: and use your imagination not only to imagine it being done
[22:45] killbam: but how you're going to get it done

< I am so amazed that I have built a fast, running car and it is the best thing I could ever bring with me into law school. >

To help achieve this goal in the limited time I have before MotoGP, then Japan, then law school get in the way, Jeff has suggested that I draw up a comprehensive plan and stick to it. I won't bore you with the details, but here is a Google Spreadsheet that contains that plan. It will be updated every day to reflect my progress.

My Comprehensive Plan for completing the Datsun/302 hotrod