ktm

Volk TE37V pricing and sizes: http://forums.club4ag.com/zerothread?id=67818

Nice wheels, but quite similar to Rota's Grid Drift (16x8 +10) wheels. I know that Rota copied the TE37, but their Drift wheels took off like wild fire. I like the low offset look of the Volk's though. The Rota's are quite light themselves, not as light as the Volks, but the 16x8s come in around 16 to 17 lbs.

Thank you everyone. In the end I left that one to the electrician. I replaced all the old sockets in the house with new ones with that one being the only exception. We have GFCI outlets installed by all of the sinks (electrician did that work).

Thanks all. You seem to misunderstand. The ceiling fan will be switched as will an ceiling light. It is an outlet that is currently setup to be switched......I think. I am trying to determine why the white wire on one pair was connected to the black wire of the other pair (as described in my original post). Tony, the wires solid copper wires around 14 ga. Thanks for the safety warning as well and I am always testing the voltage.

My wife and I purchased a new to us house that was built in 1967. We are assisting with the remodel and I was replacing all of the ancient switches and outlets with new equipment. All was fine until I hit what may be a switched outlet in the master bedroom. This house has the older wiring with only black and white wires. The outlet has two sets of black and white wires, one set coming into the box and another set leaving it. Right now the white wire from on of the sets is crimped to the black wire of the other set, leaving the respective partners connected to the outlet. I am assuming this is a switched connection. We are installing a ceiling fan with a light on it and no longer need a switched outlet. I am assuming that I can remove the crimp and connected both pairs of wires to the new outlet. Any ideas what I am looking at? Thanks

My EGT temps are around 1500 to 1600 as well if my EGT thermocouple and LMA-3 are to be believed. I searched extensively on-line and found many, many others running around the same temps. Keep in my mind AFRs are 12 above 15 psi and 12.5 below 15 psi. My actual sensor location is in the exhaust manifold right before the flange where the six runners merge.

Tim, I always wanted to come back to this discussion. I've been reading quite a lot about reversion, overlap, LSA, etc. and the impacts on detonation and engine performance. I've also read extensively about turbo back-pressure between the turbine and head. I think I have an answer to your question: The thing I'm a bit hung up on is that if we are measuring a rich mixture (and even 13.8 is still quite a bit rich compared to stoich), then there should not be any oxygen in the exhaust to support the further burning of the excess fuel. So how's the rich mixture burning in the exhaust? Edit: I see you postulated this already and I am basically agreeing. If you look at your EBP and MAP plot, you are running a ratio of less than 1 (EBP to MAP) up to about an RPM of 7000ish. This means your MAP is higher than your EBP. You could easily be getting oxygen in your exhaust during the overlap. The more oxygen there is for oxidation, the longer you can sustain combustion before the oxygen is consumed. By the way, what are you using to measure your EBP? This issue (EBP) has really piqued my curiosity and is causing me to re-evaluate my turbo turbine selection.

Look in the turbocharger forum..

.....and this is why I no longer start my car if I back it into the garage! I covered the wall like you. After I repainted the garage walls I will push the car outside before starting up now. I still leave a little mark on the ground though.

The AE86 guys typically only run 13s and 14s. Sometimes 15's come up for sale, but most of their wheels are smaller.

It's a 1972. The biggest issue with +10 and 8-in. wheels is tire clearance with the spring perch with 245s. A lower profile may have worked and a lower width would have definitely given me more clearance with the perch and fender lip. If you were to run 225s on the wheel you should not have clearance issues with the spring perch. It's not the wheel that hits but the tire. As for the fender lip, you may have a small clearance problem as dsommer indicated if you use 8-in. wide wheels. Keep in mind he was using 16x7 0 offset wheels and a 16x8 +10 offset wheel would have the face at the same position as the 16x7 0 offset. Therefore, you may have to roll your fenders with 225s based on dsommer's experience. However, you should not have spring perch issues.

16x8 +10 will fit in the rear with 245/50s without a spacer. You'll have to trim the spring perch a smidge as well as roll the fenders, but they will fit. 16x8 +10 Rota Grids with 245/50 BFG G-Force

Limitation of liability.....boy am I familiar with those.

Great, just great, let's add some mud to the water John! Good to know I am writing you a blank check.

Jeff, Tony and I both stated this and Tim acknowledged it, but Tim's first hand experience is saying otherwise. This may in fact be due to nucleate boiling creating a boundary layer.

Timz switched to a stock fan on his car for this exact reason.

Michael, exactly. The difference being that mechanics do not operate the same way as roofers. Roofers, for instance, typically establish their bid on a unit price basis. The unit price includes, but is not limited, the cost for all labor, materials and equipment necessary to complete the work. If you wind up roofing less area, you pay less. The roofer may get done with his work faster than he anticipated and if so, he makes more money. The same is true with any line of unit price or lump sump work. However, I operate in a field where my work is billed at time and material not to exceed. If I do the work faster, I do not get paid the same amount. If I work slower, I do not get paid more. With mechanics, they use a book that has the average time it takes to complete a service. They then multiply this time by the shop rate to get their quote. They are bound by this quote. The quote is a lump sump agreement stating that the work will be accomplished for $XXX amount, no more, no less. If the mechanic is good, then they will do the job in less time and make more money. If the mechanic is slow or runs into issues, then it may take more time and they make less to no money. The hole I found myself in was assuming that a mechanic's contract was really a time and materials not to exceed contract and not a lump sum. Additonally, someone said that mechanic's make money off of easy jobs to pay for the jobs they lose money on. That set me off as unscrupulous. In reality they really are doing that, but not on purpose. It is the type of agreement they operate under that allows them to do that. Lump sum agreements are risky, big reward versus big loss. In my defense, I firmly believe that good people should be paid what they are worth. I never said otherwise. I put my foot in my mouth very early on regarding shop rates, but Jon, Zmanco and others really helped to clarify how a mechanic makes money. The comment regarding lawyers billing $300 an hour is a bit misleading. A law firm may bill a lawyer at $300 an hour, but his salary is around $100 an hour. Tony's rule of thumb is correct, a multiplier of 2.5 to 3.0 is typically used on an employee's base salary to account for salary cost, overhead, benefits, and profit.

Now I know.. Thanks all

Ok, in my world that is a lump sum contract and I have operated under such agreements myself. You are 100% correct in that the money is made is trying to get the work done right and faster than the estimate. If that is how shops setup their rates, I am fine with that. I now have a better understanding about how the estimates are prepared. The problem was the disconnect between estimated labor (i.e, 4 hours to do an exhaust) and the actual estimate for the work ($480). I wrongly assumed that the agreement was setup as a time and material contract when in fact it is more of a lump sum arrangement. Again, as Daniel rightly pointed out, as long as both parties are aware of the terms when entering an agreement, no one can fault the other. I fully support your statement that we should compensate those with marketable skills. We need competent skilled labor.

Daniel, You are quite correct in your assumption that I try to foster relationships in my professional life. Without them I am unemployed so to speak. I foster relationships with regulators, contractors, clients, and other consultants. I view every job, every contract, every contact as more than simply a one-time job. I read your post and it raises many salient points. I want the good mechanics to earn a living as they deserve it. Many good mechanics in independent shops earn their reputation through good work and fair business practices. People do not like to be taken for a ride and unfortunately this seems to be the case whenever poor mechanics are involved (you raise this point as well - one-time job). Again, maybe the man-hour estimates as provided by the book stem from historical complaints raised by both the customer and the mechanic and this was deemed the fairest way to address these complaints.

I just realizd that I sound like a hypocrite, complaining about Cygnus' shop rate and then saying that I would pay for a good mechanic.

That's not fair. I am more than willing to pay for a good mechanic when needed. However, the book is simply a means of preparing an estimate for the work. You want more money? Raise your shop rates. If you can not make money at your current shop rate, then you fail at business. It is rather simple: Cost + Overhead + Profit = Billing Rate. If your billing rate is such that you lose money for every hour you work on a car, then raise your billing rate. Again, I am approaching this from an engineering consulting and construction perspective. My billing rate is such that my company makes money for every hour I bill. We do not charge our clients for time I do not spend on a project. If I am allocated 10 hours and only work 8, we bill 8 not 10. If we lose money on one job, we do not make it up on another. Our contracts are 99% time and material not to exceed, rarely do I work on a lump sum contract. Most of the construction contracts I've managed were unit price, and the unit price was based on clearly identified assumptions stated by the contractor. If conditions changed, then the contrator was able to issue a change order. It really is not a difficult concept to grasp. I do not mind paying for quality work. It is not about being cheap which you seem to think is my position. It is about fair business practices, regardless of the amount. However, I concede that shop rates may be setup differently and the profit is built into over-estimating the standard hours for a job.

If weight is a concern, then you do not have enough power in your car.

While you can modify the head to help lower compression as well as run a 2 mm head gasket, you should really focus on the pistons and rods. You need to play with rod length and pin height on the piston. The crank will give you a swept volume in conjunction with boring out the cylinders, playing with the pin height and rod length helps with the compression ratio.

I should not bear another's cost. If the mechanic quotes 4 hours and it takes him 6 hours, it is potentially his loss (see below). If the mechanic quotes 4 hours and it takes him 2, I should be charged for only 2 hours. The shop rate is set such that they make money on every hour. It includes overhead and profit. To do otherwise is dishonest. I've fired contractor's who have tried this shenanagin on me. The book is also based on assumptions (i.e., car in good working order, no rusted bolts, etc.). If there are exceptions that are outside of the assumptions, then that is the mechanism with which you pursue additional compensation. I am applying my working knowledge of construction contracts. It would be interesting to know if work orders (which are a contract between you and the shop) do not list such limitations (I know, I should read them better myself).