Tony D
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Posts posted by Tony D
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Bandung Indonesia, I'm in the Hotel Horison. NO internet connection. No phone jack to do a dial up. HAVE to submit my reports so I can get paid...
Pull the bed back from the wall because the telephone line goes underneath there somewhere. Find a jagged hole in the wall with wires sticking out.
Hmmmmm....
Look in my Backpack, find an RJ45 coupler, and split it in half using The Leatherman. Take the wires and strip them, cut into the live phone wires (meh, it's supposedly 48vdc, so I'm told...how bad can it burn?) and splice my connector into the line.
Connect to the internet via an AT&T dialup locally. I'm amazed that Bandung's 56Kbps line dialup is like 4X faster than what I can get in SoCal.
Later in the day, there is a knock on the door...Maintenance. They have to come in and check the phone wiring, the neighboring room can not call out... (so thats what my interruptions and kickoffs were...)
What, I say, you mean to tell me THEIR phone wires are in MY room?
Just the access to them. (Access, it's a freakin jagged hole in the drywall/lath!)
Tell the guy, "Come back in 5 minutes, I have to finish my shower." (I am fully clothed in the doorway...)
Feverishly remove all apparatus. Let the guy come in, he 'can't find anything wrong' (ignores, or doesn't car the wires are stripped almost an inch clear!)
He leaves, I hook back up to the OTHER two pair of wires I thought was a likely candidate, and I'm back to the Internet.
Somewhere I DO have a digital photo of that array! Duplicated telephone 'access' at the Intercontinental in Puerto Ordaz in Venezuela (where I also crashed their corporate server three times hacking into an open LAN port by removing the plexiglass panel using my trusty Leatherman, and hooking directly into their server...)
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Running a Monaco with a 440 out back on 80 acres, doing jumps and all, a fire broke out under the hood.
I was half-dazed from bouncing off the roof after a couple of whoop-de-doos and said 'Rick, I think the car is on fire!'
We get out, pop the hood, and FOOF! Back of the engine starts on fire. Rick says "I'll go get a fire extinguisher!" and starts to run to the house. I make the comment, "But I gotta Pee!"
He stops dead in his tracks, about 20 yards from the car, turns around and yells "PI$$ ON IT!" and starts running back to the car, unzipping...
I'm like... huh? What? As he jumps on the front bumper screaming 'PI$$ ON IT PI$$ ON IT!' As he starts hosing the fire... I joined in, and wow...it worked. Smelly steam cloud arose and caught us full-on in the face, so we're leaning backwards as far as we can so not to get pee-steam in our eyes. Really made directional control hard. Rick slipped on the bumper and fell backwards, unable to immediately cease his fire retardant effort, he wet himself thoroughly in 'rain' of his own making.
I completed the task, actually got the fire out that way. The radiator was low, so we 'finished' in there. And decided that Dukes of Hazard was done for the day. Parked the car up front on the driveway with a 'FOR SALE $400' and it was gone that weekend.
Whoever bought that Red Monaco was in for a suprise when they opened that radiator cap...
Contrary to what you are thinking, there was no drinking involved in this endeavour. it started innocently enough with the phrase "I got to take down all those damn poplar saplings out there, it's going to take all day!" "Well, why don't you just run the Monaco out back over 'em...they're not that big, that front bumper will snap em all off in a couple of passes. Then just drag em all out with the tractor later and burn the lot of em!" The beginning stages were so fun, we got carried away and started ploughing the field in earnest...
Whaddya gonna do? It was an overcast day, and there was nobody else aroudn to play with, and we'd already shot the Cat-in-the-Hat the prior evening.
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Cool............you can actually be one of the few people with a true "intercooler".
EVERY intercooler after a turbocharger is a 'true' intercooler!
It is NOT an 'aftercooler' as some contend.
The function of the intercooler after a turbo is to cool the charge for density into the second stage of compression which happens to be a reciprocating compressor (the engine).
Each stage of compression undertaken without intercooling between stages will show progressive degredation of density due to heat buildup.
In Franks setup, intercooling becomes critical as he is undergoing three stages of compression, instead of the normal turbochagred two stages.
Just that because two stages occur before final compression does not make it any less an intercooler than a turbo application alone.
As long as the gas flow is intended for a subsequent compression, the cooler is referred to as an 'intercooler', the aftercooler is something where the last stage of compression is done, and the gas flows out to point of use, storage, reinjection, etc...
This does not occur in an automative application...save for exhaust gas.
And if you want to get into semantics, depending on what you do with that exhaust gas, the turbocharger could be looked upon as a "Compander"...but lets not get into that now, O.K.?
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Sorry, I've picked up a bit of the Pidgin Accent from the locals. They do the alphabet different in Nigeria...sorry!
The 'island wife' tolerates me au natural, and the goats and ewes give me a wide berth...
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The thermodynamics argument only applies in steady-state full load operation.
When you have periods of need, and periods of low power usage, the termal mass can be used.
Your FUEL consumption goes up because you are using more HP during non-peak times, but during the short periods on-boost where you would reap the benefits of the refrigerated intercooler, your power then at that moment would be higher due to density increases.
This is the same functioning as an alternator and a battery at a drag strip. Guys shut off their ALTERNATOR during the run, and run on their battery.
Same can happen with a system like this, run on the accumulator for those short boosted periods.
For longer runs like Bonneville, it's practically full load the whole time, so then you have to weigh out the losses against what gains you get from density. In October World Finals running at 50 degrees at altitude, probably not much to be gained. Running at Speed Week in August at 110+? Hmmm, having 50 degree air in the intake would be nice...
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I may have been semantically incorrect. Our balancer guy called our for 'bobweights' of our original L28 when we had another crankshaft done up to replace the one with the buggered snout.
This may have been because the pistons we had were a different weight than stock. But those gold things on the crankshaft were what was on ours when it was balanced. Maybe he's just being superflous.
BRAAP, I PM'd you wit some more particulars, maybe it's 'our application' that calls for this methodology. The same shop uses them on my VW and Corvair Crankshafts, even though much of the literature of the Corvair Guys says the crankshaft is 'inherently balanced'...
Hmmmm. When I'm back in country, I will have to enquire with the guy and see what is the deal. I didn't get into it too far, what he did worked and we weren't having any issues, so I never went further into what exactly he was doing. I'll ask him what the deal is with the weights if they are not needed, why is he using them. And was it because our piston/rod is a different weight from stock. This may take a while, it's not high on my priority list, though! Forewarned!
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You can put spring doughnuts under the thing to raise the rear of the car, or use the taller isolators.
If I was still regularly travelling to Paducah/Mayfield suspension bit shipping might have been possible...but from SoCal? Unlikely!
Though I am cutting up a brown 77 280Z and will soon cut up another... They do have the parts you desire (strut tubes)...but they're big, bulky, and heavy. Shipping would be a PITA. Look locally, or find some spring spacers to put on your lower spring perch. You're in NASCAR country...they should be all over the road! LOL
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I've been thinking that my winter project this year will be to figure out how to adjust that without spending a fortune...
Big Sledgehammer is cheap at Harbor Freight...
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Yep, and if you did like me, and put a 78 Suspension under a 73, you play hell getting the back end down low enough to even look level!
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There is absolutely no reason you can not have the A/C in your application. I have a 75 with an 81ZXT motor in it, and the A/C is still functional. AND it has a stock AFM.
This has been covered (move the AFM to the radiator support, upside down inside the engine bay, or right side up out front hanging from the plastic tube.
You use the stock 81 intake rubber boot, which slides into a Z31 Plastic intake duct which needs one fitting closed, and everything lines up. Another boot through the radiator support, and your AFM hangs there fine.
You have to remove the stock AFM mount, and if you are lazy you 'hammer clearance' the fender well if you are using the Z31 Intake Tube (or not if you make your own tube from mandrel bend exhaust tubing...)
And when I went MS, the only thing I changed on the inlet was taking off the AFM, and replacing it with a 90 Degree elbow from (I think) another piece of Z31 intake ducting.
You simply haven't looked at the plethora of photos here, it's all documented quite well.
I don't know what searches your performed, but if you searched on 'eliminating AFM' you probably didn't get squat.
"Relocating AFM" should turn up just about every conceivable photo you can think of, this is a very simple matter, and has been done many many many times before!
I mean, 7 posts in and you mention the impetus is to keep the A/C? That's not a problem at all. Plenty of cars have done it. Sometimes the best attack is the direct one where you tell the people what you want, instead of your preconceived solution, that way you see different approaches to the problem that you may not have considered.
Yes, the AFM fits up front with the Intercooler, AND the A/C Condensor....And a big Z31 Diamond-Shaped K&N Filter with intake silencer box attached to keep the turbo whine down and nice and stealthy like...
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ABCD, efgh; IJKL, MNOP!
QRST....uvwx...Y?
Z!
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Yes, that is very effective. 10# CO2 Fire Extinguisher does a nice -110 F precool of the intercooler and really combats the thermal mass issue. Same goes for plenum style manifolds as well. Nice and chilly between runs. When you pay by the hour, the more runs you do, the more info you get, right? If your regular cooling system can keep up, that is!
It is nice to have at a Dyno for more than one reason.
I have a bud who recharges fire extinguishers on an 'exchange' basis. I get the run of the "CO2 Pile" and always call before going to the dyno!
Helps when it's 'free'... Though a T-Cylinder and siphon assembly wouldn't be all THAT much to offer this as a service at the Dyno. Why they don't is beyond me.
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wikiwikiwikiwikiwikiwiki... LOL
I thought I'd mentioned the Industrial Technology Class Experiment here before...
Curiously, one of the guys that was in volved in that got hired to work at Ford....though he left well before the SVT was around.
I made a vacuum jacketed container and use dry ice and alcohol for some testing with a miniature AMOT temperature mixing valve and a 20% glycol/water mix. Damnedest thing is setting up a proper thermal siphon for the cryogenic side because the Neoprene and Silicone impellers in ALL the cheap 12V pumps get hard and stop pumping trying to circulate it. Add acceleration and it screws your siphon action up and your temperatures go to hell... BAH! Don't listen to me, I'm working without pants and scratching myself out in the shed!
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Maybe if you substituted the wheels for a metal plate bolted to the floor with appropriate frame-shop anchors. You know the plate, something say 1/2" thick and bored to accept the bolt pattern.
Then do the same up front, so it can't do the evedentiary photo wheelie...
Then, rev it up, and dump the clutch and see what happens.
My bet is a universal joint fractures before the studs shear.
And something in the driveshaft or clutch may slip before the studs shear.
And if all else fails, a stubaxle may shear or twist off at the splines before the studs shear.
But it would be a fun test to do....
And then you can point, showing it IS possible to shear four M12 Hardened studs using a softer drive axle flange.
Then again, if the studs are old, and stressed from 25 years of impact-gun tire changes, have stretched threads and latent cracking at the root of the first thread coming out of the axle flange... (see where I'm going with this on the andcdotal failure commentary that sometimes mentions this?)
Nevertheless, still a hoot to do in the back yard on the driveway. Video it, and put it on You Tube! LOL
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But it's 'even steven' when it's hung...at least mine was. Yeah, it was more visible (hung down lower, but evenly. It wasn't any lower on one side than the other...though the sentence now that I reread it may be two separate, different items 'it hung down very low' and 'didn't fit well on the left side at all'. I read it as one sentence lumping the two together in the same thing, as in 'on the left side it hung down really low and didn't fit well at all.' Which meant it was off those damn mounting points that stick down from the floor. Mine is a 73 as well.
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I have some Ektrachrome Slides of one of my cars in Japan...Floors? We don't need no stinkin' floors!
And one in Michigan where a tree was growing through the spare tire well, had pushed the hatch glass out, and straightened up. There was another sapling that had come up between the headpipe and the block, and was actually growing around the manifold and SU!
Old 35mm stuff from years ago. One day, I'll start scanning this stuff for posterity... LOL
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Another shot from ElMirage in June from the 'HybridZ' #236 Car. Runs a 380CID (if I remember correctly from our discussions) SBC he salvaged from it's former mount in an Opel GT.
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Go to any part of Western Europe and realize that most of their diesels are making well over 70mpg driven regularly, and if economically driven, can touch the 100mpg marker.
VW Lupo is a great example of this, and even it is a bit heavy.
My BMW 320D in Spain got maybe 40 in normal driving.
The VW Jetta (a 2008) got worse. Matter of fact, when driving spiritedly the thing got 25mpg equivalent.
I think this is a bit of over-egging the pudding unless you are talking about some 1.2L Deathtrap driven at no more than 50KPH in top gear downhill...
I'm hoping Spain, France, Portugal, The Netherlands and Germany still counts as 'western europe'...it's getting dangerously close to 'central europe'....
4500KM in three weeks, thrice this summer for a total of almost 15,000 km driving.
Does this qualify me to comment?
Franks Essing-Tuned Diesel M3 got better fuel mileage than the stock 320D I was driving.
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From a theoretical standpoint anything is possible.
Benchracing...
At Bonneville if you run over 200mph, you are required to run a 5 lug on the car, amongst other things.
But traction will be alimiting factor on most cars getting towards the 'snapping' potential. As I recall, didn't the Turbo Electramotive cars have 700+HP and four lugs...
It's a moot argument.
Benchracing theories sound good, by the water cooler, all day long!
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Theres also an upper limit on the size of the pipe that makes sense...
Twin 2.5" flows like a single 4....or thereabouts, it's in the archives.
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Unless the bobweight is identical...
It has to be rebalanced or you're setting yourself up for stressus maximus at even pedestrian rpms...
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Compressor Engineer for FS-Elliott.
I'm sure my mate Elton and the VP of Marketing Sales (oh yeah, he's on a TOUGH assignment, right!?!?) are in the Land of Oz evaluating local shops for a distributorship licensing agreement. We don't have local representation there yet. Comp Air NZ would be a feather in our cap to snag away from Cameron, and being I know people working there it would be an easy excuse for me to go... But noooooo!
Yes, I was referring to not modifying the head gasket. Up to, but never touching it. I personally prefer to use a previously compressed gasket as well, as it's more accurate of what you have in the engine instead of an undeformed one. And if you tag it with the stone...meh, no biggie!
You should see the notches on our L20A bores to get the L28 Size valves to clear the bores! Muahahahahha!
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I know what you mean about those stoms in the pacific, very nasty, especially in a C130. Bumpy Bumpy. On C141's we use to do air drops with paratroopers. Standard procedure was to pass out barf bags when they boarded the plane.
Once one guy chucked the whole group started to puke. Smelling lovely at that point.
There is that...
I know what you mean about the terrain following flights. I had to go FOL in Korea and got loaded on a blacked out something that smelled inside like...er 'garlic and fermented rice'. Loadmaster came to me with a minimaglite hands me three bags, tells me to 'stay put no matter what' and makes sure by lap harness is really secure. Apparently I had no 'need to know' this was a jump flight for a joint US-ROK special forces mission... I can distinctly remember what I thought when the light came on after the back door started going down in flight: "God, please don't let one of these gung-ho morons think I'm freezing and drag me out of the back of the plane without a parachute!" Yeah...that was another interesting flight...
I used to have a 'never say never' in a signature line. It referred to my last 141 Flight out of Kadena to Osan. As I got off, it was 'Well I'm never flying on one of these damn things again...'
10 years later, as a civilian sitting backwards looking at the passenger emergency information card on a 141 leaving Johnston Atoll that line came to me and stuck...
Same thing goes for having an AK47 issued to me... That's now like 21 years after the fact...
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The 3.1 hours quoted by the commentator for a "garage" to do this feat takes into account fluids, electrical, mechanical connections not already being disconnected prior to starting the clock….
That's still a generous timeframe, and skips some steps that occurred on Bryan Blake's Silver Car after he broke the piston skirts at MSA the one year.
We towed his car using my towbar up to a garage in Glendale where, from the time it rolled into the bay, to the time it rolled back out under it's own power and drove off was just about or just under 3 hours, give/take 15 minutes...
We pulled the engine, pulled the head, pulled the flywheel.
On the replacement engine that was there at the garage, we did the same.
Then we installed Bryan's Head, Intake, Flywheel, etc, reinstalled the engine and the hood, and re-fluidized the appropriate items.
And on initial fire up I almost ran everybody over with the car in gear...
But everybody at the Saturday Night Event was amazed that we made it to the event on time, and that Bryan's car was driving to it, and the engine at idle 'no longer sounded like ice cubes in a blender'...
Watch the VW Engine Changes at the Bug-Ins...fast fast fast...
The 3.1 hours quoted by the commentator for a "garage" to do this feat takes into account fluids, electrical, mechanical connections not already being disconnected prior to starting the clock…. 
Post your "MacGyver" stories...(doesn't have to be car related)
in Non Tech Board
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The boss and his better half decided they were going to 'monitor our movements' in the companny trucks using the Teletrac system. Bunch of hypocritical B.S. was laid on us about the system.
I find out how the system charges the users, and it's by 'starts and stops' of the vehicle. Tracks using Cel Towers and Triangulation. The decision is made by myself and the other lead technician to fight back...
Anyway, I set up a flasher relay to make a semi-short in the incoming power line through a load resistor, making the power dip to the transducer. This makes it think it's powered off. When the flasher loaded up, it clicked off, and the power was restored. This worked great, and I installed it using pericing probles from my meter set.
Eventually (the third day) I got a solid state flasher and set the thing up so it would be operating bang bang bang bang!
End of the first month comes, they get this BIG bill. Everybody's readouts are printed out, and they are like a page long. My partner and I literally have a PILE about 4" thick of computer paper. Reading out 'start stop' It was over 650 events in a day! They send out the technicians. Several times... They go over our vehicles. Several times... They put a larger transducer in Tims Truck (twice) because he randomly was 'dropping out'... (Manual actuation to kill the transducer, then reapply when we know we are in a different cel zone...making us 'dissapear' for 7 miles, or show up in another town through confusion in the system!)
This goes on for 3 months of the trial period. Progressively larger bills because I have trimmed the timing down to maximize the start-stop readout. Too fast and yo uskipped events, too slow and you weren't getting as many as possible in the timeframe allotted... Big news was they thought we were screwing them on time, but realized that with the records they were keeping it became apparent we were GIVING them time off the clock that they SHOULD have been paying us for...and they were PAYING a huge fee to the system because of the 'start-stop problem'... Even with all the chicanery we did, we made SURE that the first start and last stop were at least 5 minutes of 'clear operation' from the last 'Operation Backlash Event'...
When the technicians came to pull the things out of the trucks (there were two technicians to remove all the systems from all the trucks-6 trucks in all), they just couldn't understand it--"All the problems with this, we've never seen this before!" Then we showed them the little relay boxes we made, and told them everything we had done over the past three months. They were rolling out of their seats laughing so hard it wasn't funny! Never use a wire tie with a serial number on it as a 'failsafe tamper proof seal' on a simple inline dual bayonet fuse holder!
Best part was on the final day, and they both kinda looked around and said "Er....you need those boxes any more? They, ahh, they got the system on our trucks too...this would be funny as hell to install and screw with em!"
MUAHAHAHAHAHA