| yawp 2012 |
[Mar. 13th, 2012|01:13 am] |
Wow, has it really been this long since my last post?
Uh, let's see. I bought a very inexpensive 1996 SAAB 900 SE turbo hatchback in November. I've been gradually fixing it up. You can read all about it here (with photos).
Here's a neat music video:
Another:
One more:
I'll try not to be a stranger here... |
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| car, house - updates |
[Sep. 25th, 2011|10:59 pm] |
It's been five or six weeks since I last posted an update here, I guess I'm past due!
Car and house mini-projects abound as the warm-weather days wane and signs of winter materialize (saw the first frost appear on Wednesday morning last week). My roommate has had a handful of projects of his own, which I've watched or lent a hand with to varying degrees. Their $800 craigslist '92 Audi 100 CS Quattro (V6 2.8l 5MT AWD sedan) has been an interesting progression of engine, brake, and fuel system work. With the right tires, it should make an awesome winter car.
The old chimney and masonry in the entrance room has been largely removed with the help of a sledgehammer, a bucket, and a shop-vac, though I can only take credit for a fraction of the manual labor. There's a large pile of cracked brick and mortar outside the house, which will eventually be mixed into the landscaping and removed as seems appropriate. It appears that a leak in the chimney flashing above caused some concealed water damage below, one of the exterior knee walls in the A-frame was rotten and soft enough to remove by hand, as are sections of the subfloor nearby... another structural project!
Finally installed a small 70w high-pressure sodium parking lot light over my driveway near the house, again with help. Having a nighttime flood light has been long overdue, it's a welcome thing to be able to see whether or not there are critters between you and your house or cars as you come and go! The plan is to run some buried wiring conduit to a weatherproof outlet below it, hopefully before winter sets in. For the moment, it's powered when needed via an orange outdoor extension plug.
Around the beginning of the month, it was necessary to take the Mazda3 to the dealership for warranty service on the front wheel hub bearings. The problem appeared around 18K as rotational grinding sort of noises when turning right or coasting along, but was mostly quiet when accelerating or pedal braking. Very strange to have happened at such low mileage, but it's been resolved.
Honda Civic projects continue; recently purchased a full set of 14" steel wheels with mostly worn summer tires on craigslist. I was after the wheels, and for $40 they were a bargain. Finally also replaced the broken A-pillar radio antenna, which was damaged by a friend way back in 2001, about two weeks after I bought the car, when they bent it while climbing out from the 2nd row seat. It eventually broke off, and I had gone a few years without good radio reception before finally ordering a replacement. Fishing the wire from the roof down the pillar to behind the dashboard was as much a pain as you'd expect, but it's definitely an improvement in reception over no antenna! With a little help from my roommate, I tackled a front disc brake pad replacement project, installing new brake pads and bleeding/flushing all four corner brakes of old fluid.
Finally, today, I purchased a blown engine (D16Y7) for $80 from a craigslist posting. I drove down expecting an engine block and cylinder head, but also got a 5MT transmission, some engine mounts, an alternator, a starter, a wiring harness, and what appears to be a D16Z6 throttle body and intake manifold. I'm told the engine has 156K on the clock and a spun bearing. It was also missing its oil pan. Naturally, I picked it up in the '98 Civic hatchback that it may eventually go in; I never tire of the utility of the hatchback! :) I spent the evening pulling things off the engine block before it became too dark to continue. It will basically need to be rebuilt, with new pistons, rods, bearings and seals, and possibly a crankshaft. I'll know more once I've got the block and head pulled apart. The condition of the transmission is unknown, but everything is a little suspect given the engine was a) boosted with forced induction and b) blown. |
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| more bandwidth = happy me |
[Aug. 22nd, 2011|12:13 pm] |
For the past three years, the fastest-available Internet delivery to my home has been 1.5mbps ADSL. The main limitation there had been twofold: My address was serviced by a RSDLAM with limited backhaul bandwidth, probably a T3 (45mbps) for the entire subdivision of 300 houses, and also fairly old line cards providing an old ADSL format.
I was excited to see them stringing fiber optic lines along the road from Evergreen to my neck of the woods this summer. The line fed right to my neighborhood's RSDLAM, and sure enough, the modem began reporting higher attainable data rates in mid-July. At my request, they checked the analog loop and apparently moved my line splice from a split pair to a twisted pair trunk, and the analog line parameters were greatly improved, enough so that they were able to move me to their 12/1 ADSL2+ tier, with happy results:
Latency has also dropped, from about 55ms to about 28ms, so multiplayer gaming is also much-improved. All this for an extra $10/mo. I'm happy with this progress! |
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| another update |
[Aug. 12th, 2011|06:59 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | at home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | ok | ] |
Progress on house continues slowly, though the sheetrock is going up on the entrance room's ceiling by and by. A local friend suggested an old contact of theirs talk to me about a situation, and we've hit upon a mutually agreeable situation in which they lease a room in the house, and so as of the beginning of the month, I've a housemate. It seems like it's working out well, though may not be a long-term situation.
The alternator and speedometer seemed to mysteriously fail on the Civic about two weeks ago. At first, I assumed the alternator had failed, but it turned out to be a blown fuse. It's the subject of a Honda tech service bulletin from 2000 involving a spot where the intake manifold bracket can rub off the insulation of the speed sensor harness and cause an electrical short. I'll have to see if that's what happened, 7.5A fuses don't usually blow for no reason. The replacement fuse hasn't yet gone, however.
I noticed a few people here on LJ had defriended me at some point in the indefinite past. If that's how they feel, then I guess there's no need for me to listen to their own posts. Defriended, and that's why. Good luck with life, or whatever, sorry you thought so little of me to blast me out of your life with not so much as a word, I guess?
Have gotten a small crop of raspberries from the back yard this summer, and am hoping that some tomato plants growing outside in a tiny container garden continue to do well. Being mid-August, summer is waning fast. We'll probably see frost and/or snow before October here at 8700ft elevation.
Excitingly, the telco here (Qwest, now CenturyLink) has pulled fiber to the RDSLAM and appear to have upgraded the line cards to ADSL2+. My modem is reporting an attainable bandwidth of 8400/1100, however, the telco is only acknowledging 1536/896 and 3000/640 options. I'm expecting to get the 3000/640 plan activated on Monday, though am miffed about a cut to the upstream, and do hope I'll be able to get the 6-8/1 the DSL line training suggests I could sustain. The line is 11600ft long, and so even with ADSL2+, that's probably about the best I can expect here. Still, it's a step in the right direction; what I have today is the slowest Internet since I left dialup back in 1998 or so. |
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| eHarmony & dating sites |
[Jun. 12th, 2011|08:49 pm] |
Maybe two or so years ago, someone I know suggested I'd be happier if I got active on the dating scene, suggested I try eHarmony.com. I went there and spent a lot of time letting the site automatically profile me for matches. At the time, it chewed on the datapoints it had collected, then spat out that there were no matches for me. That didn't do much to cheer me up.
I recently revisited and logged in. Interestingly, based upon that original criteria, it had a more useful statement, "Our matching system cannot predict good matches for you." and then went on to actually provide me with a personality analysis, which is interesting reading...
What's remarkable, and surprising, is that it absolutely describes how I see things more eloquently than I ever have managed to. It probably also helps explain why so many people misread me so badly, and so often:
( Read more... ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 10th, 2011|11:05 pm] |
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Rough two weeks. Work a full week, then after a Saturday off, get up at 4am to fly out and work another week. Just when you get home and are ready to kick back, realize you can't because you did something weird to your shoulder muscle and have to slam ibuprofen and stay very still. After five overtime days of that, for your prescheduled day off, get pulled into more work when something important breaks at the office that simply cannot wait and cannot be resolved remotely. Just for measure, be so incised by the way things are going lately that you blurt some pretty bitter things in front of coworkers who had stayed late to help or whatever (though admittedly they're largely only in the way since they know nothing about the affected systems in question). Just. I need a week off, at this point, *sigh* |
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| more car stuff, May update |
[May. 28th, 2011|10:08 pm] |
Honda update blitzkrieg:
There was a break in the seemingly unending grasp of winter long enough to put the Civic back together mostly-- it needs a seriously cleaning to get the side running molding back on, but has been on the road a fair amount in subsequent snows. More recently, 'seafoaming' the crankcase, fuel system, and intake, followed by the installation of new spark plugs. I performed by first engine oil and filter change this very afternoon.
It's running smoothly, though some coolant loss and temperature fluctuations reported via OBD2 (steadily 194'F with less predictable load-induced forays up to 212'F+). Maybe nothing to worry about, as the actual coolant gauge doesn't seem to really budge in the dashboard. Best case, maybe just need another radiator cap or engine thermostat, but both were replaced just twelve months ago, so I'm skeptical pending further symptoms. For now, it's taking the worst CO can throw at it faithfully.
There are quite a few cosmetic issues; the mismatched paint fender, some overspray incidents around rust on various fenders/hood. I'd like to tackle some of that when I can find the time. Mechanically, I've basically been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since getting the head gasket replaced last year, but 8000 miles later, it doesn't seem to be degenerating much at all, just a slow but steady consumption of oil, the occasional puff of blue smoke out the tailpipe, the slow loss of coolant. There are some obvious issues to deal with; a cracked exhaust manifold, and then some short list items, like rubber bushings and ball joints that, while still passable, are showing their age. Beyond that, I still have a desire to tune the dynamic handling, throw on some good tires, and take it to autocross, but these things can be big line items even when done DIY when your discretionary budget is tight and already blown on things like new tires for the tire-hungry first car. Speaking of which,
Mazda update:
As the weather began to sneak in the occasional nice day earlier this month, I hired some professional help to sort out some small dents that appeared in February and $200 later it looks great again, even under close scrutiny. A claybar detailing and waxing DIY really brought back the full lustre of the finish, and last week, a dealer wheel alignment and the installation of well-rated summer tires have really tightened the behind the wheel experience in general and especially on the twisty roads. The new tires are quieter than the OEMs, which is also welcome on the freeway. Still very much loving this car, don't anticipate that changing. :) 13.6K miles on the clock since buying it last August, now, all driving around Denver and the foothills to the west.
In general:
Went to a Colorado Mazda Club cruise, a big convoy of fun cars in the mountains (am driving third car in the column in above pic). Being my first such event, it was interesting, though I'm looking forward to trying some more such events organized by different club members.
This past Friday, I volunteered for the owner of a racecar shop with a SCCA World Challenge prepped RX-8 (but not that one) out at the Highlands Plains Raceway.
Cleaning bugs and bits of tire off the race car and other gopher-type duties, they may not sound glamorous but I've already learned a lot about how the event crew process works and how each piece is important and comes together to make it happen. Even small details, like someone misplacing an oil cap can be life or death (to the car's success) at an event. At Friday's event, there was a very skillful driver behind the wheel, and we all enjoyed watching him push it past exotic cars worth far more at the non-race open track day used to help shake down the car. It was a positive experience, if a long day, and I've been invited to come help out again at the 2011 Pikes Peak Hillclimb, which is super-exciting to me: one of the oldest and most interesting events in motorsports, and this year is going to be a big one I think. |
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| car updates |
[May. 9th, 2011|11:01 pm] |
Work on the Civic continues with the return of warmer weather. The left front wheel well is pretty much all finished, with rust fixative, primer, and paint over treated areas. Where I had ground off rubber/silicon sealant from the structural spar, I also restored a layer of rubber undercoat and silicon caulking. It should be relatively stable, here in dry Colorado, or so I hope. Work commenced on less badly rusted front right side, which was similarly sanded, rust fix layer, primer. I will try to replace the hood pull cable on account of a broken interior pull handle, and then I'm basically read to put the fenders, front bumper, and fender liners back on and return the civic to the road.
I did deal with a seized spark plug, likely over-torqued by the last mechanic to change plugs (a paid professional). It took out half of the spark plug socket threads with it when it finally came out. After pulling the strips of aluminum from the plug threads, I was able to wrench it back in to oem spec 13 ft-lbs, but it's plausible it could pop under load. If that occurs, I might be able to use a 'heli-coil' or similar product, but if not, I'll need to probably pull off the engine head, so I'm hoping that won't be necessary. Rebuilt D16Y7 heads go for as little as $250ish, though I remain hopeful that can ultimately be forestalled a few years and tens of thousands of miles. I do have a new set of NGK platinum alloy plugs to drop in, but I'll probably seafoam the engine before dropping them in.
I've had the Mazda3 nine months now, about 12800 on the clock. Discounting winter wheel miles, the OEM tires have about 8500 on them, and they're basically all but down to the treadwear indicator on all four corners (have been rotated several times). This isn't too atypical for those OEM tires on this car, according to others, although many people mention getting something more like 20-24K out of them, I've been unapologetic in my abuse of them, corning up and down mountain roads. :) Am planning to try to buy Hankook Ventus evo V12 UHP summer tires to run on the next 4-5 months before winter returns to the foothills.
A number of unfortunate events transpired together in February to the Mazda, indignities of a shovel dealing with deep winter snow, some parking lot action by irresponsible persons who choose to remain anonymous. I needed professional help and got it from a service named 'Dent Mirage,' which painstakingly hammered out the dents and dings one by one to a point you basically can't tell they were ever there. I chased that the following day with a hand wash, then clay bar along every metal surface, topped off with a cleaner wax treatment.
MZ3 is definitely glowing and looking a bit happier, with a slick wet gloss, so I've rolled back much of the winter damage, although there are still a few pinhead-sized rock chips along the front that I need to touch up. The windshield has taken quite a few small sandblast points, I may look into what, if any, treatment options might precondition against further damage. Said front glass is still quite clear now, but it seems like it' a bit softer and more vulnerable to rock or whatever chips than is ideal, something other MZ3 owners have complained about in online forums. There's a financing windshield replacement insurance rider, but that's intended more for damage that would typically require a replacement, like cracks.
Here's how it looked the morning after the cleaning and waxing. What do you think? :) Reactions from others on the road, when I'm paying attention, remain somewhat mixed and polarized, but for what's essentially an economy car, it does turn heads and get grins and stares from other drivers and the odd pedestrian. Occasionally folks swerve a little when they spend too much time looking through their rear-views. :) Still, I'm seeing more of these grinning 2nd-gen MZ3s around as time passes, along with other late model smiling Mazdas like the CX7/9. I'm tending to notice Mazdas in general, including older ones, when I'm driving around but I guess being an owner myself, that's only natural..
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chromal's journal
