Crazy Octopus's Escapades

240z Q&A

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Sat, 06 Jun 2015 23:18:00 +0000

I recently got a message from Mike asking me about my 240z build, and because I have gotten a few of these I figured it would be best to make a post out of my answer.

Let me preface all of this by saying that my car has been out of commission for a little over a year due to a fuel leak at the gas tank. Life over the last year has been ridiculous, and every time that I thought I would have the time to work on her, something else came up. Good news is that I got a new job, and last weekend I finally jacked the car up and pulled out the tank to see where the leak was coming from:

It was actually coming out of a that old fuel return line hose in the back. I could have just installed a new hose, bolted it all back up, and then be good. But that would just be too easy. I am replacing it with a 10 gallon fuel cell -yes it is on order- and routing the fuel pump under the car, rather than having it under the hatch.

Also on order is a wiring harness so that I can properly clean up the mess that I have made of the chassis wiring that I did ages ago. Thanks to Josh at Yoshifab and the work that he did with the ignition, I am able to cut down on the amount of switches/fuses/relays.

Now, onto the questions!

Are you enjoying it, and what would I have done differently?
When it was running, I enjoyed the hell out of it! There were definitely some issues (due to my inexperience) that caused me some frustration, but overall I loved it. Once it gets back on the road within the next couple months the first thing that I am going to do is actually find out how much the car weighs. Silly I know, but I am ACHING to know if she actually weighs less than a ton.

There are a few things that I wish I could undue, or at least pony up the cost rather than taking the cheap/fast route.

0- Source a quality block & transmission… I thought that I had found some decent ones in a junkyard, NOPE. Block had a hole, and transmission grinds in a couple gears.
1- Buy a universal wiring harness rather than make one (I am going with the EZ wiring 12 mini). When I made my own it cost a around $60, but for another $100 I could have everything pre-colored, terminated, and had the proper lengths that I needed. When I do re-wire the car, I am going to re-vamp the wiring diagram that I posted before (https://flic.kr/p/8QzjH9) that will focus on how I am going to run that kit for the Datsun. I’ll update the layout when I finish it.
2- V-Band turbo to downpipe flange. No gaskets and it easier to drop the exhaust.
3- Cable actuated clutch. I was so adamant about having a hydraulic clutch, because that is what I was used to, that I disregarded the cable and it caused me to spend WAY more than I should have trying to diagnose and never actually fix the problem.

There are a few more, but they boil down to “just because it is cheap and easy to get in a junkyard doesn’t mean that it is better than something that costs $30 more” and “It is a project car, you don’t need it now now.”

There are some things that I wish were around when I was building the engine, that are now available and should be HIGHLY considered.

=Crank case vent & catch can from yoshifab - so that I don’t have to worry about venting to atmosphere or finding a working/non-cracked flame trap
=Yoshifab 2.4 lightened flywheel (no link, group buy soonish?) - the stock volvo dogdish flywheel is about a million pounds, enough said
=Short Distributor - so that I could move the engine back a little bit, and maybe improve upon the shifter location
=Dry sump oil pan. The oil pan lobe sticks out A LOT. Cutting this down would increase the amount of effective road clearance that you have. In my super slammed car’s case, it would make me feel better knowing that the lowest part of my car is not the oil pan.

Did I make my own mounts?
Yes & no? The first set of mounts were welded in by a buddy of mine, but when I sent it in to have the engine looked at, and eventually fixed, I think Josh cut them out replaced them; however I could be wrong in this and they still may be the shadetree ones. Transmission mounts we definitely done by Josh.

Did you buy a T5 slip yoke and weld it to the Datsun driveshaft?
No, I had a custom driveshaft made.

Does the 5th gear cruise nice or does it lug too much?
Very nice cruising, and no lugging that I can remember. Once she is back on the road I’ll post up what the RPM is at speed and gear.

If the engine was closer to the firewall would the shifter be better located?
Yes, but I would only gain around 3” and I don’t think that is enough to make or break it. In order to do this you would need to have the block mounted distributor instead of the at the head. You can find that distributor at Yoshifab (Short Distributor).

What are you using for engine management?
Stock LH2.4 ECU and EZK. There are quite a few b230+16vT guys out there that are using them, so I knew that I could at least get away with it while I daily drive it as well as run through the shakedown. When I was building the car up there was some talk about having chips made to make the transition easier, but I haven’t checked up on the status of that for a long while. I have thought about going standalone, but it is pretty expensive and I would rather spend that money elsewhere on the car.

Did you NEED the coilover suspension because the engine is lighter?
Nope, stock is fine if you like going off road. The dynamics of the car will be totally off because of the shift in weight balance, but other than that coilovers are not ever really needed on a street car. I went with the kit because I knew that the price for them would skyrocket, and I wanted to slam the car. I got the coilovers from a friend for $200ish, and the adapters for $260; now the adapter plates are $435 (zccjdm). Would I do it now? I dunno, those are really expensive adapters.

Thanks Mike for the questions and hope that I was able to answer your questions!

-til next time

I drove it home!

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 02:51:00 +0000

Mornin'

I have been having too much fun fiddling with the car to post anything about it, but hey... better fiddling with the Z than just fiddling with my thumbs...

Last Friday Martin and I made our way down to Yoshifab to pick up the car, and bring her home.

Her first meal with her new heart & brain implant (american lard of 91 octane)

Her first real drive on the street

(applers click here)

Look at her pretty tuckus...

After some adjustment of parts and tightening of some bolts 'n bolts, I was able to get her to idle at a decent RPM.

(I really need to figure out how to integrate flickr to work with iPhones...)

This however was a small victory, there was another issue with the, I think, IAC and it is causing her to have a higher than normal idle when warm. It is either that or I need to adjust the TPS, or there is a slight vacuum leak, or maybe my dizzy... I really have no idea at this point. For now I am idling at 1100RPM and I would like it to be 750-900.

Hopefully Josh will have an answer when I stop by on Friday to patch up an exhaust leak, if not then I'll deal with it after I solve the short that I have in the running lights circuit.

'till next time.

ps. I also strapped on the front lip (FINALLY) and man oh man SEX FACE MCGEE

World First Volvo powered 240z*

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 05:27:00 +0000

*Google massive keyword attack and search, but if you can prove me wrong PLEASE let me know.

Well kidos, it has been two years since I threw sheets to the wind and decided that it would be a good idea to try to put a motor in a car that hadn't been done before. Sure there was quite a bit of frustration, hiccups, vodka, racked knuckles, & dust collecting, but there has not been a single project that I have ever been involved in that put this large of a smile of my face. ~~HONESTY STRIKEOUT, I teared up on the drive back home from the shake down drive yesterday.~~

So without further ado here is the first drive of my 1972 Datsun 240z powered by a volvo b230 8v block with a 16v head, bolted to a Ford T5 transmission, snailed by a 19t turbo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazyoctopus/9975759444/

[The hesitation that you hear from the engine was due to both the ECU learning as well as running too little fuel and having the engine stave. It smoothed out shortly after 5 gallons of fuel was put in]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazyoctopus/9975799414/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazyoctopus/9975902943/

::side note... doughnuts are now known as doritos::

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazyoctopus/9975943094/

Next post will be of, hopefully, some in car videos of the drive home.

Please take note of the hilariously long shifter lever in the "first pass" video. The T-5 transmission sits much farther forward than the stock F4W 4-speed, so until I design and build a shifter relocation mechanism I will be sticking to a tube, welded to a plate, bolted to the tranny. I will say that I totally dig the boro dildo shift knob. I mean really, it is far too smile inducing for me to replace it soon.

--

This morning I drove back to Yoshifab to make sure that the chassis wiring that I did two years ago still works. This way when I drive it home I will have working brake lights. The first step was to figure out which switches I actually need. Fantastically the team at yoshifab cut down the amount of switches that I need by nearly half: eFan is now controlled via a temp switch (volvo stock part), fuel pumps & IGN are kicked on with the kill key (instead of two switches).

When all was said and done I was left with only 3 switches: running/dash lights, high/low beam, & reverse lights. There was a hiccup with the brake lights, but after some troubleshooting I found out that the brake switch itself was sticking so I stole some lube and now it works fantastically. I had to leave before I tied up all the loose ends - Dad's B-day - but all that is left is to run a power wire from the fuse block to the battery, and tie the brake switch to the power side of the starter switch.

Car life is so rad when you have help from Josh and his amazing team at YoshiFab.

-'til next time

put put put put

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 03:59:00 +0000

Mornin' All,

I have something quite fantastic to share.

(Appler's don't worry I have not forgotten about you, the links are just a couple lines below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazyoctopus/9960132634/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazyoctopus/9960131594/

IT RUNS!!! and pretty well too!

(ps. the MAF was bad and has since been replaced; now the engine runs nice and smooth.)

Tomorrow I'll be heading into the shop to drive the car around and get a feel for her on the streets. Don't worry I'll make sure to take a few more photos and video.

Seriously, excitebike times 12!! She is almost ready to be in my hands again, and SOOO CLOSE to having the final touches put on her to become my daily driver

::smiles from ear to ear::

-'til next time

Hilarious.

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 00:40:00 +0000

This may have been a mojor contributor to why the engine sounded like a tactor...

and just for good measure... why not...

Even with those, it still ran. muahahhahahahaha.

'till next time

PROOF OF CONCEPT

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 20:26:00 +0000

Needless to say yesterday ROYALLY SUCKED, but here is a nice heart warming chug that made my day 1000000 times better

That is with the bad block, air leaks, MAF placement, and possibly some bad injectors, BUT WHO FUCKING CARES IT CAN ACTUALLY RUN!!!!!!!

YoshiFab is already tearing down the block so now it is only time before it is road worthy.

::sigh of relief::

-'till next time

Update on zCar

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 04:03:00 +0000

And sadly it isnt a good one, but before the heartbreak here are a couple shots that I took while I was at the shop on friday...

I really really love this slight dump on the tip, so... I took another shot of it.

Where the battery is mounted. I know that some of you are thinking that I should have kept it where it was, but with all of the extra 0 gauge wire that I would need to run to mount it behind the passenger seat it would negate the savings and the weight offset.

ECU & EZK mounting plate. Passenger side foot tunnel, I will be adding some type of protective plate to mae sure some feet don't get too kick happy.

And now for the heart break...

Remember how I posted that hilarious bit of the junkyard engine having a crack in it that looked, and felt, like it was only on the exterior? And how I JB Welded it together in hopes that it would "fix" it, even temporarily?

Well... It wasn't only on the exterior... This bucket is filled with coolant AND oil...

Yep.

The result was bound to happen, but I was really hoping that the engine would have at least started and moved under its own power with that block. Proof of concept... and maybe a boost of moral?

It isn't all a total loss though as YoshiFab has a 92 b230 block at the shop. Hopefully it won't be much longer until we see a video of it starting.

'till next time

240z update

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 15:20:00 +0000

Slight update before I head to the shop today to get some more photos and check up on some dimensions for the shifter position.

Radiator, intercooler are piped and mounted; new engine mounts and a 19t turbo, eFan from a 740 volvo (used to be from a fiero)

Transmission mounted & 3" pipe all the way back ((who needs a resonator/cat really? My Honda Fit offset the carbon footprint of this car...))

And for a nod to RE-Amemyia's Dolphin Tail, a slight tip drop

'till next time

Day Zero

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 01:56:00 +0000

Boom, arrived and ready for tomorrow

-'till next time

It has been forever, but eh...

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 04:14:00 +0000

SO I have to get this in before I head to F1 in Austin, and am sorry about yet another delay in posting but such is life, and life happens.

We left off at vodka covered strawberries, and we shall continue at Magic Martin...

Went to work with Hilary

Then went home and made some pumpkins for some kids, and we went through about 20lbs of candy....

Had a proper pumpkin beer with the crew.

Martin really wanted to get his helmet on, and... well... It was impressive.

In the prep for...

I picked up a 70-300mm VR lens to make sure that no matter where I am I can get up awkwardly close to people/cars on the track.

And then November ::COUGH:: MO-vember ::COUGH:: happened. You know, mens health and all.

'mals. [[shot with the 70-300, to get used to it]]

I made a promise to Jace, our liqour store champion, that if a bottle was still there when I came back the next week I would buy it.

It was quite large

Due to the size it pretty much demanded a bottle opening party. Unfortunately/fortunately I was asked to watch the folks house. To make it wicked awesome, my sis decided to join us for the fun, and she even brought Bob!

So with the gang, and a few extras (Martin's Wife, Weeks, Week's Wife & kid) I popped the bottle

Started pouring

Glasses up

Down the hatch

When we awoke in the morning the bottle was taunting us... being a scumbag and all...

==EDIT, missed some photos when I was uploading, so I am including them now==

Marinaded Eggplant

Refried black bean dip prep

Boiling some beats for the salad

Bean dip ready to be eaten!

DONEZO

==========

well... that was pretty much it. Kinda boring, but some things happened. Next update will be hopefully ::fingered crossed:: everyday with posts and images from the track. If they are not here they will for surely be there on my flickr CLICK THIS

-'till next time.

Color Swatch Wall Art

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 19:00:00 +0000

My room has been... well... lacking in interesting things on the walls.

So I have known about this for a bit of time, but had no way to do it at the cat house (due to the shoe wall). However, now that I can... attack.

Over 800 Color swatches collected

Instead of going straight into the wall, which would leave me with the nightmarish time of filling the thousands of holes or massive painting when I move, Martin gave the idea of mounting it to poster board first. So on the way home we made a quick trip to Staples, and acquired the needed stock (22x48 if you wanted to know).

Once we got home we organized the colors that were going to be used

and then really organized the colors.

What the spread of colors on the table did not show was the stack of the whites, grays, and blacks. I decided that the last two panels that I would make would be in gray scale. What I didn't realize is that there are quite a few swatches that all use one of those colors to describe it [think heather gray, or white rose]. So I decided that if a swatch had one of those descriptors in it, I would use it in one of the last panels. Gray scale just became... huescale?

From then on it was just a matter of positioning, and gluing all of the colors to the poster board.

The collection after the first day

Now I wont burden you with all of the swatch boards, but you know where to find them [NOW YOU REALLY DO]

Each of these boards took me about an hour and a half to prep and glue, so find some good music/audio book (I chose audio book, Game of Thrones).

A few days later (tried to get at least one done a night) I mounted what I had to my wall.

I was very stoked at the change that just that was able to give, and really couldn't wait to see the final layout.

After over 24 hours of prep, gluing, and mounting I finally finished my color wall.

If you have the wall space, or want to make just one board I would highly recommend it, it was awesome fun. I really do think that this was one of the more interesting (as well as one of my favorite) transformations that I have ever done; after all, there really is nothing better than turning a room from bland to blatantly fantastic for around $20.

-'till next time

car stuff!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:11:00 +0000

I had a free weekend awhile back and finally got around to uploading the photos.

Dash re-installed

a bundle

positioning time

the location

First cut

made the hole a bit bigger

test fit

new hole

layout check

layout updated

and that is how far I got on that day, now just need to find some time to finish it up. GAH I miss driving my car!!

-'till next time

Fuck yeah speedhunters!

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:57:00 +0000

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/02/22/guest-blog-zach-zupancic-gt-gt-volvo-powered-240z-on-a-budget.aspx

Smiles for days! Thanks to Mike for letting this one sneak through!

-'till next time

Year in Review

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:39:00 +0000

Well another year has passed of me posting on this blag, and as such it is time for a year in review.

I kicked off the year with my 240z being cut into pieces

Martin re-introduced me to rock climbing; looking at these makes me want to get back on a bike to get these legs back into shape.

After a month with the shell I had her up and running

And then made her sound awesome

Then gave her a quick spray

Put her on the ground, even though she looked like a monster truck. She is the first 240z photographed with both a BRE front lip and ZG flares (50 pages of google images, and 150+ flickr pages confirmed)

Had fun cleaning a carb, turned out it didn’t help.

Started to work on my wiring diagram, oh how it has changed!)

Went to New York and had lots of coffee

Someone in the UK was selling my Octopus logo on eBay, and I got some triple weber DCOE 40s

Then she got coffee with me for the first time.

Made the usual trip to the LBGP with the short shorts

Real life

With nascar sounds

Then slammed the car to the ground with the help of YoshiFab.

Boom.

Got a new camera.

Made the Z sound great

The car lost 40lbs

The Crazy Octopus returned

And the car got internet famous.

http://automanas.lt/astuonkojis-datsun-s30z-projektas/
http://www.build-threads.com/build-threads/chronicles-of-the-crazy-octopus/
http://www.vadriven.com/forums/showthread.php?t=346909&p=6331524#post6331524
http://oldskooljdm.tumblr.com/post/587120385/this-is-a-pretty-cool-z-less-is-definitely-more
http://blog.retro-classics.co.nz/?p=3385
http://tailoutsx.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/s13-z/
http://dsalni.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/oh-so-crazy/
http://dsalni.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/this/
http://kyushakai.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/crazy-jaguar/

My sister graduated

Took a photography class that changed my way of life

Had a 240 gathering at the house

Martin’s car was no longer able to run over a soda can

Replaced the dash.

Dropped to a new weight low of 185, and did some self portraits for my final project.

Went driving.

Then get really really loud for open header night

Then she began her stint in the air, while I gathered parts for a Volvo b230+16v+t engine swap with a Ford T-5 transmission swap.

Went to DC for the rally to restore sanity/fear with my sister.

More real life.

The Volvo engine finally put together

Only to find out that it had a crack in the block…

And help make pasta from scratch.

All in all it was an eventful year, and above all far better than 2009. The blag itself grew in viewership tipping around 19,500 (nearly 10 times more than last year) views throughout the year and an average daily view of 50 (more than 3 times more than last year) page loads. The blog moved from just being viewed by friends to being seen all across the states as well as from Oxford UK to Warsaw Poland; Bratislava Slovakia to Canterbury New Zealand; Bayen Germany to Seoul Korea; Canarias Spain to Ontario Canada; Queensland Australia to Paris France; and Fukuoka Japan to Oppland Norway to name a few.

This year looks to be quite promising with the car to be up and running within the next couple months, daily photographs, and simply just more awesome. As always I’ll keep with the updates as long as you keep viewing them.

-‘till next time.
The CrazyOctopus

Flow

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:11:00 +0000

Is better now.

Today was the first day of the half off sale at Pick Your Part, so I made my way down to Chula Vista and picked up the 90+ manifold, dip stick, and a couple 16v cam gears for Josh at YoshiFab. Tomorrow I'll be up in Long Beach to hopefully find a back up block, and anything else that tickles my fancy.

-'till next time

fingers crossed!

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:16:00 +0000

On this years "build of the year" on RetroRides!

-'till next time

It is cold!

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 02:49:00 +0000

And raining! But that isn't any real excuse why I hit another lull in posting. I still have yet to re-clock the turbo, or go to the yard and find the better exhaust manifold, but I have been doing my research on what I will be buying. As it stands the purchasing order will be as follows:

1. Clutch, pressure plate, and pilot bearing.
2. Finalize how I am going to be actuating the clutch. Because going either with the stock hydraulic or using a hydraulic throwout bearing are looking to cost the same, and while cable looks to be significantly cheaper it isn't nearly as awesome.
3. Purchase the wires and connectors for the wiring harness.
4. ??
5. Profit

Besides lurking on car forums and part stores, on Tuesday I had the awesome chance to learn how to make pasta from an awesome gal, Kate. I am not talking about going to the store and then throwing it in a pot, we made it from scratch. BOOM!

It took me a bit of time before I realized that I should be documenting this; so I missed the creation and kneading of the dough, but was able to get in the first few when we started to roll it out.

Then we cut them into nearly equal sized strips.

Then we started to make the sauce for the pasta. I am very used to a traditional tomato base with hot Italian sausage, but Kate said that we should make it a light sauce because then we can taste the pasta and not just the sauce; I agreed. So we started to cut up some turkey basil and something sausages, chop some garlic, and throw in all in a very large skillet with rosemary and something olive oil.

Wine always makes things better

boiled a pot of water and tossed in the pasta

I was a bit forgetful in taking a photograph of the finished product, but this will not be the last time that we make pasta from scratch (I am hoping for some gnocchi next time). The pasta was extremely delicious as well as being significantly better than store bought.

I am still waiting for other people to post up some photos of Matt Schnarr's birthday party on Friday night, so once those are put up I'll post them up here.

-'till next time

Let's hope this works: part 2

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 22:11:00 +0000

Yesterday I finished manhandling my head and turbo to get everything to bolt up together with the least chance of leaking with the hand that I was dealt.

To fix the bolt that was broken off in the head I tried reverse drill bits, titanium drill bits, and finally ended up falling in love with cobalt bits. I figured I’d tackle the easier of the two problems first, the turbo. The 15g had the bottom two studs broken off, and there was no way that I was going to try to easy-out them, so I starting drilling into it. The first pilot bit, standard high speed, broke off; the second bit, titanium, broke off; finally the third pilot bit, cobalt, went through it like butter. I was able to center one of the bits perfectly on one of the bolts, but on the other I wasn’t as lucky. So instead of having 4 equally round holes I now have 3 and 1 more like a slot. After that was taken care of and cleaned I moved onto the head.

I tried every pilot bit that I could find and/or buy to get drill into the snapped easy-out but nothing was working. So I called up Josh and asked if I was to drill and tap on either side of the hole would that accomplish sealing the manifold. He said that I was taking a very drastic approach and could not guarantee that it would work, but there is a chance that it might. Seeing as I had no other option I took the chance. Aluminum is super easy to cut through so I went at it slowly. After that was taken care of I tapped into the head with a 1/4-28 bit.

Then I put some bearing grease on the head and mounted up the YoshiFab adapter plate to get an idea of where the two holes were placed. I took out my cobalt bits and started drilling away. I knew that there was really no way that I was going to get the holes perfect on the first pass, so after a few mounting and test fits later I was able to open the holes up enough to clear the bolt.

Put in the bolts and tightened the whole plate down.

This led to another expected issue, bolt head clearance with the manifold.

Marked up the manifold, put it in a vise and started grinding away the worthless material. In the end it looked like this.

Mounted it to the plate, and tightened all of the bolts down. And by the way, does volvo hate the people that work on their cars? Because who in their right mind would make a 4 piece exhaust gasket...

Now my engine is really starting to look like a real one.

Today my only goal is to re-clock the turbo and order the clutch, pressure plate, and pilot bearing.

-‘till next time

"This is bad right?" or "What can't this fix?"

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 00:17:00 +0000

The horribleness that I mentioned yesterday was only compiled with yet even more lameness and shit. For the kids who keep asking why isn’t my engine cleaned, painted, pretty; this is why…

Yeah… that is a cracked block. I didn’t see it before because the block was dirty, so while I was cleaning it I found it. I reached my fingers inside of the flame trap opening and found out that it is a straight crack through the block. Balls. So I did some research and made a call to Josh and asked if it was weldable; it isn’t. He mentioned that the best thing to do would just be to just JB Weld it and hope for the best. I love JB Weld, but this is kind of pushing it to limit of how much I trust it. So I did a bit of lurking on the internets to see if other people have done this, and surprisingly there are quite a few outboard boats that do it. Seeing as I am so far along in the project, and the next half-off junkyard day isn’t until the end of the month I figured that I will keep using the block until it blows up and just have another one waiting.

Before I started on the crack I purchased what the hardware guy said was a “sure thing” to remove my stuck bolt in the head. Yeah, no. It snapped within the bolt, fuck that. If there is an exhaust leak, there is a leak and unless I find another head it’ll be there for awhile. Then I turned to the turbo and tried to get out the two bolts that are also seized, no prying could help, and it already wore down two of my bits so I have to get some more tomorrow, and hopefully something will go right for me.

So after all that I finally got around to cleaning the area around the crack

Made a grove where the crack is so that the JB Weld can have even more contact with the metal around the crack.

Roughed up the groove, cleaned the surrounding area, and brought out the good stuff.

Mixed it together, and dumped it all around.

Then I cleaned up the bit on my oil pan and while the engine was on its side I fixed the tension on the timing belt. So that end another day, and now I am off for a coffee and then later drown in vodka+ while playing GT5.

-‘till next time

It's starting to look a lot like and engine...

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 04:27:00 +0000

Today was a continuation of the motor piece together and it was littered with both great and horrible things, I won’t get into horribleness today because the lighting wasn’t the best.

Since the oil pan was off the block I looked under its skirt to see if I did indeed have the awesome oil-squirting block, I did…

Here is Josh’s handy work with the new turbo oil drain.

And here is how the engine sits with the oil pan now installed

Then I FINALLY got my collector edition of GT5 in, and of course I was forced into the dilemma of racing vs. real.

I chose real and installed the intake manifold as well as YoshiFab’s tensioner, getting the tension right will be a job for tomorrow.

Then started on the exhaust side with the removal of the exhaust bolts

During the process, of course, one of the bolts snapped in the head… another thing I’ll be working on tomorrow.

Test mounted YoshiFab’s exhaust adapter plate and noticed that bolts that come off the 16v head are a bit too long. So I ran to the hardware store and picked up some bolts (I want to say they were M8x1.25 at 30mm) and washers. Then it got kind of cold and dark so I decided that the best course of action was to just pick up where I left off early tomorrow.

Then about 30 minutes ago my monitor mount finally came in!! So GT5 action is soon to come after a nice shower, some food, and some vodka+

-‘till next time

head bolted

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:43:00 +0000

The 16v head bolts showed up this afternoon at YoshiFab!!! So I unbolted my oil pan so that Josh could weld in a fittingfor the turbo's oil drainage. The fitting seriously took Josh maybe 10 minutes to weld it in... insane fast in my honest opinion. I forgot to take photos of the oil pan today, but I'll get them tomorrow when I finish making the engine look like a real engine.

When I got back I started the attack...

Super Volvo sealant applied after torquing the bolts down: 15 lbs, then 30 lbs, then 115 degrees.

Top of the head half way though putting in the lifters

Installing cams: all nuts torqued to 15 lbs == DO NOT EXCEED OR YOU WILL SNAP THE BOLTS!==

and done!

Tomorrow I'll be bolting on the manifolds and oil pan, re-clocking the turbo, installing the timing belt, and cleaning it up a bit; I can't wait for it to look like a real engine.

-'till next time

Sim racing to a different level

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:21:00 +0000

I pre-ordered the collectors edition of GT5, but when I checked the status on release day amazon said that it was back ordered; balls. So I got my refund and ordered it off of a different supplier on amazon and it should be coming in within days. In order to fully experience the beauty of this game...

example from Hakosukaa :

I ordered a 25" monitor from geeks.com on cyber Monday and it arrived at the house yesterday. Now the Sim seat is is a plank and a few bolts away from being awesome!

-'till next time

Why hide it?

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 04:52:00 +0000

I am fucking blind and have been forever; in order to illustrate how blind I am here is what the numbered vision that I am (logMAR)

-11.50 right eye
-10.00 left eye

in 20/20 terms I am...

20 / .00000000006324 right eye
20 / .00000000002 left eye

here is what it looks like with my new glasses.

And I love it! after all, why hide what I really am! also heard back from YoshiFab and he is already on it and has the new head bolts on order. The company that sent the bolts accidentally sent 8v bolts rather than 16v. I don't know when they will get in, hopefully by the end of the week, but I will however be getting a new monitor in tomorrow and that should make my eyeballs jump for glee!

-'till next time

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 04:32:00 +0000

Oh, come on…

Finally had all the parts in to put the engine together this weekend, but it turns out the head bolts that were ordered are far too large, so now I have to wait another week to get the correct ones in… I am really glad that that I have another daily… but in all honesty I am pretty pissed that the project has been on this lull for such a long time. I really want to hear this thing at full tilt…

Anyway here is a grab bag of things that have been in my eye sockets.

Rev 13, the Volvo addition

noreply@blogger.com (CrazyOctopus) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 23:07:00 +0000

for those with Volvo LH 2.4

-'till next time, when I'll be in DC.