Well it's been quite some time since I've posted on this blog. I should note, that after I made the post displaying the method of transferring valve springs, I realized that I was very far behind schedule in terms of making my car ready for the competition license test. Well, after a LOT of work, my car was finally ready. I wound up finishing the safety items, and stickers last minute, up until 3 am the night before I had to leave for the test weekend.
The license test was great. I passed, and had a totally great time. There were so many requirements, and evaluations to determine if the prospective competition school students could handle the pressures of wheel to wheel racing. The schedule is as such to put you in a mindset of constant stress and pressure. You start going to classes, and doing drills from 7 am until 6 pm, both in the car, and in the classroom.
One of the tests that we had pass on track was driving a 8/10ths (meaning, you are driving at 80% of your peak driving ability.) for 30 minutes, SIDE by SIDE with another competition school student the ENTIRE way around the track with less than 3' between you both. You could imagine driving side by side with your friend on a highway with speeds of around 120 mph, while turning, and maintaining less than a 3' gap between the two of you.
...and to top it off, you have an evaluator (a race instructor) behind you both, trying to squeeze his car between the two of you. We were told "If I can (the evaluator) squeeze my car between the two of you, we will FAIL you!
I was successful with this test, but man, it gave me a new respect for the space between two cars at high speed!
After that test, we had a "Mock" race. I did OK, however after a long day, my concentration started to slack, and around 15:00 of this video, I just missed my critical turn in point and just decided to drive the car off the track.
Regardless, I am now a licensed NASA (National Auto Sport Association) pro-racer.
...and it feels pretty cool.
First race report to come soon.
sander.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Grime Fighters!
Any Honda enthusiast will testify, painting the valve cover/rocker cover of your engine is a very popular way to customise, and add a little touch of flair to your engine bay.
Regular Hondas will come with a black, wrinkled paint finish. Type-Rs come with a lucious red.
A few years ago, I purchased a second valve cover, so I could store my good condition red one, and then painted and installed the spare.
Anyway, I got bored of that one, and decided to sell it and get another to add my personal touch to.
I decided to go with the rarest of B-series DOHC VTEC valve covers. The B16A1.
This cover only came on the 1990-1991 Civic and CRX VTEC models.
Very difficult to get hold of, however I got one. No big deal.
Here it is.
With 'Honda Motor Co.' and the company 'H', it is unique.
However, coming from an old car, with high mileage, there is the potential for it to be caked underneath in horrible, baked-on oil.
Oh dear. As dark as a welfare queue.
As you can see, I've scraped at it with a paint scraper, and it's very thick and horrible.
I'm not prepared to put this on my car with all that crap on the underside.
For this job, my weapons of choice are, my muscles...
...and Mr. Muscle.
Taking a look at the reverse it states:
"Removes burnt on grease..." I like the sound of that.
It says to spray on and leave for a period of time, wicked.
Bukkake time!
I left it for an hour, returned and then sprayed it with a hose.
Before I blasted away the foam, there was horrible brown gunky crap a bit like diarrhea pooling in the corners, the cleanser was really cutting into it.
It has certainly left it's mark, At this point I made a second application, and switched over to a pan scourer and my muscles.
This is the finished result:
I didn't quite manage to get into all the little nooks and crannies, but I'm satisfied now that all the major gunk has been removed.
Next update will cover the stages of painting.
But the lesson here today, people I know have paid good money for acid dips when it comes to this kind of stuff, but all you need are some household cleaning products and some elbow grease.
Regular Hondas will come with a black, wrinkled paint finish. Type-Rs come with a lucious red.
A few years ago, I purchased a second valve cover, so I could store my good condition red one, and then painted and installed the spare.
Anyway, I got bored of that one, and decided to sell it and get another to add my personal touch to.
I decided to go with the rarest of B-series DOHC VTEC valve covers. The B16A1.
This cover only came on the 1990-1991 Civic and CRX VTEC models.
Very difficult to get hold of, however I got one. No big deal.
Here it is.
With 'Honda Motor Co.' and the company 'H', it is unique.
However, coming from an old car, with high mileage, there is the potential for it to be caked underneath in horrible, baked-on oil.
Oh dear. As dark as a welfare queue.
As you can see, I've scraped at it with a paint scraper, and it's very thick and horrible.
I'm not prepared to put this on my car with all that crap on the underside.
For this job, my weapons of choice are, my muscles...
...and Mr. Muscle.
Taking a look at the reverse it states:
"Removes burnt on grease..." I like the sound of that.
It says to spray on and leave for a period of time, wicked.
Bukkake time!
I left it for an hour, returned and then sprayed it with a hose.
Before I blasted away the foam, there was horrible brown gunky crap a bit like diarrhea pooling in the corners, the cleanser was really cutting into it.
It has certainly left it's mark, At this point I made a second application, and switched over to a pan scourer and my muscles.
This is the finished result:
I didn't quite manage to get into all the little nooks and crannies, but I'm satisfied now that all the major gunk has been removed.
Next update will cover the stages of painting.
But the lesson here today, people I know have paid good money for acid dips when it comes to this kind of stuff, but all you need are some household cleaning products and some elbow grease.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Trifflin' HOSE
I drive a 12 year old car with 200,000 miles. Come to think of it, I have never owned a car that was built after 1998. My first car was 16 years old when it came into my possession. It was actually the car that I came home from the hospital in after being born. Growing up, I had friends whose parents got new cars every 3-5 years. My parents, on the other hand, kept their cars for 10-15 years before replacing them. As a child, it was a bit difficult to understand the value in taking care of something and making it last, but I suppose that I have grown a bit wiser of the years and now I can appreciate my parents' frugality. I can't exactly claim to be a saint, because over the years I have spent a good deal of money tinkering with my cars as a hobby and for recreation, however, I think that I am much richer for the experience. I have learned a great deal about cars and how to repair them when they break. This is something I was reminded of last Friday evening.
Brad and I were on our way into DC to meet up with Jess for a show at the 930 Club. One of my all time favorite bands, Nada Surf, was playing. For those of you in the area, you'll remember that it was an absolutely gorgeous day - probably the first day that it really started to feel like spring had arrived. Anyway, Brad and I were sitting in stop-and-go traffic on New York Ave when he noticed that my water temperature gauge was starting to climb. Sure enough, that little red needle was rapidly ascending right before our eyes.
This is a good time for a brief lesson in engine mechanics. A car's engine is essentially a big air pump. The engine breathes air IN and breathes exhaust gasses OUT. Thousands of tiny explosions happen every minute which drive a rotating assembly. The spinning engine spins your wheels. That's the short of it. Well, you can imagine that the engine gets hot - both from the combustion of fuel and also the hundreds of moving metal parts creating friction. To keep things under control, most cars have a water-based cooling system which circulates water through the engine, absorbing heat from the metal. Generally, the cooling system consists of a pump to move the water, various channels and hoses for the water to travel through, a thermostat to regulate the movement of the water and finally a radiator. The radiator cools the water back down after it has moved through the engine. It is mounted on the front of the car so that air will pass through it while you're driving. There is also a fan which moves air across the radiator during the times when you are not moving, such as when you're sitting in traffic. The water in an engine is commonly mixed with other chemicals to aid in the heat transfer and also keep it from freezing in the winter. This is why you will hear it called "coolant" and also "anti-freeze." It's all the same shit - water/coolant/anti-freeze. Just plain water will work, but just not as effectively and not in the winter. Furthermore, a car's heating system is also tied into the cooling system. When you turn on your heat, the heat is actually coming from the hot water in your cooling system.
Anyway, let's continue.
So, my water temperature was climbing to dangerous levels very quickly and I was stuck in city traffic with no place to pull over. Brad reacted quickly and pulled my climate control all the way to the hot side and switched the fan onto full. We were blasted with scorching hot hair through the vents and immediately put the windows down and opened the sunroof. The reason for turning on the heat is that the car's heating system contains what is essentially a radiator, called the heater core. When you turn on the heat, some of the engine's water is diverted into the heater core which heats the air that blows out of your vents. This will help to temporarily cool down the water, especially when you are stuck at a stand still. In this case, turning the heat on did not do much to keep the temp from climbing and I knew I would need to pull over and shut the engine off to avoid completely FITGing myself. Traffic started to move again and as soon as I revved the engine, I noticed the needle begin to go back down. We were barely doing 5mph so I knew that the decrease in temperature wasn't a result of us moving. Traffic stopped again and I revved the engine up to about 3000 rpm with the car in neutral - sure enough, the temperature came down very quickly. If I let off the pedal, the temp would shoot right back up. This was good and bad. Good because I could keep the car from overheating, but bad because this indicated that I was low on water/coolant. The way I knew this was because at idle the engine is only turning at around 800rpm which does not allow the water pump to circulate the coolant very much. When I increased the engine to 3000rpm, the temperature went down because the coolant was being circulated more rapidly. There simply was not enough water in the system to keep the engine cool at idle. This indicated that I had a leak somewhere.
I was able to nurse the car to the concert and then back home again afterwards. Saturday morning, I woke up and went out to inspect the car for a leak. Sure enough, there was a little damp spot underneath one of the smaller water hoses. I took a quick trip down the road to the auto parts store and bought some replacement hose for $4. Twenty minutes later, I had replaced the old hose which had basically blown out (see photo) and then added about half a gallon (yikes) of fresh coolant. NBD.
Here is the bad hose. You'll notice that at the kink, the hose is all fat and blown out. This is where a small leak had formed and almost resulted in the total destruction of my engine :)
Brad and I were on our way into DC to meet up with Jess for a show at the 930 Club. One of my all time favorite bands, Nada Surf, was playing. For those of you in the area, you'll remember that it was an absolutely gorgeous day - probably the first day that it really started to feel like spring had arrived. Anyway, Brad and I were sitting in stop-and-go traffic on New York Ave when he noticed that my water temperature gauge was starting to climb. Sure enough, that little red needle was rapidly ascending right before our eyes.
This is a good time for a brief lesson in engine mechanics. A car's engine is essentially a big air pump. The engine breathes air IN and breathes exhaust gasses OUT. Thousands of tiny explosions happen every minute which drive a rotating assembly. The spinning engine spins your wheels. That's the short of it. Well, you can imagine that the engine gets hot - both from the combustion of fuel and also the hundreds of moving metal parts creating friction. To keep things under control, most cars have a water-based cooling system which circulates water through the engine, absorbing heat from the metal. Generally, the cooling system consists of a pump to move the water, various channels and hoses for the water to travel through, a thermostat to regulate the movement of the water and finally a radiator. The radiator cools the water back down after it has moved through the engine. It is mounted on the front of the car so that air will pass through it while you're driving. There is also a fan which moves air across the radiator during the times when you are not moving, such as when you're sitting in traffic. The water in an engine is commonly mixed with other chemicals to aid in the heat transfer and also keep it from freezing in the winter. This is why you will hear it called "coolant" and also "anti-freeze." It's all the same shit - water/coolant/anti-freeze. Just plain water will work, but just not as effectively and not in the winter. Furthermore, a car's heating system is also tied into the cooling system. When you turn on your heat, the heat is actually coming from the hot water in your cooling system.
Anyway, let's continue.
So, my water temperature was climbing to dangerous levels very quickly and I was stuck in city traffic with no place to pull over. Brad reacted quickly and pulled my climate control all the way to the hot side and switched the fan onto full. We were blasted with scorching hot hair through the vents and immediately put the windows down and opened the sunroof. The reason for turning on the heat is that the car's heating system contains what is essentially a radiator, called the heater core. When you turn on the heat, some of the engine's water is diverted into the heater core which heats the air that blows out of your vents. This will help to temporarily cool down the water, especially when you are stuck at a stand still. In this case, turning the heat on did not do much to keep the temp from climbing and I knew I would need to pull over and shut the engine off to avoid completely FITGing myself. Traffic started to move again and as soon as I revved the engine, I noticed the needle begin to go back down. We were barely doing 5mph so I knew that the decrease in temperature wasn't a result of us moving. Traffic stopped again and I revved the engine up to about 3000 rpm with the car in neutral - sure enough, the temperature came down very quickly. If I let off the pedal, the temp would shoot right back up. This was good and bad. Good because I could keep the car from overheating, but bad because this indicated that I was low on water/coolant. The way I knew this was because at idle the engine is only turning at around 800rpm which does not allow the water pump to circulate the coolant very much. When I increased the engine to 3000rpm, the temperature went down because the coolant was being circulated more rapidly. There simply was not enough water in the system to keep the engine cool at idle. This indicated that I had a leak somewhere.
I was able to nurse the car to the concert and then back home again afterwards. Saturday morning, I woke up and went out to inspect the car for a leak. Sure enough, there was a little damp spot underneath one of the smaller water hoses. I took a quick trip down the road to the auto parts store and bought some replacement hose for $4. Twenty minutes later, I had replaced the old hose which had basically blown out (see photo) and then added about half a gallon (yikes) of fresh coolant. NBD.
Here is the bad hose. You'll notice that at the kink, the hose is all fat and blown out. This is where a small leak had formed and almost resulted in the total destruction of my engine :)
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