Tales of an Aspergian Bus Driver

More car stuff

The good news is I have something to keep me busy and from going crazy.

The bad news is that it's a money pit, and not terribly Kingdom oriented.

Anyway, my car has new tires (early birthday present from my parents). While it was in, they mentioned my front wheel bearings were bad. Or, translation, the wheel has some in & out play in it. Fortunately, not a big issue, just retighten the bolt that ties everything together (it's cotter pinned, but as things wear, it ends up a bit loose).

So, today, I spent most of the day with my younger brother working on my car. Ran the injector air bleed line, replaced the oxygen sensor, replaced the fuel filter, replaced the pulsation damper (has an annoying tendency of leaking & causing engine fires), plugged the oil injection holes with bolts, regrounded the ignition coils (remove, clean mount points to chassis, reinstall), and installed new plug wires. My brother was actually quite useful, and seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully I can convince my two youngest brothers that maintaining cars is worthwhile... as opposed to my next younger brother's "Uh... the brakes were squeeking for a while, now there's a horrible metallic scraping whenever I use them." New pads & rotors (and $700) later, it's fixed. Running brake pads to the metal isn't a good idea.

Anyway, it seems to be running well now. The new tires are nice & grippy, and the high speed vibration seems to be gone. I don't see a huge difference with the new fuel system & ignition parts, but I haven't had it on the highway yet (going up to Michigan tomorrow with the family for vacation), so I'll see what kind of fuel mileage I get. Hopefully with a new O2 sensor, new plug wires, and regrounded coils I get 25-30mpg.

I'm also going to be offline until Friday night. No internet on vacation. *shrug* I'll be in Ames on Sunday early afternoon. If anyone wants to help me move in, reply here or email me with a cell # (if I don't have it). I'll let you know when I'm in town, and you can help move stuff.

-=Russ=-

From an Apple store!

This post made from the Milwaukee area Apple store, in Mayfield mall.

Why? Because I'm here. Why? Because I gave Justin a ride to pick up a keyboard? Why? Because I had nothing better to do.

Also, I'm posting from a dual G5 on one of the new aluminum Cinema displays. Very nice. Can't afford, but very nice.

My car ran at the proper temperature on the way here too - I think I finally have a working fan clutch on for the radiator fan.

Um... yea. That's about it for now. One more day of work, then family vacation for a week, then Ames!

-=Russ=-

Took an RX-8 for a test drive.

I was rather bored tonight, so I went to a car dealership & took an RX-8 for a test drive. The following are my observations.

Visually, the car is powerful looking. I'm not much for caring about styling, so that's about it for my comments on styling. Google it if you want to see pictures.

The brakes are very large in front. They look good inside the wheels, and certainly have a lot of stopping power. However, they're using single piston calipers. They work fine, but I sort of expected 4-piston calipers. The pads look fairly easy to replace, about the same as the ones on my RX-7 (actually, the calipers appear to be the exact same design).

The engine compartment has a plastic shield over everything. Fortunately, it's easy to remove (lifts out). The engine is definitely buried deeper in the '8 than in the '7s - it's WAY down there. I wasn't able to get my hand in to reach the spark plugs, though. Maybe it's easier from the underside. I suppose they don't need as much work as mine do, though. I'm sort of anal about keeping my plugs clean.

The interior is very... embracing. It's not uncomfortably tight, but it really wraps around you. I prefer more space, but it's certainly something I could get used to. The controls are easy to reach, and the general theme for the interior seems to be the now-standard "rounded, slightly puffy" theme. Bleh. But it has 4 seats (the rear ones are a bit tight), and CUPHOLDERS!

The shifter is a short-throw 6 speed, and was easy to get used to and use. Gas pedal effort was a bit on the high side from what I'm used to, the brake was wonderful (touch the pedal and it starts slowing down - I need to adjust my brakes badly), and the clutch had a bit of a "click" into the fully depressed position - it didn't require much force to hold it all the way down. Nice, but would take a bit of getting used to.

On the road, the engine was the smoothest thing I've ever been behind. It was literally turbine-smooth. It was also depressingly quiet. There was almost no engine noise in the car... I expected a bit of a growl or SOMETHING! I can understand why people have problems with fuel economy - it's very easy to leave the engine at 4000 RPM and not even feel it.

On the topic of engine RPM, the tachometer was arranged with 0 RPM at the bottom & 10,000 RPM at the top. The speedometer was just a digital readout on the right side of the tach. In most cars, the 9 o'clock position of the needle would be a reasonable RPM for cruising, 2000-3000 RPM. On the '8, the same position corresponds to 4000-5000 RPM. What appears to be a perfectly reasonable RPM at first glance is actually really quite high.

The handling (from what I was able to do) was very tight, and the drivetrain had no slop at all in it. The brakes were very responsive. Acceleration was a bit less than I expected, given the 238 HP it supposedly has. It was powerful, but a bit lacking. I think the lack of exhaust noise may be part of it - high power engines are supposed to have sound to them. I'm also used to my exhaust system, which is very defined. There was also no vibration at all, even at 8000 RPM. The clutch was very smooth though, and I had no problems with upshifting and downshifting.

Now, for the official "Russ conclusion:"
In my half an hour of driving it, I'd give it a 7 out of 10. Would I buy one? Honestly, I don't think so. I'd rather buy a 3rd gen RX-7 and a separate daily driver for the same price. The RX-8 is a nice car, but I personally don't think I'd like it. As a family car, it's a bit small in the back, and the fuel economy isn't wonderful. As a sports car, I personally think it's too "toned down." When I hit the gas in a sports car, I want some audible feedback. The interior is also a bit too "cushy" for my taste. I'm also not terribly impressed by the overall power. It's responsive, but just lacks the zing I was hoping for.

Questions? Comments?

-=Russ=-

Cruise control & Ames

I made an Ames run last weekend. It was nice to see everyone again, and I should be ready for the fall now - we'll have power & internet when we move in to the apartment.

The Hills are moved successfully, which was a fairly easy project with the number of people who showed up.

And, my car now has cruise control! Even better, it has working cruise control! I picked up a mount while I was in Ames, and installed the vacuum driven cruise module... which turned out to be retarded. It ranged from "slight acceleration" to "wide open acceleration" while claiming to hold speed. Not quite.

I replaced it today with the other module I had (fully electric from a turbo model) and it's working perfectly! Now I just need to replace the oxygen sensor... or, more to the point, remove the old one.

-=Russ=-

Yet more car stuff.

I met another RX-7 guy today, the guy who had pointed me in the direction of Cooper, who helped me rebuild my engine. We talked for a while, compared RX-7s (he has a turbo, and wasn't familiar with the non-turbo engine compartment layouts), and I snagged a dual alternator pulley. For the non-tech minded people, just accept I spend another $50 on my car. For the techie geeks, read on...

The water pump & fan are normally driven by 2 belts. One powers the water pump & air pump (for emissions), and the other powers the water pump & alternator. Now, I don't have an air pump anymore. So the car had been running with only one belt on the water pump. This isn't a huge problem, but the alternator belt doesn't have a lot of "contact angle" on the water pump, and it's known to slip at high RPMs under load. Also, the belt breaking immediately causes a lot of problems - driving without the alternator can be done for a while on battery power, but the lack of a water pump leads to rapid engine overheating and usually the failure of a coolant seal (rebuild time), if you're lucky and don't warp engine parts. Needless to say, this is bad.

So, the solution is to put a double pulley on the alternator, and just run two identical belts next to each other, driving the water pump & alternator. I did this tonight - after an hour of work in the Checker auto parts parking lot, I now have two belts driving the important things. Power steering & AC are not critical.

I've also gained a significant appreciation of the "old style" engine compartments & belt layouts. One belt, one accessory (or something close). If you don't want something driven, you can remove the belt. If a belt breaks, everything else continues to run. And, most importantly, it's not difficult to replace belts. Newer engines with serpentine belts are a royal pain to work on (if not impossible). I'm sure it's more efficient or such, but... it's just ugly to fix.

That's about it for now. I'd have more content, but I really don't have anything to talk about. My life this summer has been very boring. 8 days of work left...

-=Russ=-

Excellent...

I just finished putting new brake pads on my car. Locks up all 4 very nicely now when asked. I feel safer. The old ones... sucked.

Rear calipers need rebuilding though. Not critical, but in the next few months.

-=Russ=-

Updates & Highway driving

I should be in Ames next weekend. I'm leaving Friday morning for Ames, so I can get a storage shed & rent money in and some other stuff before school starts. I should also be able to help the Hills move on Friday night. Two more weeks of work, a week of family vacation, then Ames again.

I've done a lot of highway driving this summer, and I've made some observations. Yes, they'd be considered sexist in some circles, so if you're easily offended, stop reading.

Female drivers at high speed scare me. This is probably because I know very few (zero that I can think of) female drivers who take really good care of their cars (mechanical bits - brakes, suspension, engine, etc), and also because most female drivers I see at speed are driving Saturns or old Neons, or something like that - not exactly high performance cars. I know a lot of guys that don't take horribly good care of their cars, but I don't usually see guys in economy cars blowing past me. Most of the time I see guys at high speed on the highway they're driving a sports car of some nature (like the nice black 3rd gen RX-7 I saw on the highway a month ago absolutely flying). Camero, Mustang, S2000, Corvette, etc. Cars that are designed for speed.

I've also decided to create a list of a few "highway rules" I think would make everything go a lot smoother. I'm sure they won't have any effect, but I'll list them anyway. They're more "real world" rules I've developed observing traffic, not the theoretical junk from driving school.

The left lane is a high speed lane. If the road is reasonably clear, and you're not at least 15 over the speed limit, get out of the left lane unless you're passing. And then get out of it as soon as possible.

LOOK BEHIND YOU. If there's a car in the left lane doing 95+mph, and you're planning to merge into the left lane to pass, either make sure you have a car that can go from 70-95 in a few seconds, or wait for the high speed car to go past first. They usually have good brakes, but it's just not smart to cut someone at that speed off.

If you are doing the speed limit, you belong in the right lane. Not the left lane.

If you're merging into the left lane, even if there's no traffic behind you, accelerate. Either pass the person you're passing and get to the right, or speed up to the typical left lane flow.

If you're in the left lane, and someone is closing rapidly on you, get OUT of the left lane. Or speed up.

Cutting across multiple lanes of traffic is stupid. I've seen it done successfully, but almost always some people have to light up their brakes, hard. If you need to get across the highway, move one lane, check to make sure it's clear, move another, etc. See previous comment about looking before merging into the left lane.

Respect the semis. They weight twice as much as a bus does. If they want to change lanes, let them in. Don't cut them off either.

That's about it for now. It's probably evident what side of the highway I spend most of my time on from my list of rules.

-=Russ=-

Photoshop

In the gallery, there's images available to photoshop.

Here
And here

So far, I created this.

If you're bored, feel free to create something & submit it.

-=Russ=-

Photos of the rebuild & such

Teardown of the engine
Rebuilding the engine

I have 450 miles or so on the rebuild. Still runs nice - I'm not sure how the top end is, since I can't let it go over 4000 RPM for a while (oh, the pain!). Once I get it broken in, I can proceed to let the engine wind up to it's happy zone and see how it runs. I'm also planning to fix the 'Ricer when I get back to Ames, so I have 2 running cars (or one running and one parts hauler, depending).

-=Russ=-

It RUNS!

A few things left to tweak, but the engine is in, running, and generally making for a happy Russ.

Of course, the final 6 hours of install & such were done by me in a downpour. Not quite monsoon, but not too far off.

Due to the rain, I don't have any pictures of the final stages of building it. Sorry. It was really just a matter of "Bolt on part A. Discover part B has to go on before part A. Remove part A. Install part B. Install part A. Look at part C. Remove parts A & B. Wiggle hose clamp in. Find creative ways to tighten hose clamp with a screwdriver. Repeat."

But, it's running! Feels nice to be in it again. I'm waiting for break in to be over, so I can wind it all the way up to it's happy 7500+ RPM.

Next upgrade is going to be brakes and possibly some suspension stuff. Brakes first.

-=Russ=-

The triangles have entered the car

Engine's in.

Doesn't mean all the pieces are attached yet, but the block is in the car, more or less secured, and we should be able to finish getting everything in & torqued down & such Saturday, hopefully I'll be able to drive around Saturday night and start breaking it in. It's a tiny little engine! The whole of the engine core is just a small round barrel sticking out from the front of the transmission.

-=Russ=-