clokker

iTrader: (2)

Having lived as far north as Edmonton AL as as far south as Houston, in my experience. nobody is very well equipped for this kind of weather.
When it snows in Denver you see the same boneheaded stupidity as you would in Atlanta- we don't get better with experience, just more accustomed to the chaos.

In fact, the most comprehensively devastating winter storm I've ever personally seen was in Atlanta, where it didn't even pretend to snow, just rained ice. The whole city encased in inches of clear, sheer ice.
Nome, Alaska would have shut down for that...walking was nearly impossible and even if you made it to the car it was 50/50 you could get the doors open.

Since we teach zero handling proficiency, even driving in rain is a challenge for most.
Without the intervention of the many nanny systems in new cars, half the population would crash at the first raindrops, having never experienced loss of traction in a controlled environment.

Mostly, I'd blame this on two factors.
First is the insane assumption that as Americans, we're somehow genetically hardwired to know how to drive. After minimal training, any brain stem with a pulse can drive anything, anytime because **** it...we invented the car so we know how to operate it.
And the 1st Amendment, probably.

The second (less nebulous) reason is automatic transmissions.
In a manual, you ease off the gas and the car slows down but with an auto, it just kind of freewheels along. That's why most people are on the brakes constantly, just maintaining a constant speed requires brake taps all the time.
So, when traction disappears they are conditioned to hit the brakes first, which is usually the very worst thing to do.

Automatic transmissions + American exceptionalism are the root causes of all our problems...you heard it here first.

jjwalker

I agree with everything you said above. Those same idiots pull right up on my *** while stopped on a hill at the traffic light in downtown.

We got 4 inches of snow here last night and there is 1/10th of an inch of ice under it. City is shutdown again.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

lol, there is some truth to that....

i also agree, that driving is a learned skill, but then we refuse to to teach it. which is completely bonkers.

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

oh the stories I could yammer on about as a grumpy old Minnesotan involving the dumbasses around here in anything besides sunny and above 50*F weather. I .... have seen some **** that just... if captured could be the next American big prime time TV show.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

And you prove my point.
Unlike Phoenix, no one in Minnesota should be surprised or dumbfounded by snow, it's part of the regular, recurring climate.
Yet, no effort is made to train for the occasion.

It's like teaching your kid to walk but not how to climb stairs.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

you let your kids climb stairs?!?!#!?#$%^?#@!!@?$ OMG, like you should hire somebody to go up the stairs for them, because they might not get into the right school or something

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Only with proper safety equipment, current insurance and a backup organ donor in place.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i had to check with my psychologist, yoga teacher and mood watch, but they assure me that is a relief!

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

nono, what I mean is, even though we get snow, every single year, people still manage to drive like idiots crashing left and right. First snow fall of the year and you cant locate a winter tire in this state due to people being unable to drive in the stuff on all seasons. SUV and 4WD is the attempted remedy by most but even then the inability to operate a vehicle properly is horrid.

EDIT: I see now... 4 hours of sleep and I no read good

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

yes exactly. i'm only on like 5.5 hours sleep...

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Prep for tomorrow's emission test is nearly wrapped up.
I've taken two long detours from a relatively simple process but I retake the path and finish today.

The first (and most important) diversion was new plug wires. Having relocated the leading coil and not using the stock routing and clamping arrangement, all my wires were way too long.
Baller that I am, I splurged on the $19 NGK set from Rock Auto.
I like NGK stuff and their wire set is much nicer than competing brands...the wires are labeled and color coded and are sleeved with a solid corregated loom. Pretty much exactly what I'd want but too long.
And my setup would work better with straight plug ends instead of the 45° that come stock.

Initially, I'd planned on cutting the coil end and keeping the plug end intact.
Despite the less than ideal 45° plug boot I thought retaining the factory crimp on that end would be good...you pull on the plug end a lot more often than the coil end.

Ran into two problems.
Our coil terminals are (apparently) slightly different than the norm. Between my two race shops I found three candidates, none of which snapped home as reassuringly as the NGK originals. I think they would have worked fine but I just wasn't sure enough to commit. Also, our coil terminal boots are an odd size and NGK uses adhesive during assembly, so they are not particularly easy to remove/reuse.

So it was obvious that the coil end would remain intact and I'd shorten from the plug end.
Which brought me to the second problem, how to crimp the terminals?
My old go to "indentured servant to Snap-On" mechanic buddy disappeared and no one else I know has this specialized tool. Both local race shops carried the high zoot real $80 crimpers but that seemed a steep price for 4 crimps every few years. Adding insult to injury, both the in-stock tools didn't work on 7mm wires (too weenie for racers!) so I'd have to special order the correct inserts.
Yeah, no.

Years ago I'd put together a set of Accel wires and that kit included this little crimping block thing that you squeezed in a vice. It was not ideal but did work and I found similar units online for like $5, but I didn't want to wait.
It's weird that shops will stock the expensive, high end version of the tool (which nobody will buy because a real mechanic who could justify the price probably buys it off the Snap-on/Mac truck) but not the cheap "home" version that would move much faster.

Anyway, I cobbled my own version of the "block" tool together and it worked well enough.
I did two practice runs on spare wire/terminals and they held up fine to abuse more severe than they'll ever see in practice.
I went nuts with dielectric grease, GOOP, marine heatshrink and the sleeving and made up a beautiful set.
Too bad I have no camera, eh?

That only took about five times longer than expected.

Along with new wires, she also got new plugs (even sprung the extra fiddy cents for PLATINUM!), fresh oil (trying Castrol GTX 10w40 this time) and extra tall WIX filter (51347, comes in a fetching white), new WIX fuel filters (both bay and sock) and a new Bosch O2 sensor.
I've been carefully hoarding my remaining fuel- I want it as low as possible to get the biggest bang for the buck from the denatured alcohol I'll be adding...that ****'s expensive!- but I have just enough to get her warmed up today to set the TPS and timing.
Tomorrow I drive to Walmart, get/pour in the alcohol, then drive about 3 miles to the test station and hope for the best.
Right next to the test facility is a gas station, so I can fill up right away.

My other sideline was a weird craving to swap back to the FD steering wheel.
Not really sure how that climbed the priority list so quickly but I had an idea I wanted to try and it was irresistible.
Since I've been using all these air bagged wheels, I've had to cobble in a horn slipring to maintain function and I have just swapped that setup from wheel to wheel.
It worked but had gotten kind of beat up and I wanted to do better.

Long, boring story later, I had.
I got to use the soldering iron as a plastic welding tool (which was the idea I wanted to try) and that actually worked out bitchin.

So, I've thrown some cash and parts at the FC, we'll see tomorrow if she's grateful enough to muster up one more pass through emissions.
That would buy me two more years.

DeaconBlue

iTrader: (31)

I use the Wix 51568 (NAPA Gold 1568) oil filter. It is about 3/4" shorter, but 1/4" larger in diameter than the 51347. Good to know there is yet another choice for a larger oil filter. Mine is mounted on top of the Racing Beat adapter and I had to relocate a hose for clearance. The specs on the two oil filters are about the same. Its always better to run a larger filter as long as they physically fit - more filter media area to trap particles with less pressure drop across the media.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Mine is also on a sandwich adaptor but I've rearranged the bay and no hoses were in the way.
The 51347 is the same diameter as stock but about 1 1/4" taller (and it's WHITE, so it really stands out!) and the extra height makes it really simple to install.
Less back bending.

SpikeDerailed

iTrader: (7)

I hope it gets through, I am curious really to see just how long your engine can go given that it has long since passed standard expectations for a 13b.

spectre6000

iTrader: (1)

I sincerely hope it gets through as well, but I saw it start cold this weekend, and it makes my old school all mechanical military (no emissions equipment) naturally aspirated diesel look like a Prius... It clears up a little when it warms up, but he has a long row to hoe.

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

I mean... we could just register it in MN once a year or however many times you need to do it. We just keep selling it back n forth to each other for 1$. It's brilliant

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Yeah bitches, MAGNETS!

She sailed through the test...easiest emissions ever.
Results as follows (spectre's vaunted engine results in red for comparison):

HC GPM..... actual .818 (.382) ...limit 2.0

CO GPM..... actual 3.606 (color=red]4.24[/color])....limit 20.00

NOx GPM.... actual .987 (1.1)....limit 3.5

Note that my ancient, tired old ***** is actually cleaner than his lower mileage example in two of the three categories.

HA! I say, HA!

Well, that bought me two more years...

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Damn it, what happened to the edit button?
I forgot a bracket in my tag and one red is not showing right.

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

I will be here in 2 years. Grats.

spectre6000

iTrader: (1)

Don't get too excited yet! NOX and CO come from high combustion temperatures. Mine's higher because I have higher compression and you retarded your timing a bunch.

BOOYAH! Suck it, Trebek!

spectre6000

iTrader: (1)

Dammit. Yeah! What happened to the edit button?

My NOX and CO are higher. My CO2 and HC are lower because my engine is combusting the fuel more thoroughly (like a good little engine). ::gives self high five::

clokker

iTrader: (2)

So, you want to use "science" to confuse us into buying the theory that your filthier engine is actually better?

Uh huh, good luck with that.

BTW, not only was the timing retarded till she'd barely idle but she was also running more denatured alcohol than gas.
Ran like bonded crap but ran crappily very clean!

And that was today's Job #1.
Tomorrow I'll reset the timing, fill up with regular gas and she can go back to her standard mega-polluter but fine running state.

rx7racerca

iTrader: (1)

I hate to point out (okay, everyone likes to point things out) - but higher CO numbers are a sign of INcomplete combustion. That said, having higher CO and NOX together is genuinely odd, since usually the CO and HC numbers track together. Clokker (well, his car) hitting the sauce hard before the test might account for the oddity. Low CO and HCs from the boozy fuel, and low NOx from the ignition retard, perhaps?

And I too have been wondering where the damn edit button went the last few days.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I might also point out that my CO2 gpm were lower than his but that might be perceived as dickish, so I won't.
I'll just leave the science stuff to the smart kids and rejoice in my two year reprieve.

I filled her up this morning and got 15.8 gallons in, so she really was running nearly a 50/50 alcohol/gas mix.
Toddled over to the DMV where I spent all of six minutes registering the car.
Seriously, we have the best DMV ever.

She runs fine but I think a few tweaks might make her finerer, I have a revision to the O2 sensor install that will require me back in the bay and I'll finish up then.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i have found that the rotary basically follows the same curves as a regular piston engine, although the actual mixture numbers and slope of the curves are a little different. hence the choice of graph without afr

the chemistry i'm sure is more complex, but octane is C8H18, and ethanol is C2H6O. if we make the Hydrogens equal, ethanol is C6H18O3, fewer carbons = fewer hydrocarbons.