Broke_A_Baller

iTrader: (26)

Ahah. I sold the irons for both REW motors already. All I have left are all the parts except the irons :-p.

I need to get my garage sealed better to keep the cold out of it :-p. Then I can get my heater mounted and have my dad run the gas line and crap. I hate the cold.

What trans did you're going with?

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

Dangit, a local REW would have been an easy reason to start another swap.

I'm going to be sealing up this garage space better tomorrow with insulation and plastic wrap - should make a huge difference I hope. So much of the space I don't use, so it'll all get sealed off and the heat should stay where I need it most. I'll post some pics up tomorrow of the setup.

There's an S3 transmission sitting behind the car with ~100k miles on it that's supposed to work really well that I got from Tanner who took it out of his GSL before it got an LS3 and T56, gnarly car he's got there. Need to go hang with him again soon and grab some of his leftover parts he's got sitting around.

Alright, real update time!
I spent all day yesterday and today out in the garage working on this beast to try to make some sort of a resemblance of progress.

After being super frustrated with the timing I checked it using Jeff20b's method with the spark plug wire - that showed I was correct. The timing marks on the pulley lined up - so that was correct. The flexplate counterweight was in the correct spot - one more confirmation. So that's 3 confirmations that timing on the engine is correct.

So after getting my pride ready to be hurt, I pulled the distributor and lined up the spline to the leading coil pickup. Put my thumb on the X shaped part and dropped it down in. And wouldn't you know it - I was one tooth off before! So now I'm sure that timing is correct on this beast and I don't have to worry about that anymore. I saw some pictures of the tree-plasticy-thingy that rotates in the rotor cap and sends spark down the wires and the one in the Haynes manual is much different looking than the one I have. The Haynes one has teeth and appears to be a longer duration on the point to send spark compared to the one I have, I'll take some pictures tomorrow if I remember.

Well I went and put the spark plugs on the driver's side shock tower, trailing first and cranked the car. Good spark at the trailing plugs! Did the same check with the leading plugs and they're working too, so it's not a dead ignitor.

So after finding this out I went and tried to start her up. Well after maybe 10 slow "chug..chug....chug........chug................chu g's [you get the idea, imagine a battery dying while trying to start a car]" there was some smoke coming from the car and it sounded like it tried to fire! So I'm betting that the timing was initially correct, and it really needs a new battery.

So timing is correct, it's getting fuel, it's turning over, it's getting air - what more could it want?!?!
Cranking speed...it's cranking extremely slowly right now.

The battery in this thing is God-only-knows how old and in who-knows what condition as far as CCA's left. Luckily, we have a spare vehicle that's sitting around right now awaiting it's fate that had a newer battery in it. I pulled that and it's sitting on the charger now - will find out if it helps start the vehicle tomorrow, I sure hope so!

I went underneath the car to look at the wiring on the transmission and to try and wire in a remote starter (trigger-thing for one-person cranking ability). Well, I found this super nasty looking wire going to the starter solenoid and it practically fell apart as soon as I touched it. Also, while attempting to remove the nut on the side of the solenoid in order to fix the wiring I snapped of half of the post on the solenoid - GREAT!

So then a whole side trip down wiring lane happened tonight.

Here's the wire in question that runs from the fuseable link block to the solenoid. How in the world someone thought this was OK to do is beyond me. Also, notice the broken stud in the nut at the top of the picture.


My rewired solution to the jumper cable that's supposed to be there, using the connections that were already there. It's 12ga and I couldn't even fit all of the wiring strand inside the plug end of the jumper but I know that it's getting all of the power it possibly can now.


Cleaned all of the terminals on the starter with a wire brush on a drill and reattached everything. The jumper is on the left side terminal, the male plug comes from Ignition+ when the key is in the "Start" position. I got lucky and there was enough stud left to make a solid connection with the ring terminal on the jumper - can't complain about that!


I also busted this condensor off on accident a while back when trying to set the timing - it's the one that grounds right next to the rat's nest right near the firewall, on one of the bolts for the flywheel/transmission view plate. Anyone have one laying around for me??


Got a new propane heater from Northern Tool! Love this thing so far, couldn't ask for any more in a heater. It's working great for what I need, can't wait to use it some more for a few more months since it'll be so fricken cold...[laced with heavy sarcasm]...

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

View of the garage from the one wall looking at the largest parts of the space. Weird room in the one stall, I really wish that wasn't there.


New heater next to the spot in the garage where there's a 1 1/2in gap in the seal that's supposed to close around the outside part of the door...snow gets in there the gap is so huge...not funny. That's getting fixed tomorrow hopefully.


So my goals tomorrow are as follows:
1. Insulate the upper portion of the garage. It's a pyramid-shaped roof that's used partially for storage, but not necessary for being heated.
2. Plastic wrap the walls. I'm too lazy to run insulation between the studs and plastic wrap should help insulate it well enough for what I need to do in there.
3. Make a door out of insulation pieces to seal the back room. It's also unnecessary for being heated, no use in wasting BTU's!
4. Free up the door into the garage so I don't let out tons of heat every time I need to get out by opening the whole garage door.
5. Do a bunch of odds-and-ends cleaning to make it easier to work around the car in there.

This should make it much more enjoyable for me to go out there and work on the car. I'm also counting the days until I get another RX7 here and that one will probably take up this garage space, since it's got a lot of fiberglass and is much cooler...

Broke_A_Baller

iTrader: (26)

That little heater works for that much space?!!?!?

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

Haha yes and no:
Yes - it was markedly warmer inside the garage than outside. At least a 20 degree difference that I could notice. It keeps my feet warm and warms the concrete (the two main things I care about) so I love the performance so far.
No - the heat it creates goes almost straight up into the rafters so the air in there isn't like 70 degrees or something. But tomorrow when I attack the place with plastic wrap and insulation I'm going to create basically a one-bay garage stall for heat so it should warm it up significantly in that small amount of space.

There's also a radiator-style electric heater by my tool cart as well if you can pick that out in the pictures. That thing works well for maintaining a temperature in the house and it's just for at night when the propane one isn't working. It was just a spare I had sitting around and figured I'd throw it outside to help heat the car.

Car space, only one stall wide - there's a built in room in the second stall to the left.


Picture of the room in the second stall and what the place looks like all cleaned out.


The car in the only place it'll fit in the garage.

needspartsnow

iTrader: (10)

Welllll, I do have a spare shortblock now....

ride850i

Pretty good shape, can't wait to see the finished product. Good luck.

woodmv

iTrader: (8)

Looks great! I was reading this and saying to my wife: "I wish our garage was insulated". I'd love to have the ambition you do, but then again you live in MN and I'm in VA, so you have more incentive than I do!

I saw those little propane heaters in the store. How long does the bottle last? You don't go through a bottle a day do you?

Broke_A_Baller

iTrader: (26)

I currently have a 50k btu heater I use until I get my hanging heater installed and its lasted me several times of a few hours each time AND some cooking on the grill.

Bottle exchange is $15~ at Walmart and refill is a little more than that at the gas station. I've learned that refilled tanks contain more propane in the tank than the exchange (I believe 80% fill to 100% fill).


I suppose you could use it all in a straight 24hr period, but I personally have not used one in one day.

Oh and even when I used to dark-house fish those tanks lasted many 7hr+ days of use.

Factors are also taken into consideration (temp set at/insulation of building/etc.).

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

So many evil thoughts! I am actually considering an S4 13bt with everything I need to swap it in for $650 right now, but it's a few states away...I'm keeping my options open though.

Thanks man! I'm going to try and update this thread more than I have been. I also think it's almost as much fun reading about someone insulating their work space and get heaters and such. Shows a bit more personality in a build thread than just what I did to the car today. Although working on the car is a necessity of a build thread...

Yeah, with the temps getting below 0 way too often here lately I decided to start taking steps in the right direction for trying to hold some heat in. I got a bunch done today and plan on doing a few more things to help keep the heat where I want it at a later date.

The heater that I bought was from Northern Tool and was on sale from $79 to a price of $49. I bought that (it came with a 6' hose and regulator) and it's intended to be used with a 20lb or bigger tank. You could maybe do an adapter to a small green tank but it probably wouldn't last too long I think. So far I've been running it at about medium duty with a 20lb tank for maybe 20 hours total and I'm guessing I've used about 75% of the tank. It puts out good heat - my problem is just keeping the heat in the garage, and then there's the issue of keeping it where I'm working and want the most heat. If you find the Mr. Heater equivalent to this one (single sunflower style with a stand) it'll be meant for a single small green bottle of LP and comes with a spark ignitor. My dad has a few of them and we love using them - I just wanted something a touch bigger since I'm in a bigger space.

This heater puts out 15k BTU at max but I usually don't run it at max, normally I'm at about half throttle on the adjustment ****. I think I may be able to squeeze out 30hrs out of one 20lb tank. Going to refill the spare tank at the house so whenever one tank runs out I always have a full backup ready. I spent $21.21 getting this fully empty bottle filled at a local bait shop down the road with a good bunch of guys. Good to know on the exchange vs. refill! I plan on keeping this tank to myself since I bought it brand new from Northern at the same time I got the heater. I like knowing that it has been mine the whole time. Yeah, I wouldn't run the heater 24hrs straight either - would be curious to know how warm it would be though! We love these little heaters in the fish house too, but we haven't gone out for a few years now.

Biggest continuous wall, looking at the garage door. Notice that pile of snow? That's where the 1 1/2 inch gap in the garage door seal is. I desperately need to get that fixed right away.


Other part of the big continuous wall, notice the wrapover maneuver I used for the excess plastic where it met the cinder blocks. There is such a large gap in the cinder block from when the building was made that you can see daylight in each one - so I felt it necessary to try and cover those up as well. I just folded the extra few inches in half and stapled that back to the baseboard to create a loose seal on top of the block.


How open the ceiling initially was - I know where all my heat was going!


Kind of a crappy after shot of the ceiling wrap. I'm going to get large sheets of 1" thick pink insulation that come in 4'x8' sheets and put those on the top to better insulate the space I'm using. The wrap was just temporary but it serves its purpose for now.


It really looks like a Dexter Morgan "kill room" now to me...all 8 seasons are coming back...red car in the center of the room...

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

On a car-related note, here's a video I took tonight with the GoPro that I think may be useful. I'm wondering if the car is cranking much too slowly which isn't letting it start.
Battery - not even a year old with plenty of CCA's and fully charged
Fuel - fresh enough and getting to the carb from the fuel pump
Air - there isn't an obstruction in the intake or the carb that I'm aware of
Spark - checked leading and trailing spark and both are strong
Timing - I set the timing using Jeff20b's spark plug wire method and double checked this with the rear automatic counterweight location and triple checked it with the front pulley timing mark indicator
Compression - I added a cap full of MMO to the intake to help aid compression if it was low

Last thing in my mind is to do a real compression test and see if I have a stuck side seal or blown apex seal in the engine.

At 42 seconds in the video there's one "burp" where it actually sounds like it's trying to fire - it's the first time I've heard that in all my time messing with this car. I'm wondering if I'll have to yank this motor out and give it a refresh or full rebuild...compression test will tell me that.

If anyone else has any helpful insight I'd greatly appreciate it!

Broke_A_Baller

iTrader: (26)

Do you have weather stripping on the outside side of the garage door?

Also, are you going to put insulation in the wall or just put a piece of plastic?

My garage door is weird at having the sides slightly up (could be the way garage floor is). I'm just going to use another seal and screw on the back.

Fricken northern wind :-p.

Get that garage ready to keep heat and then you can work on that fb :p.

-Nick

Broke_A_Baller

iTrader: (26)

I've never owned an fb, but that sounds like the terminator trying to crank over ahha. Or the alarm from terminator.

Sounds like it's having a hard time cranking over.

craaaazzy

iTrader: (9)

austin, ur screenname change confused the hell out of me!

i like your dexter kill room. hopefully it will keep the cold out and the warm inside.

do you have a battery charger? if so, hook it up and put it on the crank setting (mine has it, not sure about yours though) to give it more juice and see if that helps.

Broke_A_Baller

iTrader: (26)

Just realized you changed your name! Lol

Didn't know you could do that.

82transam

iTrader: (18)

LOL, I wasn't the only one confused then... I was looking for his thread and it took me a min to find it. Damn you Austin for confusing us all like that

Since we're on the topic of heaters I'll throw in my 2 cents. The previous two winters I used a 30k btu propane heater and got a few 100lb tanks from Lowes (filled at a local landscape supply type place) and each tank would last about 8 days with the heater set to low (kicked on and off with a thermostat automatically). The heat was decent, but not great. It would get about 25-30 degrees warmer than outside (freestanding building) but since the fan on there was weak as hell most of the heat just went straight up. I was tired of lugging those tanks around every other week to get filled so I decided to change it up this year. I went to Lowes and bought one of those construction heaters. It's 80k BTU and runs on diesel (or kerosene/heating oil) which is cheap and easy to get at the local gas station. Let me tell you, the thing sounds like a jet ready to take off and it heats that building up FAST! Even on a lower setting I can easily get it to 75-80 degrees in that shop in 30 mins or less lol. It actually heats it up fast enough that I just leave it off when I'm not in there. Well worth the $200

Jager

iTrader: (10)

I'll have to try that.

I have an electric heater off the ceiling that takes the edge off, but by no means makes it anymore then tolerable. I hope to one day plumb an exchanger from my woodstove into my garage.

Northern Minnesota FTW!

Broke_A_Baller

iTrader: (26)

I hope you have proper ventilation. I've heard horror stories of people burning diesel/kerosene. In the garage without compensating ventilation.

82transam

iTrader: (18)

I usually crack a window when it's running. I insulated the building a few years ago but it's by no means air tight. No brain damage yet so I'm probably fine lol

RustyRotary

iTrader: (2)

I don't believe that Lowes malarkey for a second. You clearly jacked that from the Batmobile.

Seriously, I never thought I would find myself wanting to buy a heater simply because it looks badass...

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

Nick,
Yeah, there's the weather stripping rubber seal board stuff on the outside of the door - like what is supposed to be there. But I had my dad look at it yesterday and we came to the conclusion that the door isn't level where it should be and it's causing the huge gap in the seal. So I'm going to either put a small board behind the sealing board with the rubber seal (like a 1"x2") or just get a rubber seal that's another inch longer. Either way I will get it to seal back up the way it's supposed to be. I'm going to use the pink sheets of insulation for the roof since that's where all the heat goes. I'm not sure if I'll pull the plastic halfway off the wall and throw insulation in there too or not - still deciding on that.

I'm already working on the car and it's probably around 40 degrees in there most days! I can't imagine being comfortable and getting to work on the car - I'd be spoiled then

Yeah, I agree. Something isn't right in the starting system and I need to figure out what it is exactly. I'm thinking of hooking two batteries up in series and trying to crank it. I'll see if that helps the issue at all using 24v instead of 12v. Jeff told me not too long ago that he had to clear a flooded engine one time using 24v to the starter, I plan on replicating that when I get the chance.

Haha sorry man - I've been meaning to change it for a while now. It's my YouTube channel title and I own the web domain to dreaminrotary.com as well. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the website yet but I'll figure it out soon I hope.

The Dexter kill room is pretty entertaining to say the least! 8 seasons, 12 episodes a season at an hour a piece = 96 hours of my life. That's almost two and a half work weeks I spent on that show. And I should have stopped on the 95th hour - that last episode was such a letdown. It seems to keep the warm in a little better than nothing at all. A few more touch ups here and there and it'll be much better!

The battery charger I'm using is older than the car itself by at least 10 or 20 years. I was told it's from the 50's potentially - it sure is old. I need to pick up a new one that has the cranking capability without blowing a fuse.

I had a moderator do it for me, not too hard to have done. I do like it so far - the old username was a play off of my last name, this one is better in my opinion. Not trying to confuse anyone! That's why I put "formerly known as 'lindahlish'" in my signature so people wouldn't think I was a new guy.

Didn't mean to throw you off - thought I told ya I'd changed it!

Haha did you guys ever see this picture of mine??


That was taken 12/10/2013 when I was trying to get the silver 83 GS I had to start. It was way too cold and that poor 7 had to spend it's whole winter outside. I ended up getting rid of it only a few weeks after this picture was taken. Notice the kerosene bullet heater on the front of the car, with the propane tank beside the makeshift shelter for a small heater like the one I have in the garage right now. It was to try and just heat up the block enough to get it to start, but didn't usually work.

I think I'm going to invest in a kerosene unit like that one here in the near future. It's just way too cold in there to try and get anything done reasonably. The propane works for a small area to be heated up quickly, but it doesn't heat a large space well. I can tell you know exactly what I mean because all the heat really does go straight to the ceiling.

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

An exchanger from the woodstove would be an awesome addition to a garage for sure! I thought about the electric ceiling type but I wanted something that wasn't electric since I'm not as familiar with it. We've always used kerosene or propane at our house and it's worked out pretty well to this point.

Oh yeah, I've had my eyes water something fierce when running the kerosene heater in an enclosure. So long as it's ventilated properly it isn't terrible though.

That whole "no brain damage yet" part I'm not so sure on Muahaha I'm just yanking your chain man.

It sure looks like a rocket booster off of the Batmobile doesn't it! I really should invest in one of them and just bite the bullet on the cost. Some comfort would sure be nice while working on the car instead of it being barely above freezing in there.

82transam

iTrader: (18)

LMAO, Yeah the brain damage is there, just not from this haha. Agree it does look like a rocket off the batmobile, It looks like that after a minute or two of running. It's an absolute beast, much better than the propane unit I was using. It holds a hair over 5 gallons of fuel (again, diesel in my case) and claims that will last 8-9 hours full blast. I'm tempted to believe that seems relatively efficient.

I've been meaning to change my username to PandaFB, might be time to do that.

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

It is a really cool looking heater for sure, I'm going to be keeping my eye out for a good deal on one in the near future. It was freezing in the garage again today, made me wish I had one...

Well if you changed your username then the whole world would be in confusion! You've got your 10 year rotor already! Scary thought is that I'm eligible for my 5 year rotor next fall, yikes - I'm getting old.

Update on the car for the day:

I went out and made sure the engine was at TDC again. The motor was at the correct timing on the front pulley and rear counterweight.

I pull the distributor cap off and what do I see - the timing is all screwed up. I'm thinking huh , that's weird. I could have sworn I dropped it down in at TDC right...I knew something was off because this is definitely not how the reluctor should line up.


So I pull the distributor while keeping it all in, as close to, the same alignment it was when it was in the car. Sure enough, I dropped it down in at 180 degrees off of where it should have been. The dimple was on the opposite side of the distributor housing from the cast raised pointer.


I flipped the dimple around to the correct spot, where it should be lined up when you drop it in at TDC.


This is what the distributor reluctor alignment looks like when that dimple is aligned with the raised cast pointer on the distributor housing.


So I think I'm all awesome and I throw it back in the car.

But it's not as simple as it seems...

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

Well, dropping the distributor down into the front cover yields some interesting results for me. The helical cut gears that drive the distributor spline with it and force the assembly to rotate when it's about 1/2in from bottoming out on the front cover. They rotate the reluctor (from the gear on the bottom that I lined the dimple up on) in a clockwise direction when you're pressing it down home to where it should be sitting. Well the dimple being lined up allotted for two options for the distributor to sit at the center of its adjustment after the clockwise rotation of the reluctor.

Option 1:
This was the closest alignment to what the distributor looked like outside of the car on the bench, so I assumed that this was correct.


Option 2:
This was me moving the teeth one movement clockwise compared to the first option. Mind you, the dimple still appeared to line up with the raised cast part - it was a close toss up either way. But I don't believe this to be correct because it's not at either pickup at TDC.


Take note that the distributor housing is lined up in the middle of it's adjustment on the front cover in both cases.

Well, then I noticed something else peculiar going on and it was the amount of play in the rotor tree (not sure on the technical name, looks like a tree so why not). The flat spot where it should line up on the distributor shaft was too small so it allowed for at least 15 degrees of deflection in either direction from where it should be lined up.

Spun out as far as it could go in the counterclockwise direction:


Spun out as far as it could go in the clockwise direction:


The too-small flat spot on the rotor tree:


Well, while doing all of this the starter got stuck out against the flywheel. So to fix that I dropped the starter and bench tested it. The solenoid works and pushes the gear out quickly and strongly, as well as spinning the motor at a decent enough seeming rate. I still think the cranking speed is too slow but maybe I'm just not used to the rotary cranking speed any more.


So I got the starter thrown back in thinking it would all be ok now, she'd fire up and I'd have no more problems.















Yeah right, in my dreams...(get it, DreamInRotary)...... I'm tired.

She didn't fire. Didn't even hint at firing. So I knew that the worst had come to pass and I'd need to do what I should have done in the first place...