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Welcome to my site. Here you will find information about my car, my engine project, and some technical articles written by me. I do my best to make sure the information I post is accurate. However, as with any such site, I can't guarantee the validity of the information presented here. These are mostly my ramblings and I am not responsible for any damage you may sustain while attempting anything mentioned here. Listen to me at your own risk. If you know something posted to be inaccurate feel free to inform me. My contact email is solus001 at yahoo. |
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4-14-2004, 2:40AM: This last thursday my uncle Tom, his wife, and their baby came for a little trip from Chicago. We all packed into my car and drove out to visit my mom in Fort Defiance, Arizona. It's lucky that my car is as big as it is - there is no way we could have fit all of their stuff in anything smaller. I suppose there are advantages to a big car sometimes. The car made the trip there fine, and besides the annoying sound of wind through the dried out weather stripping, the ride was very nice. On sunday when we got ready to go back to Albuquerque I noticed two things. The first was that the exhasut had developed another leak. The second was that there was now a slight ignition misfire. Neither was particularly supprising - the reservation (the Navajo indian reservation, where my mom works, and where Ft. Defiance is) has lots of rough roads and it's easy for something to shake loose. I checked the plug wires but didn't find anything wrong. So I drove home with the misfire. The next day the misfire just got worse. It went from an occasional miss to nearly constant misses. So I went and got all the parts I would need for the ignition: plugs, wires, cap, and rotor - I got a new set of points too, something I didn't do at the last tuneup. Today I replaced all the parts. First thing I noticed was that the plugs were different. Last time I did the plugs I just used the plugs the guy at the parts counter said that the computer listed, I didn't have the part number for the plug that I needed. When I put them in I made sure that they were the same as the ones I was replacing, they were so I assumed that they were the right ones. Well I have since found the original owner's manual for the car. When I got the plugs this time I made sure that I got the same ones specified in the manual. It turns out that the last owner and the guy at the parts counter both had the wrong plug specification. Before I did the rest of the ignition I put in the new, correct, spark plugs. Upon starting the car, I noticed an immediate difference. The engine sounded much better. I then replaced the cap and rotor. That resulted in only a minimal change. I then replaced the points. The old points were badly worn. I couldn't get the feeler gauge in between the points to set the initial gap, the advance weights were in the way. So I set it by sight and started up the car. With a few turns of the allen wrench I had gotten the idle to sound pretty good so I hooked up a borrowed dwell meter to check the dwell angle. I have never used a dwell meter before or set the points before. Being ignorant of some of the finer points all that I knew was that the dwell angle was supposed to be about 30 degrees. Well the angle that I set by ear turned out to be less then 20 degrees. So I break out the allen wrench and a few moments later I have the dwell angle at 30 degrees - and the engine runs terrible. So I set the angle back to about 20 degrees and leave it there. I take the car for a spin and it runs great - the best it's ever run. I'm happy. Now that I'm back I've read up on the finer points of adjusting points - har har. It turns out that the previous owner probably set the points the same way I did, by ear. I have found out that reducing the dwell angle increases ignition retard. Now that I understand exactly how the points are operating I know why this happens. But I didn't know this earlier in the day, and aparently the previous owner didn't know this either. The previous owner probably set the ignition timing and then set the point dwell instead of doing it the reverse, correct, way. What this means is that tomorrow I should adjust the dwell back up to 30 degrees, then I should adjust the ignition advance to compensate. The end result should be even more power out of the ignition system. I'm excited, this should be about as much power as I will be able to get from this engine until I manage to replace the crappy carb and intake with something better. I love learning about this stuff. How many people really know how to set points on their car? Well, I am happy to say that I now can. On a side note, during my test drive to see how well the engine was running I absolutely creamed a 2G turbo eclipse - By several Delta88-lengths. 3-22-2004, 3:30AM: That place I applied to didn't call back. Aparently they filled the most recent training class just before I called. I can still get in on the next training class in a few weeks, but I'm not too concerned about that. I didn't really want a call center job anyway so it's not too big of a deal. I've dug up lots of other open jobs in the meantime and I'm not worried as my timeframe for moving out is rather lax. When I do move out I think I can rent a particular apartment. If I do I can have my friend as a roommate and save quite a bit in monthly rent. This could all work out for the best. I got a call from my mother the other day. She was stranded between Santa Fe and Albuquerque and needed me to rescue her. As it turns out, she had ran out of gas because the gas gauge in the cavalier stopped working correctly. So I filled up the gas can and drove the Olds up I-25 looking for her (she was only a ways outside Santa Fe). Because of a hill in the median, I missed her on the way up and went all the way to Santa Fe without seeing her. I turned around and found her on the way back. I'm glad I could help. I had never taken the Olds on that far of a trip in such blistering heat (100mi round trip) - it turns out it ran perfectly fine. I even got to race a riced Civic SI on the way out, he didn't have a chance in hell of winning. 3-17-2004, 3:30AM: I'm moving out of the house. It has been a nice arrangement since my mom needed help with managing her doctor practice paperwork, and in return she pays for my room, board, and transportation expenses. Unfortunately, as usual, she feels that I'm not helping as much as I can and it's causing her to get angry. This is rather familiar since she seems to get angry over everything. However, it is harming our personal relationship now. I will move out and get a real job to keep this from escalating and doing irreparable damage. I care about my mother and wouldn't want to leave on bad terms. It looks like I may end up breaking my rule about no call center jobs. This one that I have a lead on pays real well and isn't that bad of a job. The upside is that I will not only have enough for an apartment, I will also have enough to do some work on the 88 and really start on the engine project. I haven't had enough money to do either because the work I have been doing for my mom has payed nearly nothing, besides the perks of no cost of living. Which is, admittedly, quite the boon, but has not allowed me to put any money into my projects. Earning an actual paycheck would change all that. My friend, Chris, returned from his little trip the other day. It turns out that he went to San Fransisco. Apparently he has always wanted to go there and the moment during his need to escape was the perfect time. Go figure. I wish one day I could just, out of the blue, escape to a tropical paradise somewhere. At the moment that is far out of reach, though maybe I will someday. That would be nice - one day take off and show back up a month later informing people that I had gone to an exotic Brazilian resort. Heh, that would be the day. When I regapped the plugs on the Olds I widened the gaps a little. I have since noticed a very slight miss every once in a while. The stock ignition should do just fine with that gap. This tells me that the ignition on my car is getting weaker. Everything has been replaced except for the points. I could replace the points, but I think I will just upgrade to a Davis Unified Ignition instead. It's quite the slick piece and should give me some extra power compared to the stock ignition, not to mention more power compared to my stock ignition with 35 years of wear on it. The next step would be a new intake manifold and 4 barrel carb. Though at that point I will need to decide which direction I am going to take this engine. There are manifolds that work good for stock rpm ranges, and there are more radical manifolds. However there isn't anything good in-between the basic low rpm dual plane and the higher rpm single plane - something like the Performer RPM for the Big Block Chevy. I would like to go more radical, though I need to keep in mind what the stock bottom end on these Olds can handle. I don't want to put too much money into this engine because my Big block chevy project is going to be the real radical engine, the Olds is just my daily driver. 3-12-2004, 2:45PM: My friend, Chris, woke me up earlier today and had me drive him to the airport. He is flying to a destination unknown to me for reasons unknown. He has been acting increasingly dissatisfied with his home situation over the past couple weeks. He dropped out of college the other day, and now he takes off on a trip to somewhere. I could have tried to talk him out of it. But what's the point when I don't even know the reasons? Sometimes people have to figure out things for themselves. All I have to do is reflect on my exodus to Lousiville to remember that kernel of truth. In light of his recent turmoils my dropping two classes doesn't feel like such a big deal. It's all a matter of scale. I have reloaded windows four times in the past four days. One of those times I loaded Win XP 64 in an attempt to see how it would work with my Athlon 64 XP-51, as it is the current 64 bit version of windows. It worked rather well and I look foreword to using it in the future. However there were some driver problems that kept me from using it for the time being. Oh well. I'm still contemplating loading the 64 bit version of SuSE. It's either SuSE or Gentoo. I suppose I will figure out which one I want to use this weekend and load it. I did a mini-tuneup on the Olds yesterday. I pulled the plugs, cleaned them, and regapped them. I was looking for oil, which luckily I only found on one plug. One of the valve seals may be leaking in that cylinder, or perhaps the oil ring is messed up. Either way it wasn't much oil and I need not worry just yet. I also found that the radiator got a pinhole leak in it and that my coolant level had run much lower then I should have let it. If only I was as savvy as BB I would have known from my heater not working as well. It's been rather nice here though and I didn't really run my heater much, so I didn't figure it out. Reading the plugs lead me to lean up the idle mixture on the carb a bit as well. I also discovered that the Olds has a bit if tire shake at 120mph. I need new tires, these suck anyway. 2-29-2004, 1:25AM: I got absolutely nothing done this weekend. Imagine that. How did this happen you ask? Well, of course, the easy answer is that I'm lazy. However, the full answer is that my mom came here and decided that I needed to pay bills. But instead of just paying the bills and being done with it, I had to balance her checkbook too. Well that doesn't sound too bad huh? Well it doesn't end there, it never does. It turns out that it was a prime time to file tons of misc paperwork and clean up this house. After doing lots of stuff, I didn't feel like actually doing something productive for myself. Why couldn't she just stay home instead of bugging me? So here I am with my weekend over and I did nothing interesting at all. Here I sit, deep contemplation overwhelms me. I go to school each day, striving for a goal. What is the purpose of this struggle? How did it come to be this way? Where is the end to this misery? I suppose the effort is worth it in the end. However, that is assuming that the planned result will be the real result. I have put my engine project on hold, I have put much of what I want to do on hold for this education, I can only hope that the rewards are worth the effort in the end. 2-26-2004, 2:00AM: Well, I managed to screw myself this semester. I dropped both classes for the tuesday/thursday slot. On the plus side I will have a lot of extra free time. On the neutral side I have no excuses for not getting a job and doing productive things. On the negative side I am not a full time student at the moment and so there will be repercussions. I need to check the plugs on the olds today (tomorrow for me). I noticed some moisture at the tailpipe and getting some on my finger I was unable to tell if it was oil or if it was simply condensation mixed with soot. I think it's the latter, however I should pull the plugs and find out anyway. It will be good to see what's happening in the chambers of the car that I need for daily transportation. I may take the chance to hunt down an exhaust leak as well. It sprung up a while ago, but now it's suddenly gotten louder and is bothering me. It's annoying that I can't have a single damn car that doesn't end up having a big exhaust leak somewhere at some point. On a slightly different note, what the heck happened to all the lead substitute additives? The olds was made before unleaded gas was common and the valve seats aren't hardened. If I use straight unleaded gas for too long the valve seats will recede, causing trouble. So I add lead substitute to the gas every time I fill up. There for a while I could find decent lead substitute for about a dollar per full tank. But now I can't find anything less then four dollars. What the hell happened? Oh well, life goes on. 2-21-2004, 6:10PM: I have been thinking about how to execute this whole plan. I think the first thing I should do is map out the junkyards in the area. The junkyards in and near the city have been pretty well picked over. I managed to get my big block from a junkyard in the city, but it took a lot of searching. Parts that people regularly use will be hard to find in these places, but parts that nobody wants will probably still be plentiful. I should have no trouble finding a 366 truck block crank in a local yard, but finding a good BBC head casting may be tricky. Thusly I should take some trips to the countryside and find what the more remote yards have in store. We have yards out in the country that have piles of hard to find parts and nobody knows about them because nobody bothers to look. I need to explore some of these places. Not only could I find good parts for my project but it could turn out to be lucrative and fun if I stumble on a rare cache of parts. In fact there is little stopping me from doing this right now (well, not *right now* because it's raining) except that sometimes I have serious motivational problems. 2-20-2004, 1:40AM: Damn. I can't stop thinking about what the fallout is going to be over dropping this class. It means that I won't be a fulltime student anymore, technically. It's got me worried. My sleeping has gotten irratic. I fell asleep in the middle of the day earlier, now I can't get to sleep even though I'm really tired. It's a simple screwup, not something that I need to worry about so much. But I can't stop feeling like I may have fucked myself. Not a happy feeling. On top of all this I have no source of income at the moment. I need to find a job. Unfortunately the job market here sucks ass right now. I also will need to get something that starts about 5pm, which severely limits my options. I always feel like I'm treading on thin ice and with recent events it just feels like it's getting even thinner. It is always in the back of my mind, this severe lack of economic security, and it's frustrating. 2-19-2004, 7:40PM: The site is now being hosted by Nilo and the new address is http://semihemi.thingie.net, which you probably know anyway since that's where you are right now. Thanks a bunch for hosting me, Nilo. Other then that there is no news. I need to figure out how to get a bright lightsource into the garage so I can take a couple pics of the block. I need the pics for my first article, but my camera sucks in any conditions other then full light. 2-18-2004, 7:30PM: No real news today. I was going to write an article on block filling. But after screwing myself on a math test and realizing that I need to drop that class or the screwup could hurt my grade average, I've been sorta depressed. Why do I do this to myself? I should have studied but I didin't because I know the material and I figured I'd be ok. Well, I wasn't. I'm not the type to crack under pressure, but I don't know what the fuck happened today. Oh well. I'll get around to putting more up when I pull myself together in the next few days. For the moment there is a paper on the trial and death of socrates that I am supposed to be writing, but I'm so bumed out that I can't focus on that either. Dang. 2-17-2004, 12:20AM: I added the Delta 88 section. It's just a breif description of my car and a handful of pics. The pics are inline and high rez because I'm a mean bastard. I have yet to write any articles so that will take me a bit to do. Look for that in the next few days. 2-16-2004, 6:20PM: I updated the engine page. I reversed the order and now the newest stuff is at the top. All of the images are still inline because I hate 56k and, by extension, everyone that uses it. Ok, so the real reason is that I'm too lazy to make thumbnails. Oh well. 2-16-2004, 2:20AM: Good morning everyone. Welcome to the latest version of my site. I have specially designed the colors to give myself seizures, I hope that perhaps it does the same for you. There is no other content for this site yet. The Engine link will take you to the first incarnation of this site until I have it all updated. The rest of the site will be updated eventually and a blurb about what has been updated will end up here on the front page. Chances are that the only people that will notice the change in my site are RiceCoppers. If you are one of those said individuals and you notice anything wrong with the layout, you have a comment, or just want to bother me - leave me a PM. Now it's time for me to get some sleep before my brain leaks out of my nose. |
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