Moving along...

[88FESTIVAGTR]

sweet, I mean my downpipe is Siamese, not divorced

[booster1976]

Finally got the "seal plate pulling jig" together and working. Got the seal plate off and barring much on call work activity I'll have the CHRA done-FINALLY.

JerseyJay. I couldn't find the stuff you mentioned but I did find something from Berryman http://www.berrymanproducts.com/Default.aspx?tabid=146 that seems to work OK. I'll give a full report when I'm finished with it. Still going to look up those abrasive discs, they sound handy.

Abe

[Tim]

Somebody sideswiped my car today. I parked it on the street and there was this long black line along the side of it where someone got too close and scraped the Festiva. Really made my day....
:mumum:


Regards,

Tim

[qaking]

Tim,

That really sux!!

Is it fixable? How bad is it?

[Tim]

Luckily it didn't dent the metal, just left a nice black line on the paint.

I think it can be fixed with some rubbing compound; it appears that no paint was scraped from my car, just some rubbed off the other car when it sideswiped me.

What really made me mad was that it happened on the passenger's side, which was in immaculate condition. If it were the driver's side I wouldn't get too upset since there's already a big dent and scrapes from an old accident.

My mechanic's a professional bodyshop man so he should be able to give me some good advice on getting the damage fixed.



Regards,

Tim

[booster1976]

Sorry to hear about the damage Tim. I hope you get it fixed soon.

The Gods of speed really hated me this weekend. On-call was a bugger but I did get some stuff done today.

Did some more porting/smoothing on the wastegate. I think it's as big as I want to go now. I installed the new seal piston rings in the turbo seal piston. One of the t-10 torx screws that hold in the bearing plate on the VJ-14 CHRA stripped so turbo work ground to a halt. I'll probably have to have the screw machined out. This CHRA build/hybrid thing is turning out to be harder than advertised.

Got around to putting new rings and bearings in the rod/piston assemblies. While checking ring end gap I found that the gap is a little looser than optimal. Guess the bores were more worn that I thought. Oh well, at least the engine will be in better shape that when I took it apart. One of the new compression rings broke during install. Now I can't balance the rod assemblies until I order a new set of rings. Oh, joy!

Abe

Edit: That Berryman stripper stuff is AWESOME! Just let carboned up pistons soak for about an hour and a half and 97% of the carbon scrubs right off with a nylon brush. Recommended!

[Tim]

Good luck with your engine! Sounds like you're going to have a very powerful beast when you're all done!

Spent $2 on some rubbing compound and got 95% of the damage off my car - it's hard to tell anything happened except for a few small scrapes in the paint...

[qaking]

Tim,

Rubbing compound can work miracles, a few years back, my wife rubbed my RED 95 convertible mustang past a white painted cinder block post. When i first looked at, i though the red paint was rubbed off down to bare metal in some areas. After 15 minutes of rubbing compound, you could not even tell she had done anything! :shock:

[Tim]

It's the best $2 I ever spent!

The paint came right off and it's hard to tell there ever was an accident!



Regards,

Tim

[qaking]

Be-careful Tim,
You might make a shiny spot and have to do the whole car :twisted:

[Tim]

Uh oh....

If you're right it could end up costing me some money!

[batstiva]

Changed my CV axles and Ball Joints yesterday. What a thrill! :roll: Still waiting on my wing. Mail sure moves slowly in Canada.

[Tim]

Finally got the A/C fixed in my car! This is compressor #3; if it craps out on me I will do something extremely violent.

Thankfully, this compressor is really strong and I have to use a bit of force to turn it, unlike the last one, which spun almost freely and had a fried clutch... :roll:

Pulled a vacuum for 45 min, held it for about 3 hrs while working on another car. No leaks, no problems. It should be trouble-free, since the radiator fan now works (killed compressor #1 b/c of an oxidised connector) and all went well. It could use a spot more oil, since I spilled a little bit while installing it.


Regards,

Tim

[oxbrain]

Found a nice source car for the rest of my aspire brake parts. Someone sideswiped it and the ins company totaled it and sold it to a JY in the area. They have to process it and I can start ripping parts off. I'm going to get the wheels, tie-rod ends, brake lines, and ebrake cable. Hopefully it will all be done by the end of June. Then I'll have to do something about this leaky engine.

[batstiva]

Removing my A/C this weekend. Never worked worth a damn, and is basically dead weight. Besides, gotta start making room for those extra cylinders.

Tonight, on my way home, stopped at Autozone and picked up a new coil. Figured I'd change it there, take 10-15 minutes tops. Nope, hooked the new one up, reconnected the battery, hit the key, and not a damn thing happened. My battery picked that moment to roll over and die. :roll: Course, I had just used the one check that I had with me, sooo, as luck would have it, some guy brought a battery in as a core that he said was dead, they checked it, and it held 11.7 volts. So they gave it to me. Damn my car does not like to be messed with. :evil:

Course, the old battery was almost 7 years old, so I guess it's time had come and gone. Just gotta love when and where things on a car decide to die.