I built a shaker scoop bracket today so I could attach the shaker to my LS engine rather than taking the easy way out and bolting the scoop to the hood. It took far longer and was much more difficult than I was expecting. The heads are not symmetric side to side so it wasn’t as simple as making a simple arch and bolting the scoop down, the engine and scoop are both at slight angles which made it very annoying to align.

I ended up doing some welding to attach 3/4” steel legs to the steel ring that’s factory riveted to the scoop. Those legs are then bolted to the ignition coils. It looks fine, it won’t win any awards but is totally functional.

I’ve checked and the shaker does indeed shake.

For now the LS swap is done. I’m exhausted and just want to drive and enjoy the car for a bit. I need some serious detailing and paint correction to mitigate all the damage apartment life has lent onto the car.

I’ve recently gone down the rabbit hole of wood working by hand while refurbishing/deep cleaning an 1843 or 1844 East India Company Model E musket, that’s a story I’ll tell in the future today I want to focus on wood working.

The musket had sat in damp storage for 100+ years which had led to some of the original wood rotting where it was in touch with steel fasteners. I’m not a fan of restoring antiques but a repair was necessary to restore functionality. Being 175+ years old I didn’t want to use modern methods or materials to repair the rot so I found some old chisels in my grandfathers box and got to work.

I did a shit job sharpening the ancient chisels but they were at least sharp enough to work. I practiced on some pine scraps to get a hang of it, I cut myself so many times since I don’t have a vise to hold my work. I eventually built up enough confidence to chisel out the stock.

I bought a Japanese pull saw off Amazon to cut a plug from a walnut board to glue into the hole I will chisel out, oh man I’m in love. Even though it was very cheap the saw worked fantastically. The blade is only 0.3mm thick and had 0 offset to the teeth so precise cuts were super easy. I drilled the center of the plug out with a 100 year old bit and brace setup and used files to open up enough room for the original fastener to slide through.

Glued the plug in place with some wood glue and I could not be happier with the initial fit. Wood glue isn’t period correct but meh, modern adhesives are fantastic. All in the work was super fiddley and took far longer than anticipated but I got the patch so that even the grain lines up. Hopefully the Japanese saw will make quick work of flush cutting the plug so I can minimize as much sanding as possible. I’d rather not destroy any of the original wood that hasn’t been impacted by rot.

I’m glad to learn these skills, it’s something very different than the power tools and metalworking I usually do.

Fiancée finally replaced her 330,000mi 2010 Mazda 3 with a new used car. We picked up a 2015 Subaru Impreza Sport Premium with 100,000mi from a private seller last week. I’m actually pretty impressed with it considering the only other Subaru I’ve ever been in was a clapped out 2003ish outback wagon. This car has the CVT which while boring will suffice just fine for my fiancée who drives 150mi every day to her job and back, the 40mpg highway will be nice for her as well. She’s also excited to have AWD, remote start, and heated seats to help survive the Michigan winter.

Previous owner replaced front and rear pads and rotors, cabin and engine air filters, the battery, and threw on new Falkan tires back when the pandemic began so the service records all up to date. I will replace the serpentine belt soon just to be safe as it’s the original with 100k on it, shouldn’t be too hard I would think. Eventually I want to replace the steering wheel as the outer layer is starting to peel off, likely due to hand sanitizer and lotions interacting with the leather material.

Nicely this is a wagon so if I ever want to trade my truck for something more impractical we will still have something decent at hauling.

After the first start the other day there was still plenty to do! The engine bay has been wrapped up and I’ve started on some other minor things.

One of the big completions was the mounting of the radiator overflow bottle to the core support. I welded up a bracket to hold this chrome overflow bottle I got off Amazon for cheap. I think it fits well and should be out of the way when I run the air intake into that corner of the engine bay. I also added flaps to the radiator shroud which enables more efficient cooling while stationary vs moving. The cleaned up inner fenders were installed, the ECU mounted, and engine harness ran. I then threw on the nose after doing some quick and dirty fiberglass repairs on the 44 year old plastic grill core, my composite engineer background cringing at the quality of the polyester resin and scrap fiberglass layup haha. I also put the hood back on, still need to figure out how to mount the shaker scoop such that it remains functional.

I finished up some wiring, repairing the wiper harness I discussed previously. The wire in the photo is all old and poorly run stuff that I removed from the engine bay and under dash during the engine swap. For the first time since I bought the car 9 years ago all 8 turn signal lights work! I’m also installing a new radio as my 70s era aftermarket unit’s radio died leaving me with only 8-track function.

Lastly after dark I took the car around the block, holy crap is it much faster than before. I don’t know what else I expected with roughly 100 more horsepower than before. It snowed today and I didn’t leave the neighborhood so I’ve yet to go above 40mph. I’ll capture a video when all is said and done. I did hear a dragging sound that came with each wheel revolution and that went away while braking, I’ll have to check my pads and ensure everything was clear and such.

Tomorrow l go back to the real world, but since I’m working from home still I hope to wrap up the radio tomorrow and start on a shaker scoop mount.

As a bit of background before this post begins, I did a summer internship with Trek Bicycles back in college and took full advantage of their employee discounts and got myself a few bikes that were far nicer than I could ever afford on a college budget. I’m much more serious road biker than mountain biker so apologies for my unfamiliarity with mountain bike group sets and suspension forks. Also, the guys and gals who I worked with back then were super cool, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend a Trek product to anyone in the market.

So anyways, when I worked at Trek I wanted to take advantage of their company trail network so I bought a brand new 2018 X Caliber 7 the first week they were available in the US, had it delivered straight from the warehouse to my desk lol.

What a great bike, I immediately taco’d the front rim going off a jump within the first 5 miles of riding. I chocked it up to manufacturer fault and asked the warranty department to provide a new wheel, the one they had in stock wasn’t an exact match so for the next couple years I had different rims front and back.

I road the hell out of the bike and when I moved to Michigan after graduation I was excited because there were tons of well groomed state park trails available to ride. Well a few months after moving in, my bike gets stolen out of my locked storage locker. Someone got into my locked apartment building and then cut the storage locker’s lock and they stole just my bike and nothing else. That was really shitty for me because I couldn’t afford to buy an equivalent one even with renters insurance so I went without a mountain bike, riding my carbon Domane SL-5 on dirt rail trails to get my fix.

Over one year and one apartment move later I get a call from the police saying they found my bike abandoned in a park a mile from my old apartment. The thing was trashed. Absolutely ruined.

I think the bike was stolen and then sold cheap to someone needing transportation. The thief replaced both rims with rims drilled for schrader valves likely because the cheap pump they bolted to the down tube couldn’t work with presta valves. The bike once again got matching wheels. The thief also replaced the stock hard saddle with a padded fat beach cruiser monstrosity. The derailleurs, sprockets, crank arms, and cassette were all completely broken and unsalvagable. Pretty sure someone with work boots had ridden it to death with the scarring on crank arms. The tires were completely bald from tons of road riding too. There was a magnet for a bike computer zip tied to the fork and a cheap bottle cage too.

I decided to rebuild it because I figured it would likely be cheaper than buying a new one... well that wasn’t true but I didn’t know that yet.

I stripped the bike down and decided to go to a 1X system. I didn’t have the time or knowledge of interchangeably of cassettes and derailleur so off to the bike shop it went. I had them install a Deore XT set which was a takeoff from another customer. One of the wheels was wrecked so I had them replace it too with a cheap stock replacement. At this point I was wishing I still got employee pricing...

The matte paint was trashed so I lightly buffed it to a satin finish to remove some scratches and used nail polish as touch up for the silver and blue. I ordered tires, a new saddle, grips, and a bunch of other stuff online from a bike shop in the UK that had a great thanksgiving deal. Well, that package got lost in customs in Ohare and neither the store or USPS could do anything. I waited a whole year (2020) before giving up. That was a waste of $130. Last week I went on Amazon and ordered parts to replace the lost shipment and got the bike put together today.

Ah it feels so good to ride a mountain bike again. I did find that the fork needs a rebuild, it is super cushy and the lockout isn’t working. It was giving serious collapsed land rover suspension vibes. Ive already ordered the rebuild kit for its budget tier Rockshox Silver 30 fork, it doesn’t look too hard based on the posted instructions online. What’s another week worth of waiting anyways after two years? All in it probably cost the same as buying a better condition used 2018 X Caliber 7 but that’s how these things always go.

I even found my old spare employee trail pass bracelet/tag to add the finishing touch, hung on the seat post like on the second pic which I took back when the bike was new.

So are management's reasonings in why they wouldn't give you a raise/bonus fitting of your contributions after telling you that you do amazing work and are exceeding all expectations.

Suppose it's time for my annual watching of Office Space.

I’m now officially old enough to import into the US without upsetting the EPA.

Holy shit I’m happy. Got the rest of the plumbing done today, finished the throttle cable, and filled the car with fluids. I input the required info into the FiTech ECU (engine size, injector size, etc), cranked the motor over for 45 seconds while the ECU self-learned, and the motor came roaring to life! After about 3 minutes it settled down into a beautifully stable 700rpm idle. Only leak I experienced is the low pressure side of the power steering hose because an old hose clamp gave up the ghost. Here’s a video. I couldn’t be more pleased.

I have no filter on it yet so there’s a crazy amount of induction whistle right now and the rebuilt alternator I got also has a whiny bearing unfortunately. But it holds a very stable 45psi oil pressure and a rock steady 14 volts charging.

Guys... I think Tesla will buy GM, likely at a stock price of $69.420/share. There's no other explaination.

@midengine said in Can a dealer make changes so the car is a model year newer?:

Safelite told her that it's not uncommon for a dealer to make a few changes to a car and bring it up to snuff with a newer model year. In other words, the dealer was likely in the process of making her car a 2020 model when we bought new. It's a 2019, but has a 2020 windshield. It may have a few other things, I'll have to research the fundamental difference between the 2019 and 2020 models.
Can a dealer do this legitimately? I can't really ask my dealer, since her car was sourced from a dealer out of state. Who knows what the dealer's intention was.

I seriously doubt a dealer changed a windshield to a different model year. Most likely there was a design change or something similar and the factory implemented it prior to the final 2019s rolling off the line. Pretty standard stuff, especially if the design changes were related to quality or supply base issues.

@davesaddiction my response to these types of stories (on both sides of the aisle) where people are trying to cause an outrage is “why do you care? Why should I care? Life is so much easier when you live your life and let others live theirs.” What do people have to gain by making a fuss and potentially ruining other people’s lives with allegations? I don’t get it.

@annoying_salman That F50 is even better looking! I want one so badly, it's like a mini FJ40!

@annoying_salman Thanks for sharing! Dang I'd love to import one to the US, they fit the same niche in my brain that the Suzuki Jimny does of small 4x4s that look ruggedly simple.

@grindintosecond It would be interesting if someone had a ton of cash to dump into it, my car had a turbo 301 from the factory but was long gone by the time I bought it. Performance parts for the 301 are nonexistent which means most stuff would have to be bespoke. The weak points on the 301 are poor flowing intake and heads, weak cranks, and god awful thermal management because the turbo is mounted on top of the intake. I did find a photo this engine which has the original turbo setup and an EFI throttle body, I'm sure it's entirely divorced from the 1981 era super crappy ECU and harness setup.

@annoying_salman man I really like the look of the Taft, was it sold anywhere else in the world under a different badge?

1981 Firebird brochure for your enjoyment, there's so much hair!
https://www.pontiactransamforum.com/media/1981-pontiac-firebird-trans-am-brochure-ad.147/

@zaphod-s-heart-of-gold Alfa’s? This driver just learned his ABCs.

Congrats on the purchase, it looks like so much fun and a very nice price to boot! I'm so jealous! As I dont know the Land Rover market, why is this an undesirable Defender? I figured gas engine and 2-doors was pretty desirable for your general offroader, like most Jeeps?

@ermahgerd I've spent time in the new CT4 and the interior is worlds better than the ATS, gives me hope I can get a used CT4 V Blackwing that is everything I wanted in the ATS V but better.

ATS-V... I test drove and almost bought one well used but I couldn't get past the worlds shittiest center stack design and infotainment system. A fantastic car let down by garbage dashboard. My mother has a base ATS with the same center stack so I knew I hated it, I was hoping the engine and driving dynamics of the V would offset the frustration. It did not.

@akioohtori Love it, everyone should drive a column shift manual at least once. I agree it may be primer though, that trunk gap is awful...