Now we get down to the heavy lifting - getting ready to remove the transfer case and transmission. Because Michael was out of town, and I didn’t want him to return to find my rotting corpse pinned under something heavy in his shop, I limited myself to what I thought were the easy bits. The transmission will be an all-hands evolution, I think…

Hey, the driveshaft comes off pretty easy! Just imagine that sucker rattling around like that after breaking a u-joint. And this is just the "pain-in-the-ass" end, not the "pole vault" end…

OK, back to work… You may remember that when we last left off, I had run into a problem getting the A/C compressor mounting bolts off, as they didn’t want to make it past the pulley. The solution?

The Die Grinder!!!

I thought that for a change of pace, I’d post a few pictures of myself and the new turbo that I’m going to put on. Sorry about the fact that the photos are in black-and-white; Somebody else took the pictures for me with their digital camera, and must have had it set up wrong.

Here I am holding the compressor wheel of the new DD-trim turbo

"Just unbolt the mount and move it to the side" everyone said, when I asked what to do with the air conditioning compressor when I took the engine out. Turns out it’s not that easy…

Here we have Michael working over one of the A/C compressor bolts with the biggest breaker bar I’ve ever seen. "I can’t get the socket all the way on the bolt head - there’s something on the bracket that’s keeping it from seating", he said…

About this time, Michael realized he was late for a booty call, and left me to my own devices.

I didn’t get a whole lot done that evening - just disconnected the power steering plumbing, and removed and cleaned up the upper intake manifold. But there are lots of pretty pictures to look at!

Here’s the shots of the underside of the CAC I promised you last time. See what I mean about the paint?

In this installment, I pulled the downpipe loose from the turbo, removed the crossover pipe, pulled the intercooler, and took off the throttle body and its related cables and connections. 

Enough smalltalk! On to the pictures! (which should take seven minutes flat at 28.8k. Unless you’re on AOL, in which case you should go to bed and check in the morning to see how far it got before you were unceremoniously dumped)

I got to do some more preliminaries - the engine’s not out yet, but I’m closer. The CAC radiator came out, the catalytic converter hardware is off, and I managed to get the downpipe nuts loose without any undue cursing. Here are some pics of my boss’ shop at his house, and the progress I’ve made.

In case you’re wondering, FrontPage calculates the wait time for these pictures as just under 5 minutes at 28.8k. Maybe you should go get a sandwich, or clean the catbox now (don’t do both - that’s gross). I’ll be here when you get back…

More delays! I finally got to haul the Sy up to my boss’ shop in Ramona, CA, about a half-hour from my house. I discovered that sometime after February 3, some dirtbag had broken in to my truck and stolen some random things, including about $4 in change, and my new fuel pressure gauge. Fortunately, the locks were OK - either he used a slim jim, or in all the chaos on the third I simply forgot to lock it. Although removing the battery, radiator, and belts makes the truck as a whole pretty much unstealable, it also means no alarm. Oh well…

We loaded the truck onto my boss’ flatbed trailer, which was an adventure due to the lack of power steering or mechanical assistance beyond a come-along winch. But we managed to get it done without any overt cursing and the rest of the trip was without incident. My boss, Michael, is a former stock car guy and has a shop at his house that is large enough to accommodate four cars at once comfortably. He’s volunteered the space and his assistance to help me do the engine R&R. No pictures this time, but we’ll have some of the shop in the next installment - you’ll be green with envy!

Other news for this week - After several mixups with the bank, I managed to finally get Jerry McCoy the deposit on my new motor. It’s going to be based on the "Performer Plus", but upgraded with Eagle rods and Stage 1 heads. Unfortunately, Jerry’s a popular guy and my engine is number seven in line… it looks like I may have to wait more than two months to get it. That means the truck won’t be back together in time for it’s 10th birthday, but I think the wait is worth it if Jerry’s motor is half as good as people say.

The Tokyo Auto Salon, held every January at the Makuhari Messe in (you guessed it) Tokyo, has to be experienced first-hand. Photos don’t do the cars, booth girls, or nuts-to-butts crowds justice. Nevertheless, you should look at my pictures from TAS 2007 anyway, by clicking on the photo below

I’ve uploaded a few pictures I took during a recent visit to the March Air Museum in Riverside, California. There are more than 70 aircraft on display spanning WWI to the present day, and I spent the whole day wandering around and taking photos. Click on the B-17 below to go to the album…

A great day to be outside! It’s 75 degrees and sunny here in San Diego - Hardly seems like February. Referring to the SyTy shop manual, I started pulling everything I could get at with the truck still sitting on the street. The plan is to haul the truck up to a friend’s shop, where we’ll finish extracting the engine, transmission, and transfer case. Since my friend (and his trailer) wasn’t available this weekend, I thought I’d get a head start.

Everything was going fine, until I got a call from my wife - While taking her aunt to a doctor’s appointment, they were rear-ended by a city bus! Fortunately, their injuries are apparently limited to bruises, and her Subaru Outback Sport suffered only minor damage to the rear end. The hit was hard enough to bend the driver’s seat frame, though…

So, in the end, I only got about 75% of the work done that I had planned to do, but I’m not complaining….

Editor’s note: I’m reposting all my old rebuild stuff in chronological order, starting from square one. Here’s the post that started it all, way back eight years ago… 

Syclone # 1853 in happier times. And no, I didn’t "break it racing"… 

In the beginning…

A loud rod knock that developed in October 2000 necessitated a rebuild of my Syclone… Unfortunately, finances and other complications delayed the start of the project until February 2001. Because my life is intensely fascinating, and everyone clamors for the intimate details, here I present a chronicle of the rebuild process. The plan is to remove the engine, transmission, and transfer case myself (with the help of some friends), and replace the engine with a ‘crate motor’ from McCoy Motorsports.

I’ve set a goal for myself - I want to have the truck running again by April 18, 2001. That’s because it will be the 10th anniversary of the day the truck rolled off the line at PAS. (Hah! I was off on that one a little bit! - Paul)

Last summer, I had the chance to go and watch the Red Bull Air Race here in San Diego. For those who have never heard of it, RBAR is best thought of as "autocross with airplanes" - a timed slalom course through inflatable pylons, with the aircraft never more than about 100 feet above ground. The aircraft are the same kind used in international aerobatic competition, and the pilots are certifiably insane.

I took full advantage of my media credentials, and took literally a thousand photos in one day. I’ve finally put them up in my Photobucket album for your viewing pleasure. Here’s the link to the gallery, and for more information about the 2008 Red Bull Air Race events in San Diego and Detroit, visit their website at www.RedBullAirRace.com.

Purpose: This modification will upgrade your intercooler pump and get rid of the metal I/C lines from under the hood. The stock I/C pump is inefficient and most of the time fails after the years, so replacing it with a newer pump that flows more is beneficial. The stock metal I/C lines run right on top of the engine and intake, soaking up as much heat as possible. This is a bad thing and replacing them with rubber heater hose and rerouting them away from heat is a good idea. Plus, if you need to remove the intercooler for some reason it’s a lot easier.

(more…)

What is RTI, anyway?

Ramp Travel Index is a way of measuring the articulation, or flexibility of a vehicle. It’s a scale that’s used by off-roaders to compare the theoretical rock-crawling abilities of their trucks. RTI is measured by driving one wheel up a 20 degree ramp, until one of the three remaining wheels lifts off the ground. The RTI is then calculated based on the distance you made it up the ramp (measured along the slope of the ramp), compared to the wheelbase of the vehicle. If you manage to get the back wheel to touch the base of the ramp, your RTI is 1000.

Since it’s a pain in the ass to build a 20 degree ramp, an easier way to calculate RTI is to simply lift a wheel with a forklift until another wheel lifts, measure the distance from the tire to the ground, then do some math.

Why would you want to do this to a Syclone?

You wouldn’t. I just happened to be lifting one wheel to look at a failing half-shaft from underneath, and thought I should do an RTI test while I was at it. The results were not quite what I expected…

Under no circumstances should you attempt to duplicate this test, both because it could be dangerous in ways that need no explanation to thinking beings, and because I want to be able to say that I’m the only person who’s ever done it to a Syclone. So there.

Last modified 2/6/01
Click on thumbnails for full-sized photos

I was aware of the fact that the internet has made it possible for people with all sorts of fetishes to find strength in numbers, and that there are plenty of websites that take advantage of this fact by catering to the odd things that turn some people on.

Today, though, I stumbled across what may be the most weirdly-specific kink I’ve ever seen: Girls ‘hopelessly stuck with their car.’ CarStuckGirls.com is best described as a professional modeling site devoted to pictures of women spinning their tires in mud, sand, snow, or what have you. Did I mention that they also sell videos?

Looks like everybody keeps their clothes on, so it should be SFW, but be prepared to get some odd looks from the IT department anyway…