First impressions of Sprint’s new iPhone competitor from Samsung

Ok, that subhead was mostly search engine fodder. The new Samsung Instinct isn’t really going to compete with the iPhone Classic or the upcoming 3G version, for a lot of different reasons. As a part of an elite group of early adopters, consisting of “everyone who visited Sprint’s website and signed up ahead of time,” I was able to pick one up on June 19, a day before the rest of the world. By Saturday, I had managed to gum up the email (more on that later), spend 2 hours on the phone with Sprint technical support (three levels of escalation, very sincere attempts to straighten it out, but ultimately no success), and finally take it back to the Sprint store for a hard reset.

Sounds sort of discouraging, doesn’t it?

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Finally, an update worth reading! I hauled the engine out to the shop, but the big news is that I worked over the exhaust housing of the turbocharger with the die grinder to cure the bad inlet mismatch. Have a look…

There’s no problem getting the crate into the truck with the forklift at the warehouse, but getting it out at the shop required some ingenuity (engine-uity?). With the tow chain from Michael’s tractor rigged as a sling, the cherry picker was once again pressed into service.

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I still haven’t taken the engine from the warehouse out to the shop… Getting the crate out of the back of the truck will be a two man job, and Michael’s been gone a lot this week. So it’s been time for some housekeeping and a little on-the-job training.

Before I dig into restoring the wiring harness, the engine bay desperately needed cleaning. So the Sy got dropped back onto its wheels and saw the sun for the first time in months. It sure is easy to push with the engine and transmission out, although with no weight in the front it has the stance of a stadium off-road truck. Having the truck parked outside for a while also gave me the opportunity to sweep up the remaining cubic yard of ATF-soaked kitty litter on the floor of the shop.

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Sorry for the long delay between updates! A lot of things have happened since last time, but none of them were interesting enough to make a whole page. Here’s the compilation of the last three weeks.

The really big news is that my new motor arrived! For the time being it slumbers in its crate, while I marshal my resources for the final push… (translation - I need money to finish getting all the new parts that will get slapped on before the engine goes in)

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One of the fun things about a 160-mile daily commute is that I see all sorts of odd things on the road. Usually, it’s just clapped-out dualies stacked 15 feet high with mattresses and washing machines headed for the border, but occasionally I run across something cool. On the way back from Simi Valley to Santa Ana, we came across this camo’ed mule. I’m guessing BMW, based on the wheels and door handles, but as you can see, it’s been heavily disguised with riveted-on plastic panels.