Throw Out Bearing Says: “Not Agaaaaain!”

Jeremy Nutt 1 Comment

When you build a car from a bunch of parts that were not intended to play nicely together, sometimes you end up breaking some random stuff.  Normal people don’t have these issues.  Unfortunately… hm…  no….. fortunately in my world, this kind of issue is the norm.  This past weekend my brother in law and I had a hoot of a time pulling the transmission out of his 2nd generation FC RX7 because the throw out bearing had exploded in grand fashion.

In a serious tone, you say: “Jeremy, this is not normal! What is the meaning of this?!”
To which I proudly respond: “Truer words have never been spoken!….. but alas! He has a 3rd generation, FD twin turbo engine swap producing mucho POWAH!”
You then cover your ears with your hands and shout: “Oh My!”

Back to reality…. where were we?  Oh yeah, so the car was built quite some time ago, and then recently sat untouched for a few years outside in the awful New England weather (sadface), which we are thinking maaaaaay have been a contributor to the bearing failure.

To sum it all up:  Throw Out Bearings can make the Best Day Evaaaaaar! into the Worst Day Evah!!! in the blink of an eye.  Use the picture above to easily determine which day you may be having.

Most vs. Least Expensive Cars on eBay. 10/22

Jeremy Nutt 1 Comment

10/22 Most Expensive Car on eBay.

Vehicle: 1967 Chevy Corvette Coupe 427 # 300479937620

Buy it Now Price: $1,967,000

Owner Says: “This ORIGINAL(L68) 427-400HP MOTOR? …is in “YOUR” car!“

My Thoughts: “It’s in MY CAR?!!!  Dammmmn!  How come I never noticed a 427 hiding in my car? Where is it? Can you show me?  Ok seriously, could this listing be any more confusing?  I don’t know if there is a car for sale here, or if he is offering to buy the mysterious engine that I don’t have for 1.9 Million bucks.   We are still in reality right?  Where am I?”

10/22 Least Expensive Car on eBay.

Vehicle: 1983 Subaru Hatchback # 330486558512

Buy it Now Price: $300

Owner Says: “Head gasket is blown.  Interior trashed.  Bought it as a little beater for the kids to drive til it dies.  Well…  It still starts and runs, but I can tell it’s done.“

My Thoughts: “The lack of rust makes me think that maybe this car is not done.  Since imaginary engines apparently exist today, let’s all imagine this fine automobile with a WRX engine and awd drivetrain swap. mmmmm.  Now who’s going step up and make it happen?”

14B VS. EVO VIII 16G Photo Comparison

Jeremy Nutt 4 Comments

EVO VIII 16G Compressor

14B VS. EVO VIII 16G Photo Comparison

Recently I installed an EVO VIII 16G turbo on my 6-bolt 4G63 engine swapped 1989 Dodge Ram 50 truck. Since I love seeing how things work, I decided to take them apart and compare them. As you can see in the pictures below, the EVO 8 turbo is a twin scroll and the 14B is not.  The wastegate is far larger on the EVO turbo as well, which is very good news because the 14B internal gate is less than impressive.  Naturally the compressor and turbine wheels are a bit more elaborate on the 16G as well.

My Hypothesis: Math says the EVO VIII 16G should flow about 50% more air than the 14B did, which means more air at less pressure, less heat soak, and twin scroll should make the spool time between the 16G and 14B negligible.

Results from the butt dyno:  The 14B was set at 18PSI and was a lot of fun, because it could break the rear tires loose in 1st and 2nd gear when the turbo spooled.  With the new turbo on and the wastegate plugged directly into the intercooler piping (stock actuator pressure is about 12psi I believe), the truck was neeeearly as fast as the 14B at 18PSI.  It spools at about 150 rpm more than the 14B, and the boost came on so much smoother.  Once I got used to the new turbo, and made sure everything was functioning properly, I cranked the boost up to 20 to see what would happen.

Tire spin in 3rd is what happened.

Traction Bars: Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had a vision of my rear differential wrapping up and ripping my driveshaft apart.  I knew that my truck’s suspension wasn’t exactly designed for 250+ hp, and since I know my stock / lowered suspension was on borrowed time, I decided traction bars would be a smart idea.  Not only would they prevent my truck’s axle from flipping over backward and turning my driveshaft into a pogo stick, but, it might actually provide traction through my Z rated 255/45/18’s!  In went the new traction bars.

As if by some miracle, almost all of my missing traction was back again!  I couldn’t believe it!  These things really work! Now I can keep traction in 2nd gear (if I want), and spinning the tires in 3rd just plain won’t happen no matter how hard I try.

WIN is the word, EVO VIII is the reason, TRACTION BARS is how.

No More Excuses! I Think?

Jeremy Nutt 2 Comments

 

Finally.  When I was 15, I bought a 1964 Chevy Impala convertible (my dream car), which you may have read about HERE.  Because of it’s sad state of disrepair, I immediately started a body off restoration when it rolled off a flatbed and into my parents driveway.  Much to my chagrin, it has never made much progress because of x, y, and z, but mostly because of its full time outdoor storage.  Everybody that I know hassles me about it not being done yet because I thought I would be driving it to the junior prom (nope), then senior prom (nope), college graduation (nope), 5 year high school reunion (nope), wedding day (nope), 10 year HS reunion (nope)…… Well..yea….it still isn’t done.  However, over the course of this extremely short feeling summer, I built myself a garage to play in.  Last night, I finally got all the garage doors attached properly, and Read More

RPOTD: Exotic Trailer Full Edition

Jeremy Nutt 1 Comment

Random Picture Of The Day

 

This rig pulls up at your house.
The Stig is driving.
The tow rig’s passenger door swings open.
You glare at your own reflection in The Stig helmet.
There is a giant sticker on the dashboard that says “It’s you’re lucky day!”

This is not reality.
Snap out of it.
You are still at work, browsing the internet.

Sorry.

Image borrowed from:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs831.snc4/69176_442572992535_503162535_5829979_6204668_n.jpg

Hybrid Math & Volts: Where is the Positive?

Jeremy Nutt 4 Comments

hybrid math

I really do want to like electric and hybrid cars, but they still don’t make any sense to me.  Last year, I was discussing with some friends the pros and cons of buying a Toyota Camry Hybrid over a 2.4L gas Camry strictly based on fuel savings.  My hypothesis was that if you are buying a hybrid strictly for fuel saving purposes, you are buying it for the wrong reason because the additional $5955 purchase price of the vehicle was never going to be outweighed by the savings in gas.  I did some research and crunched some numbers at the time, and this is what I came up with.

Let’s assume you drive 15k miles per year.
Let’s also assume gas is $3.00 a gallon.
Let’s assume you want to buy a new Camry.
Avg = 50/50 mix of city and hwy driving.

2009 Camry 2.4L Automatic
mpg city – 21 (on Toyota website)
mpg hwy – 31 (on Toyota website)
mpg avg – 26 (my math)
price $20,195 (on Toyota website)
city – 714.29 gallons per year = $2142.87 (my math)
hwy – 483.87 gallons per year = $1451.61 (my math)
avg – 576.92 gallons per year = $1730.76 (my math)

2009 Camry 2.4L Hybrid
mpg city – 33 (on Toyota website)
mpg hwy – 34 (on Toyota website)
mpg avg – 33.5 (my math)
price $26,150 (on Toyota website)
city – 454 gallons per year = $1362 (my math)
hwy – 441 gallons per year = $1323 (my math)
avg – 447.76 gallons per year = $1343.28 (my math)

city driving savings = $780.87 per year
hwy driving saving = $128.61 per year
avg driving saving = $387.48 per year

Years of driving to offset gas savings.
city – 7.62 years
hwy – 46.30 years
avg – 15.36 years

In conclusion, for the gas to offset the price of the vehicle, with 50/50 city & hwy driving, you need to own it for 15.36 years to offset the price the savings in gas mileage. Interesting.

So now 2010 is wrapping up, and I find myself wondering what all the hype is over the Chevy Volt. (Full disclosure:  I have never seen one in person, let alone driven one because I am not a cool enough blogger yet to be given cars to test drive.)  I have been told by friends how great this car is, and how it’s “totally electric”, and “sooooo awesome!”  Naturally, I am a skeptical gearhead.

I started with wikipedia (I know. I know.), and learned the basics. The car apparently has two electric motors with a battery pack running down the center of the car that powers them.  People on the internet (obviously trustworthy ones) say that close to $10K of the total cost of the vehicle is the battery pack itself, ouch!  The Volt has the capability of driving up to 40 miles on that battery pack alone.  This would obviously be great for city driving and people with super short commutes.  From what I have gathered, charging this battery from your house will be the equivalent of paying $1.60 per gallon of gas, but without emissions. Well…..sorta.  Obviously there is emissions at some electrical energy plant offsetting your exhaust pipe, but we won’t get into that.  Moving forward……

Let’s say you want to take a nonchalant cruise up to the Kangamangus highway to check out the scenic foliage.  Uh oh, it’s more than 40 miles away! What are you going to do!?  Don’t sweat it, the Volt will just start up it’s very own 4 cylinder 1.4L gas engine that generates electricity for you when your batteries reach a 30% charge.  Ummm, wait a sec.  I thought this was an electric car? Well, it is, the wheels are driven by electric motors, thus, it’s electric! (Boogie woogie woogie). It just has a gas engine for when you want to drive more than 40 miles in 1 shot. Oh and that engine only takes high octane fuel, which is right about $3.00 a gallon here in Massachusetts.  Now, according to the NY Times article here they got 52 mpg average for their day of test driving and 44.5 mpg in E.V. mode.  I’m guessing that “E.V. mode” means that the 4 cylinder generator was running.

Uh oh, the devil’s advocate just entered the party….   If the 2000 Geo Metro (1.0L gas engine) could get between 41 and 47 mpg ten years ago without any electric motors, extra batteries, and without the $20K + more initial cost, is the Volt really doing anything that great?   The answer seems to be a complicated one.  The Volt obviously has a boat load more technology, comfort, options, and coolness factor than the metro ever did.  Unfortunately, it still has a 4 cylinder engine in it that produces emissions and is listed in the same emissions category as the Chevy Malibu, which has a normal gas engine.  So emissions wise, the Volt isn’t “officially” better than a normal gas engined car of similar size.  Fuel mileage is better than many family sedans out there but is still not cutting edge considering dozens of vehicles 15 years ago could do just as well.  The price, well, it is more than most comparable (size, shape) sedans out there. At least you get a rebate to make you feel good? If you are doing mostly city driving within 40 miles of your home, and have a little cash tucked away for a new toy, then this is probably a great car for you. If not, I’d wait a generation or two for them to sort out the whole system and improve upon it a bit further. I appreciate the technology and hard work going into it, but it still doesn’t make much sense to me.