Bemused and Confused - Last comments

In response to: The Long Absence

Eric,
Sorry about all the troubles with the motor. That was very smart of you to shut the engine down after hearing the noise. That definitely saved you some money and time. At least you have another car you can daily drive! I know how frustrating working on your car can be. I hope your next start attempt goes flawlessly and I see you out at the track soon. Could you drive the "old" car out on the track if all else fails?

I finally dropped an s52 into my car. I'm still ironing out some kinks, but I've had it out on the track once. If you'd like any m20 parts definitely let me know. They'll end up in the dumpster otherwise.

-Mark

In response to: A Bit More Progress

Hey Eric, glad to see you're still at it and looking forward to your next writeup! I'm still having fun on iRacing in the Skip Barber mostly.
Btw, if you haven't seen this yet... enjoy:
http://jalopnik.com/5497042/how-a-500-craigslist-car-beat-400k-rally-racers

In response to: A Bit More Progress

Hi Mark,

Not much progress in a long time. The engine is ready to go back in... after a lot of problems. I need to get on it, just been otherwise occupied.

I'll try to do a writeup and catch things up sometime this week. ORP is looking tasty.

In response to: A Bit More Progress

What's the status of the car? Are you going to make it out to any track days this year? I've got my old motor(something is wrong with the head) and transmission and various other parts that you are welcome to have. Hope to see you soon.
-Mark

In response to: All Shook Up

thank you

In response to: A Bit More Progress

wow, impressive

In response to: Starting the build

Stained up hands means you are gettin the job done! They don't look to bad in the picture though.

In response to: Gettin' Towards Spring

Yeah, well, it was the fact that there was still one of the individual intake gaskets left on the head that caused the intake to crack... in other words, I was being stupid. Yes, the wrong intake is from an eta model, maybe a super eta. I think I am going to have a hard time getting rid of it. I doubt there are many people that need one.

In response to: Gettin' Towards Spring

Nice build, this really reminds me of mine. The wrong intake you recived was from a Super ETA it looks like. The same that I pulled off my car when I built my 2.7i. I cannot belive the intake cracked like that when you were tightening it. It's very thick material in that area. Good luck on your build.

-Eric

In response to: Sights and Sounds

So much for well laid plans. I think when it comes to cars- nothing ever goes as smoothly as one thinks it should.

In response to: Back At It

Well, now that you ask...

:)

I finally got some work done! Thanks for checking in. Do you have plans to make many track days down at PIR this year?

In response to: Back At It

Eric,
What's the latest with the car/life?
-Mark

In response to: Back At It

Basically, to practice online we need to join a series (rookie solstice comes to mind) and agree to meet up at the same time. They run practice sessions every five minutes, so we can be flexible on timing. Looks like this week, they're running Laguna -- so it's at least a west coast track. Maybe someday they'll have PIR modeled.

If you're interested, send me an email at martine_wedlake@yahoo.com and we can set something up.

In response to: Back At It

Hi Tom,
Thanks for the comments.

I would like to practice with you with iRacing, but I am not sure how that is done. I pretty sure we can't race together because of the regional thing that they do. Send me an email and let me know. BTW, what does kaisha mean?

Same for you Martine, I am willing to give it a try. The Solstice is pretty cool.

In response to: Back At It

Eric! I'm so glad to hear your work situation got straightened out. And it sounds like you're on the right track with the car, despite a few setbacks.
If you want to meet up on iRacing sometime or just have a chat about it, let me know. It's a more isolating environment than LFS right now, but at least it's still possible to practice together.
I originally planned to do both iRacing and at least some LFS (LOTA), but now I'm not sure if that will happen. iRacing really exceeded my expectations. The Solstice is good fun once you start pushing it, but wow.. I've been having a great time in the Skip Barber. Highly recommended. You can race it even if you haven't been promoted yet, just by getting a few clean races under your belt in the Solstice.

In response to: Back At It

Glad to see the write up.
Oh my! on all the breakage and mishaps.:-(

It'll be nice to have someone with some expertise look at it and give you advice. And maybe let you borrow tools. :-)

In response to: Back At It

I have an account with iRacing, but I haven't used it online yet. The Solstice is pretty cool. But I haven't gotten used to the physics. I am still racing in some LFS leagues and that is about all I have time for right now. Maybe later on this winter I will give iRacing more of a go.

In response to: Back At It

Hey, nice to see you back at it and the work issues resolved. Hopefully I'll see you out there again in the spring!

In the meantime, I kinda remember a blog entry you made where you mentioned you played LFS. I used to play an awful lot, but have switched over to iRacing. Any chance I'll see you on the iRacing track? It'd be nice to have some local boys out there...

In response to: Powerplant Problems

How about an update? You mentioned something about getting the block back awhile back.

Great write up and photos.

Keeps the brain young to dive into things like that. :-)

In response to: Powerplant Problems

Mark,
I have thought about the M50 route, but I am not really ready to do that yet. It is a bit more than I want to spend. If I have to replace the block, I think I can do so without spending too much money. The pistons are really expensive and finding used, oversized ones will be hard.

No changes on the job front other than they are paying me bonuses to stay on through December. Go figure.

Tom,
Yeah, you just have to take a deep breath and tell yourself that you can do it. It takes some research and some thought, but when you get right down to it, it isn't all that hard to do. Figuring out how to solve problems with the block, that is something I will have to farm out though.

I hope to be at South City for the race. I will most likely miss the race after that because I tentatively have a business trip that week.