Cranky

So what started as supposed to be a head gasket swap and cam install turned into a complete tear down when I inspected my bearings.  From looking at it, besides having a bit of oil starvation, something had come out of the crank and marred my bearings up. The only conclusion that I could really come to was that there must have been debris lodged inside the crank galley and decided to come out to say hello to my bearings once it filled with oil.  I never really took the time to have the plugs removed on the crank. I guess I’ll never make that mistake again.

This time around, I decided to take the crank to dudes that only do cranks.  Right next to Triumvir’s office, there is a shop called Marine Crank.  I have always heard about them in engine building circles, but never really took the time to look into them. But I figured, hell if all they do is cranks, they got to be pretty damn good at it.  So I asked them that the best route was.  They sent me away to a place called Jerry’s broken drill and tap removal.  I had been to this place before about 10 years ago, but just to have time serts installed in a head.  Apparently the steel balls that seal up the crank is super hard to get out and they have a special machine that burns them out.  The machine is pretty cool looking and they do a super good job to not damage the crank, so don’t be surprised when you get the bill. (honestly, I was a bit shook when I got the bill, but its kind of worth it)

I took the crank back over to Marine and they worked their magic on it.  I had the oil holes chamfered, the journals micro polished and the galleys tapped. Total bill, around $200.  But after I give it a good cleaning, I can at least be relieved that I won’t have shit spitting out of the crank onto my bearings.  I recommend this for anyone that has had their crank out and polished.

Pump, pump the jam.

This is one of the worst oil pump designs ever.  The only reason I say that is because it wouldn’t register any oil pressure after a rebuild; even after cranking for 10-15 minutes.  If you look carefully, the oil from the pickup has to fill the circled chamber before it actually hits the pump and can transfer pressure.  So under low rpm, it will never have enough vacuum to pull the oil through.  That might be alright when you have a freshly built motor with tons of assembly lube.  But what do you do when you have stored the engine for months and all the oil has settled? Piece of shit.

Floored

Naoto has been moved in to his house for a little bit now and we started to do some light work in his garage.  It was pretty apparent that small spots of oil where accumulating to a decent mess; that would only get worse over time.  After lots of thought, the guy finally decided on getting vinyl tiles. Not quite sure on the color, in the end it came out pretty nice.  It was actually quite easy to lay it down and shift into place.  Definitely a possible solution to flooring when you can’t roll coating.

Once we were done, Charlie had to break in the floor with some B-boy practice. Anyone want to join our crew?

Arts and craps

Alright, alright. Its been a really long time since I have posted anything up. I know I have been lagging. But for a while there all I was really doing was going to school and training. Basically the same thing over and over again. But then I figured out that the bearings in my motor where all toast and I had to get ready for the final FD event of the year(more on those things later). Things got real hectic.

While all this was going on, I found the time to work on one of my side projects.  A while back, I got a catch can from Greddy.  Its a really nice looking piece: extruded aluminum case  and pressed aluminum caps.  But it was literally just a can.  I knew for it to be really efficient, I had to add some internal baffling.  But how to go about doing it.  After thinking about it and bullshiting about it, I finally just went to work on it.

I ended cutting the top off with a cold saw, trying to make it straight as possible.  I then took 2 sheets of aluminum and cut them to size to make a V.  Each sheet was drilled to allow air to pass through them but still strain out the oil.  Positioning them in a V to create a dual chamber effect within the can.  In retrospect, I probably should have just used a single  sheet and just made a single bend on the brake.  But I guess you always come up with things to do.  I then made 1 bung for a drainage and added a spout for a filter on the top.  Hopefully this will take care of my blow by entering in the cylinder.

The reasoning behind the title is that a lot of girls post up that they are into Arts and Crafts.  I like to think of this as functional arts and crafts with metal.