Its always a good feeling when you see these light cause it means you are HOME!

Our first attempt at setting the cam timing in on my motor ended up being a exercise in futility as every time we tried to set the dial indicator, the needle would walk.  After about an hour of frustration, Naoto suggested that we figure out a valve angle for the head and make a tool.  Honestly, I couldn’t really conceptualize what the hell he was talking about, but I just did what he asked me and called Japan for the data.

Since the guys over at Apexi have been nice enough to let me use their facility, I took advantage and helped myself to using the mill as well(well to be accurate, Naoto used the mill and I just helped him by cutting stuff).  After a couple hours of measuring and cutting, we came up this tool.  I moves in any position and keeps the shaft of the dial indicator in line with the retainer.  This way we can maintain the proper angle and keep the end of the shaft from walking as the valve travels up and down.

Metal arts and crafts is getting funner and funner! Hmmm, maybe I should make that splitter for the Civic…

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.

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.

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?

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.

disclaimer: I have been back from Japan for a month, but I have been super lazy about updating this thing. Thats probably why this is super long.

Japan this time around was filled work and more work.  Even though I lucked out and didn’t have to go to any events, the BOSS kept me pretty busy.  So busy the work has spilled into me doing work at home in LA.  I did make it a point to go stay out in Tokyo more than I usually do.  If I had a choice, I think this would be the best.  Work in inaka, party in the city and vacation in LA.  Could it happen? I hope so.

My final night in Tokyo I met up with my new friend Albert.  I actually have heard about him from a number of people before, but never actually met until earlier in my trip.  Super surprised in how we clicked.  Dude is into most of the things I am into and we both fall into the group of people that aren’t normally supposed to be in Japan, but are there anyway.  Newest member of Team BG, represet.  He turned me on onto an anomally that I never knew about. Really cute girls from Korea, studying Japanese and living in the Shibuya area.  Thanks buddy, I make sure you cookies are ready when you come home this winter.

We went to go meet up with Tosh and C-star for some dinner and drinks.  By chance Albert ran into his friend on the street that went out with us.  She told us about a bar across the street that served 190yen beers….!? Unheard of in Harajuku.  Here is where things started to get fuzzy.  Since I was on a time restriction with the train and everyone had things to do the next day, we pounded drinks for an hour and a half.  Since they were selling them for that cheap, we had to take advantage.   

When we made our final good byes, I walked to the train station with Albert realizing how drunk I was.  This is when things got fuzzy. Hoping on the Ginza-sen, I felt like one of those piss drunk salary men.  To the point that I thought I was going to hurl on the train itself.  Keeping my composure, I made it to Nihonbashi to realize that I forgot where my hotel was at.  I didn’t help that all the freaking alleys looked exactly the same at night time.

I made a quick stop at the combini and set out on journey to find my hotel.  It took about 20 min of roaming around until I figured out where it was. Success!  Thats about all I remembered.

Good friends, good times.  Thanks guys for making my last night in Japan super fun. Got to do it again next time.

 For some reason, people in Japan like to say you like this person or that person.  The comparison is usually someone famous. Unfortunately for me, everyone says I look like this super famous comedian (森山中の大島). Thats doesn’t sound that bad, except that she is a fat ugly girl.  Recently my friend told me I look like another comedian who is an angry dude (ケンドーコバヤシ).  Thats not as bad.  But I don’t think I look like either… well I do but it still sucks.

The first time I ever went to Japan, I was with Eddie and Naoto (Jan 2002). Since me and Naoto were there for a bit of time and we had to split up for separate work, he decided to buy a prepaid cell phone.  When I ended up moving to Japan, he gave me the phone and I have been using it ever since.  This thing has been a trooper for all these years.  But unfortunately, Softbank is killing 2G service as if next March.  They sent me a message that said I needed to upgrade to a 3G phone.  Which is not a bad thing, as I felt super embarrassed when I would whip the phone out in front of people I knew.  Lets paint the picture… You talk to a girl, convince her to give you her number and you break out Zack Morris’ phone… Yeah.  Its about time to upgrade.

The shit part? I have had the same number for the last 4 years and they won’t let me keep it. Oh well. Thanks little guy for holding up all these years. You will mildly missed.

I live on the Seal Beach/ Westminster border.  So that situates my house about 1omin from the beach.  I go to the beach, but its probably been a couple years since I took a dip in the ocean. My coworker and friend asked me to go with them to the beach in Niigata over the weekend.  I was super down to go as I have never really got a chance to check out the beach in Japan. We headed out to Omi, Niigata.

Honestly, I was a bit apprehensive about going to the beach. I have always had issues with my tattoos living in Japan. I don’t even think about them when I am in the states. But in Japan, sometimes it can get bothersome. Most of the time I hide them so I don’t stick out.  My friends reasured me that the guys we were going to meet up with were all blasted with tattoos too, so I shouldn’t be worried.  Even so, when we arrived, I had everything covered up.

To my surprise, when we entered the beach house, most of the people in there were all yanki. I mean you would usually be stoked about this, but it was the first time really, that I felt easy about looking like yanki. No covers, just shorts and t-shirt. Just like most of this trip, it rained that day. But still super fun to spend the day at the beach. Beers, yaki soba, bikinis, more beers and finish off the day with some really good Tonkatsu. Got to do this again the next time I come back for summer.