Archive for the 'car' Category

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What I Would Give For a Banjo…

Published on November 6, 2016 in car and rant by taro. Closed

bolt. The engine is all together and back in the FX (engine leveler good!), there’s a few things to tighten up, hook up the radiator, plug back in the electronics, fill everything up, except for one bolt. Unfortunately it’s a special bolt, a banjo bolt for the fuel rail. I don’t know where the heck it went. Oh yeah, I don’t know where the keys went too….

Aw crap, spoke too soon, looks like the clutch plate is in backwards! It seemed to go in only one way but I think it wrong, there’s no engagement of the drive wheels. Dammit, gotta take things all apart again!

The Clutch

Published on November 6, 2016 in car and rant by taro. Closed

Not being covered by warranty and Toyota being so backed up, I tooked the FR-S elsewhere. Unfortunately my go to mechanic for work I don’t want to do is out on long term sick. So on one persons recommendation I decided to take it to Masaki’s down on King. As promised they took a look at it by next day. Estimate was $2,000, ouch! Damn, I wanted to ask if they needed a part time mechanic! However they said it should be done by Friday, if I were to do it, who knows when I would get it done. Besides, I had my hands full putting the rally FX back together. They called at the end of the day Friday to let me know it was done, but they had not road tested so they would not release it until Monday, I can respect that.

Machine work

Published on November 4, 2016 in car by taro. Closed

p1060723The rally FX engine bits are finally back from machine work. It went through almost a total rebuild. New oversize pistons, block bored out to match. New rod and main bearings, upgraded ARP rod bolts, main studs. Possibly overkill there, but I figured if going through the trouble, might as well. Top end valve guides measured marginal also so new ones sourced for those as well. A pretty penny, should be interesting when all back together.

In a clutch

Published on October 28, 2016 in car and rant by taro. Closed

well, looks like the FRS is out of commission, probably for weeks. The clutch/throw out bearing went out. I’m sitting at Toyota service having dropped it off. They’re also saying prob not covered under warranty. Sucks. And the other issues it has suffered since almost new ill have to make some stink if I want done. I hate dealing with that. I’d take care of it myself except one needs a reflash of the ECU. I guess this is one of the hazards of owning first production new vehicle, but the clutch failure is kinda disappointing.

So the service dude called, throwout bearing is not covered under drivetrain warranty. So I put a call  into Ken at Pacific Automotive, my go to mechanic for stuff I don’t want to deal with myself. Turns out he is out due to health problems, oh no! So now I need to figure out what to do.

 

 

 

Continue reading ‘In a clutch’

Dang Subaru

Published on July 4, 2016 in car and rant by taro. Closed

WTF, Sunday heading

 to dinner at Velcro’s, went to flip down the visor as I was heading into the late afternoon sun. Blam it dropped down into my face. Da fawk! A couple months ago, the passenger visor detent mechanism failed, now this! People on online forums have actually reported this failure before.

Crap, another $70 visit to Toyota parts. Oh yeah, the part is embossed with Subaru logo on back, so I blame them!

More Midnite Madness

Published on July 2, 2016 in car by taro. Closed

It’s 2AM now, just finished cleaning up. After dinner spent the night pulling out the 20 valve engine from the rally FX. Decided I’m going to go ahead with rebuild even though I figured out the oil burning smell was from axle seal leaking trans oil onto the exhaust pipe. I’ve got rebuild parts on order from Australia. It went pretty smoothly this time. I pulled the engine and transaxle out as assembly and separated them after. It was much easier even though I don’t have the lift leveler/tilt thing yet. Taking out is easier than putting in, I should have the leveler by the time I put this back in. Anyway, I got it out but not stripped down quite enough to take it to the machine shop. I was hoping to take it tomorrow but looks like not likely, Ted’s is open only half day Saturday.

To the Scavenging

Published on June 25, 2016 in car by taro. Closed

So the status of the FX is it ran well enough for me to take 4th place over entire field at the last rallycross. It did occasionally bog down and cut completely out at idle a couple times. Charge & brake light came on once, classic sign of bad alternator. Starting was getting harder on each successive run too. It also was smelling like a two stroke on the drive home.

P1060569Had some time since to check things out. First off the ECU was giving an igniter error. Oil was down about a quarter quart. Did a compression test which showed all cylinder pretty close, which is good, but pressure was around 160psi if I sat on the starter more than recommended. That’s low for this engine, people have reported up to 200. Looks like a rebuild is in order. Continue reading ‘To the Scavenging’

Gudis

Published on June 21, 2016 in car by taro. Closed

P1060517BTW, look out for leaving antifreeze in your system and letting it dry out. It turns into this gudis goop.

 

 

 

 

Hosed and Belted

Published on June 20, 2016 in car by taro. Closed Tags: .

P1060520Dumping these posts in here as much as for reference as anything else, so theres a record of the part numbers I used. To fit the 4AGE20v but connect it to the 16v radiator, after much searching at Napa, found these to be almost perfect fit. Napa hose #7600 for the upper and #8379 for the lower. They do need to be cut down. BTW, PVC pipe cutter works quite well to cut hose. Continue reading ‘Hosed and Belted’

K&N Filter Filter

Published on June 18, 2016 in car and Gear by taro. Closed

P1060547I still have yet to confirm that the engine failure was caused by ingested dirt that scored the cylinders and rings, but that is my current suspect. When I took off the mystery filter, I saw the intake hose had a decent coat of fine dust, and when I blew compressed air through it, just as large a cloud of dust came out the inside as through to the outside. P1060549In light of that, I ordered a K&N cone filter from Amazon. Amazon really does sell everything. While I was searching K&N’s website for the appropriate part #, I found this, what they call the Air Force Pre-cleaner. It’s a filter for your filter. It’s reticulated foam impregnated with their oil, “perfect pre-cleaning for agriculture. construction and, of course, all forms of dirt racing!” They didn’t have a preshaped one to fit mine, so I got the generic wrap your own and hold closed with Velcro strips one. As a bonus, there’s enough in the one package for two. Continue reading ‘K&N Filter Filter’