Another busy and not busy week in the books. I haven’t been posting as often as I like but I haven’t had too much extra to show for it either. Okay, well maybe a little. I have finally be able to pick up on few things I haven’t worked on in what seems like Months. The transmission parts are back in town and it sounds like I will end up with it back at the end of this week or next week. I order the remainder of the engine parts required for assembly and installation on Friday which includes Headgaskets, bolt set, and a pair of knock sensors.
I also managed to get to harbor freight finally and spend an extra 15 bucks on polishing clays / compounds to finish polish my intake manifold. The results were instant, and is improved some 100 times over the old finish which I was happy with at the time but now it has been put to shame. Here is a picture of it where the left side was freshly polished (for 5 minutes) and the right side was the best I could muster using home-made remedies / hand sanding:
It was very impressive, and definitely instant. 30 Minutes or so later I had both sides finished:
I am excited to see it looking this way because stock wasn’t the answer:
Same picture essentially with slightly different camera settings:
I also did the fuel injector tops since I was lazy and didn’t bother with the lower manifold at all, this should keep the “dress up” flowing until it hits the valve covers:
They get the same sanding treatment that the manifold and valve covers ended up getting. Here they are at the last stage before polishing with the wheel:
Reflecting on the reflections:
It dressed it up very nicely overall:
Also this week’s part shipment. This is the timing belt, roller, tensioner, and appropriate valve cover gaskets:
I also installed the water pump and new thermostat. The autoparts store thermostat is round and the stock one is oval.. It still fits fine but I had one eyebrow raised throughout the process. Maybe I should have went with a 160 *F thermostat instead of a 180:
Since the weather has taken us on a bit of a wild ride over the last week I have spent more time inside than outside. Much of my work actually went towards electronics or specifically the instrument cluster. I have finally started coding the main rom that will run on the pic micro-controllers that input the data and display them on the LED’s. I have also started building a laminator out of an old laser printer fuser assembly. This will be used on the circuit board transfers to re-melt the toner onto the circuit board instead of using an iron for the process. This should produce consistent clear results every time. I haven’t taken much in the way of pictures yet but will create and dedicate a page to it once I am finished with the project. I have also designed a couple of new circuit boards that I am eager to cut out and build.
Well I am off to eat but a pretty good update for now to hold everyone over. See you back here this weekend!
