DoogieLabs – Page 3 – Researching Reality

Whaaa?

September 20, 2011March 11, 2012 doogie

Welcome :) Finally got around to getting the new site together. Totally new look, totally new foundation. Freaking awesome. Its taken some adjusting to the new format but I'm finding it more useful than the old layout. So, whats new at the shop? Lots, I have started shaving the engine bay of my Corrado (project page coming soon) and getting ready for a long winter of purchasing goodies for the

News and Blog for Tuesday, June 14th 2011

June 14, 2011March 11, 2012 doogie

Oh boy has it been a long time! One thing leads to another and in short I have been busy. A month went by like it's nothing, man don't blink or you'll miss summer! Anyways, lots of loose ends need tied up I have a few things that I'm trying to get posted at the same time. I have been parting my Passat I have and going to Bandimere for

News and Blog for Friday April 29th, 2011

April 29, 2011March 11, 2012 doogie

Whatsup everyone! Almost the end of the month, got a few things going on, some experimentation and renewed motivation.. I have been doing mostly electronics still, I get people coming in for car stuff here and there, but my main focus has been playing catchup on setting up the electronics lab so I can crank out experiments and projects. The Holset VGT Controller and instrument cluster solutions ebing two of

News & Blog for Sunday April 24th 2011

April 24, 2011March 11, 2012 doogie

Happy Easter! I'm having a good weekend off, I actually have been working on some electronics at the shop. I finally got my developer board almost finished. I haven't made boards at the shop yet since I had been there, but have designed a couple of boards that needed to be tried out. One thing that I was working on was a developer board for myself. I like to breadboard

News and Blog for Thursday, April 21st 2011

April 21, 2011March 11, 2012 doogie

Whatup Yo! So I got a few of these cobalt power steering motors on hand, these are the recalled units that have the overheating tendencies or whatever. They don't spin all that fast however they are torquey as hell. (I guess they're 1.2KW motors or something like that) Actually, these things are quite useful but I decided to mess around with PWM current control this week doing some experimentation for

Blog for April 16th, 2011

April 16, 2011March 11, 2012 doogie

So I was digging through some stuff earlier today and I forgot to post these! I always like seeing how computers compare to one another in their different processor configurations and such. I have been pretty good about comparing my servers to other servers. In benchmarks I have always been more interested in servers / unix setups versus gaming machines. When it comes to benchmarking my systems personally I use

News and Blog for Monday, April 16th 2011

April 16, 2011March 11, 2012 doogie

Whats up! I have been busy with shop stuff which is the tradeoff when it comes to cars versus electronics. From week to week I have to choose which one I would like to spend time on. Finally got the new bumper and corner lights installed in this Jetta, I really like them it transformed the whole car into something that looks really sharp: The lights themselves are actually for

News and blog 4-15-2011

April 15, 2011March 11, 2012 doogie

So the Xbox died about two weeks ago! Crazy too, I think the Corrado has been listening to me brain storm whats in store for it. Just after I took these pictures of a probably more than 5 year old setup still functioning normally: Closeup of XBMC I actually REALLY enjoy Xbox Media Center in my car, as a matter of fact I am working on getting that setup on

News and Blog for Wednesday, April 13th 2011

April 13, 2011March 11, 2012 doogie

Whats up everyone! So things have been going good, I have been busy and things have been progressing slowly on all fronts, that may not be ideal for me as I like things done "now" but at least its forward progress. I have been working on various shop projects and putting together a plan that will keep me going and the bills paid and new tools rolling in. With the

Blog & News for Sunday, February 20th 2011

February 20, 2011March 23, 2023 doogie

So much has happened over the last month and a half, lets start with the latest and work backwards. .. I now have a shop! I signed a 1 year lease on a 2860Sq foot shop space, complete with office and showroom, I am going in with my buddy Mike on it. We're looking at creating a performance shop that caters to all related tendencies... Including computers and electronics! The

Blog for Wednesday December 23rd, 2010

December 23, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

12/23 Update: Some goodies came for the Van, the 1st part that I have bought for it in a while. (other than hose-clamps lol) They are to replace the broken visor clips I have: As far as I was aware, only the drivers side was broken, but I was horridly wrong, both of them were! Wow glad I decided to replace them both (besides just the color lol) Installed and

News and Blog for Tuesday, December 21st 2010

December 21, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Wow so what is up? Lots, actually I have been very busy with my regular job so I haven't had time to post the progress I got. I am working on things here and there trying to plan out what I need next or how something is going to work out. I have decided to give this Holset H1C a fair chance on the Corrado, before moving into the VGT

Blog & News for Thursday, December 30th 2010

December 20, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Lots of projects at the same time, for many of us is a reality. This time of year is no exception, I tend to want to play more in the summer time, so I save a much of the electronics and computer stuff for a time when you're forced indoors. Trading off between indoor and outdoor hobbies is great. In the continuation of what the bootdisk was for, I have

News for Thursday, November 25th 2010

November 25, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Whats up! Happy thanksgiving everyone! It has been almost a month since posting, I have been getting settled in but lets take a look at whats been done so far. I moved into a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house, its a very large place inside and has an over-sized 1 car garage. Fortunately, the Corrado is able to en-habit this parking space unless a current project does, in which case

News for Sunday, October 31st 2010

October 31, 2010January 17, 2019 doogie

There hasn't been much for showable progress since I have been moving everything into the new place. It has been going well and my lease starts tomorrow 11/1. At least I got everything moved over already! Okay just the stuff that goes INSIDE the house has been moved. I took the entire 1st week of November off of work just to get settled in, and will spend the better part

News & Blog for Wednesday, October 20th 2010

October 20, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Finally got the footage up I took of the last test&tune at Bandimere for 2010: The Corrado has been great over the last week. I finally got some things debunked that really needed looked at. The first was the strut tower bushings, the setup that I came up with wasn't quite corrected and got rid of the G60 bushing in favor of the MKIII bushing that came with the setup

News & Blog for Thursday, October 7th 2010

October 7, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Its starting to get colder here, summer is winding down, just when it gets good like always it becomes crap outside. Well this last bit of time has been interesting, I have driven the Corrado and even broken it again. I purchased that replacement engine for a lump sum of $500. I guess it was a little much in all reality but hey it went to a buddy of mine

News & Blog for Monday, September 27th 2010

September 27, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

9/28 Update: Got more done on the Corrado, decided I should share what I have. Installing the Frankenstein shift-box and cables into the car: More hooking up stuff: Looks good up front, aluminum crack pipe as well as a low temp thermostat: I built a great sandwich holder: Discovered that VR6s have a built in belt stretch indicator today too, that was pretty cool! Removed the intake manifold for a

News and Blog for Thursday, September 16th 2010

September 16, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

So whats been up this week? Lots actually, working on a wider variety of stuff has been interesting. It makes for slow progress on a specific project but its a great way to tie up some loose ends. It took me all week to make any progress on the cooling unit setup I have been messing with. I am not sure what I want to build it into yet, maybe

News and Blog for Thursday, September 9th 2010

September 9, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Things have slowed down here a bit, I have received the remainder of my test equipment back so I can start some real experimentation with my electronics projects. I haven't done any other work on the Van other than driving it and even though it burns oil it bas been doing great. The consumption has decreased to around a quart a week. Not bad when compared to a quart every

News and Blog for Sunday, August 29th 2010 (updated 8/31)

August 31, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

The weather over the last couple of weeks has been great. Upper 80's (F) into the lower 90's so I have been outside when I can. Instead of doing too much more work I relaxed a bit. I did end up finishing the truckbed liner coating on the inside before the DATR show. If you haven't seen the pictures yet click my mug: The main show I look forward to

News for Wednesday, August 18th 2010

August 18, 2010January 17, 2019 doogie

Albert got new shoes! I got some Michelin Agilis Tires to go with my smallcar wheels and it turned out great! The ride is much better and the response to wind gusts has certainly changed. It even turns better! We went to Rocky Mountain National Park over the weekend and up Trailridge Road. Albert climbed over 11,200 feet and didn't lag behind for a single bit of it. You definitely

News and Blog for Sunday, August 8th 2010 (updated 8/12)

August 8, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

8-12-2010 UPDATE: I got a transmission for the Corrado! I think I may install it into the car next week, I got it for a great price and I am pretty sure there is nothing wrong with it. It made a funny little noise when I spun it over but it was because the end-cover was dented in and it was dragging on 5th gear. After taking the end cover

News and Blog for Wednesday, July 28th 2010

July 28, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Whats up everyone? I hope that everyone has been enjoying their summertime! Seriously if you haven't taken the time to stop and enjoy the outdoors PLEASE DOSO! So what have I been upto? Cleaning up and catching up on things that were neglected because of my devotion of time to Albert. I have had some time to enjoy the outdoors, I want squeeze in a camping trip sometime soon so

News and Blog for Monday, July 19th 2010

July 19, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Hello everyone! Quite a bit has happened since I posted here last, so lets take it from the top. Albert has been doing great since the timing belt break. I have driven a few hundred more miles and things are sound, other than it's pig rich. It will be another couple of weeks before I am able to afford the needed Dyno time to finish sorting things out tuning wise.

News for Monday, July 12th 2010

July 12, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Well, I had my first issue since swapping in the new stuff. Imagine the one thing that I decided to skimp on lets go. This is a perfect example of "If you don't do it right the first time you'll end up doing it over again until its done right." So it was Friday night, we were heading back from Sonic and there is a rather large hill that most

News for Monday, July 5th 2010

July 5, 2010March 23, 2023 doogie

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday! The Van is pretty much finished, the bumpers are on their way and after that all that is really left is wheels & tires, and big brakes. Of course there is the digital cluster and stuff but those are all smaller projects that aren't required for me to have safe and reliable transportation. So it's buttoned up again, permanently. In the midst of

Blog for Wednesday, June 30th 2010

June 30, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

It's Alive!!! Still working away on the Van, I have been getting as much done as I can, minimizing my time on any other tasks like hanging out with the girlfriend.I just want this all finished up so I can get on with my summer, there are many hiking, camping, and other summertime experiences awaiting to be discovered and the last thing I want to be doing every day during

Blog for Thursday, June 24th 2010

June 24, 2010March 4, 2012 doogie

Just wanted to you let you all know that I haven't disappeared. I have been devoting so much time to finishing the Van that I haven't had time to post all the pictures I have taken. (and there are a ton!) Give me about another week and then I will have lots of eyecandy for everyone to look at. The current Van project status is as follows: Paint - Just

News for Friday, June 11th 2010

June 11, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Whats up everyone! PAINT IS HERE! Very nice, it came in $100 under the budget, its multistage and is Magnetic Gray, a 2009-2010 Toyota/Scion color and pictures don't do it any justice: I really didn't want to open the can, but I really really wanted to take a picture and at least give everyone an idea of what's in store: Here is the rest of the stuff: I took the

News and Blog for Thursday, June 3rd 2010

June 3, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Well I have been extremely busy, with everything whizzing around I only get 2 or 3 hours here and once in a while 4 hours there to get some port-work done. The machine shop that I go through still has me in limbo, haven't actually gone over to talk to the guy to get an ETA and I plan on doing that sometime after I get through the weekend. Lets

News and Blog for Wednesday, May 26th 2010

May 26, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Much more progress on the engine, I cleaned the heads which will also get jet-washed again at the machine shop. They were pretty cruddy before but they did come out nice and clean: Overall very clean: I had a whole bunch of these green jars laying around the house, so I decided to use 24 of them to contain all the valve train components: Then the valves, I am being

News and Blog for Wednesday, May 19th 2010

May 19, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Was going to post over the weekend but just ended up busy at work (busier than most Mondays) and I was too burned out after I got off to really deal with much else. Actually, they changed my schedule around for the week so that makes things harder still to find time between everything to post. First off, the car show on Sunday was great, I was only able to

Blog for Tuesday, May 11th 2010

May 11, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

I don't like the weather this week, it's delaying my project. Its supposed to snow on Wednesday, my day off and the transmission for the Van on gets built that same day. That will roughly translate into a muddy, messy car :( Over the last few days I have been helping friends with their projects more than my own agenda but I did manage to pick up a few things

Blog for Monday, May 3rd 2010

May 3, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

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

Blog for Monday, April 26th 2010

April 26, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Major Progress is coming soon I promise! The weather has been up and down here lately which has left me slightly more time to work on the electronics end of things. What time I did get outside was spent assembling the intake manifold so it looked very nice. The intake manifold isn't 100% complete on the polishing process, it actually still needs to be clay-barred, but I just haven't had

News and Blog for Friday, April 16th 2010

April 16, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

I have added a page that goes into great detail about what's involved when adding a chip socket to an ECU. I figured why not get some more pages up, this one is kind of short but certainly informative. Still working on the hour here and hour there type of schedule, I have continued on with polishing the intake manifold. I got one side rough polished, I really need to

Blog for Saturday, April 10th 2010

April 10, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

STILL WAITING! On parts actually, well the money to obtain them... With the amount I owe in taxes it had put a huge "dent" into the speed I am able to purchase the required parts to finish the Vanagon. Guess that is what happens when your ass-hole employer makes you fill out a 1099 form *argh* I don't want to tear down the engine until I am ready to send

News and Blog for Sunday, April 4th 2010

April 4, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Got a little more done on the Vanagon, the work honestly has been slow going but still waiting for parts. Lets start with the one part I have managed to accumulate over the last week. One of the two required engine wiring harnesses for replacement. I ordered this one from the Subaru dealership and the second one I found for a better price and will be purchasing online. This harness

Blog Entry for Sunday, March 28th 2010

March 28, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

This weekend was very productive when it came to things not related to Albert :( First off, bulk trash day is nearing so I spent a few hours on Saturday after working OT so get everything I wanted out to the Curb. This turned into a complete cleaning of the "Parts Warehouse": Most of the stuff was left over SVX or really old G60 / 8v parts. After cleaning it

News and Blog for Friday, March 26th 2010

March 26, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Well, we received a ton of snow here and along with it came blinks in the power. There was no actual power interruption at my house but there was enough that it reset my server continuously and blew every capacitor inside! I wasn't aware of the events for quite some time, when I received the phone call about the dirty power happening at the house the ups was already shut

Blog for Thursday, March 18th 2010

March 18, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

It's been warm out so I have been busy! I have gotten more of the much needed body work / paint prep on the driver's side. This last week has shown some significant progress in the way of obtaining a reasonably flat surface to paint onto, among a few other things with the Van. We start by sanding into the paint used to protect the work from moisture, I noticed

Blog for Wednesday, March 10th 2010

March 10, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Got some more stuff! Things have been a little slower moving around here because of work-related reasons and the nice weather we've been getting doesn't seem to want to align with the weekends I have off. Nevertheless, here is what I managed to get done... The postman brought me a package containing 2 hella boxes: The boxes actually contain my new smoked turn signal lights: I wasted no time on

Blog and news for Thursday, March 4th 2010

March 4, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Progress is starting to pick up! South African lower grill and lights have arrived! This is a big turning point for me and this project, this completely changed the looks of the Van, actually I was quite in shock standing in front of it for the first time as looking at it in person is much different than any picture. I already had the HID ballasts on hand and just

Blog Entry for Wednesday, February 17th 2010

February 17, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Got more done today! I pressure washed the JDM block and tore it down a little more. There were many wiring loom pieces, as well as random old leaves and a cigarette butt. I blew all of that out and gave the block a good look over for cracks: It was interesting studying the markings and comparing them to the other engine. Start of EG33 Failure analysis One thing I

Blog Entry for Thursday, February 11th, 2010

February 11, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Not much in the way of progress. The garage is cleaned and the transmission and parts get dropped off tomorrow so everything can be sent out to be cryo treated. I have made some progress on my digital instrument cluster. Now that the final batch of LED matrices has arrived I can begin basic construction of the display components. I have had some problems with my PIC programmer so I

Blog for Friday, February 5th 2010

February 5, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Finished the beginning of the transmission page for the EG33 swapped vanagon. (click on the image below) I have had some setbacks in programming my pic microcontrollers, but that's okay it's just the learning process. I think I have acquired the next server that I would like to host everything from and am still working on getting xeon parts. I will have a separate project page for that later on.

News and Blog for Monday February 1st, 2010

February 1, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

NEWS: - The DoogieLabs Vanagon page has been updated, JDM engine section has been added - The downloads section was officially moved over from Area51 - Added a poll BLOG: Disassembly of the JDM engine has commenced while I wait for my 3rd and 4th gears to come in from weddle industries. The engine has came apart smoothly without any apparent problems. I have noticed that the lower wiring harness

Blog Entry for Sunday, January 27th 2010

January 27, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

After 9,000 miles of trouble free driving I had my first problem! Actually, I was already aware of the issues with 3rd gear because just after I first put together the Van I was "locked out of 3rd" for a while but it eventually fixed itself and it held for 8,500 miles. There is a known defect related to 3rd gear in the 091/1 transmissions. I have been taking my

Blog Entry for Sunday, January 24th 2010

January 24, 2010March 11, 2012 doogie

Many things are happening around DoogieLabs. Once Project that has been in the works for over a year now is my own custom digital instrument cluster that will replace the factory aging cluster currently in the van. (Corrado will be getting one as well but it will be full color) I have been searching for displays for sometime, I wanted something that could be constructed for a reasonable price.. I