News for Friday, June 11th 2010

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

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

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

Blog for Monday, May 3rd 2010

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

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

Blog for Saturday, April 10th 2010

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

Blog for Thursday, March 18th 2010

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 Entry for Wednesday, February 17th 2010

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

News and Blog for Monday February 1st, 2010

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

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 Friday January 15th, 2010

I haven't had much in the way of extra time, between work, spending my days off wiring a project car, and tending to the usual social agenda that leaves me little free time to advance my personal knowledge, so things have been a little slow lately. I don't really mind any progress is progress, I have been most pleased in my understanding of the Subaru ECU I have been reverse