Musings of a minor megalomaniac
The Convicts spawned again. Last time was almost two years ago in the old tank. I guess they finally became comfortable enough in their new environment to go for it. Should be more interesting watching the fry grow this time around. Mom and Dad are quite busy keeping predators at bay and digging them out of the gravel when they get stuck. Pretty cool stuff:
Well, not exactly – she still lives here. But she is working for Bed Bath & Beyond, for going on 2 months now. Her first job about a year ago was part-time for Mc’Donalds and lasted all of three weeks.
The basement workstation started getting more flakey than usual by repeatedly refusing to POST, hanging at the EMT64 message. It’s done this on and off once or twice at a time almost since new 12 years ago. I attributed it to some quirk of the Asus MB, but despite otherwise running flawlessly all this time, it seems whatever is causing that issue is getting worse. Rather than fix a PC that is one of the newer boxes and technically still “working,” I decided to upgrade the oldest one sitting next to it. The object was to have a more reliable, man-cave workstation while getting rid of a basically obsolete system at the same time. The only parts I needed to buy were the MB, RAM, CPU AND a DVD burner I got from Newegg for the Low-Low price of $15. Total cost for the project right around $400. I re-used an old Mylex raid card and drives from the parts bin because I recently learned 60Gb (size of the SSD’s also from the parts bin, being transplanted into it) is no longer enough for a Linux PC with all the stuff I like to have on it. It’s now a beefy, fully redundant high-availability system.
Specs:
ASRock Z97 Extreme3
Core i5, 3.5GHtz
16Gb DDR3 Dual-Channel RAM
2x Corsair 60Gb SSD (Primary sys drive w/hot spare)
2x Quantum U160 74Gb (/var/home/tmp on Mylex Raid1)
3x WD Blue 1Tb (2Tb MDADM Raid5 data volume)
The w/m injection nozzle coupling worked it’s way loose somehow. I discovered it after dumping about 3 gallons of juice on the road between the time that started and when I identified the problem. So while I was at it I decided to upgrade it to a 2-stage system. The trucks use progressive controllers to modulate delivery, but I really doubt the efficacy of those devices in normal use. The main purpose for having it on the “D” is keeping the intake clean. It can also add a little power. I theorized a more practical approach would be two injection events, a smaller nozzle coming on earlier more often, and a bigger nozzle coming in only at or near full load.
1st phase of the project was installing a 2nd smaller injector, size M2. The original M3 stays put in the intercooler coupler, after of course modifying the connection to keep it secure. I suppose those push-in 1/4″ pipe couplers are OK, because I never had this problem until now, after years of using them on the trucks and continuing to use them at various locations in this system as well. A hose barb reinforced with JB Weld is not coming apart without a forcefully applied tool. Here’s the new nozzle mounted right at the manifold flange:
Phase 2 involved setting up a solenoid valve to fire the original M3 injector off a secondary pressure switch set for the max boost range starting ~24psi. I began by testing with the spare pump to ensure it would effectively atomize 2 injectors, because it’s a pretty small pump. No worries there. Setting the boost switches accurately was a frustrating moving target at first. The engine will see somewhere around a 3psi delta on the high side parameter depending on a number of factors. 22psi is where it typically tops out, but I’ve seen it pull 25 briefly under heavy load.
I used 1-amp fuses on the pump and solenoid circuits to dial it in pretty close to my target settings. Those switches from McMaster Carr are quite sensitive and accurate. I started with them set high and repeatedly ran the car to the desired boost setting, stopped and checked the fuse until it blew. Took three tries on the high switch and about 6 or 7 on the low switch. I haven’t run it with a boost gauge installed since removing Burger’s JBD tuner last summer, but I imagine it should go higher with that extra fuel.
After a couple weeks of using too much water while randomly fiddling with the switch settings I ended up making a tool for pressurizing the system manually to see exactly where the switches were tripping. It probably would be better to tap into the MAF sensor for this purpose, but I’m still a little skittish about the electronics on this high-tech Teutonic contraption.
The pump supply line tees off to the primary injector before the secondary solenoid valve:
The last phase was simply getting everything wired up, plumbed and tested: Pressure Switches:
The air, or “boost side” of the system literally comes together on the driver’s side shock tower. Both switches and the gauge reference the same charge pipe feed at this junction:
The car has a Boost Gauge mounted in the instrument cluster. It’s more of a testing tool that anything else, necessary to fine tune the pressure switches. I used the high-pressure gauge on my compressor to set the switch before, but it’s not good enough at lower pressure to see the 1-psi increments needed for this application with any accuracy.
Compared to the single-nozzle version which came on at 20psi, the system now provides >60% more water/meth on the top end, while delivering about 30% less at moderate load between 18 and 24psi boost. I expect the real-life consumption rate to go up spraying less more often, based on my driving habits. Before I was using about about 1gal/tank of fuel, really only hitting it with go pedal down hard. I’m hoping this new setup equates to better cleaning in normal driving.
We finished the system install last Friday, including inspection by the local authority. Now just waiting for United Power to come and install the meter. Before:
After:
I really like how it is arranged to avoid the neighbor’s house shadow. We went with a local company out of Boulder, Namaste Solar. I had an aborted attempt a couple of years ago with a larger nationwide group called Solar City. I was unimpressed with their customer service, as is sadly, typical with larger companies. But Namaste did a great job and I would highly recommend them to anybody looking at a Solar project in the area.
$75/mo, w/basic cable:
The cool thing about this is we got a no-cost bandwidth and cable box upgrade. We had no cable TV before I called to activate a new modem the other day. It’s a newer 16 channel TP-LINK Archer capable of supporting higher speeds. For some reason, the woman I spoke with in the Philippines offered an upgrade – gratis. The cable box showed up a few days later. It was obviously the standard bait and switch with a limited basic cable package we’ll probably never use. But the Internet speed is great and I have to give them credit for getting their crap into my house after I swore long ago to never again succumb to the cable TV ripoff scam. Kudos Xfinity!
Now with Video! The video portrays just one of three separate operations performed. He also repaired a torn rotator cuff and and removed several bone spurs.
There’s another hole in back – 4 incisions total:
It was a mess in there. He also had to cut the subpectoral biceps tendon – too far gone to repair.
…it’s freakin’ awesome. Honolulu is too crowded and the traffic is horrible. But no complaints other than that. Hotel is amazing – even nicer than what I’d heard. I’m sitting at the beach bar sipping a diet Pepsi while Phoebe irradiates herself. Michelle and Francie are somewhere on the other side of Pearl swimming with dolphins. Nice:
We have a buttload of pics I’ll be processing into the Photo Album, as time permits.
Before:
After:
A nice new area rug for the living room was the last significant expenditure on this project. There are still a few details to attend to like the kitchen baseboards, stairs and toilet room floor. They should be minimally difficult or costly and can be relegated to the “whenever I get around to it” category. Michelle also wants the laundry floor tiled, but that hasn’t even reached the making the list “bug threshold” category. Yet.
Made a 3-day excursion down to Raleigh for a visit with one of my oldest and best friends. He’s been one of the premiere stone mason in the region for many years now and a catch-up for us was long overdue. We had a little outing to the Capitol Building with his wife Leslie, sister Vicki and mom-in-law, Doreen on Halloween day. Joe wanted to inspect the stone work to get a clue where some the materials he was presently working with might have come from:
Average speed for the trip: 1400 miles, 21 hours, 1 night (more like about 6 hours) in the Davenport, IA Walmart parking lot. Managed to keep it rolling just over the speed limit pretty much the whole way with minimal construction delays. Having good luck contacting long lost friends so far. I’ll be spending a couple days with Carolyn, then dad, then heading for NC to see Joe before the weekend of Nov 7th:
We managed to find a door for the CTD in Ohio, so Dad went and picked that up for me last month. I’ve been trying to get things organized, winterized, fixed, put-away, etc. enough to allow me to leave for a road trip back to PA to retrieve it ever since. Can’t even remember the last time I was home for a visit, so now that I’m not working, the time for that is long past due:
CRD has needed a new steering gear ever since I bought it 6 years ago. The truck was a repo sitting on a dealer lot down in Vernon TX for about 4 months because the front suspension and steering was beat to shyt from a lift-puck death wobble. I was prepared for it, but still nearly soiled my shorts the first time it happened on the way home. The death wobble phenomenon is the most scary and dangerous automotive driving experience I’ve ever had. The entire truck shakes like it’s coming apart, with the steering wheel whipping back and forth violently and no steering control whatsoever. At 70mph. In traffic. Nice.
But this truck happened to be the exact model I was looking for – long bed ’07 quad cab, last of the 5.9’s. I suppose they figured a sucker would come along sooner or later, so I kept my eye on it until they dropped the price to $25k. I offered $23 and they took it. Blue book on it was $35. I spent $5k in parts and alot of time replacing most of the front suspension and steering, so I guess it was a wash from a money standpoint.
But now it has all upgraded parts to include a Thuren lift. The only thing I did not do initially was the steering box. It was OK driving the relatively short trips I did with it around town here, but the sloppy steering would have been too tiring on a cross country drive. So I ordered a Borgeson 6-bolt unit and shaft. Took me the better part of 2 days to get it done, but wow, what an improvement!
Since I’m now waiting for prescription refills to show up, I might have time to go ahead with the final upgrade project on CRD: a front air dam. It would be interesting to see how much over 20mpg I can get out of a lifted Dodge diesel with 35″ tires. Pretty cool.
Things are going pretty well with the pond. The north shore flowerbed really thrived last summer and the goldfish have grown significantly larger. Today Phoebe and I will be doing a little project to get them relocated back inside to the 120-gallon tank in the basement for winter.
More pond pics
I expect to accomplish another big refresh project in the spring. It will involve enlarging the drain basin, laying concrete sides to the creek, adding a raised fountain/cascade to the upper end and lastly, a good re-seal to include raising the water level another inch or 2.
It was actually pretty much finished 2 weeks ago, but I was waiting for the driftwood to become waterlogged enough to sink before taking pictures:
It was alot of work upgrading and re-finishing the stand/cabinet while juggling renovation activities during the summer. Fortunately the vendor (Glasscages from TN) was very late getting it delivered, and even so I had to scramble to get the stand and floor bracing done only the day before the new tank arrived at the freight terminal in Aurora.
The floor under the new >1-ton unit feels more solid now than it did with the old 80-gallon tank. The entire Frederick girls varsity volleyball team was standing around it watching me feed the fish last week, so looks like it will hold up OK. Now I have to work on getting the goldfish into the recently vacated basement tank before winter sets in.
Including restoring the old 80’s-era wooden Kenwood rack, it took the better part of week to get the entertainment center back into operation. I re-wired everything to utilize new floor openings created to improve cable routing. The left surround channel wires still come up through the vent there, but other than that, the cabling is nicely routed and pretty much out of sight. I had 2 amps turn up bad upon re-activation. The Carver M1.5t was “declared bad” (again!) due to a 60htz hum it’s had for some time now. I now have 3 old Carver amps awaiting repair – 3rd time around for the M1.5t. Most of that stuff is around 25 years old, so I guess it is to be expected.
The TV Shelf was a DIY from way back after we first moved here. It was obvious that corner is the only good location for a TV, and corner furniture for the type system I was envisioning just doesn’t exist. It’s fabricated from 2 sheets of plywood with angle iron sandwiched around the edges and lag-screwed to the wall studs. It holds the TV with me standing on it just fine. Getting that JBL Studio Monitor mounted way up in the corner like that for the center channel was no mean feat. But it was the state-of-the-art reference speaker installed in recording studios everywhere back in the day and sounds great. It’s been kinda like the nostalgic signature centerpiece for the system, so it had to be done.
