CCM 6

Just got back from Cupcake Meet 6, great turnout of cars!

Fresh vinyl

With Cupcake Meet 6, their first anniversary meet, going under way this Saturday Jan, 23 2010 we decided on a new snazzy vinyl scheme for the F-250. After the torrential rains that went on last week the truck was a royal mess, took us tow days to scour it clean, but it came out looking great with the new vinyl!

Before

Clean interior

New scheme

Freebies we will be handing out at the meet

And here is some more info on CCM 6 that will be held in a reserved parking garage!

Time: 5:00pm – 8:00pm
Date: January 23rd, 2010
Location: Hill Country Galleria | Parking Garage 12700 Hill Country Blvd Austin, TX 78738

► Garage Parking
(We’ll let you know which level you’ll be on!)

► Team/Crew/Group Parking
(Be there an hour early to ensure parking together!)

► Photoshoot with Models

► Discounts on surrounding clothing stores and restaurants
(More details will be included)

► Feat. Trampia and Dj Lil Mondo
(http://www.myspace.com/trampia)

► Coke a Cola, Rent a Tire, Custom Sounds, Champion Toyota

► Zingers (restaurant)

► Cupcakes

Car trouble

Last week I was about to head out the the local outlaw RC flying field with the dog on a beautiful day. Started up the car, ran on a few cylinders for a second, then died. Tried to start again and it just turned over with no compression…none. I thought I’d blown my engine. Damn.

Later when I got working on the car we found it had 60psi in the 1st cylinder, 75 in the second, 30psi in the third, and 60 in the last cylinder. In other words, too little compression to fire. The plugs looked pretty nasty and smelled like fuel so we checked the injectors and fuel rail and everything was working fine. After a little searching we decieded it was probably weak spark that was allowing too much fuel to enter the combustion chamber, leaked down past the rings into the crankcase and oil, the oil thinned to the point it would not seal the rings.

Did an oil change and replaced the spark plugs and the compression bumped up to operating psi. Hallelujah! Looks like *knock on wood* the engine will run for some unknown amount of time more. Not bad for a 180,000 mile engine.

Burning oil...finally ceased to smoke after all the excess oil was burned off.

Engine rebuild begins

Started disassembling my YFZ 450’s engine today after finding metal shavings in my oil. So far I have not found the source of the steel shavings. Beautiful engine though

Cute little cams!

piston

Bottom of head and valves

Clutches

Pisonn, rod, and crank assembly

Cylinder

Today's work

Work starts on the 71′ Datsun 240Z

After Ian bought the engine and subframe from my drift car for his 1971 Datsun 240Z project he’s been itching to get some work done on it. First thing this Saturday we went out to the shop and pulled the old rusty engine and generally looked over the car. Its going to be a helluva car when its done.

Ian disconnects wires and hoses

I got to be the transmission hoist

Took about two hours to get the engine and transmission out

Just imagine this engine bay painted black with a modern 400hp RB25

Out with the old

Some bad news

About a week ago I went to change my YFZ 450’s oil for the first time since I bought it used. First issue was the previous owner had stripped out the oil tank drain bolt, and after removing the tank (to re-tap the drain hole) I discovered a lot of steel metal flakes in the crud on the bottom of the tank. Great, metal flakes in my oil!

After taking some advice from people on the Yamaha quad forums and a shop I decided metal shavings were a bad sign and it was time to brake the engine/transmission open to see what the problem is before there was a catastrophic failure. the shop guy said stel shavings could be a number of things, including the transmission. The previous owner was an idiot, so I’m wondering what all I’m going to find in there.

Assuming there isn’t horrible permanent damage I’m planning on rebuilding the engine for more reliability and a bit more power. Right now the idea is:

-Yamaha WR450 dirt bike OEM crank and rod, and piston. Fits in the YFZ motor and has a smaller wrist pin that allows the piston to have more metal around it (18mm vs the 20mm on the yfz). Is also lighter.

-CP 12.5:1 piston, or Venom 12.25:1 piston – very nice 3-ringed pistons, add a bit of compression, but still allows for pump gas. Possibly just go with OEM piston if I cannot find the right compression ratios in the aftermarket pistons.

-J&T oil upgrade – on the ’04-’06 models Yamaha used a ‘splash design’ to lubricate the wrist pin and piston rod bearing which obviously has cause many people problems (possibly me). The upgrade updates the engines to the ’07+ models with a better pump and oil squirters.

Metal and other fragments on the oil sump pickup

magnetic metal bits found in the oil tank

My work area

Getting stripped

Engine out of the quad

Is something missing?

Time for change

I am both sad and excited to see my two year project for sale. Yesterday, January 4th 2010 Ian, Ross and I disassembled my RB25det 240sx drift car. The stock 1991 Nissan 240sx was bought the day before Thanksgiving 2007 and the 400 horsepower RB25det out of a R33 Skyline was added around September of 2008. On a good note the RB25 and rear subframe are staying in the family, Ian bought them to use in his Datsun 240Z project!

It was interesting seeing such potential taken apart in a matter of 7 hours from essentially a running race car to a bare rolling chassis. All that is left is to pull the front and rear subframes. I will definitely miss the car, but the project taught me a lot; more than just about cars, but about restraint and thinking with your head and not your heart. Even through the many ups and downs – blowing a turbo, a bad tune, modifying the stock manifold, a wheel almost falling off when driving, many suspension changes, etc, etc I do not regret it. There will be another project car in the future, just not for now.

About to remove the engine

I was needed to support the transmission

Ross powa!!

Sexy

Rolling chassis

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 has come and gone and it was great to spend some time with the family.

My grandmother and Nikki sitting by the fire

Sil and Shyla standing at attention

Abby wanting a belly rub

Opening gifts

Ian, Nikki and Abby

Delicious Christmas dinner - prime rib!

Ian playing tha baby grand

Ian's gift from his parents. Now we just have to fill it with tools!