Jay Lagare – Page 182 – Tech and Gear

SR20DE Transplant

By Jay Lagare on Saturday, August 2, 2008

Got my car back the other day from Big Thumb where it had been undergoing an SR20DE transplant. After some road testing I observed the following:

Vibrations. These become more apparent when turning to the right. The mechanic said he didn’t adjust the length of the driver-side axle so that could be the reason.
No power when overtaking or going up basement parking ramp
Timing is at 8 degrees only (normal is 15 degrees) and yet the distributor is set at maximum advance already.
Hard shift shocks
Sometimes doesn’t start at P or N
Stiff shifter when switching between 1 and 2

Argh! The headaches never end. Guess it’s back to the shop.

UPDATE 1: Got the car back 8/6. The first issue was solved by shortening the drive-side axle. Second, third, and fourth issues were fixed by replacing a faulty distributor. The last two were solved by simply adjusting the transmission link to the shifter. Distributor is now centered. Throttle response is now good and power is apparent. Vibrations and shift-shocks are now normal.

UPDATE 2: I went to Servitek 8/11 and got the camber and toe adjusted since the process of modifying the axles screws up the alignment.

UPDATE 3: I went to M7 8/15 and had a solid rear engine mount installed. The old engine mount was too soft which caused the passenger-side engine mount to hit the bracket when the engine is torqued.

If you need or want an engine swap, you can check out Big Thumb. Owner is Noel Paroginog +63917-861-1963. They’ve done quite a few swaps and they know what they’re doing. They just need some improvement in their QA :P

General

Requiem For A GA16DNE

By Jay Lagare on Sunday, July 27, 2008

Today, my faithful GA16DNE died. It had been sputtering and consuming oil. A sign of an old engine. But it seemed it has also had been leaking coolant. I can only guess that this resulted in an overheat, which resulted in oil thickening and not circulating, which resulted in its head gasket breaking, which eventually resulted in its untimely demise. When I looked at the oil, it was the color of milk chocolate. Pretty much a death sentence.

In it’s over 10 years life, it has run over 125,000 kilometers. It had taken me through my daily commute. It had taken me to the occasional dives, surfs, and other out of towns. It had gone as far south as Batangas and as far north as Pagudpud. It had even kept up with a B16A (albeit driven by a nice girl driver). It definitely had served me pretty well. Too bad it had to die.

General

Two Movies, Life, and Reality

By Jay Lagare on Wednesday, July 23, 2008

As the supposed best man, I had to give a speech at Jem and Grace’s wedding. I was clueless at what to do and I asked Alex, who had been best man before, for help. He said that Dom, another friend, told him to watch Four Weddings And A Funeral and do what Hugh Grant did. It’s supposed to be like the ultimate best man speech or something like that. I was skeptical about the whole idea. Mainly because I couldn’t imagine pulling off a Hugh Grant :P This blog entry proved my skepticism and I ended up piecing together some sort of speech and delivered it my way.

Which brings me to another movie: A Bronx Tale and the infamous car door test. In the movie, a gangster was giving advice to a younger gangster about a girl. It’s supposed to go like this: Your car is locked. You unlock the passenger side door with your key and open the door for her. You then walk around to the other side. If she reaches across and unlocks the door for you, she’s cool. If not… well, she’s not cool :P

I know of two friends who were in a relationship and I’ve never observed the girl unlocking the door for the guy. So what then? The question is, is this still applicable in this modern age of remote keyless entry systems? Would such a thought even occur to a girl used, conditioned even, to automagically unlocking car doors? I don’t know the answer. But my friends? They eventually got married and are happily together. So much for that test.

But I think some of us do get caught up with patterning our behavior and actions from movies. We sometimes forget the fact that it is all scripted.

General

Car Air Con Blues

By Jay Lagare on Monday, July 21, 2008

Last Saturday, I was just at NLEX on the way to Zambales when I noticed the air con working intermittently. From my limited previous experience, it can be two things: air con system problem or engine cooling system problem. I checked the temperature gauge and I saw to my alarm that it’s above normal. So at a Shell station, I topped up the reservoir with water. It was fine for a while but eventually the air conditioning was still intermittent and the temperature above normal.

When I reached San Fernando, I decided to get the air conditioning checked at a roadside air con shop. They didn’t find anything wrong with it but found out that the radiator has dried up. Apparently, the water from the reservoir was not going into the system because of the high pressure. They released the pressure, cooled down the system by splashing water, and put water into the radiator and reservoir. Voila! Everything works. Or so I thought. At the Subic Tollway, the air conditioning died again.

The next day, I had it checked at another roadside air con shop and they couldn’t find anything wrong. So I instructed them to direct link the compressor clutch to the battery so that the compressor will be engaged all the time. It is a major gas waste and causes more wear and tear on the compressor but at that time, it sure seemed like a good idea. It sure beats driving in the heat.

Everything was well all the way until SCTEx on the way back to Manila. While running at higher RPMs, the compressor overheated. Normally, the compressor automatically disengages at high RPMs. But I had it direct linked and engaged all the time! I had to pull over to the shoulder and splashed water on the compressor. I also disconnected the direct link between the compressor clutch and the battery. I drove without air con the rest of the way.

Today, I had it checked at the friendly neighborhood air con shop and they found out it was just the air con fuse. Sheesh.

General

2008 July 20 Crystal Beach Resort, San Narciso, Zambales

By Jay Lagare on Monday, July 21, 2008

After several attempts at marshalling people for weekend surfing, Michelle and I finally decided to just push through with or without the others :P And right after Jem and Grace’s wedding, push through we did. As usual, we went to Crystal Beach, rented boards, and enlisted Bobot to assist us. We surfed for only about an hour and the waves were rather inconsistent. Still, it was lots of fun especially since we weren’t able to surf the last time we visited Crystal Beach.

If there’s a will, there’s a way.