With the upward trend of fuel prices, people are finally seriously looking at diesel which used to be less expensive than gasoline (not anymore) and lasts farther than gasoline. But there are limited choices for diesel in the market. At the car segment there was only the Ford Focus TDCI and a bunch of Hyundais (Elantra, Accent, Getz). The last two were small cars and the Elantra didn’t really succeed in the market and is now replaced by the i30. Unfortunately, the i30 suffers from the same problem of high price. Sure it looks good, but it’s only has a 1.6L displacement compared to the Focus’ 2.0L.And it falls behind the Focus in other ways. Will it suffer the same fate as the Elantra? I hope not. We need more diesel vehicles.
Biodiesel vs Ethanol
Although for now the price of oil has gone down and the fuel companies are doing their rollback charade (increase price rapidly, decrease price slowly), there is no illusion that the price of oil is on an upward trajectory. Because of this, people are finally waking up to the benefit, albeit only the cost benefit, of alternative fuels. This is evident in the the queues to E10 fuel pumps. That is when it is available.
But not all alternative fuels are equal. Take two off the more popular alternative fuels: biodiesel and ethanol. Biodiesel is a direct pour-in replacement to diesel whereas ethanol blends higher than 10% requires modifications to the vehicle’s fuel system. Biodiesel can be extracted from plants like Jatropha that grow in land that can’t usually be used for food crops whereas ethanol is derived from sugarcane grown in land allocated for food crops. Biodiesel is definitely better for these reasons.
This is why my next car will hopefully be diesel. So should yours. Now if only the manufacturers and the government can do something about the high prices of diesel cars…
SR20DE Transplant
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
Requiem For A GA16DNE
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.
Two Movies, Life, and Reality
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.