Figured I oughta put one of these up. This way, if one of us just wants to sound off about what's going on and how far along we are, we can do so without cluttering up any of the planning threads.
In my case, I've been trying to get my car working (AGAIN!) while getting my butt handed to me by my job. Delivering pizza on a bike is not easy work.
Hopefully things will change soon. I've decided that once my car is running, I'm going to start delivering for Uber Eats. The size, age, and condition of your vehicle doesn't matter much. It just has to have a valid state inspection, tags, and insurance. I've asked some of them and have been told that they tend to bring home between $800 and $1000 weekly working full-time hours. That SHOULD settle my financial situation in fairly short order.
BA, auto mech here, pm me what its doing and what it is i might be able to advise
Work is work for me, I hand write scenes during my breaks. My problem is that most times i don't get the computer time I need to edit and type them
Also burned out from teh work. It is utterly soul crushing to be continually defeated by people's stupidity. And almost impossible to focus on it afterwards.
Car is also on death's door. It still runs but a bearing in the engine is fucked and about to spin. I have a spare engine, but no space to install, or cash to pay someone competent. So it goes. Not getting it done on credit because then the scumbags win.
I do have words done. But words are all I have.
(05-06-2018, 08:07 AM)Rajvik Wrote: [ -> ]BA, auto mech here, pm me what its doing and what it is i might be able to advise
Work is work for me, I hand write scenes during my breaks. My problem is that most times i don't get the computer time I need to edit and type them
I've pretty much done what I can for it. Cylinder head swap with one out of the junkyard - old one had a camshaft with lobes pitted to hell and gone again, and nasty scoring in the bushings (I think that's what they're called since camshafts don't typically use bearings). Previously seized before, so yeah. Cylinder head from the parts yard has a cam that looks beautiful for something out of a 2002. Just cleaned it up a bit and replaced the stem seals to be safe. Valves were filthy (curse of Saturn's faulty piston design - these suckers eat oil almost as quickly as old airplane radial engines) but they were straight.
Also replaced the crankcase position sensor because those bastards are fucking notorious on these Saturn S-series cars for not only causing no-start conditions, but also being an utter and unrepentant bitch to get at. (Backside of the engine block, tucked in behind the starter motor, engine is transverse type.)
Right now I'm just waiting the requisite 24 hours for the sealant to dry because they don't make a gasket for the timing chain cover. Instead they expect you to RTV that whole sucker, so anytime you need to get in there you're car is guaranteed to be out of commission for at least two days no matter how good you are.
But OOOHHHHH I have PLANS for this thing.
It's a 2000 SC1, but I want to get the engine out of a pre-1996 SC2 because same great block, only with a DOHC head, and the older ones had forged connecting rods. Oh, and some marvelous shop out there makes a complete bolt-on kit for the SC2's engine. I plan on leaving the transmission in there, as the SC1's trans has some nice loooonnnng gears on it. Oh, and these cars only weigh as much as the same-year Mazda Miata does. That much power with that little weight, and in a wheelbase that's both longer and wider with no traction control? *Waggles eyebrows*
(05-06-2018, 09:16 AM)Dartz Wrote: [ -> ]Also burned out from teh work. It is utterly soul crushing to be continually defeated by people's stupidity. And almost impossible to focus on it afterwards.
Car is also on death's door. It still runs but a bearing in the engine is fucked and about to spin. I have a spare engine, but no space to install, or cash to pay someone competent. So it goes. Not getting it done on credit because then the scumbags win.
I do have words done. But words are all I have.
Jeeze man. I wish that Rajvic and I could hop a flight out there to help you out. (I'm only as good with cars as I am now because my dad was very much a DIYer back when we were keeping Datsuns and diesel VW Rabbit alive for our daily drivers. Also being trained as a maintenance tech in the Navy helps a LOT.)
I'm going to start driving for Uber Eats here soon. I have it on good authority that working that job 40-5-hrs per week easily scores $800-$1000 in take-home per week. (Of course, since you're subcontracting, you're responsible for your own taxes, natch.) But if I can bring in that kind of money, I should be able to put my shit to sorts in fairly short order. Then we'll see what kind of insanity I can pull out of my ass.
Burning oil is fine so long as you check it. So long as it's not smoking or down on compression you're cool. 1l/1000km (1 quart per 600 miles) is probably not a problem - some cars just do that.
I'd be worried about that Uber REats stuff. Just be aware that you've basically no employment rights whatsoever (depending on how the States works that shit) and the system is set up to rip you off. At least it is with Deliveroo's here which do the same basic thing. (and ruin places for paying customers by clogging up the counter). IOt's far to easy to get ripped off in the gi economy - or just burned up like a cigarrette.
I'm in a low paying job sure but at the same time, the company handles all my taxes and shit, and I have rights in law as an employee and will actually get the full dole if the company collapses because the company pays insurance to the state as part of its taxes. (There's a long rant here about spurious 'contractors' that I won't get into....)
Car is what it is. I knew it could die when I bought it. They're notorious for dying from bearing faults or seal faults. I spent my 'Fix that shit' fund on not killing myself so it was my own choice in that regard but fuck is it annoying that it picked the worst month to do it. I think the snow got water into the oil somehow - it's not coolant.
I could fix the bearing issue but I would need the room to pull the engine which you say you don't have.
BA, that sounds killer, better than me wanting to shoe horn a corvette engine and tranny into a Geo Tracker.
(Yes it will fit, but you have to make so many changes to the vehicle it is insane, emission control, Ac what are those?)
Wow, uh, y'all's problems are not my problems. I have extra cars and computers, for one. Not new ones, but extras nonetheless.
I live with my parents, because hey, it's coastal California, and if you want to live here and not throw away money, there's only so many options. My mother is suffering from the latest set of mystery ailments, which when you start with fibromyalgia, it makes it pretty difficult to isolate the signal from the noise. While her heart surgery went very well, she's been in a lot of pain lately. My grandmother died a few months back at 101 years young, and I still think it's a little hard on Mama, being an orphan now.
I've been helping out a friend of mine, who's taking care of her grandmother in a mobile home -- but she's been having back problems, so she's been needing help to get the place cleaned up before management puts the boot down. She's pretty cool -- lots of charisma, and not dumb, did a stint on an entertainment TV show. Name drops celebs a lot. She's recovered most of her life after being in an abusive marriage with a powerful man, which impresses me a lot, but she lost her daughter in the fight and that still stings. She's too blunt, too opinionated, and talks too much -- but these are flaws I can live with, and probably match well with my own selfishness. But I still can't make out whether or not I want to date her -- I feel like there should have been a spark, but I haven't noticed it.
Either way, she has me out and meeting people, and that's great. It's too easy for me as a programmer to sit in front of a screen all the time. I'm in my mid-thirties and if I want to start a family, I really need to get started soon. Like, if I keep going on the path I'm on, I'm pretty sure I'm going to die alone.
Nothing here to cut into creative time too much, though. And it's not like existential issues aren't good for writing. ^_^
(05-06-2018, 04:33 PM)Dartz Wrote: [ -> ]Burning oil is fine so long as you check it. So long as it's not smoking or down on compression you're cool. 1l/1000km (1 quart per 600 miles) is probably not a problem - some cars just do that.
I'd be worried about that Uber REats stuff. Just be aware that you've basically no employment rights whatsoever (depending on how the States works that shit) and the system is set up to rip you off. At least it is with Deliveroo's here which do the same basic thing. (and ruin places for paying customers by clogging up the counter). IOt's far to easy to get ripped off in the gi economy - or just burned up like a cigarrette.
I'm in a low paying job sure but at the same time, the company handles all my taxes and shit, and I have rights in law as an employee and will actually get the full dole if the company collapses because the company pays insurance to the state as part of its taxes. (There's a long rant here about spurious 'contractors' that I won't get into....)
Car is what it is. I knew it could die when I bought it. They're notorious for dying from bearing faults or seal faults. I spent my 'Fix that shit' fund on not killing myself so it was my own choice in that regard but fuck is it annoying that it picked the worst month to do it. I think the snow got water into the oil somehow - it's not coolant.
Regarding the oil, yeah, it's about that. Thing is that these cars had a tendency to do that brand new off the lot. It's so prevalent that Saturn owners like to joke: "What does a Saturn owner do at the gas station? They check the fuel and fill up the oil!" It's not really that bad like you said. Just... very VERY prevalent.
As for Uber Eats... They must have different policies here, because I've never heard any of those complaints. I've been talking to the drivers, and they have nothing but glowing things to report. Granted, the tax is a bit of a bother, but I think the IRS has a relatively painless means for sub-contractors to pay their income taxes on a regular basis rather than have a huge tax bill every April. (Honestly, I'd just go all anal-retentive and have ridiculously granularly detailed accounting spreadsheet.)
(05-06-2018, 05:20 PM)Rajvik Wrote: [ -> ]I could fix the bearing issue but I would need the room to pull the engine which you say you don't have.
BA, that sounds killer, better than me wanting to shoe horn a corvette engine and tranny into a Geo Tracker.
(Yes it will fit, but you have to make so many changes to the vehicle it is insane, emission control, Ac what are those?)
Heh. And here people thought I was gutsy for toying with the idea of sequential twin turbos in a BMW E34 with the M50TU engine. (Gotta have that VANOS. It sexay.)
(05-07-2018, 12:31 AM)Labster Wrote: [ -> ]Wow, uh, y'all's problems are not my problems. I have extra cars and computers, for one. Not new ones, but extras nonetheless.
I live with my parents, because hey, it's coastal California, and if you want to live here and not throw away money, there's only so many options. My mother is suffering from the latest set of mystery ailments, which when you start with fibromyalgia, it makes it pretty difficult to isolate the signal from the noise. While her heart surgery went very well, she's been in a lot of pain lately. My grandmother died a few months back at 101 years young, and I still think it's a little hard on Mama, being an orphan now.
I've been helping out a friend of mine, who's taking care of her grandmother in a mobile home -- but she's been having back problems, so she's been needing help to get the place cleaned up before management puts the boot down. She's pretty cool -- lots of charisma, and not dumb, did a stint on an entertainment TV show. Name drops celebs a lot. She's recovered most of her life after being in an abusive marriage with a powerful man, which impresses me a lot, but she lost her daughter in the fight and that still stings. She's too blunt, too opinionated, and talks too much -- but these are flaws I can live with, and probably match well with my own selfishness. But I still can't make out whether or not I want to date her -- I feel like there should have been a spark, but I haven't noticed it.
Either way, she has me out and meeting people, and that's great. It's too easy for me as a programmer to sit in front of a screen all the time. I'm in my mid-thirties and if I want to start a family, I really need to get started soon. Like, if I keep going on the path I'm on, I'm pretty sure I'm going to die alone.
Nothing here to cut into creative time too much, though. And it's not like existential issues aren't good for writing. ^_^
Honestly, I wish you luck, Labster. I've certainly not had much of that lately.
OKay, things are gonna be a bit touch-and-go for me over the next few days. I just snagged a new laptop - an HP Envy x360 with the AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and 8 GB of RAM. It niiiiice, but it's gonna take me a bit to migrate everything over.
EDIT: HOLY SHIT THIS MACHINE IS SO MUCH FUCKING BETTER.
Alright, I am officially out of this story, part of it is because of the muse, but a good bit is that I cannot see my households not becoming a political hotbed of internal agreement versus the world. Part of that is who I chose, but part is just my personal political bent. Because of that, I'm going to bow out.
I'll miss you Rajvik, but I understand. May the muse shine on you with favor.
Kinda-sorta taking a break from actively writing here so I can go ahead and get everything imported into Scrivener on my end. This will make things infinitely easier to keep track of, as I can create reference links between various parts of the story. (Such as tagging a bit of text as referring to a specific event in another part of the story.)
I'll be getting better acquainted with Scrivener's abilities as I do this, and working on-and-off on Volume 2 of How I Learned to Quit Worrying and Love The Grief Seed.
Okay, so I've managed to get everything of mine for TNB up into Scrivener. It's now just a matter of collating, formatting, and organizing it all. That I will do over the course of time.
Although there is an interesting detail that's shaken out. It seems that I wrote a Novella in the space of a month.
How I Learned to Quit Worrying and Love The Grief Seed: Volume 1 is at just under 30,000 words.
No wonder I feel kind bushed after that.
I'm still slowly working on Volume 2... It's only at a bit over 5,000 words right now, but that will change, soon. I'm almost ready to post for first completed bits, but I think I'll go back and work on fixing the last chapters of Volume 1 before I post that.
Afterward, once I go through and complete my first editorial sweep, I'll go ahead and compile Volume 1 into Epub and PDF formats for you guys to enjoy.
Still under Article 50 and only intend to finish what I've started.
Stil lto be decided is what happens to 33-Stars afterwards since the girls won't Poof when I do.
And Data could definitely make a contibution, since Starfleet has the technology to measure quantum dates, quantum signatures for universes, and the concept of an interphasic rift.
Anyway, Article 50 can be revoked at any time.
Alright.
I'm gonna have to call it here. I can't participate in the immediate future. I have too much on my plate, not the least of which is school.
This pretty much goes for all my other projects as well.
In fact, I won't be around much at all, so if you need to contact me, use my email.
I'll check in until Monday, but after that, I have to stop for a while.
Take care of yourself BA, things will hold together as much as they ever do
Fucking fuckity-fuckin' hell.
Scrappy, my old Mazda B-Series pickup got towed for not having up-to-date inspection tags. I got him back out, but god damn did it ever cost me.
Either way, it's driven home the point that if I want to keep my truck, then I need to get cracking on the restoration effort.
But first, let's just see how bad it is...
Not too bad, actually.
I just need to fix the leak around the water pump, change the oil, get the old gas out, and put fresh gas in with a whole bottle of seafoam to help clear it out.
The real pain is going to be fixing all the collision damage. Straightening the frame probably won't be too terribly expensive, but I'm probably going to want to see about having some extra steel plate to reinforce it in a few critical spots.
Throw all this onto the pile of shit I gotta deal with as well as the fact that my account is about to go about $650 into the negative once the rent check clears... If it doesn't get bounced. *SIGHS*
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Managed to replace the water pump and radiator. Everything was going fine, getting ready to change out the old oil... except I have coolant coming out of rust holes in the exhaust.
FML.
The upshot is that there's no water/coolant in the engine oil (otherwise it's have the funky chocolate milk look to it). So that means that it's not likely to be a cracked block. Which leaves either a blown head gasket or a cracked/warped cylinder head.
Which I can do.
It just takes a lot of doing.
*SIGHS*
EDIT: At some point in the next week or so, I'm going to completely rewrite the primer for new people. That way things will (hopefully) be a bit less confusing.
actually it could be a cracked block, just a minor crack between the water jacket and the exhaust ports would give you that. a blown head gasket or warped head could put water in the oil,
You drive a Bt50 is I remember right?
It might be possible to find either a shoitblock from a wreck, or something similar, and swap it in. It might be a cheaper option than breaking down an engine (or two), reassembling, and then putting it back in. Then you've a dead engine which might have one bad part - and also a lot of good parts for sale. Or something that needs one good part to make right, which you can do at leisure.
Had to to that to my Mazda last year. It had one damaged chamber and rotor, but a good crank, good irons and one good rotor so I got back a good chunk of the cost of the work.
Wouldn't mind - some arsebiscuit cut the cat out of my exhaust earlier this year. And then cut both rear tyres up when they realised there was no cat in the exhaust. 2 new tyres from a mobile fitting service late at night cost me more than an engine shortblock. And it failed inspection - not because of the sill damage the thieves did - which I patched and hid. Or the rust, which is patched and hidden - but because I left some protective decking in the boot which meant they couldn't check it for rust, and a Mankan Mankanshoko fob hung from the centre mirror.
I think you're right - it's the 2.5L I4 Lima engine (the descendant of the venerable Ford Pinto engine). Which also happens to be the stroked version of the 2.3L Lima... Which, interestingly enough, was used in Mustangs and Thunderbirds...
With an intercooled turbocharger.
Hrrrrmmmmmm.....
Seriously. It's doable.
https://www.ranger-forums.com/sohc-2-3l-...rbo-55259/
At any rate, though... The thing about these 2.5L and 2.3L engines was that they're damn-near indestructible - you actually have to WORK in order to kill one of these things. So fortunately, any that I find are probably going to be good to go still. HOWEVER, this is a double-edged sword. As long as you got a working Lima engine, then you pretty much have a working truck. Everything else is, metaphorical speaking, semantics.
Which means that the 2.5 Rangers run kinda thin in the parts yards. I only saw ONE in my local pick-and-pull, so I'll need to hurry up and get cracking on this and find out if I actually need it.... Before they decide to crush it or someone else gets to it first.
It might not be a bad idea, though, just to snag it anyways. If I wind up not needing it, I can get a rebuild kit for it, clean it all up, have the machine shop do the valves, and then sell it for a pretty penny.
That said, a friend of mine who's had experience with these engines says she's pretty sure it's as I suspect - either the head itself or the gasket. Further supporting that is the fact that the head gasket and cylinder head are usually the first things to go. She also mentioned that the kind of damage that would open the cylinder walls to the water jacket will typically also make it so you can look through the block and to the other side.
EDIT: Further research has revealed that, as crazy as it sounds, the blocks and heads for the 2.3 and 2.5 engines are pretty much interchangeable. The real defining difference between the two is the stroke. On the 2.3, the pistons come a little short of the top deck (the very top edge of the block) at top-dead-center. But on the 2.5, it comes all the way up to the top deck at TDC. This is why you don't actually see turbocharged 2.5's, because adding in that kinda of extra compression with so little room in there can lead to predetonation and possibly throwing a connecting rod.
I trust all this engine talk is going to go into a story somewhere.
Maybe in a story set at Whirlwind.
I am still around, but not doing much in the way of writing. Got a new puppy this weekend, which involved driving to Lodi and back. She's adorable, smart, and game. We're still debating what the rules should be, but eventually I'll come around to her point of view, or so she thinks.
And between hiring people at work and running for partisan office, life has been a little busy for me. Well, that and getting a new Raspberry Pi to play with, along with the new puppy who wants to chew the cords of said computer. Oh, and will be putting up Christmas decoration soon. In the meantime, happy American Thanksgiving everyone!
Well, the company takes a week holiday so I don't have any work. A perfect time for writing... except I've spent the last three and a half days down with a cold. I'm not ignoring everyone, but I'll respond to all your updates when I have an easier time breathing.
YMMV, but for me, breathe-right strips have always been helpful. Also, instead of just blowing your nose, try to make yourself sneeze instead. Blowing just forces everything into your sinus cavities, and you can imagine how bad that is. Sneezing, on the other hand, helps clear them out. Only blow to get what's immediately in your nose out.