Whats everyone up too this weekend? As usual, I'll be working on my trucks. Stu got the idea of a cook out stuck in my head, might have to bust out the grill for some kabobs This is great, came back from a 5 day weekend, work 2 days, and have a 3 day weekend. I'm not going to want to go back to work (Not that I do anyways, lol).

 

was going to go camping again with family but weather not playing in favor, so no tsure may wash vehicle and clean it out, just depends on weather

 

Rain got me by surprise last night, or was it early this morning? Last I heard the weekend was supossed to be nice, but I have my doubts now. Where do you normally go camping at?

 

well I just got back from a trip to PA, me and dad left this morning to get a starter for his massey ferguson tractor. We took my civic and I figured it up and averaged 48 mpg on that tank. I went 455 miles and when I stopped to get gas I put in 9.5 gallons. I'd have to say thats the best mpg that my car has ever gotten. I just took some more ibuprofens and I'm just taking it easy now till I goto work bingo tonight for the fire dept, they should be kicked in by the time I go over there.

 

Wow! Tell me about your Honda: year, model, etc. I'm pretty proud of my little escort ('96, 77k, one owner, $500 + another $400 to get it running better). It got 35 mpg the first time I took it to Richmond. I'm hoping it gets the same all the time. I figure I'm spending half as much on gas (maybe less) than I would be in the truck, so the Escort should pay for itself in about 3 months.

As far as this weekend goes, I'll prolly just grill some steaks and work around the yard. Getting ready to start the new command- and make the drive to Richmond every day... yippeeee!!!

Almost forgot to tell you that I hope you are feeling better...

Stu

 

Thanks Stu, yeah I am getting a little better actually, although I still need to keep popping the ibuprofens but I can still get around pretty good considering how messed up I am lol. Anyways here's the info on my car, 97 honda civic hx w/ 5 speed. They're rated 37/43 mpg from factory and I was shocked that I got almost 48 mpg the most I have ever gotten out of a tank is 435 miles and it's a 10.9 gallon tank. If you do decide to get a honda get one with a manual transmission, that is if you don't mind shifting gears. It's just that honda automatics don't hold up too well, especially if mine was an auto they have had a lot of problems with the cvt tranny. Like I've said before I could drive all the way to portsmouth and back on one tank of gas, I don't remember how many miles it is for bothways. This has been the best car I've ever owned and it's never broke down at all which is something that I can't say about ford, the explorer I had before my truck I took it offroad one time and I was just in 4wd and I didn't need to be and it pumped all the transmission fluid out and I had a good little walk that night which wasn't too fun btw.

 

No way. Like I said, I paid $500 for my Escort. No car payment, plus pretty doggone good fuel economy= I'm keeping it! Of course, it has to last 3.5 years, so if I need to replace it, I'll be looking for another beater.

 

yeah no car payment is def. a plus. I paid way too much for mine but it's paid for now so I can finally enjoy it more and get the monies worth out of it. I bought it in 1999 with 72,000 miles and not it has 146,000 miles so I haven't put near as many miles on it as whoever had it before me, besides imo I think it's better to have a newer vehicle with miles on it than one thats been sitting a long time with low miles at least it's been driven the whole time and hopefully the maintenance is kept current too. I don't mean to get on here and preach about honda's but I would get one with 200,000 miles on it before I would buy a kia, hyundai, or any of those other little car companies brand new. But anyways I just got home from bingo so I'm gonna take 2 more before I goto bed sometime soon then as for tommorrow I guess I'll see what it brings although I have gotten behind on fixing some computers so if I feel like it I might mess around with them some. I'm limited to what I can do and I can't stand sitting around doing nothing.

 

Yeah, I hear those Hondas are pretty darn dependable, and tend to hold there value. But come on. . .it's a car. . .and its tiny Just got in from pulling the motr/tranny/tcase from the truck, and cleaning up. Took a few pics I might upload later. Tommorrow might actually be a day for rest Hey Kista, has your doctor given you any meds? I got codine for my wisdom teeth, that was some good shiznit. And I know constant back pain has to be worse then a little mouth pain. Anyways, feel better

 

Well i've been working on my truck this weekend. Ended up putting a 3g Alternator in 130 amps helps , to folks that saw my engine compartment, it looks a bit different now, no air pump, and nice 3g ALternator and larger wiring for it. Plus i'm in the process of removing the TFI engine harness and get a DS engine harness out of the JY. . plus, I cut out my exhaust and plugged some holes, freed the catalyst, :-O, and redid the pipe exist out the side, Had an experience welding through a mirror putting putting parts of it back together


I have an 88 Escort EXP, 96K on it now, got it free (from family) and has made my life so much better with not having to get gas every week. i Can get about 40mpg on the Hwy, plus it's cheap to maintain.

 

Well my back is starting to feel better but my ribs is whats killing me. The only prescription medicine they gave me is percocet and when I went to get that filled they gave me the generic which isn't as good. It's got oxycodone in it makes me tired so I only take it before bed if I need too. I did get to mess around with one of the computers, it's mine but I let them use it at work. It won't boot up so I took it apart and found one of the chips on the motherboard has corrosion around it so it looks like it's not getting a good connection. So hopefully I'll be able to find something else they can use for the time being, but they ain't getting this one, lol. For my truck I need to check the fluid again in the mazda tranny. I like to check it at least once a month. Maybe I can get dad to crawl under there for me since I took him up there sat.

On a side note... looks like your truck is really comming along John. Keep us updated on it

 

Got my project for the weekend done.



Man, I love my digital camera. John, your engine bay is lookin' good What exactly does the higher amp alternator do? I always love to watch other peoples progress on there trucks. Whats the benefit of the DS system over the TFI? Sounds interesting though O yeah, whens that ETA on headers

*I got those pics from the meet up in my gallery, check em out! The file size reduction kinda killed the quality though*

 

Well when TFI system ISN"T working it sucks, basically computer controled carb if has all the sensors and whatnot, problem was someone kinda butchered it, and i wasn't getting any timing advance so went with older simple Duraspark II. improved my mileage by about 2-3 mpg. Well if you have an EFI vehicle then you need all that stuff. Most TFI systems now are getting old and sensors and whatnot usually aren't working well.


Well i had light dim at idle, plus running about 500w RMS in sound equipment kinda needed a little bit more power at idle my anmeter would twitch alot, basically wanted to have something that was only running 60 percent capacity instead of 100+. plus i Like to be different.

Now with my first experience working on the exhaust, i'm considering the header, I'll want to fab up a heat shield for my starter though. a header, i'm not too far from doing it. I'd keep the 1bbl until I got an offy, i'm REALLY considering it..:-)

I'm going to get an older valve cover too and paint in when i got to the JY tomorrow, clean and crub it up really nice and put it in place of the one i have. Not sure what color to paint. Prob won't be anything special..might sand blast the air cleaner too and do something with it.

 

Awesome progress on your trucks.

Memorial day weekend was spent taking out 4 very large branches hanging over my Uncle's house- probably 30-40 feet long, and about the same height in the air, hanging in a small cluster off this giant old oak tree. Two come-alongs, two large ratchet-straps, three ladders, and a 4x4 Subaru, plus me on the chainsaw. I wore that chain down to little nubs, practically.

We'd use two come-alongs and the 2 and 4-ton straps, hooked to a part of the trunk further up to winch the branch higher into the air to clear the dormers and and put tension on it. Then I'd get on a ladder and notch the top and bottom of the base of the branch. Then winch it more, adjust the straps and re-winch until the branch wouldn't go further. Then, with about 6 tons of tension and only 30% of the material remaining in the base of the branch, we'd throw more ropes over the end of the branch and yank it with the Subaru. Whole process took a few hours each. Then I'd go to town with the chainsaw.

I dislike working on the top end of an unsupported ladder with a chainsaw. If it kicks or drops, or if the branch is really rotten and gives way while I'm cutting it...

All said and done, we saved my Uncle's house and prized boxwoods from being anihilated during a summer storm.

 

Well I let mom take my truck to lowes sun. and mon. cause I didn't feel up to going but now I have a really bad leak above the driver's side rear tire and there's brake fluid comming out all over the place. So I called a local shop and I'm gonna take it fri. to get fixed. So I dunno if it's just a coincidence or if the line was just weak but my truck didn't have a good memorial day weekend.