Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough SUV that can handle rough terrains and is great for adventures. It has a long history and is loved by many people who enjoy driving off the beaten path. Recently, it has made a comeback, which has gotten a lot of people excited.
Car
Toyota Camry
The Toyota Camry is a popular car that many people trust because it's reliable and easy to drive. It's a comfortable sedan that gets good gas mileage, making it a great choice for everyday use. People often talk about it when discussing good family cars.
Term
Mark 4 Golf
The Mark 4 Golf is a version of the Volkswagen Golf that was made between 1997 and 2004. It's a small car that's well-liked for being reliable and easy to drive.
Term
drain plug
A drain plug is a small part that keeps oil in the engine. When you change the oil, you remove it to let the old oil out.
Term
oil fill
The oil fill is where you pour new oil into the engine. Sometimes it's hard to reach, and you might need special tools to make it easier.
Part
alternator
An alternator is a part of the car that helps keep the battery charged and powers the electrical parts of the car when the engine is on.
Part
electric fan
An electric fan helps keep the engine cool by blowing air through the radiator. It's powered by electricity instead of being connected to the engine directly.
Part
radiator
A radiator is a part of a car that keeps the engine cool. It helps to remove heat from the engine so that it doesn't get too hot and break down.
Part
auxiliary fuse block
An auxiliary fuse block is like an extra safety box for electrical parts in a car. It helps keep everything organized and prevents electrical problems by using fuses to protect the wires.
Part
O2 sensor
An O2 sensor checks how much oxygen is in the car's exhaust. This helps the engine run better and produce less pollution.
Part
fender wells
Fender wells are the spaces around the wheels of a car. They help keep dirt and water from getting into the car's parts.
Part
oil pan heater
An oil pan heater is a tool that warms up the oil in your car's engine when it's really cold outside. This helps the engine start more easily and run better in winter.
Term
heater core
The heater core is part of your car's heating system. It helps warm up the inside of the car by using hot liquid from the engine. If it has a problem, it can cause issues with heating and coolant levels.
Car
Dodge Ram
The Dodge Ram 50 is a small truck that can be used for carrying things or for everyday driving. It was made by Dodge and is popular for its usefulness.
Part
windshield
The windshield is the big glass window at the front of the car. If it's broken, it can make it hard to see while driving, and you might need to get it fixed or replaced.
Concept
JDM
JDM means cars that are made for Japan and might be different from the same models sold in other countries. They often have special features that make them unique.
Concept
Route 66
Route 66 is a famous road in America that goes from Chicago to California. It's known for its history and the cool places you can see along the way.
Part
fuel pump
The fuel pump is a part of the car that helps send gasoline from the tank to the engine so the car can run. If it fails, the car won't get the fuel it needs to operate.
Company
Edelbrock
Edelbrock is a brand that makes parts for cars, especially ones that help the engine perform better. Many car lovers use their products to improve speed and efficiency.
Car
Plymouth Colt
The Plymouth Colt is a small car made in the 1970s. It's known for being economical and easy to drive, but older models can have issues if they sit unused for too long.
Term
mechanical pump
A mechanical pump helps move fuel from the gas tank to the engine in older cars. If it stops working, the car won't get fuel and won't run properly.
Car
Toyota Corolla
The Toyota Corolla is a small car that is very popular because it's reliable and easy to drive. The 1980 version is one of the earlier models of this car.
Part
piston
A piston is a part of the engine that helps create power by moving up and down. If a piston is broken, it can cause problems with how the engine runs.
Term
broken skirt
A broken skirt is when the bottom part of a piston is damaged. This can cause the engine to not work properly and might lead to bigger problems.
Part
oil pickup tube
The oil pickup tube is a pipe that takes oil from the oil pan and sends it to the engine. It usually has a filter at the end to catch any dirt or metal pieces that could harm the engine.
Part
cylinder wall
The cylinder wall is the inside surface of the engine's cylinders. If something scrapes against it, it can cause damage and affect how the engine runs.
Term
turbo
A turbo is a part that helps an engine get more power by pushing more air into it. This means the engine can burn more fuel and go faster without being bigger.
Part
exhaust header
An exhaust header helps the engine breathe better by moving exhaust gases out more efficiently. This can make the car run better and sound different.
Car
Hudson Hornet
The Hudson Hornet is an old car from the 1950s that many people remember for its cool design and speed. It was popular for families because it was roomy and comfortable to drive. People talk about it because it's a classic car with a lot of charm.
Car
Audi Quattro
The Audi Quattro is a famous car from the 1980s known for its all-wheel-drive system, which helps it grip the road better. It was very successful in rally racing, making it a popular choice among car enthusiasts.
Car
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle is a small, round car that many people recognize because of its unique shape. It has a fun history and was very popular in the 1960s, often associated with freedom and fun. People love talking about it because it's such an iconic car.
Car
Subaru Brat
The Subaru Brat is a small pickup truck that has a fun and unusual design, with seats in the back for extra passengers. It was made in the late 1970s and 1980s and is known for being good at driving off-road. People like to talk about it because it's different and has a loyal fan base.
Car
Audi RS4
The Audi RS4 is a fast and sporty version of a regular Audi car, designed for people who love to drive. It has a powerful engine and can handle well on the road, making it exciting to drive. People like to talk about it because it mixes luxury with speed.
Car
Lancia Stratos
The Lancia Stratos is a unique racing car that was really successful in rally competitions during the 1970s. It has a cool shape and is known for being very fast and fun to drive. People often talk about it because it's a classic car with a lot of history.
Car
Ferrari F40
The Ferrari F40 is a super-fast sports car that many people dream about because of its amazing looks and speed. It was made in the late 1980s and is famous for being one of the best cars ever made. People talk about it because it's a symbol of luxury and performance.
Car
Mitsubishi Lancer
The Mitsubishi Lancer is a small car that many people like because it looks sporty and is fun to drive. There’s a special version called the Lancer Evolution that is even faster and more powerful. People often talk about it because it’s popular in car racing and tuning.
LIVE
1,000 cars, sir, you have 1,000 cars.
I don't think I'd attempt to try this stunt.
Oh, we owe this horsepower to Uncle Sam's.
Too big a car.
Look, I put my beer belly on it.
Yeah.
You immediately tell somebody how many cars you have.
You'll really give those up at a yuppie, something to think about.
Stay on the bar.
Don't go off the bar with your Bronco.
1980 Volvo horns, what's right?
Meet me.
I'm a man's coolant.
And he's like, oh, I thought I'd be small.
It's for a small car.
And I'm like, yeah, but it's still an automatic transmission.
They're never going to be light.
It's definitely going to have to crash.
Starting off with Brad Beggin on the car.
That's the West.
Internet.
You know, is this a Nigerian oil print?
I also wish you drove a tan Camry.
Anyways, that's a very horrible podcast content.
A very inside joke.
They love to be driven hard.
All right, another episode of Auto Off Topic.
What's going on, Brad?
Not too much, Andrew.
Today I'm doing all right.
I am doing all right.
Let's see.
I have not really done a whole heck of a lot of things with cars, but a little bit we talk
about and you've done some stuff.
I know I didn't even, I still don't even watch the, I missed the race, the NASCAR race
at Kansas.
A lot of drama there.
I missed it.
I still haven't watched the recap.
So, I don't know.
It was good.
It was a good race.
Was it?
Very much so.
Did I wash or finishing?
I can hear it at all.
So that's fine.
It's just in my head.
So, Project House Update, we got new internet, so we should no longer have the delay that
we had last time.
Yeah, that was the big thing.
You fixed the internet or had it fixed, or I think you guys fixed it yourselves.
Now, we brought new internet, basically what it was.
So I think I talked about the previous internet issue we had was we had the other company
whose name I can't think of right now.
And when I did a speed test, I was at 21.8 mega.
Was it Mbps, mega bit, something, megabytes?
Megabytes per second?
I don't know what that means.
Yeah, there you go.
Megabytes per second.
21.8 down and 10.3 up, which is obviously not good.
So after talking to the company who we bought the internet from, they're like, yep, that's
what I was going to get from us.
So we're like, well, that's not going to work.
So we switched to Cox and for the same money, I now have 404.3 up and 79 down.
So that's like times 10, almost, more than that, times 20.
So it works much better now.
And this is our first recording with it and there's no delay at all.
So that's good.
I did notice that everything is working better, including like internet streaming and like watching
Netflix and the TV, like everything is just better.
So it sounds like it was it.
It sounds like when you went from dial up to broadband back in the day, I basically was
at dial up, I think with those numbers.
So I mean, it's still used phone lines for God's sakes.
So this new one at least uses coax lines.
So it uses the cable cable lines from the street.
So unfortunately, we don't have fiber here yet, which is obviously the correct way to
do all of this.
And we looked into a couple of satellite options, but they're way too expensive.
So this is the way to go and that everything so far has been totally smooth, even like
work stuff just works better.
Say my office is based in the house here and Naomi's is too, and both of us have noticed
that even our work meetings are smoother this week than they were before.
So maybe the podcast was a thing it was good that we learned that we needed better
internet.
So here we are.
There you go.
And it costs no more per month.
So why not?
Well, that's a no brainer, especially the company's like, it's not going to be any
faster.
Yeah.
Right.
They're like, no, that's about that's about the strongest number seen in your neighborhood.
And it's like, uh, trying to say exactly, but no, weird.
So they're done.
They're gone.
Oh, uh, I did, I did, uh, won my argument with Hertz and they're going to refund
me the extra money that I was charged.
Excellent.
Uh, did we talk about that the podcast?
I think so.
Did we?
I, I, I don't remember now.
Uh, we the talk about it.
I think it's a repenting litigation.
Yeah.
We didn't talk about it.
Maybe, maybe we definitely talked about the discord.
I'm just going to hang out on our discord, but the, the, uh, the short story is
that, uh, I was, uh, forced into taking the insurance when I never take insurance with
rental cars because you don't need to cause like your credit card covers that and like
your car insurance covers that I don't care if you're in a foreign country.
It's fine.
And, uh, you know, I rented through the app and I always went through Hertz because
I use it for work and we've never had a problem with it before and like your
quoted price, it was like, you know, 400 something euro and then I get there and she's like, oh,
you don't have the insurance.
It's going to be 3000 euro for a one week car rental.
And I was like, excuse me, what 3000 euro, which is like 3,500 us, uh, roughly, which
is insane for a rental car.
I, you could buy like a mark for golf and drive it for the week.
Yeah.
Leave it.
Leave it with a relative.
So yeah.
Uh, and I was like, you know, I had a family wait for me and I was just like, uh, okay,
whatever.
I don't know you're being ridiculous.
I was like, I probably should have been more forceful, but I wasn't, uh, I was like, fine.
What is it with the insurance?
It was like a thousand bucks.
I was like, fine.
So and then I was like stewing on that.
I was like, that's also not right.
Uh, that was, I shouldn't have done that.
Um, but I wanted to wait till I returned the car completely damaged free to be like there.
I'm not, I wasn't trying to scam you out of damaging a car and then not paying for
the insurance.
You guys said the car wasn't damaged.
So, uh, give me my money back and it took several emails.
At first they were not into it and then I was like, that's really horrible customer
service because I don't care if it's there.
I don't care if it's your franchise.
If it's not technically a corporate desk or whatever, that's still unacceptable.
Still your name on the building.
Irritatively, you had full coverage.
You could have just gone out and had a blast with that car.
I could have.
I was definitely not worrying when I was driving around and parking it in the
city, but anyway, um, yeah.
And then come to find out talking to another friend who travels early often
that's a, uh, that is a common scam to do that.
So travel tip, uh, hold fast to your quoted estimated price.
But anyway, um, I guess we'll talk about a dang dirty Europeans.
Wow.
Hey, now it's mostly just, I think, uh, scammy rental car.
I mean, even here in the States, I'm kidding.
Yeah, but even in the States, rental car companies can be kind of shady
sometimes because they just want to, here's the deal.
We all know my feelings on car dealership employees and all rental
car desk employees are just car dealership employees in a different business.
Yeah.
One step away.
It's a name thing.
Um, anyway, uh, I did work on the Volvo a little bit.
I'm going to work on it more this weekend.
I've got some time.
Um, I'm actually going to do an oil change in the Volkswagen.
Let's do for a little change and I bought a kit for it.
So I finally do my own oil change in that car.
But, uh, I noticed whenever I would get oil changes, they charged me for
drain plugs because apparently the drain plugs are one time use on modern
Volkswagen's, which is weird, but probably because it's got like a plastic pan.
I think, um, there's like, it's interesting because I never did that on mine.
Diesel's might have been a little different.
You know, um, how modern are the Volkswagen?
I've had a few modern-ish Volkswagen's never had to do that.
Uh, I forget what the engine code is in mine, but it's like one of the newest
engines.
Um, I think, so yeah, there's like a special tool.
I bought a kit for my CP Euro.
Uh, so there's like a special tool to undo the drain plug.
Then it came with a drain plug, a new one.
Uh, and then there's a special, cause the drain, the oil fill is like really annoying.
I don't have any funnels that fit it.
So I got a came with a funnel that fits it cause it's this really small
opening in the valve cover that like, you need a special adapter to lock on to.
And I would just always just jam a funnel in there to top it off.
So now I have the actual funnel for it.
So, uh, and the filters up top.
So it shouldn't be a big deal at all.
Uh, but yeah, I worked on the, worked on the Volvo a little bit.
Uh, my dad and I got the whirl pressure of sending units because I've got one for
the gauge and then one for the light kind of had to do a couple adapters.
They're just like pipe fitting adapters, got it on the side of the block.
Uh, had to be a little creative with the header because it's a little bit
bigger, the stock man of the fold to make them fit.
Uh, and then I went to put the alternator on and that isn't exactly
bolt on for some reason.
I don't know why maybe it's not the right alternator for the car.
Who knows?
It's the one that came with the car.
Uh, the bracket, the adjustment bracket was broken when I got it.
I don't know how it was, the belt was tight.
It was jammed against something.
I'm not sure.
Um, it's basically has to be, it fits better.
If I, it bolts the block on the bottom, I gotta give a spacer to space
it out about a half an inch, one for it to line up better with the pulleys
and two, it just clears the manifold better.
And then I got a universal alternator bracket from the Volvo part supplier
that fits pretty well.
That should allow me to adjust it.
And then at least all the other brackets are usually pretty easy to find
because all the hot rod guys adapt different things to their cars.
So yeah, tons of stuff available for that at least.
Yeah, but the Volvo plays soul.
It was like 10 bucks.
It's just a curved piece of steel with the channel in it to adjust it.
And, um, it's, yeah, I'm not going to run the fan.
So I'm going to run the electric fan.
So it should be, um, you know, it's a V bell.
I think I don't think it has to be like perfectly, perfectly aligned.
You know, if it's off like a quarter of a millimeter, it's probably fine.
Um, so yeah, I was working on that because really it's like cars really close.
I got to get, I need the alternator in there and fix the wiring as I cut
the wiring when I took it out of the car because I couldn't get it.
I couldn't get the nuts loose on the back of it.
And I didn't want to break the studs off in the car.
And I was like, oh, it'll be a lot easier if I just take down there out
and have it on the bench and I can just get those free.
So that's what I did.
And there's plenty of line in the wire in the harness so I can fix those.
You know, really, I'm thinking about it.
That's like, I got to do that.
I got the radiator in, I did the heater hoses.
It actually has three and I only bought two because two of them were formed.
And then maybe they don't sell the third one because it's really just a
straight piece of universal hose works just fine.
And maybe that's why they don't sell it and why I didn't find it
and why I wasn't looking for more than two heater hoses.
It's just unusual setup.
It's got two that come out and then two that go into the valve for
to change the hot water for to the heater core.
But yeah, it's really I got to wire up out later.
I got to run wires over for the.
Oh, two cents, the wide band of two sensor and then.
Double check the factory wiring at like the coil and stuff.
I'm going to add a auxiliary fuse block under the hood
to just kind of give things fuses and relays.
You know, right off the battery instead of just having stuff run the way it was.
Especially because I'm going to run a fan in the O2 sensor.
And we've figured we'd also.
Probably fuse and relay the ignition.
Just for a little safety.
Burn the car down with a little bit of wiring it has.
That's really kind of it.
It's not far so far from running.
Just going to work on it.
All those little things that add up and take tons of time, unfortunately.
Yeah, it's like one of those things that it's like a real nut and bolt job.
And I don't mean like I'm restoring every nut and bolt.
It's just like I got to figure out all the nuts and bolts sometimes
because the car was like mostly there.
But definitely put together in a hacky way before.
So I'm trying to like unhack some stuff, but then I also have to
re-engineer it sometimes to work with different parts that I have now.
So like it's got a ton of holes drilled in like the fender wells
because they had like those kugracha horns.
And I've got one of these universal like body plug kits.
Or the push clip things, the automotive push clip ones.
I'm just going to put the little fir tree clips in there.
Just fill in a bunch of the holes.
It's the quickest way I can think to do it.
There's such a weird thing to have installed in that car.
It's very weird.
Like the oil pan heater that makes sense because it was in Alaska.
The coolant heater that makes sense because it was in Alaska.
But yeah, like the kugracha horns, weird.
Very strange.
It doesn't make sense because it was in Alaska.
No.
I know.
And then it's like I was under the dashboard fixing the throttle pedal
and I'm looking up in there and it's like a bunch of messy wires
that definitely don't belong there.
So which that works out because I have that new dash to go in there.
So that once car I've talked about this for once cars running.
I'll have way more motivation to pull the dash out and fix.
Remove slash remove all that extra wiring like I've got.
There's like a heavy duty kill ward that's under the mats
that I got to pull out that went to some heater
that was in the back window.
Like it was like an auxiliary defroster,
but it definitely has like an old wiring from like house electronics.
That's weird because the defroster where Rindo has defrost.
Just maybe it wasn't hooked up.
I don't know.
It is what it is.
It's not deep up with the Alaska cold.
I don't know.
There's vents missing from heater ducts that go up
through the trunk to try to blow air up there.
So maybe that's a problem.
There's heater ducts under the dash that are disconnected
and covered with duct tape.
I don't know why.
Not sure why you'd do that.
But I'm going to find out.
I put water when I was cleaning the engine bay
through the heater core and water didn't pour out under the dash.
So I assume the heater core is OK.
Well, it loses.
You're going to be falling the dash out anyway.
So if you do put a heater core in it, at least it's accessible.
Yeah.
So the car's coming along.
Let's get in there.
I just I just got to work on it and amongst doing all the other stuff
that I have to do. But anyway.
I think I'm excited for it to be done because it's almost there.
It's almost been a year. I do.
Yeah. But I mean, that's not at the end of the day.
That's not like a long time to do what you've done.
It's not like you had a car that was perfectly good and running
and it broke and you got to put it back together and call it a like
you had to re-engineer everything and find parts and figure things out.
And and you went ahead and did some extra stuff, too.
That, you know, you wanted to do to make it more personalized to you.
So there's a lot that it does in the year. It's not.
I don't think it's too long at all.
But what we got going on here in in Phoenix.
We yesterday.
I can't take credit for this one because I don't do windshields,
but I had a new windshield put in the Mighty Max Dodge Ram 50 Power Ram 50.
That's one of those that's been bugging me for a little bit.
Was it broken? And.
Oh, yeah, it was broken really bad on the driver's side.
So it was broken.
A, it was all pitted so you couldn't see much out of it anyway.
But also it was completely shattered on the driver's side
down along the corner and then all the way to the top.
And it was right in your like line of sight.
So, but it was broken when I got it.
It wasn't like a surprise.
I didn't want to put it through insurance because I bought the car
with a broken windshield and I don't want to put in too many insurance claims.
And that's technically fraud.
But I don't want to put too many insurance claims in with Hagerty
because I don't want to have any reason for them to cancel my policy
and I had to put a windshield in another car.
So I didn't want to do two windshields in rapid succession through them.
So I just went ahead and paid on a pocket and had it done.
Found a local company, actually Naomi found a company
because we got her daughter's car tinted for her birthday.
And the company did her tent was like, oh, yeah, we do installs too.
And we asked them about getting a windshield for that old truck.
And he said, yeah, no problem.
So they sourced the windshield and it delivered to their warehouse
and put it in yesterday and did a really good job.
It looks really good.
I drove it from here to the gym and back last night.
It was like driving a whole new truck.
So you could see perfectly.
So the reason I pushed to do that this week was because this weekend
is the Williams Route 66 JDM classic up in Williams, Arizona.
That's that big one every year.
That's a charity show for Cree 2000s Japanese cars.
So we decided this year we're going to take that truck
and we're actually going to make a camping weekend out of it.
We're going to go camping in the Williams area, go to the show Saturday,
camp against Saturday night and come back on Sunday.
So that should be a different experience than usual for that show.
But I'm looking forward to it.
It'll be kind of neat to have the pickup truck there
because we'll be able to bring our like camping grill and stuff to the show.
So you won't have to worry about like finding food and whatnot.
And it'll be a nice, like relaxing weekend, I think.
So it should be a good time.
That's always a good show.
If you're in the Phoenix area or the Williams area,
it's two and a half hours away from here this weekend.
And you happen to listen to this the day it comes out on Friday
and you want to come on Saturday, come on up.
It's a good time.
So if you listen to this beyond that Friday,
I apologize that you missed it.
So it happens every year, first weekend in October.
It's a really good show.
It's probably the largest all vintage Japanese car show in the states
outside of JCCS.
So it's definitely a good time.
People come from all over.
There's one guy drives down every year from Bend, Oregon.
There's people that come from California, from Vegas.
One guy came last year from New Jersey.
And the guy comes every year down from Michigan.
So it's a pretty big deal, pretty, pretty good time.
Just a single day show, but it's a good time.
So I can't take credit for that one because I didn't do it.
What I did do is I purchased another fuel pump
to put in the glove box because I didn't have no faith
in that fuel pump that I replaced because I replaced it
with the same kind that broke the first time.
So everybody on the Discord and other places has been telling
me about the green label fuel pump you can buy on Amazon.
And they've all had really good luck with that fuel pump.
So I bought one of those.
It was eight dollars.
Well, as opposed to the Edelbrock one that is 70.
Whoa, doesn't last.
Yeah.
So my hope is that this eight dollar fuel pump works perfectly fine.
But I mean, actually, let me rephrase that.
My hope is I never need to use it because the seventy dollar
Edelbrock one lasts forever, but I do have it now as a spare
just in case and I will always keep enough tools in the car
to swap it on the road if needed, because I don't have any
faith in that little rock pump now.
So especially because I replaced that one, the truck
and the one in the 74 Colt that zero miles on it
and it died from sitting.
So hopefully, hopefully.
But I have a backup now.
And now that I know what they're like, seven or eight dollars,
I'll just buy a few of them and have them for all of the cars
that have old fuel pumps, which is all of them.
So it's a good like, how do I get home kind of quick fix?
Even if you don't mount it properly, you can usually put it
somewhere on the side of the road.
If you have a car with an old mechanical pump that dies,
you can usually, you know, put it in line somewhere
and use it to get yourself home.
So cheap insurance for less than $10.
So if it works out, I'll buy a few of them.
So that's really the prep for that vehicle for this weekend.
I'm going to actually, after we finish recording tonight,
I'm going to clean it, vacuum it, get it all
shined up to the weekend.
But other than that, truck should be fingers crossed, ready to go.
So. Oh, other big projects here.
I have made a ton of progress on the Corolla.
So the Brown 1980 Corolla station wagon.
I think last time we talked about it, I had had the head
sent to the machine shop and they tested it and everything was fine.
No problems at all.
So we knew that the problem was going to be
in the bottom end of the engine.
So the last test that I did, which I think we talked about
was I filled the tops of each cylinder with oil
and just let it leak down.
And the number four cylinder
like stayed with oil in it for weeks.
The number one and number two leak down
and what you consider to be a normal amount.
And then number three was drained within like an hour,
yeah, which number three is the one that made no compression.
So we knew the problem was going to be a number three.
So I eventually, after some time and some
looked a lot personal growth time,
it wasn't just wasn't looking.
I wasn't in the mood to work on the car for a while,
but a bad headspace situation.
But I finally got some motivation to get out there
and tear it down the rest of the way.
I pulled out the engine, the.
Lot of men to the engine because top end was already apart.
I used the engine hoist that I have and mounted it on the engine stand.
For the rest of the way down, I took out the pistons, all four of them.
Three out of four of the pistons have a broken skirt.
Yeah. Which is not good.
It's weird. Yeah.
It's very weird.
That's just sitting in there.
Was that sitting in the oil pan?
There were pieces of it in random places in the end.
Oh, also not great.
Some of it was in the oil pan, some of it was sitting like,
yeah, I say that, but I also
had turned the engine over on the stand.
So when it was upside down, I'm sure some of the oil pan.
So the pieces that were in the oil pan
made their way back up into the engine.
So I don't know where they were sitting, more than likely in the pan.
There was definitely a bunch of debris on the oil pickup tube.
It is that like metal screen on the bottom of it,
which obviously saved that stuff from going into everything
because the head was fine.
There were no signs of any kind of debris in the head
when the head was cleaned of the machine job.
So very odd.
But the big tell was when I took out number three
and where the rings are, the piston grooves that go
in between the rings were all cracked and smashed.
The oil control ring itself was broken.
And it was all just being held together by the race.
Once I pulled the rings off, all the pieces fell out
and there was a one inch by half inch hole
the side of the piston.
So I don't know how that happened.
It's wild.
It doesn't make much sense.
The car always ran fine.
I don't think it ever ran lean.
It doesn't have any kind of oxygen sensor
or any kind of reading to tell.
It never ran like it ran lean.
It never had any issues like that.
If anything, I think it ran rich,
but it didn't do it and never pinged.
It never did anything weird.
It just ran normal.
In fact, it even was running with no compression
number three, almost normal.
Like it didn't make any weird noises.
There was no outward signs other than the fact
that it was tons of blow by smoke coming out
of the breather in the valve cover.
I think you would have melted a hole
from the top of the piston if it was lean,
more so than the sides.
I'm just thinking of like the hanging and knocking
and like other things that lean conditions can cause.
I just, I don't know.
I'm not an expert when it comes to like
the real fine minutiae of diagnosing what went wrong
at an engine, but I can't figure out anything
in this case.
A couple of people have suggested that,
I think you were one of them that possibly went,
because the engine was rebuilt about 15,000 miles ago.
Maybe when it was rebuilt,
they did not measure the bore correctly
and the pistons were too tight.
That's what I think.
And that caused the skirts to break,
but just by over time and repetition,
they got weak and broke.
But I wonder if they were-
And maybe number three was just worse.
Do they have a bunch of scrapes on the side
that was broken?
No, there's almost nothing.
I'm wondering if they're the,
cause you've got the thrust side of the piston.
And usually when you're looking at a piston,
when you take one out,
that side will have more scrapes
where it's just been scraping the cylinder wall.
It's normal.
Cause it's just the way that, yeah, the engine works.
But yeah, if it was just, I had to look at them again.
Yeah, it was just not sized properly.
Then yeah, stuff was just too tight.
Cause there's definitely a Goldilocks zone of getting,
they need to be tight, but not too tight.
They need to be tight enough that the oil doesn't go by,
but not so tight that they can't move freely.
So I'm not sure what happened,
but I know it's catastrophic, that's for sure.
I had a call out to a machine shop
that I was recommended.
Actually called them today,
but the guy's out of office until Monday.
So I'll call him again on Monday.
Supposedly he's pretty good.
So hopefully it works out.
I trust with very much,
I very much trust the person who's recommending him.
So I hope it works out.
But yeah, these engines aren't.
I'd have them just fit the pistons and the rings for you.
Yeah, I might have them do that, just peace of mind.
This guy builds race engines,
so he should have an idea what he's doing.
Yeah, it might,
but I just, it's not like terribly expensive.
I would just have him do that.
I mean, you can do it yourself.
It's just very fiddly if you wanna learn.
Yeah, we'll see what happens.
It all depends on cost and everything,
but these engines are very commonly used
for different forms of motor sports.
Guys run big turbos on them
and you go drag racing with them.
There's a series of some kind of like hydroplane style
boat racing that uses three TC's.
They're used in some kind of aviation somewhere
and then some circle track guys use them.
So there's a bunch of,
bunches and bunches of parts that are available for these.
So you can go as mild to as wild as you want
when building one of these motors.
My plan is not to go crazy with it.
I might just do a couple of minor things.
I'll create some ignition stuff
and probably do a exhaust header,
but I don't wanna go crazy with it
because there's no need to.
It's just a cruiser.
It's not a race car.
Yeah, like the blowout.
I wanna build a race car out of it.
I could have bought $800 to $1,000 racing pistons
or an overboard kit.
Like, not worth it.
Yeah, that's not what I'm going for
on this one either.
Trying to keep it a reliable, fun car.
My guess is that with a fresh motor
with the right exhaust and the right ignition parts,
it'll probably make about 100 horsepower.
Nothing like.
Which is super crazy.
Just shocking that the pistons are broken
because it's not like a high horsepower car.
It's the craziest thing.
It's a nothing car.
Like it's just a normal car,
which makes me really think that there was an error
in the build process before.
So I looked at the pistons, they're ITK,
which seems to be a reputable brand,
but in looking at ITK pistons,
I guess there's a company out there,
are a couple of companies out there
that make knockoffs of the ITKs
and they stamp them with the ITK logo.
Yeah, and the only way to tell
if you have the real one or not
is the box they come in has like a seal on it.
But obviously I don't have that box
because I haven't bought a car
with the engine in it.
So maybe they're just cheap castings
from some Chinese knockoff piston.
Maybe that's the problem.
I just, I don't know.
It's very bizarre to me
because I never abused the car either.
Like it was never raced in any way.
It was just, I drove it around,
went to some cars and coffees with it
and went to show Williams last year.
Like I put probably three or 4,000 miles on it
in a year and a half for a pull up.
So I just, I don't understand it.
And I never, let me also think of one of the thing
that is a possibility.
The car does not have a temp sensor for the electric fans.
It's electric fans are on a switch, which is not ideal.
I'll change that when we put it back together, obviously.
And possibly somebody before me maybe overheated it,
which could have caused some damage.
But there was no sign of that in the cylinder head.
So my thinking is that's not true,
but it's only one of the like,
maybe this happened situation.
You know, everything else inside the engine looked great.
Like you can tell it was recently rebuilt.
Everything was clean.
Pulled the clutch out.
The clutch just looks brand new.
It's an Xity, it's a nice brand name clutch.
There seems to be no reason for anybody
to have cut cores with super cheap pistons,
but again, I don't know.
Good to tell you, I got a car, it's broken.
Now it's apart.
It's been broken for more than a year, Andrew.
So don't be complaining about your Volvo time.
I just never touched it
because I was building the garage.
So now it's become the first
big, big project in the garage, I guess.
And as a bonus, in all of my years of working on cars,
anytime I've torn deep into an engine,
I've never gone beyond cylinder heads
without doing the work in your dad's garage.
So, pat on the back, this is the first
like full engine tear down my own space.
There you go, good job.
Yep.
Learning stuff as we go.
I definitely will be
I'll definitely be requesting some extra hands
when I decide to put it back in again,
just because I know how difficult it is
to have to line up the engine and transmission
when you're putting the transmission in,
even harder putting the engine in
to the transmission, I think.
So, it's a big deal.
I'm sure I can get some,
con somebody into coming over here
and helping me line it up.
Plus Naomi's been a huge help this whole time too
and she'll help as well.
So, she'll help keep me motivated as well.
So, good stuff.
But yeah, it's all part.
Made the call next week,
hopefully get the machine shop scheduled
as soon as possible.
I'd like to have it done,
before the end of October,
but we'll see what happens.
I don't wanna go to false timeline on it,
but I don't see why not.
Unless the machine shop has no openings.
So, that's it.
That's it for project cars.
I've been doing a ton of prep work
for the Arizona Rising Sun Rally.
That's coming up soon.
October 25th.
If you're interested in the area
and have a pre-2005 Japanese car,
hit me up.
We're technically sold out,
but I can sneak a few more in.
So, if I need to, if I can.
If somebody wants to.
But that's prep work is working hard for that too.
So, I get our t-shirts printed this week
and we made posters this year
and all kinds of fun stuff.
So, big stuff happening there,
but it's been keeping me away from other car stuff.
So, what else is going on, you're really good?
Not that much actually.
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't have,
like I literally just need to go work in the Volvo.
It's really what my issue is.
I've got some RC stuff here that I can work on,
but that's like winter's coming up
and I can do that stuff while I'm sitting inside
on a cold winter's night, so.
Although you have a couple things I want to do first.
I finished my Hornet.
Yeah, yeah, the Hornet came out cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, I finished the Hornet,
which is the Hornet EVO.
Yeah.
I think I talked about it a little bit last week.
It was the, yeah, the ultimate evolution
of that Grasshopper Hornet chassis.
Now, did the body, is that clear Lexan?
Does it come that way?
It is Lexan.
Did you have to paint it black or was it pre-painted?
Yep.
Nope, I can't clear.
Okay.
So, I haven't touched the Lexan body in years.
It was the first time I've done one in a very long time.
They're nice.
But it all came back, it all came back.
Especially the.
I wanted to do it box art style, so.
Especially the Tamiya Lexan paints really good.
That's what I used.
I was tempted to buy the Traxxas stuff, maybe.
No, Pactra.
No, I can't remember where brand is.
It's a bigger can for the same money as the Tamiya.
That's why I was like, oh, I should try that
because the hobby shop sells it as well.
But I was like, you know what?
For this first one back into like the hobby here,
let me, let me go with what I know.
So I have a lot of the Tamiya stuff.
And yeah, it worked out pretty well.
I actually, I haven't even run the car yet
other than just running it around the floor
after I set it up.
Just because I haven't had a chance, I've been so busy.
But hopefully the weekend I can run a pack through it
and see how it goes.
But it came out pretty, pretty nice.
I'm pretty stoked on it.
I was actually thinking,
because the wheelbase is the same as the touring car,
it's kind of neat to do like a full Lexan rally car
body for it.
Cause it has that tons of suspension travel.
It would be kind of a cool looking thing
to do a rally car with.
Well, I think back in the 80s, right?
Didn't they do a,
didn't they put an Audi Quattro body on it?
And they had a version of it.
On the frog.
That was a frog.
Okay, but the frog and the hornet are not related.
They're not related.
Nope.
The, that's super nerdy talk now.
The frog is the same chassis as the monster beetle
and a black flip.
Which if you're a Tamiya fan, you'll know those instantly.
So those are the monster beetle and black foot
are two wheel drive monster truck style ones.
But they're based on that frog chassis
and the Subaru brat actually has the same chassis on it.
Why don't you put a sandscorch body on your hornet?
I'm thinking about that too.
It's definitely, definitely a thought process.
We'll see what happens.
The rear mounted engine of the hornet sticks out
a little further and it might look cool
through the sandscorcher body,
which is a Baha Bila body, but we'll see.
Let me run some packs through it first
before I start modifying it.
But I'm super stoked with how it came out.
So, and unfortunately, all it makes you want to do
is go to the hobby shop and buy another kit.
It goes, it's so much fun to do.
They're super fun to build.
The one I'm planning on is fixing up the
FFO one chassis I bought.
I've got some parts for it.
I should fix it up and get it running.
So, absolutely.
But I also have the little,
I have that beetle body for the SCX-24 I should paint
as well, while the weather's still good.
And I paint for it.
I just haven't gotten to it.
Story of our lives, just haven't gotten to it.
Yeah, haven't gotten to it.
Yeah, I have two RC trucks to finish.
And I still have that old Kyosho hanging on racer
that I've never built.
I have one that is about 80% built.
And it needs to be painted in detail.
Yeah, and I have my old HPI RS4 Pro 2
I get rerunning as well, which I should get
running again, but as it is, they're there.
They don't cost me anything because they're sitting there.
So I'll get to them when I get to them.
But since I'm sitting here,
I actually have two Minizis on my desk right now
because I was getting those running again.
So.
Oh yeah, I forgot about my Minizis.
All kinds of stuff.
Minizis are still made.
I mean, the new ones are pretty cool too.
And there's places to run them.
Yeah, they've changed a lot.
Yeah, there's a racetrack here that runs Minizis
but I'm afraid if I show up with my 2001 Minizis
they'll be like, what is that?
What is this guy?
Where have you been?
You in a time capsule?
Cause I have two or three of them
and I have like 15 body sets for them.
So.
Well, the bodies would double as display,
but they were so nice.
Goodbye really.
I have several that are just sitting on my shelf here
as display because they're that nice.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, from where I'm sitting,
I see a C5R Lattra Stratos with the Atalya livery,
a yellow F40 Ford Focus race car,
a Lancer Evo race car, a Super race car.
So this, it's quite a few of them that are here as well.
And they came in their little display cubes.
So they're really cool.
So, but yeah, I have a bunch of those too.
Something really ones worth money now too.
So I probably sell them and buy a whole new Minizi
if I want to do.
All for another time.
Let me run one battery back at least through this.
Hornet Evo first.
Yeah, that's it.
Any other big events happening up that way?
We've got a Japanese car day this weekend on Sunday.
So a bunch of new tools here.
People from the Discord are gonna go hang out
at Lars Andersen Japanese car day.
So make sure you buy a ticket in advance.
I was on the website last night.
They're not selling tickets at the door.
And they have staggered entry times.
Apparently they were expecting that many cars.
So they stagger it based on vehicle make,
which is kind of interesting.
So maybe you'll end up with a bunch of makes parked together.
I don't know.
Maybe that's their plan.
Interesting.
So that's going on.
And then unfortunately the same day,
there's a car show at Salem High School in Salem Mass.
The Salem High School are Alma Marta, whatever.
How have you say that?
Tired?
Alma Marta.
Alma Marta.
Can't, I still can't say it right.
Alma, Alma, that's all right.
I'm tired.
It's only for Alma Marta if you've been killed
for in the name of the school.
Yeah.
I mean, it wasn't a good school, I can't say it.
No, it's an okay school.
It's not gonna get cool.
Anyway, they have an auto move shop there
that you and I never went to,
but they're doing a car show.
They have a car club.
It's gonna be Halloween themed
because it's Salem in October.
It's actually in the outskirts of Salem.
So you don't have to go into downtown Salem to get there.
You can, if you're locally,
you can kind of make it pretty easily,
but yeah, I think it's also,
they're doing a tech meet in conjunction
with the North World Car Club the same day, I think.
Sorry, our dads are doing stuff there with them.
But yeah, it's just,
I kind of bummed that it's the same day
as Japanese Cardi because I thought
Japanese Cardi was on the Saturday,
but it's also on the Sunday.
So, oh well.
I missed Japanese Cardi last year
because we had a little kid's soccer
used to be on Sunday mornings.
And now Mark was moved up to kindergarten soccer,
which is all on Saturdays.
So at least I don't lose my Sunday.
But yeah, anyway, that's what I get going on.
Yes, we have Williams this Saturday
and then 25th is my event
and then 26th is the first start
of Kiyoshi Club here in Phoenix, so.
What about JCCS, are you going to that this year?
Probably not, that's next weekend,
week from this Saturday.
I was up in the air, up in the air, up in the air,
but there's so much other stuff going on.
I just don't think I'm gonna make it.
I'd like to go, because it's the 15th anniversary,
I think. 20th anniversary.
20th anniversary?
Yeah, has a lot of cool stuff happening.
A lot of cool products to buy would be a consumer
that are 20th anniversary related.
They're doing a t-shirt collab with MoonEyes,
which is pre-read.
But yeah, I don't think I'm gonna make it.
I'd still like to, but I just,
I don't think it's, I don't think it's in the cards.
There's just so much going on.
Can only do so much, unfortunately.
But what can I say?
Anyway, yeah, watch the race,
because I want to talk to you about that next week.
At least watch the last half of the last stage.
That's pretty good stuff.
Although I guess you know who wins already,
so maybe just watch the highlights.
I'm just gonna watch the highlights now.
But big bummer at the end.
That's how I heard,
because the tour has been dominant
in the quote unquote post-season.
And all they had to do was
not take each other out,
go easy on each other a little bit,
to slide a teammate win.
Turns out that was too difficult.
Yeah.
So, yeah, weird move.
Very frustrating, especially frustrating
because Denny Hamlin,
who is the owner of the 2311 cars
in conjunction with Jordan
was passing one of the 2311 cars, Bubba Wallace.
And when he took the air out from under him,
both cars got lightly went up towards the wall
and ran out of space
and slowed down to the point that they got past
and lost the race.
So he could have just rolled in
and finished a second behind Bubba.
That would have guaranteed Bubba a move
to next round of four.
And he would have got good points.
And Denny was already in third or fourth
in Sandings anyway.
So he was already moving on to the next round of four
and getting a win in this round of four
doesn't guarantee you anything beyond this round.
So by trying to beat Bubba at the end,
not only did he take out Bubba's chances of moving on,
well, he still has another race,
but still he knocked him out of contention
and himself out of the win.
So big bummer.
He was a real super first.
Yeah, his redness move.
Like I don't be strategic a bit.
Like.
Yeah, there was no thought process there.
Which is crazy because as a fan, I am sitting there
and I'm like, all right, Bubba's winning this race.
He's got less than a full lap to go.
Denny's behind him.
Denny won't take him out.
Denny will run block for him.
And then behind them, you had
Taleretic as well, so the other 2311 car.
So it could have been possibly like a one, two, three
with Bubba, Denny and Tyler.
And then Bubba just was like, I mean, sorry.
Denny was just like, nope, I'm gonna win this thing.
And turned out he did not.
And then neither did any of his team cars.
And he gave the victory over to good old boring face.
Chase Elliott.
So yeah, it seemed like a real weird move.
Like, yeah, I understand you technically don't,
at the end of the day, you're all racers
as the last lap, but like,
you're all driving the same team, cars Toyota,
your team Toyota, you're driving two different teams,
but yeah, there's definitely a technical
probably sharing between JGR and 2311.
You're basically sister teams.
And it's like, you could have all just gone across the line
and brought everybody in with points and positions.
It would have been a one, two, three, JGR, 2311 finish.
Yeah, Toyota would have been happy, you know.
Sure, you didn't have a win,
but you should still be happy
because your driver got to win, your team got to win.
You've grabbed the points to advance,
like my goodness, like what?
Like, come on.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was a real bad move, but what do I know?
So I know I should be happy
because it's like, you know, no team orders,
no race and race in, but it's still a little bit
of common sense as they go into this.
Especially this time of year when it's the playoffs.
I mean, yeah, technically there's no team orders,
but you could still work together to like, right.
Like, and then I, you know, it's not really,
it wouldn't be race manipulation
because you're not like purposely slowing down.
I don't know.
It's silly.
It's all silly.
Well, blocking, blocking, blocking
if your teammate is leaving.
Yeah.
So whatever.
Anyway, I digress to watch the highlights
or lowlights, I guess it was a,
it was infuriating in the moment
because I was watching it, you know,
super excited, didn't know what happened.
I was watching it pretty much in real time.
And just, cause like,
do you really need to help Hendrick?
Does Hendrick need more help?
Like, come on.
Absolutely not.
Definitely not.
All right.
So.
That's it and that's all.
Yeah. That's a podcast.
I think we'll be back next week with,
hopefully get more down to the Volvo
where you'll find out from the machine shop
and, yeah, we'll have some event stuff to talk about.
So.
Yeah.
And if I can keep this motivation going,
I should have another project dug into.
So, all right, cool.
We shall see.
So follow us on auto-topic on Instagram,
scale out a cast on Instagram.
I am racing anger on Instagram.
You should put up some pictures of your
Hornet on scale out a cast.
That'd be cool.
I definitely should.
And, yeah, I got some more pictures,
probably the Volvo stuff I gotta put up there.
And, yeah, Brad, where can I find you?
They can find me at those same places.
And my personal Instagram is TSI SS 350.
Cool.
As always, keep cars analog.
My name is Arosis.
About this episode
A lively discussion unfolds as the hosts share updates on their automotive projects, including a deep dive into the challenges faced while restoring a Volvo and a Toyota Corolla engine rebuild. They also touch on their recent experiences with rental car companies, internet upgrades for smoother podcasting, and preparations for upcoming car shows. The episode features humorous anecdotes, technical insights, and a bit of racing drama from NASCAR, making for an engaging listen for automotive enthusiasts.
Original notes
We're back for another episode. Sorry we've been having audio issues and internet issues. However we have it solved now. Brad has replaced his internet, and our levels sound good. Mostly some minor Volvo updates, and Brad goes into his Corolla engine tear down. Which had some super odd engine failure. Listen to find out what happened.
Please Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening platform. Comments, Questions, complaints; email us at [email protected]
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Keep your cars analog and Aim for the Roses!
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