Above 1200 Sq/FT 86's 20HP shop

[86turbodsl]

I did not know they shipped cheap. They are only 4 hrs away, maybe it would be worth it. I have a forklift now so that helps.

 

[86turbodsl]

Cleaning up the shop getting ready to put the daughter's car in. I have lifted the audi engine off the cart, put the subframe in place, lowered and it's under the car waiting for mounts and fitment.

prepped the floor and got jackstands ready. It's really nice outside, would be a great day to open door and get the car in.

 

[bulletpruf]

Cleaning up the shop getting ready to put the daughter's car in. I have lifted the audi engine off the cart, put the subframe in place, lowered and it's under the car waiting for mounts and fitment.

prepped the floor and got jackstands ready. It's really nice outside, would be a great day to open door and get the car in.

Pics or it didn't happen!

 

[bimmer1980]

Good to hear about progress!!! Now we need to see it! Lol

Any guestimate on when the Audi will be drivable?

 

[86turbodsl]

Ok, here's where we're at.

Daughter's car in shop, jacked WAAAY up, exhaust cut off, new S4 exhaust on. welded new flange on first. Fits perfect. Need to connect downpipes with exhaust. That's tomorrow's project.


Spent yesterday driving to Kentucky to fetch new B7 front seats to swap into daughter's car. New B5 seats without holes in them are unobtainium, especially in creme color. We got tan, its' close enough. After adaptation, she can take anything for B6/7/8, which is over a 10 year span. Should get her to end of life of the car.
More drama at work, lots of people packing up. Prayers appreciated. My boss likes me, but he may not have a say in what happens. Ugh.




This is where the Audi is at. I have no idea on timeline. I'm trying to hurry, but i get sidetracked a lot.

 

[bulletpruf]

More drama at work, lots of people packing up. Prayers appreciated. My boss likes me, but he may not have a say in what happens. Ugh.

Damn. Sorry to hear that. Prayers sent.

 

[86turbodsl]

Thank you. There's so much going on with this EV transition, it's crazy. Stability is what i usually strive for, but it's been difficult to navigate lately.

 

[bulletpruf]

Thank you. There's so much going on with this EV transition, it's crazy. Stability is what i usually strive for, but it's been difficult to navigate lately.

That's what's been great about the past 27 years in the Army. Pretty tough to get fired, paychecks never bounce, not much chance of employer going out of business, etc.

Not looking forward to working in a less stable environment, but I think that's what's next.

 

[86turbodsl]

Scott, that's what i'd hope for but seems like it's never there. i keep telling myself i'm going to move towards self employment, but it never seems to happen. the corporate world *****. do what you can to stay out of it. My bro did Army for like 8 years. He got out, and has been self employed for quite a while. At this point, I'm 53, i'm probably going to be working for the rest of my life.

 

[bulletpruf]

Scott, that's what i'd hope for but seems like it's never there. i keep telling myself i'm going to move towards self employment, but it never seems to happen. the corporate world *****. do what you can to stay out of it. My bro did Army for like 8 years. He got out, and has been self employed for quite a while. At this point, I'm 53, i'm probably going to be working for the rest of my life.

I'm 54. Will likely work for the rest of my life, too. I do have a pension, but I've seen too many people (my dad included) go downhill once they retire.

 

[86turbodsl]

Same here. I just hope i can continue to produce enough cash to keep making life happen. My whole family depends on me. None of them have anywhere near the income capability that i do.

 

[jbmatth]

We've seen some instability here too, about 10% of the workforce is gone compared to a year or so ago. Funny thing is a year ago I wasn't even slightly worried, now I just never know. As 86 said I'm by far the highest earner in my family and feel like I could get something else quickly if needed, but would likely mean relocation and that becomes a bigger challenge with all shop and farm equipment. May just be time for a big auction. Either way I wish you the best of luck, I'm rooting for you and for ICE.

JB

 

[86turbodsl]

The sources i'm hearing are saying we're entering a much, MUCH bigger recession/depression than is being talked about. Key indicators are dismal. Now, we usually do a little better than other automakers in hard times, but still the fat gets trimmed... yikes that's scary. I am in same situation as jb. HARD to move. HUGE sale would be needed.

 

[bimmer1980]

With all due respect, this may be blunt, but with best intentions.

Hope in one hand and **** in the other, see which fills up faster....

That said, I would recommend thinking through options, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, etc. In other words, a SWOT analysis.
At a minimum, think through, and write down what you do well and your value to the company, and your value in general. In this type of situation, it's good to be ready to remind people of your value add.
Once you have a good working document of your details, this is easier to roll into a resume. Even tho at this point, you don't know if you're staying or moving on, you want to start making preparations.

At a personal level, you should do some risk and revenue analysis to determine how many months of expenses do you have available. Do you any other sources of revenue? I.e. dividends, side hustles, etc. Absolute last option is dipping into 401k. Avoid at all costs.
Since it seems you are single income, protecting both the income and the health insurance seems paramount.

I'm gathering that your kids live at home, if so, are they prepared to pitch in on household revenue to keep things going?

Are there any items to sell that can generate revenue?

Again, having a plan put together, may help navigate the upcoming challenges and lower your stress.

Keep in mind, the above is for you (or anyone) in this situation to think through and evaluate. Not asking to share any of the above in a public forum.

Best of luck! (Luck is the crossing of preparation and opportunity)

 

[86turbodsl]

All good suggestions. I would be able to do all kinds of side hustles. My skillset is huge. I don't like the idea of losing health care, even temporarily, but i'm in excellent health and would be able to weather it. The family would all pitch in if needed. We refinanced a couple years ago, and that was huge for cash flow. We'd be ok, but it would **** for a while.

 

[bulletpruf]

All good suggestions. I would be able to do all kinds of side hustles. My skillset is huge. I don't like the idea of losing health care, even temporarily, but i'm in excellent health and would be able to weather it. The family would all pitch in if needed. We refinanced a couple years ago, and that was huge for cash flow. We'd be ok, but it would **** for a while.

Based on what I know about your skillset and experience, you're pretty damn employable, and at a really good wage. The only issue would be location -- is it something within easy driving distance -- because it sounds like it would be exceptionally painful to uproot.

One thing to look into -- jobs that offer full-time tele/remote work, either for the short-term (in between jobs) or the long haul. I'm not sure how feasible that is for a mechanical engineer, but that's what I plan to do when I retire - work from the house, paid by the hour, flexible hours. If I work for a company that's based in a high cost of living area (looking at something in DC now) then the hourly rate should reflect this, even if I'm 100% remote.

Anyway, food for thought.

 

[86turbodsl]

You're right, it would exceptionally painful to move. If i do move, it'll be south. Right now, things are stable enough i'm not sweating bullets, but who knows what happens long term. I'm also looking at side hustles that can be work from home. The pandemic taught me it's possible and desirable.

 

[83VillageRepair]

You're right, it would exceptionally painful to move. If i do move, it'll be south. Right now, things are stable enough i'm not sweating bullets, but who knows what happens long term. I'm also looking at side hustles that can be work from home. The pandemic taught me it's possible and desirable.

I had at least as much stuff as you when I moved to Texas.

 

[86turbodsl]

Texas is my dream home

 

[jbmatth]

Texas is my dream home

I would like to live there as well other than proximity from my rather large extended family but after discussing living in Texas with some friends I've come to the conclusion that Oklahoma is as free as Texas thinks it is.

JB

 

[86turbodsl]

OK would be ok too. Not quite as warm, but just as many tornados... Lol. I have a friend who lived there for a time.
But just the same, if any state is likely to secede it would be Texas. Not sure what that would look like, but it would be for the right reasons probably. I'll stop there.

 

[86turbodsl]

I switched the boiler over to waste vegetable oil this morning, i'm basically out of easy to get at waste motor oil without pumping. Which i may do depending on how this goes. I went to check on it just now and found it locked out, no oil coming out of pump. Think the pump inlet strainer is clogged again. I will clean that at lunch, and if it doesn't come back, i may be tooling up to pump oil from the leanto. We shall see.

 

[86turbodsl]

Ok, update. Cleaned the inlet screen of the pump. It was completely clogged. A big "shlurp" when i pulled it off. Vacuum. So that's a problem now. Problem 2 is the veg oil is WAY more viscosity sensitive during operation. A fresh slug of oil from the storage was enough to bring the delivery temp down quite a bit, and that increased the viscosity of delivery to slugs of goo on the doorknob. I am clearly going to have to increase volume of storage relative to delivery. Also need to work on clearing chunks better. I am also going to raise the pump inlet level towards the top of level to increase temp of delivery to pump.
Also, it seems to burn worse on start, with more smoke and airflow needed, then burns better with less smoke and ash once it's temp stabilized. So i might need to move to a 2 or more step firing sequence.
So all that will be part of boiler/burner 2.0, due later this spring. Once i get caught up on a few things.

 

[86turbodsl]

ok, well i guess that could be funny....

 

[86turbodsl]

So even though it was valentine's day, the wife worked a full day and didn't want to go out for dinner. So i made her dinner and then back out to the shop. Cleaned the inlet screen on the preheat tank again and got it started, then worked on exhaust.

I made a change to my bandsaw jig, set fence rails at 20 degrees and cut 2 pcs of pipe on 20 deg angle.


So that gets me the start of a merge collector. Fully welded those two together.


Then i sat in the top of my 3-4" transition cone and marked where it sat, trimmed the end down so it had more flow, and tacked in place.





Then i used the cutoffs from the pipe for patching the holes. Trimmed them down, flattened out, and tacked in. I'll have to get a photo of that later, it was late and i didn't get one. Tonight hoping to get that part done and install and start working on connecting the dots under the car.

 

[rattle_snake]

Nice job on hand-fab of the SS collector.

 

[86turbodsl]

Finished the merge collector tonight. Went to bolt it onto the car. You can't make this stuff up. Each pipe comes out of the collector at 20 degrees. They point DIRECTLY at the engine downpipes. Straight shot. I didn't even measure. I just made them 20 degrees to make it easy to weld all the way around. Talk about a cake walk.

 

[bulletpruf]

Finished the merge collector tonight. Went to bolt it onto the car. You can't make this stuff up. Each pipe comes out of the collector at 20 degrees. They point DIRECTLY at the engine downpipes. Straight shot. I didn't even measure. I just made them 20 degrees to make it easy to weld all the way around. Talk about a cake walk.

Some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield.

 

[zanyad]

Often better to be lucky than good.

 

[racer-john]

Finished the merge collector tonight. Went to bolt it onto the car. You can't make this stuff up. Each pipe comes out of the collector at 20 degrees. They point DIRECTLY at the engine downpipes. Straight shot. I didn't even measure. I just made them 20 degrees to make it easy to weld all the way around. Talk about a cake walk.

Your hands were listening to your inner (engineering) brain.

 

[86turbodsl]

Perhaps. I am so glad i didn't go with the first plan. I was going to squash the end of the cone down and feed two parallel 2" pipes into the end. I think that would have been horrible to fab.

I got half of the rest run last night, but i broke a sawzall blade and waste 1.5 hrs running to a couple of towns to get what i needed to finish cutting off the end of the downpipe and what was left of the flex connection. Or it would have been on the road today.

 

[86turbodsl]

In other news, i'm having a hard time keeping the boiler lit on WVO. It runs ok until the preheat tank calls for more oil, the valve opens, a bunch of cold sludge feeds into the tank, the pickup is on the bottom, the sludge falls to the bottom, the pickup grabs the sludge, and feeds the doorknob with cold sludge that doesn't burn well. Once the temp gets caught up and it's all liquid again, it's ok for a while. I need a new preheat tank design for it to work properly.

 

[86turbodsl]

Got the daughters' car done today. I was having a lot of trouble with the mig gun so i hauled the tig torch under the car and used the foot pedal with my leg and managed to melt the pipes together.
got it off the jackstands and over to the house, the wife says "is that the best you can do?" I drove it up to my daughter's workplace and she said "wow, that sounds cool." What a difference in opinions. It's a 4" exhaust, fed by 2 2" downpipes and a 3-4" merge collector. It was made for an S4. It's got a nice warble from 3500-6000 rpm, and a drone at 55-60 mph. It goes away if you leave the car in 4th until you hit 60. It's not a ricer, but sounds a little like it. And it saved me a ton of time fabbing.

And i got a ton of **** from my boy, who is mad he wasn't at the front of the line, in spite of taking cylinder heads off his truck and rebuilding, and pulling the engine and regasketing everything including an auto-manual swap. It's never enough unless he's got what he wants.

when i was his age, i was driving a pc of junk F150 with holes in the sides, that i bought for 100 dollars and pieced together with duct tape and baling wire. It literally had 4x4 blocks of wood holding the bed on the frame. And i wasn't crying to my parents.

 

[86turbodsl]

Cleaned out the oil burner pump inlet strainer again. It's getting pretty clogged in a day or so. I probably need to clean out the tank. I'm hoping i can make it to spring though.
Started working on my audi again, went to install the motor mounts on the subframe and lift into place, and found one of the mounts broken. On the mail order waiting chain again.... sigh.

 

[86turbodsl]

Well, while i wait on Audi parts, i am back to cleaning/organizing and other projects. I cut off the old steering arm on the forklift, and i'll sandblast at work tomorrow then it will be ready to put the new one on. I will probably have to get a tank of gas for the mig though, it's about empty. I can't even remember the last time i filled it. The welding gas supplier i got it from has been out of business for years. Shows you how much i mig... lol.

 

[86turbodsl]

Update on running waste vegetable oil. As long as you can keep the flame lit, it just runs. No ash. So theoretically, if the preheat chamber is bigger and clears the crusties better than the one i have now, it'll just run and never plug up. So, that will be the target for the next build. I wish spring would hurry up and get here.

 

[ClappedOutBport]

If it makes you feel any better my car left my stranded at home with a big coolant leak. To be fair, the waterpumps fail like clockwork at 60k and I'm nearly at 70k since on it. So... fair enough. Not enough parts in town to do the job so it will wait.

 

[86turbodsl]

That *****. Isn't that almost the new norm now though? Brick and mortar don't carry anything uncommon anymore, so you
better have a spare car for when stuff breaks. That's been my goal for over a year now, have a spare car. I'm still not there yet.

 

[jbmatth]

I need a spare car just to be able to get to the parts store, the closest one is about 11 miles away. I do have all but 2 of my cars in running now though so I guess I have 8 spares just in case. I have had 3 go down at the same time for various reasons so I like to have a safety margin in my favor. lol

JB

 

[86turbodsl]

JB, i remember you saying that last year when everything i owned went boom the same weekend. I'm still picking up the peices.