Above 1200 Sq/FT The Warthog Hidey Hole

[jbmatth]

I've been troubleshooting a bit the last couple of weeks on my Saturn as I have a couple problems going on at the same time and they were driving me crazy. One I'll have to get into later but for now I'll talk about the HVAC blower speed. I've had a few GM vehicles in the past that the blower speed would stop working on some or all of the selected fan speeds. Most of the failures were due to the resistor packs in the airpath near the blower motor. I pulled mine out to see it was in perfect shape, I also looked at the blower motor and wiring connections while I was curled up in the footwell, they also looked great. I then looked at the fan speed knob itself, I think I found the problem:


This was after I started "disassembly" which ended up being a lot of breaking more than anything. This clip along with the speed control knob were in bad shape, used pieces online are over $100, but from a junkyard I got one for only $20. I didn't take many photos of the process, but I replaced the two burned wires and the entire connector with pieces from the junkyard along with the HVAC control panel. Works fine for now, woo hoo

Also while at the junkyard I always look for a passenger mirror for my farm truck Lever Action, These must break constantly as over the last 4-5 trips there has never been one. Mine just has a single crack, but still annoyed me. Normally junkyard parts prices are reasonable, but the one yard I found it in after the years of looking charged $50 for it. I should have looked on ebay before paying because I just now did and they are $35 there for the exact same thing. oops Well fixed now either way:

While on this trip I picked up a few other items, two of them were new in the box Predator 212 engines for less than what they would cost even on sale from H.F.:


So some background on the mini bike, this is the one a few years ago I entered in an endurance race for 100 laps and when done it had a lot of dirt, oil, and gunk all over it. I finished the race, but the next time I took it for a spin I only made it 2 miles before it died and wouldn't spin. Fast forward 1.5 years and I wanted to get it running again, that was this weekend after buying the new engines, I decided to try to start it for no reason and surprisingly it started but wasn't running well at all, low on power and kept trying to die. I took it for a quick spin around the yard and only made it half way before hearing little bang then there was no resistance trying to crank it. Pulled into the shop to begin swapping the engine:


Yep, very dirty, after pulling the old engine out I power washed the frame and put the new engine in, it runs like a bat out of hell again. Time to pull the old engine apart to see what happened, head off and valves move just fine, popping the cover off the crankcase and found this:


Not good.. here is what was left of the connecting rod:


The other half is still with the piston, I'll do a full teardown at some point, but for now it has some good spare parts and takes up less space all together so that's how it will stay.

I wanted to get the Viper out for a couple of miles before some bad weather comes in so took it to a local cars and coffee, I borrowed this photo:


Also while on my morning run/walk I took a minute to admire the sunrise:


That is all for now, I piddled around a bit more but didn't take any photos of anything else.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

You can squeeze a lot of power out of a 212! My buddy is in the process of "hot rodding" his mini bike right now. He's regeared it, and is on the fence about some internal mods now with a different carb. It will already wheelie like crazy!

Glad you posted, was going to send you a text this morning to see how the new job was going.

 

[jbmatth]

You can squeeze a lot of power out of a 212! My buddy is in the process of "hot rodding" his mini bike right now. He's regeared it, and is on the fence about some internal mods now with a different carb. It will already wheelie like crazy!

Glad you posted, was going to send you a text this morning to see how the new job was going.

@OutlawDrifter you certainly can go crazy with them, I have basically a stage 1 plus upgrade on this engine just like the last one. Basically it is an air filter upgrade, carb jet, straight pipe exhaust, 18lb valve springs, and I'm using the governor as part of the throttle linkage so it essentially deletes the governor. This bike with the stock engine would go 36 mph or so and will do 43 with the current setup which is hauling on such a little bike, and yes wheelies are way to easy even without a torque convertor.

The new job is going good, I'm enjoying having more free time, but seem to be spending most of it trying to figure out a few things on the Saturn, more to come on that later. I'm certainly glad to not have to be here at 5am, that was getting old in a hurry, much more laid back at least so far.

JB

 

[Sifan]

You have two engines, why are you only using one

 

[jbmatth]

You have two engines, why are you only using one

You know having a dual engine mini bike isn't something I'd considered before...perhaps I should have.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I decided to do another Gambler as it has been a while so I took the new to me Camry out for its first real drive since owning it, the car for reference:


Rather than trailer it and get terrible gas mileage I opted to drive it the 180 miles down to Redneck Offroad Haven in southern Oklahoma. I had zero issues other than getting pulled over for no license plate light, I'm sure just an excuse to make sure the car had insurance, it was a legal tag, I had a license etc. All good and I was let off with a written warning, hopefully I'll get that fixed this weekend. There were a few cool vehicles that showed up you can see two here kinda:


The cage car is an Acura Integra with no body left but the hood and front bumper, it was incredibly capable for what it is an low ground clearance. The mural on the Suburban was too funny not to get a photo of too. He was towing this trailer:

I got to drive a first for me for a few miles:


Right hand drive, manual, and diesel Mitsubishi Pajero, that was a very interesting experience but still enjoyed it. Later that night at camp he found a mud hole that was a little worse than he thought:


We got him out then a 4 Runner wanted to give it a try, he didn't do any better:


The Integra actually pulled him out with a kinetic rope, it was pretty impressive. The Camry stayed at camp for the shenanigans, but drove great, the auto AC kept me comfortable and being so warm out I didn't even have to turn on the heated seats. All in the small group of us around 15 vehicles picked up about 20 yards of trash, quite a bit of that near an old turn of the century bridge where we got a recliner, toilet, and about 10 contractor sized bags of trash people had dumped.

That is all for now, I plan to do a little maintenance on the Saturn this weekend and some fixes on the Camry as well. Have a great one ya'll,

JB

 

[XJSuperman]

That suburban is amazing

 

[Grizz1963]

Love this thing…. The Gambler thing.

 

[jbmatth]

That suburban is amazing

I didn't get better photos of it but it was very clean on the inside, he didn't get into any of the bad stuff at camp, it is way too clean for that. There was another suburban (GMT 400) with a twin or maybe triple turbo diesel swap with the intercooler mounted above the windshield on the lightbar mount. He had driven that for years all around the country.

Love this thing…. The Gambler thing.

The Gambler 500 events are pretty cool all in all, the one they had in New Mexico a few weeks ago filled 3 40 yard dumpsters with trash, it was very impressive. The group as a whole gets into some shenanigans, but does a lot of good for trail and public land cleanup and is an excuse to get out with friends you may or may not know and have a good time.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

This was my view driving home last night when I turned toward my house, thought it was worth sharing:


JB

 

[Finallygotit]

Nice!!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

The sky looks great! The road looks a bit rough.

 

[jbmatth]

The sky looks great! The road looks a bit rough.

The road is horrible anytime it rains, we are the only ones that live on it and the county doesn't care to keep it up, but that reminds me I'll try calling them again and see if they care this time.

JB

 

[XJSuperman]

Time to buy a grader!

 

[jbmatth]

Time to buy a grader!

I want a dozer first I did reach out to the county and have actually gotten a reply from them, not sure if they will fix it but at least I know they know. Grading the road isn't the problem, there isn't enough gravel so the top 2-4" (50-100mm) is all mud, sand, and no fun. We had similar issues around 6 years ago and they did a pretty good job then, it lasted about 4 to 5 years before now it is garbage again.

JB

 

[Finallygotit]

You know what you need JB? You need CONCRETE!!

 

[Grizz1963]

Good on a good day (in a truck)

Not so good in the rain.

how far to tar?

 

[kj_mustang]

Love that car.

 

[jbmatth]

You know what you need JB? You need CONCRETE!!

I would love to, I just don't think it'd be worth it, perhaps on the driveway up to the shop but likely that would be ~250' ( 75m) which would need a huge budgeted expense. Now maybe a nice pad in front of the shop, and one beside the shop for parking, that would be nice and easier to digest.

Good on a good day (in a truck)

Not so good in the rain.

how far to tar?

I try my best to never drive the cobra in the rain, but it doesn't always work out, I've been caught many times in it on long trips, this photo was from 2019 coming back from HRPT and had no option but to drive through this ****. The short way to pavement is 1.3 miles (2.1km). My roads will likely not be paved in my lifetime, perhaps I just need another shop on a paved road just for storage.

Love that car.

It has certainly been fun, having it for over 13 years I've had lots of memories with it and it likely won't be going anywhere if I have anything to say about it.

JB

 

[4 FN 27]

I try my best to never drive the cobra in the rain, but it doesn't always work out, I've been caught many times in it on long trips, this photo was from 2019 coming back from HRPT and had no option but to drive through this ****. The short way to pavement is 1.3 miles (2.1km).

Ouch...24 feet of my driveway is gravel and I cringe every time I take out the Vette or Z28.

My roads will likely not be paved in my lifetime, perhaps I just need another shop on a paved road just for storage.

I like the way you are thinking!!!

 

[jbmatth]

Ouch...24 feet of my driveway is gravel and I cringe every time I take out the Vette or Z28.



I like the way you are thinking!!!

It is certainly not ideal, but I can't let that stop me from having fun vehicles and using them, of course if I didn't have them I could use that money to buy a shop on a paved road, but then wouldn't need the shop. Fun thought experiment to boggle my mind.

Out of curiosity with only 24' of gravel remaining why not pave or install concrete there, not cheap but would give me peace of mind if I were in that situation?

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

The short way to pavement is 1.3 miles (2.1km).

JB

Ouch...24 feet of my driveway is gravel and I cringe every time I take out the Vette or Z28.

Gentlemen, I feel your pain, I have 1.5mi of poorly maintained rock road, not gravel, to reach the paved road. On top of that, the poor grading practices have created a massive crown in the middle and a cut ledge on the sides which doesn't allow water into the the side ditches. If I don't hold my mouth right with my Z28, I catch rocks on the exhaust underneath.

 

[jbmatth]

Gentlemen, I feel your pain, I have 1.5mi of poorly maintained rock road, not gravel, to reach the paved road. On top of that, the poor grading practices have created a massive crown in the middle and a cut ledge on the sides which doesn't allow water into the the side ditches. If I don't hold my mouth right with my Z28, I catch rocks on the exhaust underneath.

Ours doesn't have too much of a crown, but when it rains the ruts get deep enough I drag the bottom of my daily, but if I don't drive in the ruts I sink in enough I may still drag the bottom some or kick up a ton more mud rocks. But dealing with that and having the shop and land is still better for me than being stuck with a 2 car and no room for a shop or garage expansion. I just need 7 lucky numbers and I'll pay to have the road fixed.

JB

 

[zmotorsports]

You know what you need JB? You need CONCRETE!!

I would love to, I just don't think it'd be worth it, perhaps on the driveway up to the shop but likely that would be ~250' ( 75m) which would need a huge budgeted expense. Now maybe a nice pad in front of the shop, and one beside the shop for parking, that would be nice and easier to digest.




JB

Hey JB, if Dan says you need concrete, I think you need concrete. He is the concrete guru ya know.

And what is this expense budget you speak of? When I was contemplating asphalt instead of concrete I was shamed and ended up blowing the budget for concrete.

I say concrete it and don't worry about mud ever again.

 

[Finallygotit]

Budget?? What is this "budget" you speak of?

 

[jbmatth]

Hey JB, if Dan says you need concrete, I think you need concrete. He is the concrete guru ya know.

And what is this expense budget you speak of? When I was contemplating asphalt instead of concrete I was shamed and ended up blowing the budget for concrete.

I say concrete it and don't worry about mud ever again.

Dan is the King of Covering in Concrete, I know this is a true statement.

I've discovered I'm cheap, for the cost of concrete I could buy another nice toy (not a Gambler 500 car), or 30 Gambler cars. haha Maybe someday I'll dust off my wallet, but not this year.

Concrete is certainly the way to go, but I can only control my driveway, the other 1.3 miles is all up to the county...well I guess I could run for county commissioner and pave my own road, I'm sure there aren't rules against that.

Budget?? What is this "budget" you speak of?

I make X, my budget is X + Y, wait that isn't right...oh well, maybe I could afford concrete after all.

JB

 

[Finallygotit]

I make X, my budget is X + Y, wait that isn't right...oh well, maybe I could afford concrete after all.

Wait, did I hear your wallet creak? Is that the sound of it opening? C'mon JB, say it with us, concrete, concrete, concrete, concrete.....

 

[jbrentd]

I suppose there's more pros than cons to living down that road by yourselves, but it would be nice to have someone to help pay for grading. My mom and stepdad live out on Lake Keystone and the county never does it for them. So, they all pitch in money, allocate the cost or materials per mile and do the work themselves.

 

[4 FN 27]

Out of curiosity with only 24' of gravel remaining why not pave or install concrete there, not cheap but would give me peace of mind if I were in that situation?

That is the plan. Been waiting a while to see what the city plans on doing with the street. I would rather wait until they are done messing around.

I replaced the Culvert in 2018 and widened the approach about 20 feet to get the big stuff in and out with out dropping tires in the ditch.

Maybe we will get it done this spring...aint happening now. Got 3-4 inches of snow overnight.

 

[jbmatth]

I suppose there's more pros than cons to living down that road by yourselves, but it would be nice to have someone to help pay for grading. My mom and stepdad live out on Lake Keystone and the county never does it for them. So, they all pitch in money, allocate the cost or materials per mile and do the work themselves.

The county does a good job of grading the road for the most part, but there just isn't enough rock left now. It has either been smashed down or washed away and the remaining top few inches is dirt/mud, sand, and a few small rocks. The tough part is we are the only ones who live on the mile of gravel on this section so we'd be the only ones that would chip in to pay for it. Most of the people that drive there are passing through and have other better options they take when it rains. The county is working on it supposedly per their last email, I'll wait a few weeks before I reach back out.

That is the plan. Been waiting a while to see what the city plans on doing with the street. I would rather wait until they are done messing around.

I replaced the Culvert in 2018 and widened the approach about 20 feet to get the big stuff in and out with out dropping tires in the ditch.

Maybe we will get it done this spring...aint happening now. Got 3-4 inches of snow overnight.

I completely understand where you are coming from, it is very painful to fix something they later come back and destroy. We haven't gotten any snow yet luckily, just rain and cool to cold weather.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

It is time on the ranch/farm to send a few of the calves and a young bull to the sale barn. Last time we sorted some one of the cows ran into a section of the fence and gate as I was trying to cut them off bending it pretty bad. We got it pulled and worked to straighten it, I was planning to use a torch and hammer, but my helper had other ideas, this is after a couple rounds of bending around using a dip and his truck:


It was pretty well done here other than the far end that needed some persuasion with a sledge hammer, after that a little twisting and it was done other than needing some welds repaired that had broken in the process:


I cleaned up the old weld areas and welded it back, but forgot to take photos of the completed piece. I installed the panel along with hooking my truck up to the livestock trailer that has been out there for a couple of weeks so they could get used to it. We were able to load the young bull but the three steers didn't want to go in the feed lot/sorting pen so they got a pass for now. Cocoa is the young white bull below, he weighed 925 pounds (420 kg) per the sale barn and sold last night:


One of the three steers can be seen in the background behind the small calf in the above photo. Also I started feeding hay to the cows and horses now so fall/winter is coming, always a sad time of year.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

@racer-john I can't say for sure the bull is going to his demise, he is built well enough he may be a backup bull for someone. Now if the sad face was for winter coming on, I'm right there too, I'm ready for spring already.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

It has been great weather for the past few days so I've gotten a few odds and ends accomplished around the house and on a few vehicles. It is hay time for the animals so keeping up with keeping them fed has been a bit of work as well. In other news I stopped to get gas after work last week and saw this Mazda RPU, I could tell from my distant vantage it has some suspension work and that the seats were RX-8, what I didn't know until talking to the owner was that the entire drivetrain was RX-8, engine, trans, front and rear subframe including suspension and brakes, pedal assembly and steering column. Very well done with some cool touches:


A former co-worker asked if I'd be interested in an old roof rack and if not he was going to scrap it, I happily accepted and took the Camry to pick it up because that is what I'd eventually install it on anyway:


It was quite a bit bigger than I expected, strapped down for the short drive home, made it just fine, I'll work on permanently installing it next week when I'm off for deer season and Thanksgiving.

In other news I have been fighting an intermittent problem with my silver Ion Redline, and finely figured out what was wrong. What it was doing was randomly going into limp mode, it was throwing codes for the throttle position sensor circuit. Lots of potential causes that I narrowed down one by one and eventually figuring out it was the throttle body wiring extensions that were installed when the previous owner installed the turbo swap kit. Here I am partially into the repair:


The problem was I could test those circuits and they'd all test fine, but I also wasn't actively experiencing the problems. When they installed the extension wires (all the same color by the way. ) they used the solder and heat shrink connectors all in one. What I suspect was happening was I'd only work on it when cold so I didn't burn my hands removing that connector. Well when it got hot on occasion the solder would soften and I'd loose connectivity, or voltage/signal would fluctuate due to the changing resistance. I removed them all and used crimp connectors and heat shrink tubing. So far so good on the repair but I have a the other end of this one to fix along with the MAF sensor once I get more shrink tubing delivered.

While I was working on the car I also wanted to replace the thermostat as it wasn't working as it should, the car would barely get to 120°F (49°C), the car has 180,000 miles (290,000 km) so it was probably due to be replaced. Sadly I'd just flushed the coolant and replaced it a month or so back so was disappointed I didn't do this repair at the same time. Here is where the thermostat is located after partial disassembly:


Oh you can't see it, yeah neither could I, it is on the back right of the cylinder head under the cam position "module" that you don't want to remove unless you have to. There are 3 10mm bolts holding it in, two can be reached using a variety of extensions, universal joints, and wobble attachments from the top, the 3rd one can be reached from below reaching through the wheel well and doing it completely by feel, 2 hours to replace a thermostat seems a bit excessive. All done now, coolant system purged and refilled, heat in the car works great.

Next up on the list I'll be replacing all of the suspension components, the car was lowered previously and is just too low and stiff for me, that'll happen this weekend and get the alignment done next week.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

Another issue I've faced on the Ion was that under heavy throttle when boost builds up to 15 psi (the current boost limit) it would cut out, pop and fart, occasionally setting off the CEL for a few seconds. If I rolled into the throttle it wouldn't happen until around 10-15 psi, but if stabbing the throttle it would happen almost instantly near 5 psi. After fixing the wiring issues on the throttle body and replacing the thermostat with no change I decided to try figuring this problem out next.

I hooked up a scanner on my way to work and got the car under boost to try to read the CEL as it was happening. I'd tried to read it before, but had cleared by the time I connected my scanners. This time is showed two a code for multiple cylinder misfires pertaining to spark. Previously I'd pulled the plugs to check the gap and they were all gapped around .038" the stock plugs should have been .045" so I suspected the gapped was closed during the turbo addition. What I didn't think to check was what plugs were actually installed.

Last night I pulled them, here is one:


These are copper plugs one heat range colder than stock, they weren't terrible, but not ideal either:




While I had the plugs out I closed the gap up to around .032" (recommendation from the turbo swap kit supplier), as well I ordered new iridium plugs in the same heat range from NGK I go the BKR7EIX. I'll install them gapped to .032" before installing them next week when doing some other service work on the suspension. I also learned while researching this that there is a tool for closing the gap on spark plugs so one of those is on order as well. Here is the one I ordered: Spark Plug Gap Tool



Good news was today on the drive to work I was able to go WOT both rolling in and stabbing the throttle and it did much better and I think all I was feeling was the wastegate opening when I got to 15 psi. Wow I'd forgotten what this car was like, it is so much fun. I will say though that this problem has been happening since I bought the car but has gotten progressively worse and I just drove around it and never really tried to figure it out. Shame on me, I know better than that.

Keep Moving Forward,
JB

 

[zmotorsports]

Good job solving the problem JB. I had issues years ago with intermittent misfires under boost with my roots superchargers and found playing with gaps sometimes helped due to the air gap being too wide in which to push the spark to the ground electrode as it is under boost. On a normally aspirated engine a wider gap, or what the OEM recommends which is usually .040"-.060" on many modern cars, works well because it forces the coil output a bit and creates a nice crisp and hot spark to ignite the air/fuel mixture evenly and uniformly. However, under boost that wider gap can hinder the sparks' ability to jump the air gap resulting in intermittent misfires so sometimes a little trial and err to find that perfect gap is in order.

 

[jbmatth]

Good job solving the problem JB. I had issues years ago with intermittent misfires under boost with my roots superchargers and found playing with gaps sometimes helped due to the air gap being too wide in which to push the spark to the ground electrode as it is under boost. On a normally aspirated engine a wider gap, or what the OEM recommends which is usually .040"-.060" on many modern cars, works well because it forces the coil output a bit and creates a nice crisp and hot spark to ignite the air/fuel mixture evenly and uniformly. However, under boost that wider gap can hinder the sparks' ability to jump the air gap resulting in intermittent misfires so sometimes a little trial and err to find that perfect gap is in order.

Mike, thanks for adding some support to my thought process, other than diesels (and the Colbalt SS that had MANY problems) I've never had a forced induction engine, I'd heard that the extra boost (cylinder pressure) could "blow out" the spark but hadn't ever experienced it before. I was certainly surprised that it was happening with the narrower gap but it is all part of learning and researching to better expand my skillset as limited as it may be.

JB

 

[Bob Heine]

JB, eight years ago I had a similar problem on the PT Cruiser Turbo after I upgraded the ECU to a Stage 1 and made a few other mods. Iridium plugs helped but it was still not quite right. I replaced the stock plug wires and ignition coil pack (it only has one) made by Granatelli and it fixed all the remaining issues.

 

[jbmatth]

JB, eight years ago I had a similar problem on the PT Cruiser Turbo after I upgraded the ECU to a Stage 1 and made a few other mods. Iridium plugs helped but it was still not quite right. I replaced the stock plug wires and ignition coil pack (it only has one) made by Granatelli and it fixed all the remaining issues.

I'm glad you were able to solve your problem, this was a new one for me, on the NA side I've rarely noticed any change in the quality/power from plug upgrades. But when you double the cylinder pressure is becomes apparent quickly. I will see how the new plugs do and work some more on tuning. For me I'm going to attack more cooling capacity for the charge air first, then turn the boost up closer to the recommended max of this turbo at around 25 psi which should be around 300 whp or slightly above. I know I'll want to add bigger cams and a bigger turbo but think I can hold back spending more on speed parts than I spent on the car. But if the turbo goes out anyway I mean what is a guy supposed to do.

JB

 

[LutzTD]

pretty fancy, do you not like the disk ones?

 

[jbmatth]

pretty fancy, do you not like the disk ones?

I almost always use the disk ones, I probably have a half dozen of them, but funny enough I couldn't find a single one when I went to gap the plugs this time. I'm sure if I buy a few more of the disks I'll find all of the others that are scattered about somewhere.

JB