Poppa Smurf is sold. Guy came and drove him off tonite. He's been a good van and will have a good home with them.

20190517_202050.jpg


20190517_202112.jpg
 
  • Sad
Reactions: 1 users
  • Sponsors (?)


Thought I killed Dusty. Was out joy riding and went into boost....heard a pop...and he fell on his face. Vacuum to brakes completely left. Though maybe i popped the intake piping off but nope. Oil pressure, condition, and coolant look ok. Engine runs normal...no weird noises.

Don't know exactly what happened but I'll find out shortly.
 
  • Wow
  • Surprised
Reactions: 2 users
No damage. I must've hit the rev limiter and the air filter fell off on top of the right fender apron. The rev limit hits pretty hard in this car. Added safety for an unfinished tune car.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Took dusty out to get some fuel and got stranded weekend before last. Was a beautiful sunday to be stuck.

10937.jpeg


Before I left out the battery was dead. Hooked the charger up and figured the car would charge the battery on the drive to the gas station ( I was wrong ). Pulled up to the wrong side and went to restart to turn car around and bam....no start. A couple guys helped push me to a pump and push started me. No one had jumper cables.

The kid in this photo didn't help ( unbeknownst to me )....so...car started but I had to turn around to pick him up....i stalled the clutch. Was left sitting....the guys slowly backed away. Lol. No more down hill to pop the clutch so we were stranded. Had to call the ole lady. She picked us up in her new truck...swapped into the Taurus...and got'em back up and running.

20190825_113717.jpg


Charged the battery on the trickle charger for a couple hours and charge held all week.

Almost 19k on Magnetica. Had her in for an oil change...

20190829_094447.jpg


Nothing else new going on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Had time to make a dash to the local Pick A Part. For the fine price of $20.82 I hot junk yard treasure.

The mirror came off of a 2011 Subaru Outback and has garage door opener, compass, auto dimming, and camera screen. The vacuum pump came from a 2012? Chevy Cruze. It was buried below the brake booster but submitted to me right before the rain started.

20190928_122554.jpg


The easiest way to tell if the car has a camera screen mirror is with a flash light. Works every time.

20190928_122612.jpg


I've got several cameras and will find a suitable one to go in the front bumper. The front end is so low I really want to be able to see the lip as I approach obstacles. Thinking about using a momentary switch mounted in the shifter to activate.

The vacuum pump is for my low vacuum camshaft. Its recommended by CompCams for anyone running the xe282hr. It only pulls 8-9 in.hg. at idle. Makes the brakes a little stiff after a couple hard braking events.

We'll see how this goes. I've got to order a vacuum switch to wire into the included pump relay.

Unless I can control it with my mspnp2. A91what ....what do ya think. Seems I should be able to set up a threshold for cutting the relay on and off wired to appropriate IO. Megasquirt can do just about anything.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Now to the vacuum pump. These things run through a 20amp fuse in the factory fuse box of a cruze ( or any other ecotec powered chevy ). There are 2 wires running from the factory relay that plugs into the connector.

20190928_171432.jpg


Coming out of this are 3 wires...red / white ( batt + ) black ( batt - ) and brown ( relay trigger ). Should be a pull down relay meaning that it energizes using ground to switch it.

20190928_171941.jpg


I'm planning on mounting it in the passenger corner where all my emissions stuff used to be.

20190928_171902.jpg


I've got a little bit to figure out. On the cars these things come on there is a pressure sensor that plugs into the booster. It sits in a little grommet. Going to see if I can pull up the technical info I need to wire one to my megasquirt. If not I'll use an aftermarket vacuum switch and call it done. It'll cut the pump off at around 17.84 inhg.

Screenshot_20190928-173159_Amazon Shopping.jpg
 
Last edited:
Got this camera hooked up. Wasn't too bad. Used the spot for the trunk lock rivet, an old angled switch mount, and a little 5/16 grommet I had laying around.

I really hat drillng through a trunk lid....but this one has a couple issues and the hoke is where it won't be seen. I have two cameras that are supposed to go in the trunk lock hole but after taking the lock out they won't fit without irreversible modifications.

Here's a pic of the camera. The mirror mounting tab has to sit for 24hrs before the mirror can be hung....but all the wiring is done.

20190929_180622.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
I love the utility of this, my daily's got came with one and I don't want to go back to not having one.

It's really not hard. Most manufacturers deal with Gentech for their rear view mirrors. Everyone from gm to toyota. The only differences are the other options. They use different colors for the compass and stuff. Some of them have ambient air temperature readouts. Most manufacturers also use the same square rear view camera....they just screw it into different shaped housings with different connectors.
 
I can't wait to get this car back in the garage. It's been outside since spring. All the cleaning I did is slowly being replaced by dust and grit. This winter I should be able to take everything out and make it all look good.
 
Man...I love the junkyard. Found some jy gold. Got everything for under 9 bucks.

Found the pressure switch and check valves for my vacuum pump.

20191006_103315.jpg


Then started foraging around and found this BigBully catch can. These things were one of the best catch cans on the market for a while.

20191006_111103.jpg


I'll clean it up and update some pics. The Harbor Freight oil separator has been working great....but this thing might find a home under the hood of Dusty.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 users
Got everything wired up and tested everything. Switch and pump work as they should. Hook everything up to the booster and the dang thing won't stop cycling on and off. It should build vacuum and shut off....but this thing was cycling every 3 - 4 seconds. Check valves all working correctly. Hose orientation is correct. No leaking hoses.

20191006_184439.jpg


Then I get to the booster itself....dag on thing wont hold vacuum. Can't believe the thing is bad. This booster has....maybe....50 miles on it.

To understand my frustration you'd have to go back to this thread where I put the POS in. It went in before I put the engine in and it was a serious PITA. The cobra booster swap was one of the single hardest things I've done to this car....and that was with the engine out. I don't know if I can get this one out and a new one in with the engine in. My biggest issue is that my TF heads are painted black and I don't want to F that up. The upper intake will surely have to come off.

I know one thing for sure....the new dang booster is getting painted before it goes in. :fuss: :fuss::fuss::bang:
 
  • Angry
Reactions: 1 user
I think I'm going to take the opportunity to pull everything and clean up the engine bay when I do the booster. I always planned to strip it back down after I got it running so now is just as good a time as ever. Also, I found some play on my inner tie rods that I replaced already, too.

Just need to finish up this 300zx I've been working on for a customer and the tear down will begin.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user