Using my scissor lift to its near maximum potential

So, I suppose there’s a rule here.

This is a picture of my car chassis, 5ft up in the air to put the new pedal-box at a sensible welding height. I’ve never had it this high, but it makes a difference.

What you see are a pair of hydraulic pallet-lifters bought from ebay for under £100 each. They’re stable as buggery (or rum, sodomy and the lash) and each is rated to 350KG. Bearing in mind the fully laden car with me in it tips the scales at under 700kg, all is groovy.

Normally, I have one of the scissor lifts much nearer the front but without the engine in, it balances quite nicely where it is.

New injectors, and poor ebay seller

So, my four new injectors arrived, rated as good for 304cc/min.

They turned up from an ebay seller, and are weber iw-058s. They came in Magneti-Marelli packaging, and they manufacture injectors for weber anyway. Looking up the specification, they are rated as 215bhp with a 73.5% duty cycle, so I have room to grow.

Now comes the crappy ebay bit. The photo made them look (taken when the guy got them from the re conditioners) and when they came to me, they looked scruffy (at least they did smell of petrol). When you blow them up though, you can see that they’re missing a pintile (second in from the right).

I’m going to put it into the ebay feedback, but all isn’t lost. I was going to get a refurb kit anyway to add new seals, spacers etc, just to be safe. I can get a service kit from Mr Injector for £11.44 that has all the bits in.

But still, it’s a little crappy shipping them without even arsing to clean them or putting all the bits in.

Rules for becoming an old git

So, my 43rd birthday is coming along, and I think that whilst this is an excellent prime number, it also makes me feel old. Forty was fine, 41 wasn’t that bad, 42 was a hoot because my wife got me a hitch-hikers guild to the galaxy first edition, but 43 … 43 is just old-gittery.

Following on from my page about the rules I thought I’d pen a few rules about becoming an old git:

  • I will only have brown suede shoes. They will be slip-ons.
  • I will only buy my shoes from the supplement pages of newspapers.
  • I will end up with mustard coloured cardigans
  • People will get me battenburg coloured pringle jumpers, and I will thank them for it
  • All my clothes will sport elbow patches, for no ironic reason
  • I won’t have shorts, trousers, etc. I will only wear slacks
  • There will be no such thing as an ’emergency ginning’. There will only be warm sweet milky tea
  • I will buy shares in horlics
  • I will do DIY for the pleasure not the necessity
  • I will become obsessed with the health of my walnut
  • I will lose all ability to use computers, thinking it is strictly the domain of ‘the kids’
  • I will talk about hobbies I don’t have that I would like to do, but navel gazing prevents me. keeping bees springs to mind
  • All testosterone vanishes.
  • The man-cave will become a potting shed.
  • I will till the soil, and all windowsills will sport pot-plants rather than random car parts
  • I will not understand what BPM stands for
  • Worse, I will enjoy radio 2

monitoring the engine temperature, pretty LEDs

Hmmm – when I build this engine, there are lots of things to sense (which go to the engine management system). However, there’s lots of data to actually display, which can be done on a piggy-back loom to the engine management.

For instance, there are multiple places to sense temperature, and other things, all grouped together as a set of systems. So, for fuel, the pump in the tank will warm it up, and the (to be fitted) fuel radiator will cool it back down again. So, I could put a sensor in just outside of the tank, after the regulator, after the fuel radiator, and in the return to the tank, so I can monitor fuel temperature and pressure. If I put some storage in the arduino I can over time, log most data.

Similarly, oil temperature before and after the cooler, as well as the head temperature inlet and exhaust are interesting, as is water in similar places can all be monitored, displayed and alerted. I could go the route Saab do, and have a black-panel button as well to keep the eye-clutter down at night.

So, rather than go for a gajillion gauges, I’m looking at going the micro-controller route, and the display shown here is available for $130; not bad for the eye-candy.

wonderful service from fuelpumpsonline.co.uk

You know, it’s nice to get good service, but now and again, someone stands out. Fuel Pumps Online stood out. I rang them yesterday (a Friday) at about 13:00 inquiring about a walbro fuel pump with fitting kit. Vicky answered, and guided me to the Nissan Skyline full fitting kit because it was the most comprehensive fitting kit available all in one box.

The best bit was that I was a little cheeky and asked if I could get it on Saturday (bearing in mind most people won’t bother with Saturday delivery because the couriers often can’t back up their commitments). No problem she said.

Sure enough, it all turned up this afternoon (post office were an hour late with special delivery). All sorted, and all for a great price.

It’s tiny as well. There’s going to be plenty of room in the tank for it. The pen in the photo is for scale.