There was a time I enjoyed working on cars so much that I even considered becoming a mechanic when I grew up. How times have changed! Now, the less time I spend under a propped-up hood (or worse, underneath the car), the better. This section documents some of the car projects I have undertaken.
While drivng back from Yakima, Washington, I missed a turnoff and ended up driving back on a horrible section of Washington State 14, where construction workers were doing a (rather poor and irresponsible, in my opinion) road rework job, with loose gravel strewn across the entire width of the road. This stretch of road spanned 10 miles or so, and as if just driving down this road with no cars around wasn’t doing enough damage to the car already, everytime other cars would pass in the opposing direction, a ton of loose gravel would get kicked up and fly into the car. Finally, after several stones had hit the Alfa’s windshield, one of them caused a crack. I was able to console myself that at least the crack was not in the field of vision, and that the crack (shaped like a star) was only the size of a quarter. However, I knew from prior experience that the crack was likely to grow. So what to do? Continue reading »
Here are some bicycle rack recommendations for a BMW Z3. In summary, it seems like the best way to go is with a hitch-mounted bicycle rack, although that is by far the most expensive. An intriguing option is a license-plate mounted “hitch” rack. Continue reading »
It took 3 months for Fremont Machine Shop to rebuild the engine (which I did not mind, and they charged a great price–just $1150+tax for the block), and then maybe 4 or 5 very intense days of working weeknights in the garage until 3:00 or so in the morning. My goal was to get the car running in time for the MGs at Jack London Square car show, which was on May 11, 2002. Continue reading »
I finally got around to pulling my MGB’s engine. It took about a day to do so. Actually, it was fairly easy–took maybe 6 hours or so, excluding breaks. I was taking my time and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the process was. (Of course, installing the engine was a different matter). Afterwards, I rented a U-haul pick-up truck and brought the engine to Fremont Machine Shop, which was only about 1 mile away. When I got there, two big dudes manhandled the engine block from the pickup bed, put it in a shopping cart, and rolled it into the machine shop across the parking lot. A funny sight, but impressive.
Photos of the removal process are here.
My favorite class at Stanford was ME130, a class about the theory of internal combustion engines.
For our final project, my friends A.J., Nalu, and I were rebuilding a late 70s small-block V8 from a Chevrolet Corvette. Our task was to make it operational again in the engines laboratory for use in the next year’s class. Continue reading »
