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29Mar/180

Garage Changes

So while I was not spending time on the car over the last two years I did put some time into the garage...

The company i work for moved to a new building that was previously owned by an oil company. They left tons of heavy duty filing cabinets behind, I work for a tech company, we dont have much use for paper... so i was told i could take some home... cant argue with the free price tag. I have hundreds of pounds of tools in the drawers and they still roll smooth. I then took boardroom tables (also free) and cut them down the middle to create the counter tops. Each filing cabinet is bolted to the wall and to the cabinet next to it. There is also a slab of marble at the bottom of each filing cabinet. This all makes for a very solid bench that is at the perfect height for me.

If you look close you can see all the magnetic labels, these were made by taking magnetic white boards (left behind by the oil company again) and sticking label maker labels to them then cutting them out. Now i can find any tool fast. I then mounted an all in one computer to the wall for bringing up the GTM manuals and searching the internet for wisdom.

To mount tools on the wall i found a company that was going out of business that had painted slatwall in their space that they had to remove at the end of their lease. I did the work removing the slat wall for free and used the best sheets in my garage. I found that slatwall hooks are easy to find at most hardware stores and many specialty hooks can be found online for things like drills or paper towel, etc. 

I built some shelves at the end of both sides to house my larger tools and a mini-fridge for some beverages. I'm not sure if you can see them very well but i also added some hanging retractable systems from the roof that include an air hose, 2 power cords and a trouble light.

I added an Amazon Echo, and wired her into the roof speakers for some tunes and quick unit conversions.

Some car photos taken today... Kooks Exhaust

Fuel pump mounting, the wiring is temporary until my fuel pump controller comes in 

Today was seat day... this proved to be more challenging to do alone then i though so i had a friend come over to mark bracket positions while i sat in the seat while working the peddles. I am a little over 6 foot 2 and found that no matter how tried to position the sliders they took up to much valuable seat height. On top of that my legs require the seat to be as back as far as possible anyway... so i ditched the sliders and used the brackets i bought (i think i got them from Shane) without the sliders. now the seats sit perfect all the time. I don't plan on letting anyone drive my car anyway 🙂

You cant see it in this photo but we also got the AC Accumulator bracket bent, painted and installed.

Last month i finally got around to buying my own welder, its a small gas MIG, should be good enough for what i need to do.

So I had some time today to run the engine long enough for the coolant to start pumping, everything seems to cool just fine. Engine maxed out at about 210 degrees while idling, the fans never kicked on but i think that's because it didn't get hot enough. I also routed the shift cables further away from the exhaust, melting those wouldn't be good.

I have to say, i have never actually seen a finished GTM, never heard one run until yesterday... The LS1 with the Kooks exhaust sounds amazing, youtube videos do not do the noise justice.

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28Mar/180

Back to the GTM

The GTM has been sitting in my garage untouched for 2 years now... I would like to say life got in the way, which is true to some extent but i think it was mostly a lack of motivation. The last thing i tried to do was run the starter and was greeted with a horrible metal on metal noise from inside the engine.... around that time i also switched jobs, so it sat... and i moved on to some of my other unfinished projects. 

Fast forward to this week (I started Monday morning)

  • I got some time off work
  • Figured out the engine noise (My uncle was over, he's a car guy, he asked to hear the noise, i cranked it over... 5 seconds pass as he thinks, he points to the trans adapter and says "loosen those bolts"..... sure enough, noise goes away. The bolts on the trans adapter were contacting the flywheel.... didn't think it would be that easy. )
  • I yanked off the GTM exhaust and put on the Kooks that has been sitting in its box for 2 years
  • Now the air filter wouldn't fit because it hit the exhaust, i ordered the cold air intake kit from FF but its still in the box.. i found the box and just used the rubber piece with slight slope on it to raise the air filter up. This will work for now.
  • Reinstalled the starter (it misses the kooks by about 2mm)
  • Moved the fuel pump behind the drivers head, my old location made filter changes almost impossible. I am running the Aeromotive A1000 pump and its not small.
  • Wired up the fuel pump (temporary relay setup for now, it will need a fuel pump controller)
  • Installed the Aeromotive fuel rails, pressure gauge, and all AN fittings with braided lines (bought all this 2 years ago as well)
  • Dug though boxes for hours to find the fan plugs i bought years ago and wired up the fans. (
  • Checked all the fluid levels
  • Wednesday morning, gathered the family, turned the key and crossed my fingers.

No hesitation, started right up, ran smooth. That's the first time that engine has run since it came out of the Vett 3 years ago. Had i known it would take me less then 2 days of work to get it running i think i would have done it years ago.

So, it looks like i am motivated again 🙂 Next step is to get it go-karting this week..

Before Karting, i need to:

  • Finish the AC lines and charge them. (was just going to use a cheap Walmart charge kit for now)
  • Mount the AC accumulator (right now its kind of floating)
  • Mount the seats, I bought the tabs and rails, i just have to mount them
  • Make a wiring harness for the gauge cluster wires (temp, oil pressure, tach, speed, also running a Tach wire to the fuel pump controller)
  • secure the ebrake cable assembly, right now they could get caught in the axles
  • Create a home for and secure the engine relays (fuel pump, etc)
  • Check all bolts...
  • Tear up the neighborhood 🙂

I have also had a few problems i have not been able to find solutions to yet...

  • I bought aluminum tanks, they have a vent line.... the garage now smells like gas. What is the best way to prevent the smell. Is there a smaller charcoal canister that is easier to hide then the factory unit? or do people just generally get a roll over valve and call it a day.
  • I have a check engine light and a code for EVAP. Makes sense as i have completely remove the factory evap system. How do i get rid of the code so i can trust the check engine light, should i find someone to reprogram the ECU or is there a way to trick the wiring into thinking its there?
24Jun/170

Mini Van Toad

I have a 2010 Dodge Caravans as our family vehicle, I want to tow this behind our RV when we go on trips.

I was able to pick up a BlueOx tow bar, mounts and Brake Buddy all used over the last few months but the one piece i cant seem to find used is the lube pump system that circulates lubricant though the transmission while the van is being towed.

I took a look at the Remco system and it seems overly priced for what it is. I can handle just about anything mechanical and have gone so far as to build a car from scratch in the past so these things don't really scare me.

So here's my idea. 

  1. Tap the oil pan with a standard fitting like this.
  2. Attach a standard lube pump like this
  3. Potentially add two solenoids and a Y fitting for the return line.

now the Remco pump has an alarm in the cab, this will easily be accomplished by adding a simple oil pressure sensor like this. It is possible to buy static pressure sensors that short the terminals together when a specific pressure is met. Simply wire this into the 7 way plug and up to a light and buzzer on the dash.

I bought:

I also had to buy a tap and die to put the pressure sensor into the 3 way fitting and I had to use a chunk of steel i had lying around to make a bracket.

Creation of the cable that goes between the RV and the car. At first i made it the full length of the wire i bought knowing i would have to make it smaller when i knew the proper length. All of these parts came from princess auto.

This is the 7 way plug that mounts on the van. Its from princess auto, the light portion of the plug goes to a 4 way plug after about 6" of wire.

This is the 4 way plug that i connect to the back of the 7 way plug to run the lights. The spool of wire snakes under the car to the tail lights

This is the fitting that comes on the pump. I assumed it was threaded and would come off so i put a wrench on it.. DONT DO THIS, it was a big mistake. The fitting is pressure fit in, once it comes off there is nothing threaded that you can use.... So i had to take the pump apart, drill a larger hole, tap and thread it with an NPT thread then put in a new fitting. It would have been easier to get an adapter that adapted the larger hose from the fitting to a smaller 3/8 hose... lesson learned 🙂

This is a 3/8 NPT fitting that i got for free that fits the pump perfectly. I sealed it with Teflon tape on the threads.

I bought two of these one way valves from amazon. In hindsight i would have bought the cheaper versions that i linked to in yesterdays thread.

Bolting on the towbar, all of these holes had to be drilled.... This is very hard to do, the steal you are drilling into is the vans structural support, its quite hard and thick. All of these bolts are put on with lock tite red.... they will never come off.

These fit into the tow bar, but mine wouldn't fit on the driver side, i had to file off a very small amount of the top of the T to get it to fit and turn smoothly. I bet a piece of the interior weld is left in the tow bar side.

Tow bar installed and bumper trimmed.

I made a simple mount for the pump.

I needed a way to monitor the function of the pump from the RV cab. I drilled a hole and tapped with a 1/8" NPT. This is where the pressure sensor will later mount.

Taps and tools i used

The assembled one way valves. Fittings and valves came from amazon

This is the 3 way setup with the installed pressure sensor, this sensor was later replaced with one that has a ground lead.

A dry run test of the pump to see how much it would pump at idle

if you look down at the transmission through this hole you can see two lines, the one on the driver side is the line you need to tap as its the output line. I cut about 3" from the transmission side. followed by the first one way valve, followed by another 2" of 3/8 hose, then the 3 way, then into the factory oil cooler. The other side of the 3 way heads to the new cooler then to the pump, from the pump it then heads to the oil pan pickup (in reality the fluid starts at the pan and works its way to the 3 way valve)

This is what the pump looks like with two fittings.

Removed the oil pan from the transmission, I bought a new filter and seal because now is a good time to change them. I will try and get a picture of where i put the fitting. Its on the passenger side, toward the rear of the pan as low down as i could get. I tapped the pan with a 3/8 npt tap and then put JBweld on the fitting threads before screwing it in. i then covered the inside and outside in JBWeld so the fitting will NEVER move again.

Final pump installed and living in its new home.

Bought a battery charger box from amazon that will slowly charge the battery, wired that into the trailer plug on the van, included another diode so the pump can pull power off the RV but not off the van. (30 minutes)

There is a factory cooler on my van, disconnected it and ran the engine for 5 seconds to see which side pumps out fluid, put the first one way valve on that followed by the 3 way with the pressure sensor. The new side of the 3 way goes to the 2nd one way valve then off to the cooler and then the pump. The other side of the pump goes to the transmission pan, you will need to take off the pan and tap it low so it picks up oil.

Now we need an alarm to know if things fail. I wired the spare pin on the 7 way plug on the van to the pressure sensor I installed into the 3 way. I then picked that wire up on the RV side and ran it back to the drivers area and wired it into the buzzer and light. So if the pressure sensor stops detecting pressure the buzzer goes off and the light goes on. I also wired that into a switch so i can turn the alarm off when i am not towing the van. Thats where I sit today. Next weekend i will tow it out for its first camping trip, I leave for a 10,000K trip that will last a little over a month in about 20 days..... so that will be the true test

So all in it was around $1500 CAD... or about $1130 USD... My amazon prime account covered almost all of the shipping charges.

I was a little worried that the pressure might be a little bit to high so i added a pressure gauge. The pressure that the Van creates on its own is within 2 PSI of the MR3 Power steering pump that i used (at idle)

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13Sep/160

Working out the Home Automation interface.

So over the last few days i have been playing with HTML5 and CSS to work out the best interface options for how automation could function.

So far I am leaning toward a node style interface. Elements could be added with a right click menu that provides inputs, outputs and decision conditions.

I still have a lot of interface work before turning my attention to the back end.

i need to:

  • Add a way to remove items. (right now you can only add them.
  • I have text boxes but i think it would be good to have drop downs, maybe check boxes or radio buttons but i am not sure about that one.
  • Create some Javascript that exports to JSON and sends back to the server on every edit. Should save the last 100 or so edits in a queue so i can add an undo button that works even weeks, months or years after the edit.
  • Create a JSON standard for how elements are added, put this in the database so adding new plugins can add new inputs/outputs/conditions.
  • The menu lists will be dynamic so i need to have an option for menu items to wrap around if they are more then 15 or so items.
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8Apr/160

Something not car related.

Its time to get the RV out so i started by charging the batteries.

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So i started thinking about how i can get TV shows and movies out to the RV.  So i came up with a pretty slick system.

  1. The RV now has a networked storage device with 6TB of storage (Built out of parts i had kicking around)
  2. The storage device connects to a router running OpenWRT that automatically bridges to my home network when its in range.
  3. I have a script running on my home server that launches every hour and looks for the storage device
  4. If the storage device is found it starts to sync
    1. All kids movies sync, it will delete any movies that were previously synced that no longer are marked as kids movies.
    2. All unwatched parents TV shows, it also cleans up and deletes anything that has been watched since the last sync.
    3. The top 50 unwatched movies.
    4. The ROMS folders that contain NES/SNES/etc games.
  5. Thats it.
    So the end result:I pull the RV in front of the house (like i do before every trip), I plug in shore power to the house overnight to top up the batteries and test everything.  This causes the storage box to automatically boot up and the router to auto connect which allows the movies to auto sync.  Now when we start out on our trip we have TB's of new TV and Movies to watch.
8Oct/150

another day a little more progress.

The guys on the "other forum" came to the rescue and I now have answers to most of my questions.

I cut off and ground the old mounts down
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test fit now without the bracket
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The trans will have to go up a little higher because the trans adapter hangs down under the car.
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Now I need a welder but first the welder plug. I made it to the hardware store 10 minutes before it closed and picked up the Nema 6-50 plug and what I though was the right sized plate. The store was closing so I had to move fast.... I guess I grabbed the wrong one, I will have to go back tomorrow.
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I am going to pick up a buddies Hobart gas mig this week, the plan now is to create cardboard templates of the brackets that I need to make, I will then take those to my friend to cut out on his CNC.

5Oct/150

I am going to have to make more time moving forward.

Volunteered to help build a garage... weekends lost.
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Volunteered to help remove a 25 Kva generator from a multi million dollar home because the owner let me keep it.
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After talking with the guy in that home he mentioned that he had a quad trail on his property that he wanted to use but it was now overgrown with trees. So he bought me a new chainsaw as payment to clear out the trail that covered 150 acres of land. I underestimated the time required for this, but it was a TON of fun. (and I got a free chainsaw :-))

I received my first order of Vspeedworks parts and they are really nice ( I needed the shifter mounts, figured I should order a few more parts while I was at it)
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I found this diagram that shows how to mount the slave, etc.
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Heres what It looked like complete.
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This is how I plan to get someone to help me lift it up.
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This weekend I am heading out camping (last time this year as the snow is already starting to fall here).... I hope to invest more time in the weeks to come.

13Sep/150

Productive Weekend.

So day one started with me going to work because something went wrong and i was on call so i didnt get quite as far as i wanted.

Day One

  • Garage Cleaned up
  • All Bolts tightened to spec.
  • Steering wheel mounted
  • Pushed the car down the driveway, spun around and placed onto the lift with the back facing out. (ready for the engine)
  • Picked up the engine hoist from a friend.
  • Engine s
    • ensors removed and replaced with FF units as per instructions.

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    Day two

    • alternator bolted on
    • Air-cond pump bolted on
    • Tensioner setup
    • Serpentine belts put on
    • Removed the engine from its stand and placed onto crane
    • bolted the engine mounts back on
    • Put the block heater back in (got in the way of the stand)
    • covered the inside of the engine bay with blankets
    • tried to fit the engine in.
    • realized that the manual was right and the thermostat does have to come off to fit.
    • removed thermostat, tried again
    • bolted engine in, held back end up with ratchet strap
    • bolted the starter ring and flywheel on.
    • put the bearing onto the flywheel
    • put the trans/engine adapter plate on, (realized i only had one bolt that would work)
    • Went to the store to buy more bolts.
    • bolted the adapter on.
    • bolted the clutch on
    • installed the clutch slave onto the trans
    • installed the pilot bearing, etc. onto the trans.
    • identified and purchased the bolts required to mount the trans....
    • .... ran out of time.

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    My wife is out tomorrow evening so i should have enough time to mount the trans to the engine and the rear support.

5Aug/150

At the drive in at deer foot mall

They do this every Wednesday for 5 weeks in the summer, this is our second time out. A little more rain then last time. 

  

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4Aug/150

Quad is fixed again

brakes and cooling system are fixed. Not sure where all the coolent went, doesn't seem to leak, doesn't seem to be burning it.  

  

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