|
Oh ok, that's a decent distance from me. My house and my parents' are both right by the racetrack and Zach White Elementary. For anybody not familiar with El Paso and its weather, even being just a mile apart can yield vastly different weather patterns here. My house and my parents' are less than a mile apart, and we frequently experience different weather. Last week I got absolutely blasted in a rainstorm while my parents barely had a light drizzle.
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2019 01:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 3, 2024 08:36 |
|
|
Well, it's been a while. Work has been nuts and I'd kill for a night where I get to sleep more than four hours, but that's neither here nor there. I've been travelling a lot, but progress has been made! I'll start with the tuba stuff (yes, I'm finally going to explain the valve venting), what there is of it. Let's start with my first lovely picture, the valve section of my Besson:  I'm using the first valve because it's the easiest to see, in my opinion, but if my explanation is rubbish or needs better visuals, let me know. The blue arrow is on the leadpipe, which is what carries the air/vibrations you put into the horn through the rest of it. With the valve up, the air just flows through the valve section and out the bell of the horn without rerouting through any additional tubing, so the red arrow tubing is not used when the valve is up. When the valve is up like this, the face of the valve seals against the tubing ports to prevent leakage, and particularly on older horns you can see the stain left by the tubing ports, crudely circled in red below:  On un-vented valves, the temperature difference between the open bugle of the horn and the valve tubing creates a vacuum inside the valve tubing, which usually (on horns with valves that aren't worn to poo poo) creates a pop when the valve is depressed inside the horn and causes minor turbulence to the air stream. If you don't move your slides, this isn't much more than an occasional minor annoyance. However, if you move slides while you play like I do, pulling the slide out creates a rather large vacuum and the resulting pop was enough to shift my embouchre or suck the slide back in, leaving me with either manipulating the center of the pitch with my lips (doable, but doesn't always let you get the best sound), or risking missing notes. Working as a musician, this was supremely undesirable, so I read up a bit on venting valves and decided to just go for it. Every repair person I talked to told me I'd end up ruining my valves (and at several hundred per valve and up to a year's wait, that was a touch frightening), but I've never really been one to be cautious. Back to the stain left on the valve. The idea is to drill a hole precisely in the center of that stain (where the center of the valve tubing is) and only go through the outer wall of the valve. I went with a 1/8" hole, chucked a bit into my drill press and held the valve with a rubber footed clamp. The result:  De-burred and the whole valve polished with 2000 grit. This picture is after 7? years of use (they're stainless steel), so a bit of staining has come back and you can faintly make out where the valve port is. My hole isn't 100% centered, but it really doesn't matter at all as long as it's close. The reason drilling that hole works to relieve the pressure/vacuum is because piston valves are hollow! So any time I move my slides, the air is pushed through the hole in the side of the valve and out the bottom port:  Now I move my slides whenever I feel like and don't have to worry about the damned pop anymore. I still miss plenty of notes, but that's on me for not practicing enough  Today I made a start on swapping the leadpipe on my big Conn before becoming violently ill. It started the morning with the leadpipe I bent up and installed on it  The original hugged the bell stack (you can see the scars), but I wanted mine lifted off the bell - it allows the horn to vibrate more freely, and more importantly for me, it let me position the mouthpiece receiver more comfortably. I plan to re-use my leadpipe on another horn, so the stock one needs to go back on. 30 seconds with the blowtorch gives me:  I'm clearly not a professional, I burned the life out of the lacquer, but oh well. I'll polish it when I'm done, most of the horn is bare brass anyway. It was at this time that I started feeling pretty bad, but I did manage to test fit the original leadpipe, only to find out that the dent work I had done by a local shop (I need to buy smaller dent balls so I can do my own work on leadpipes in the future) warped the leadpipe pretty badly. I'm going to need to get my hands on either pitch or lead so that I can rebend the pipe to fit, but that can wait until I'm not sick. I also need to figure out a ferrule to join the leadpipe to the valve block, the one I used doesn't work with the factory pipe. I think I may end up expanding the end of the leadpipe to match the valveblock better, but I'm not sure the best way to go about expanding that end. It's supposed to be a .750 inner diameter, but it's closer to .720, not ideal (hooray for Conn's lack of quality control). I'd love any suggestions, maybe a plumbing swaging tool? On to the vehicles! First up was the Saturn, I've managed to install a new plastic goober in the rear window track  The c-clamp was definitely overkill, but the snap it made was pretty awesome, I thought I'd snapped the c-clamp for a second. Fun note, from what I've read the procedure advised by Saturn was to heat up the ball on the regulator arm with a blowtorch and then slam it into the plastic bit for a perfect fit. I'm not positive that's true, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was. Having four working windows is incredible, I've barely run the A/C since getting all the windows fixed. The Saturn also got a hat  It's growing on me, but I'm not crazy about it. On the bright side, it keeps the sunroof from blowing open until I can bodge some sort of latch onto it. I went up to my grandparent's in mid-September for a bit of a break from work (didn't happen, I worked the whole time) and for the annual Pie Town Pie Festival (definitely happened, I ate nothing but pie for a whole day). I decided I felt like taking the suburban (because a 10mpg truck is the logical/responsible road trip vehicle), so some maintenance needed to be accomplished. I finally tracked down the wiring short that was keeping the torque converter locked up all the time (I'd just been running with it unplugged since I rarely get all the way up into OD anyway), changed the oil, replaced the alternator and both idler pulleys and swapped the PCV valve for a breather before the trip. The amount of oil running out of the PCV hose was disturbing - swapping to a breather feels like I gained 20+ horsepower and the motor runs so much smoother than before. If you'll bear with me, I'll waffle on a bit about the trip. It actually ended up being a good thing I drove the truck, I ended up picking up horse feed for my grandparents on the way up. Just the suburban doing truck stuff  Went out the next day with my grandpa to dig up the three valves going to one of his big drink tanks (they'd all cracked), but the ground was like concrete, so we dug about a foot and decided to wait for rain to soften up the ground.  His ranch truck is a bone stock 1996 F150 with slightly under 70k miles on it, complete with hantavirus. As my grandpa told me, he vacuums dead mice out of the vents at least twice a year and they make nests in the truck year round  No A/C (factory) and it has a tape deck that he uses to listen to opera when he cruises his land in the evenings with either a whiskey or a gin and tonic. He likes to park on the top of this hill: and look out over his land   Oh, and lest ye think my grandma is any less awesome than my grandpa, she's responsible for organizing the San Augustin Water Coalition to fight the assholes from Albuquerque who have been buying up land in rural New Mexico in order to pipe the aquifer water into the big city. She's been going at it for 10 years now, and they're winning the fight! One of her billboards on the way out of the San Augustin Plains  Went to the Pie Festival the next day, gained weight, saw some neat hot rods (well one hot rod, one rat rod)     got rained on, got hailed on, got rained on again, and then I drove home, whereupon I found this  in the driver's fender well of the truck, along with oil all over the underside of the hood, the inner fender, the suspension, basically everything. That breather I installed - trashed, completely saturated in oil. So I figured, what the hell, the truck's old, the engine's tired, the blowby is obviously worse than I though, let's install some catch cans.   Yes, my wiring is in abysmal shape. Yes, my fan shroud is patched with stickers and duct tape. Yes, the air filter cover is supposed to be black. Yes, I did all this in an Autozone parking lot. I do plan on replacing the full wiring harness, because it's totally hosed. I guess catching fire a half dozen times will do that (fuel leaks are a bitch, it now has braided stainless lines). Also. Every. Single. Connector. Is. Broken. I did none of that, I've just been living with it for 15 years. I'll probably go with a Painless harness unless somebody knows of a reason I shouldn't. After installing the catch cans, I went for a bit of a jaunt through the countryside, and came back to discover oil in even more places than before. After some investigation, I discovered the passenger side valve cover was pulling insane vacuum, along with the dipstick. I was never 100% confident the intake manifold sealed correctly, and this seems to confirm that. I parked it for this week and new gaskets are on order, so I'll do that on Thursday this week most likely. Saturday, I plan to do the head gasket on my sister's Saturn (and maybe make that car mine). Nothing too exciting this update, but progress nonetheless.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2019 05:04
|
|
|
Ooh, this Pie Town?  Do they still have pie with green chilies in it?
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2019 05:31
|
|
|
Everything in New Mexico can be had with green chiles in it. THE WAY GOD INTENDED.  A Small Car posted:Oh ok, that's a decent distance from me. My house and my parents' are both right by the racetrack and Zach White Elementary. Dunno how I missed this, but... you're right by my dad's house. Are you in oh hell no that was a bad idea? e: actually, drop me an email at awfulbean at the gmail dot com, I don't think we need to dump super personally identifiable info in here. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 09:38 on Sep 24, 2019 |
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2019 09:30
|
|
|
That's the one! I have to admit though, I usually go to the cafe on the other side of the street. They do still sell pie with green chilies, though I spent my time this year cramming as much strawberry-rhubarb into my face as possible (in my defense, it had been almost 20 years since the last time I had some). I'm not sure how recently you were out there, but the cafe in your picture changed ownership not that long ago and I think they both reduced their hours fairly substantially this year. STR, I'll drop you a line shortly. Not that I would have particularly cared if anybody found me from this thread. There's pictures of my truck on here, I'm pretty easy to find just from that
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2019 20:44
|
|
|
I was there about a year ago, the proprietor seemed like the owner, and he said business was very slow, which is odd since they're the only place to eat on the way to/from world famous tourist attraction the Very Large Array. Something about eating a pulled-pork sandwich, with green chillies, and a slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie (I also forewent the chillies) for dessert, served by an old man, in a town of 30 people named after both a dessert and the town specialty, after seeing a modern marvel of technology named after its size, in absolutely gorgeous, if a bit rugged and barren, just tickled me pink, and made it one of my favorite memories from a 6kmi road trip. Also, I didn't know that Tubas were so cool and steampunk when it comes to inner workings!
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2019 05:21
|
|
|
There really isn't anything else unless you go to Quemado or Magdalena (although I'm not sure Everett's is open anymore either). They opened a new restaurant in Datil briefly, but it didn't even make it a year. If you ever head back to that area, I'd recommend a green chile cheeseburger at the Eagle Guest (the steaks are pretty good too) in Datil and then just have pie and coffee in Pie Town. Your experience seems to match with everyone else I've talked to about driving through that part of the world, it really is something else. For anyone who hasn't seen the VLA, we're talking about this:   27 big rear end dishes that spread out to varying degrees along a Y, each leg of which is 13 miles long. I've been lucky enough to see them moving a dish once, I just hung out on the side of the road for a few hours and watched. If you're ever in the area, check it out, the visitor's center is actually rather good, lots of info and exhibits, and it's cool to see all the old diesel trucks running around. Fun fact that sprung to my mind (because of course I have a repository of information concerning weird diesels in there), if you ever happen to visit the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, WV, they run nothing but old diesels there (including a few Checker Marathons, old CUCV's etc.), because they're the only things that don't interfere with the telescopes. Even door chimes are enough to interfere! Glad you're enjoying the tuba stuff! I've decided to order some cerrobend for the leadpipe, so I'll get back on that as soon as it arrives. The best part about the cerrobend is that it can be liquefied in a double boiler setup on the stove and can just be cleaned out with boiling water. Much nicer than pitch - the last time I had to melt that out of a leadpipe, I hit a weak spot in the brass and it exploded into my face. Luckily I only lost my eyelashes and eyebrows and just looked like an alien for a bit. In other news, I cleaned out the trunk of the Saturn today and found the old ignition control module from my truck!  Clearly, that melted in one of the fires (the most recent, to be precise). It actually ran like that for a good year before dying on the road one day. Fortunately, I consider that a normal failure part and almost always carry a spare. My new intake gaskets also showed up today  As is immediately obvious, there are 5 sets of gaskets there. I triple checked, and I only ordered and paid for one, so I guess when I fail this round of "will it leak" I've already got spares on hand.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2019 21:02
|
|
|
A Small Car posted:STR, I'll drop you a line shortly. Not that I would have particularly cared if anybody found me from this thread. There's pictures of my truck on here, I'm pretty easy to find just from that I'm more concerned with someone looking up my dad. Someone on the forums torpedoed a job for me several years ago, I'm a bit paranoid since then. He's self employed and nearing retirement, but I don't need some random goon looking him up and making his life miserable.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2019 22:40
|
|
|
That's right, I'd forgotten that happened to you. Pretty lovely thing to do to someone, I don't blame you for being paranoid and careful about it since then.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2019 23:46
|
|
|
My plan yesterday was to start bright and early on the intake and be done by noon. That failed immediately because I decided I needed to make a Banofee Pie instead of getting started on the truck (blame all the Pie Town talk). Picture is poo poo, pie was not. Lucky thing I made it too, it was the only thing I ate all day  The rest of the day was a good lesson in why you should plan things out beforehand. Got the intake pulled in about half an hour, was very pleased to see that the inside of the motor looked quite good (ignore the spilled coolant, it all got mopped up and the oil and coolant were both changed) and the intake itself wasn't too filthy.   Proceeded to then spend the rest of the day running back and forth between various stores (and working. On my day off, naturally) for little odds and ends that I needed and didn't get beforehand (including a tap to clean out the threads in the heads) and finally got the thing bolted back together a bit before sunset. Goofed initial timing and set it to 12 degrees before TDC, but it still ran. Re-set it to 4 degrees of advance (TBI is supposed to be zero, but rules be damned. It runs better advanced slightly) and it seems reaaaaallllly happy now. Went home to sleep and started thinking about all the emissions plumbing and a nagging thought appeared - what if it's not right? Decided to skip the gym and sort it before work today. There's supposed to be a sticker with all the emissions routing on the core support, but mine is almost entirely gone, so I pulled this guy  up to check against. Turns out that nagging thought was right, every single line was wrong (and had been that way since before the truck became mine  ) I don't have an EGR and haven't for a while (when it turned 25, to be exact), but the MAP sensor was plugged in where the EGR should be, the PCV line was in the wrong valve cover, the charcoal canister was plumbed funny, and the port in the air cleaner riser was just plain blocked off. Unsurprisingly, putting everything in the proper place has resulted in a lower idle, fewer oil leaks (so far), no more vacuum in the passenger side head, and vastly improved running. Maybe I'll even see an improvement in mileage! (I'm not holding my breath there)Now I just need to decide if I want to do the head gasket on my sister's car (which will be mine soon  ), or go troll the junkyard and steal more parts off all the new Saturn arrivals. I have half a mind to find the ugliest rear bumper I can to slap on my sister's car (hers is garbage, she's backed into too many things). I don't know if I've talked much about this car (and I can't be bothered to check), but it's painted "blackberry." When I bought it originally, the passenger front fender was half gone and I spent 10 months tracking down a clean one. Less than a month after putting it on and giving her the car, she side-swiped someone, destroying not only that fender, but the bumper too. I picked the least offensive color the yard had on hand to fix it and called it good enough I think a yellow rear bumper as punishment would be fantastic
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2019 04:04
|
|
|
A Small Car posted:
Isn't driving a Saturn punishment enough?
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2019 11:16
|
|
|
S series cars were decent. I had one as a 2nd car and it treated me fairly well. It took some high school and early college abuse very well and helped me learn to drive manual.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2019 14:04
|
|
|
Agreed, the OG Saturns are serious cockroaches. They burn oil like crazy due to the ring design, but they're really hard to kill. They just keep running so long as you do the most basic maintenance, and I've seen a handful with over 500k (miles) on the original motor and transaxle. The later platform-shared ones are hit and miss. My first Ion was insanely reliable. My second one is a pile of poo poo. I'd honestly love to get a 3rd gen SC2 or SW2 with a manual, but the SW2 with a manual is pretty drat rare. And it's really loving ugly. The SC2 was actually an okay looking car in its day, and can be kinda fun. The OP's sister's car appears to be a late 2nd gen SC2; you can also see some similarities to the Ion Coupe on the 2nd and 3rd gen SC. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Sep 28, 2019 |
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2019 15:43
|
|
|
Nothing real to add except that the s-series cars are indeed cockroaches. You really only need to do two things ever to keep them running: keep oil in them, and change the plastic nosed ECTS to the updated brass nose one (and the wiring to it if it's corroded). Everything else is basically optional, including timing chains. I've heard some that sound like marbles in a paint can from the timing chain being so worn, and they just kept chugging along like that. The twin cam cars are definitely more fun to drive, and I've always found them to be decently zippy little things. They're also extremely cheap and easy to work on, which I very much like. STR is spot on, my sister's is a '99. I will say that across the board, I think the looks of Saturns are improved by lowering them. Mine's lowered 1.5" if I remember right and it looks much better than my sister's at stock height (I may be biased). You can sort of see it in this picture. My insane pipe dream is to someday own a Saturn wagon that I've mounted a giant diesel in the back of. It may not even be feasible, but I sure want to try it. e: A Small Car fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Sep 29, 2019 |
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2019 21:09
|
|
|
Agreed that they look better dropped a little. Hell, just replacing the suspension on my Ion raised the ride height a bit (not sure if the springs were just sagging that bad, or if the new ones were a bit taller), and it made it look like a 4x4. Even after giving the springs time to settle, the front is still way up in the air.
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2019 12:32
|
|
|
I have a potentially interesting update! Part of it anyway lol. I'm "off" on Thursdays, so I went out to my friend's dad's junkyard (nobody else in the city has old square body Chevrolets like he does) and robbed this guy  of the sway bar, sway bar mounts, and spring plates (you can sorta see them in the picture). My truck hasn't had a sway bar for years because I deemed it to need more flex offroad as a dumbass teenager. I don't wheel it anymore and I'm tired of the body roll, wandering steering (this isn't solely the sway bar's fault), and bump steer every time I hit a pothole, so when the new suspension arrives, back on the sway bar goes. Requisite junkyard visit accomplished, I turned my attention back to the current tuba on the chopping block. As a quick reminder, here's where it started:  That was removed, and I was waiting on some cerrobend to arrive. For anybody not familiar with it, I'll quote wikipedia: "Wood's metal, also known as Lipowitz's alloy or by the commercial names Cerrobend, Bendalloy, Pewtalloy and MCP 158, is a eutectic, fusible alloy with a melting point of approximately 70 °C (158 °F). It is a eutectic alloy of 50% bismuth, 26.7% lead, 13.3% tin, and 10% cadmium by weight." This stuff is fantastic, I'm never going to mess with any other bending medium again. Onto re-bending the leadpipe! Step 1, put your cerrobend in a double boiler  Step 2, bake your leadpipe in the oven. Zesty!  Step 3, take your now liquid cerrobend  and pour it into the leadpipe (that has been expertly stoppered with masking tape)  Test fitting it on the horn again to get a starting position, you can see the problem   Mating the leadpipe to the valve block squarely, without any gaps, results in the thing sticking way off the horn and a very uncomfortable playing angle. Having a "floating" leadpipe is very much the in thing in the tuba world right now, but that's too extreme to live with. I didn't trust myself not to kink the leadpipe, even with the cerrobend in it, so I bent it more gently than perhaps it needed (using my thigh and knee to bend it around. Bruises galore today). A few trial fittings later and it mates up nice and square with the valve block, hugs the bell stack much more tightly, meets the brace at the mouthpiece end perfectly, and if I need to, I can make it floating, or solder it to the bell stack. It doesn't hug the stack as tightly as I'd like coming out of the valve block, but the bending required to make it so would probably do more harm than good at this point. Plan is to solder it to the stack to start, and pull it off slightly if I decide I don't like that.     Overall, I'm quite pleased with that. It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than before. Now it just needs to be soldered in place and I can start clean up on the horn. Decided to end the day with a plum tart (photo skills are, as usual, garbage). 
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2019 03:53
|
|
|
Trucks, horns and pies, a great set of posts. What's the best way of cleaning the cerrobend out of the pipe after you're done and how confident are you about leaving no lead or cadmium in there?
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2019 23:30
|
|
|
Thanks! With the melting point of the cerrobend being so low (and based on the research I've done), there shouldn't be any issue with it sticking/bonding to the brass of the leadpipe. My plan is to submerge the leadpipe in a large pot of boiling water (I have several enormous pots) and simply let it melt out that way. The brass should never get hot enough for a bond to form between it and the cerrobend, and possibly more importantly for the application, it will never reach annealing temperature (dead soft leadpipes are a very bad idea lol). I'll still scrub out the inside of the leadpipe afterwards, and if I do suspect any contamination remains I'll scrub the inside with some sort of strong acid and then neutralize it. If some inadvertent bonding occurs, I'm not terribly worried about it because a) it will be bonded to the leadpipe and won't be going anywhere, b) unless you're drinking your spit back out the leadpipe, you really shouldn't be coming in contact with anything inside there more than the occasional drip here and there, and c) there's already lead in the brass, and with this being an old horn, all the solder (except what I put on) is lead based as well. I think overall it should be perfectly safe with no contamination, but I'm more than happy to listen to advice if I'm wrong. All that said, I am looking into Field's metal as a safer alternative A Small Car fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Oct 29, 2019 |
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 00:30
|
|
|
Oh god, now i want a compressor powered Tuba mounted on my roof.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 14:12
|
|
|
I have a beater horn that I haven't pulled apart yet I could sell you for cheap. Or possibly even better, I have the bugle from a horn that I pulled the valve section out of that I could send you. We all know what the right choice is here 
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 19:14
|
|
|
I just want to blast the fat person waddle song at slow jaywalkers.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 21:55
|
|
|
Is that the one from Family Guy that Stewie plays? I'm not sure how you could rig a compressor up to play that without a lot of programming and gadgetry, it may be more cost effective to just hire a tuba player to stand in your bed. We are, by nature, cheap and agreeable to most things
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 22:24
|
|
|
A Small Car posted:Is that the one from Family Guy that Stewie plays? I'm not sure how you could rig a compressor up to play that without a lot of programming and gadgetry, it may be more cost effective to just hire a tuba player to stand in your bed. We are, by nature, cheap and agreeable to most things Or the villain's theme from the original Superman movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moA6RGE_MzM
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 23:01
|
|
|
I approve! I believe the soundtrack for the original Superman was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, so it would have been John Fletcher playing tuba at that time. Because I am a nerd, Fletcher started his career playing the famous 3+1 Besson Eb (his chief modification to the horn, a shortening of one of the inner bows to create an overall sharp tuba is known as the "Fletcher Cut," and is a subject of continued debate as to its effectiveness), but became increasingly dissatisfied with the extensive 4th valve use required for most orchestral repertoire and acquired a Holton 345 CC tuba (itself a copy of the world famous Chicago Symphony York that Arnold Jacobs played, though I can't remember if #1 or #2 is the one that was copied. The CSO Yorks and their continued influence on modern tuba designs and playing characteristics are a hell of a subject in themselves) to make the lower register playing more easily accessible. Most likely, that's the horn he's using on the recording you linked.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2019 00:32
|
|
|
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQFMr4Wwb0 I want one.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2019 01:01
|
|
|
Lol, that's one use for a trombone. I raise you a true assault instrument, the giant tuba owned by Harvard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itCUYzTXHNk (giant tuba playing starts at about an hour and 6 minutes) Yet another Besson built instrument originally, it seems to have originally been commissioned by Patrick Gilmore as more of a publicity stunt than anything else. It was restored by Harvard to celebrate the band's 100th anniversary, and Mike Roylance (very nice man and a hell of player) played a brief solo on it with the band. The Harvard tuba is notable for being the largest fully functional tuba in the world (there are larger tubas, but they don't have functional valves, they're just huge bugles and are therefore boring).
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2019 01:35
|
|
|
I prefer medium bulges, myself. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2019 03:37
|
|
|
Lol, I see what you did there
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2019 03:41
|
|
|
Holy poo poo, could i put a limit strap on a trombone slide so my air-horn tone changes based on whether i'm braking or accelerating? Could i really make a G-force based "mad horn" and "happy horn"?
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2019 16:42
|
|
|
A Small Car posted:I approve! I believe the soundtrack for the original Superman was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, so it would have been John Fletcher playing tuba at that time. Because I am a nerd, Fletcher started his career playing the famous 3+1 Besson Eb (his chief modification to the horn, a shortening of one of the inner bows to create an overall sharp tuba is known as the "Fletcher Cut," and is a subject of continued debate as to its effectiveness), but became increasingly dissatisfied with the extensive 4th valve use required for most orchestral repertoire and acquired a Holton 345 CC tuba (itself a copy of the world famous Chicago Symphony York that Arnold Jacobs played, though I can't remember if #1 or #2 is the one that was copied. The CSO Yorks and their continued influence on modern tuba designs and playing characteristics are a hell of a subject in themselves) to make the lower register playing more easily accessible. Most likely, that's the horn he's using on the recording you linked. this is giving me so many tubenet flashbacks 
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2019 17:31
|
|
|
Powershift posted:Holy poo poo, could i put a limit strap on a trombone slide so my air-horn tone changes based on whether i'm braking or accelerating? I see no reason why this couldn't work, I think you need to try it and report back. I might even have an old trombone kicking around for the cause  zundfolge, my apologies! That's not a place I venture very much these days, but the wealth of information (and misinformation) to be found there that doesn't exist anywhere else brings me back from time to time. Oh and I do buy way too much poo poo from the classifieds there.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2019 19:15
|
|
|
I'll have an update a little later in the week when I have time to put together a full post, but in the meantime, somebody lie to me and tell me this isn't the rod knock I think it is. https://i.imgur.com/JXRLd25.mp4 (I have no idea how to make video embed like the images, sorry guys)
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2019 00:15
|
|
|
Uhhh, could be an exhaust leak, or valvetrain noise?
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2019 01:24
|
|
|
=Maybe it's just a missing spark plug 
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2019 01:44
|
|
|
If the noise didn't come and go maybe I'm going to re-torque the exhaust and do a valve adjustment before work tomorrow (and check the plugs), but I don't have the highest hopes. There is some pretty wicked slap/knock on startup (it always goes away within a second or two).
|
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2019 01:47
|
|
|
It's update time! I'll start with the Saturn since I worked on it first. Both of the dogbones (torque struts) were shot, and had been for a while. I picked up a set of the Prothane inserts (https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ptp-7-510/overview/make/saturn), though mine were black, and pulled some cleaner dogbones from the junkyard to install them in. Installation was a breeze, and holy cow does the car drive better. I shouldn't be surprised, one of the dogbones fell apart when I took it out. Vibration at idle is much worse, but meh. It's a rattly plastic car anyway, I don't particularly care if it gets a bit worse. Discovered the water pump was weeping, so I tossed a new one of those in too. The fun part was the new valve cover. This generation SL2 got a plastic valve cover, fine, lots of cars have those, but the Saturn ones are very prone to warping, and that's exactly what mine did. It had been blowing oil all over the AC compressor for a while and I finally decided to do something about it. '93-'95 SL2s have an aluminum valve cover with the same bolt pattern as the 2nd gen covers, sans one hole on the back (not needed, because they don't warp like the plastic ones), so naturally I picked the nastiest one I could find in the yard and brought it home. Cleaned it up (oven cleaner is your friend), stripped all the old paint off, and decided to have fun with it.  No installed pic, but I love it The best part was watching my dad try to wrap his head around the fact that I painted it.The truck got some love too, in the form of new suspension. I'd been planning this for a while, but I really should have done it years ago. In progress saggy rear end shot, and finished product:   It's a 2" lift in the front, 3" in the back, new shocks all the way around, and all new bushings up front. It's kinda weird to drive now because it doesn't wander all over the road anymore, or slam into the bump stops on every pothole. Of course, to thank me for all that work, the engine decided to be a dick. More on that below. I'd mentioned in the first post that I had a Conn Eb that had been out more or less on permanent loan since I bought it. I'm working at getting out of debt currently, so I finally brought that home to sell it (and apparently put the money towards a motor now). It'll get a cleanup, valve alignment, all that good stuff before I sell it, but the guy who was borrowing it still needs a horn, so instead of finishing the BAT (big rear end tuba) I've been working on, I shifted over to the cavalry horn to get that functional for him. This guy, so you don't have to dig through my posts:  Jesus, what a mess it was/is. Lending credence to it being a cavalry horn, every single valve cap was packed full of dirt, as were most of the slide crooks. You can see how nasty the inner slide legs were, and this is after they'd all been scrubbed once:  A few of the slides were stuck, so over the course of a day or so, I fed lamp oil down along the inner slide and then gently, and I mean gently, hammered them out using old rags as padding in the crooks. Luckily, they came out without much fuss. I ended up scrubbing all the slides with dish soap, polishing the crooks with silver polish, scrubbing with dish soap, snaking the insides, polishing the inner slide legs with 2000 grit sandpaper, and scrubbing everything with dish soap again to get them presentable, functional, and most importantly, clean. In the process, the first slide just fell apart  The valves needed a similar treatment, sans silver polish, and with a far lighter touch on the 2000 grit. They're in poo poo shape, so they need thicker oil to work decently, but they do work. I'm waiting on a borescope to be able to accurately align them (the casings are too small for any of my mirrors), so I'll take care of that soon. Originally, all of the alignment was done with corks, but they were all rotten or damaged, so I'll be using felts. I prefer the feel of felt anyway, it's less bouncy, and much quieter. I did a quick wire up on the broken slide  and soldered it and the broken brace on the main slide tubing  back together. Both pictures are pre-solder. I'm going to redo the slide solder, I'm not happy with it, but that's a five minute job, so I'm not too worried. Once I do that and align the valves, this one will go out on indefinite loan. I may charge for this one as a rental, we'll see. For anybody who hasn't done a deep clean on a tuba before, have I got an opportunity for you! Seriously though, it's a lovely job. It generally takes me 8-10 hours to get a horn cleaned, polished, and adjusted, and most of it is spent hunched or kneeling. The transformation is sure worth it though, I love discovering all the neat little details buried under the grime. On this horn, for example, I found that all of the valve caps were in the wrong place because the markings had long ago been buried by all the dirt. Functionally, it doesn't make a difference, but it's nice to put them in their proper place. Ok, back to the truck A Small Car posted:If the noise didn't come and go maybe For the truck, I'm torn between two options: 1) I could just slap a long block in it (https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/059/8758/10002/-1) and call it a day. This is definitely the easiest option, and also the cheapest 2) I can upgrade to a Vortec motor (https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/059/0282/10002/-1), add a good intake, and put a standalone EFI on top (probably https://www.jegs.com/i/FITech-Fuel-Injection/546/30003/10002/-1). This would result in more power, probably better mileage/longevity, and would bypass the utter garbage that is the current wiring, but is a hell of a lot more expensive. I'm leaning towards this option anyway because I think it would be more reliable, and I'd rather have a roller cam than flat tappet. I'm pretty sure I can just upgrade the in-tank pump and mostly leave the fuel system alone, but I need to talk to FiTech to be sure. I'll tear down the block in the truck after it gets yanked so I can see what's going on inside (nothing good, I'm quite sure) and probably keep it kicking around as a spare I can build up when I inevitably buy something that needs a motor. I'm not positive it'll be a good core though, it's already 0.040 over and not in great shape. Other than that, I went and saw the Big Boy when it came through town:  I have better pictures, but they're all on film I haven't developed yet, naturally. I love all trains, but I fell in love with the Big Boy as a wee lad, and it's always held the top spot in my heart. I actually went out to Wyoming to watch 4014's inaugural run after the restoration, and I'm slowly working my way around to all the ones on display around the country - 4005, 4006, and 4014 so far, 4017 will probably be in 2020. Sadly, I missed 4004 in Cheyenne, I was too busy chasing 4014, so I'll have to go back to that someday. To close, I leave you with a cinnamon plum spice cake, with cardamom cream cheese frosting and almond praline on top (plums were great this year, I wanted to use more of them) 
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2019 03:23
|
|
|
My opinion of the stock L31 is that it's a I cobbled together my own motor, and ended up basically with this: https://www.jegs.com/i/Blueprint-Engines/138/BP3503CT1/10002/-1 But I ended up spending more by piece-mealing it. I should have just spent a little more up front on this: https://www.jegs.com/i/Blueprint-Engines/138/BP3833CT1/10002/-1 It would have saved me time and hassle overall, and is close to what I ended up spending anyway. Then again, it's a truck you're putting it into, not a sports car. What are your objectives? A used LS motor is a touch more work, but it is cheaper and better than a crate motor. Might even last a couple years. They're new enough that you don't have to automatically rebuild them before trusting them, like you would a junkyard L31. Raluek fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Nov 6, 2019 |
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2019 10:59
|
|
|
That Saturn valve cover is awesome. If you haven't already, sand the paint off the SATURN logo so it's bare aluminum and then clear the whole thing.
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2019 15:07
|
|
|
Raluek posted:My opinion of the stock L31 is that it's a I basically agree, except that it's less limp-dicked than a stock TBI motor lol. It also lends itself far more easily to upgrades in the future, should I decide to go that route. Honestly, the truck doesn't even get used as a truck much anymore - I don't tow with it, I don't 4 wheel it, I don't move poo poo with it, it's essentially just a cruiser/daily driver at this point. I don't think I need more than 300hp for that (much as I think I'd love tons of horsepower), and I don't particularly want to have to upgrade the transmission, the rear end, etc. to accommodate more power. I'm pretty happy with it being an underpowered stock truck, as boring and non-AI as that is. I thought about going the used LS route, but the 700r4s don't seem to live long behind them, and 4L80Es (I wouldn't bother with a 4L60E) are stupid expensive, plus you need t-case adapters on top of that, relocate motor and transmission mounts, and so on, it just doesn't seem worth the work or expense. I'm also wary of used motors, I got royally hosed on the last one I bought. If I'm really honest with myself, it probably makes the most sense to just put a TBI long block in it and call it a day, but even with not wanting/needing gobs of power that just seems so boring. That said, if I kill the motor in the wagon any time soon after I finally get it running, all bets are off for what goes in there. Boaz - I haven't taken the paint off all the script on the vc yet, but I'm planning to soon. I even polished the lettering before I painted to make that step easier
A Small Car fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Feb 12, 2021 |
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2019 20:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 3, 2024 08:36 |
|
|
Raluek posted:My opinion of the stock L31 is that it's a 216hp is probably also a result of them keeping the rippems down on that one for marine / industrial use - they're quoting peak power at only 4000, instead of 4600 as it was in production trucks. If I were going for a low-effort upgrade, I agree that a Blueprint SBC is drat near impossible to beat, since it will bolt up to everything you've already got. But if you're really more concerned about cost than anything else, a junkyard LS with a 4L60E (if you trust the 700R4 enough, no reason not to trust the 4L60E) is probably going to be cheaper than a Blueprint engine + Fitech fuel injection. The biggest cost question then would be fueling the LS and time versus money. You have a pre-OBDII truck at least so you don't need to worry about that, and I think at this point the various aftermarket plug-and-play computer/harness combos for the LS can be had for about the same cost as paying someone to rebuild the factory harness and buying HPTuners. The cheapest possible solution on the LS would be to do the wiring yourself and using something like LSDroid to reflash it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2019 20:49
|
|
