zoom-freakin'-zoom: 2008

12.30.2008

Dynos and Mustangs

I'm trying to put all my videos on YouTube instead of the misc other sites they're posted on...so here are two I pulled from the NETC site...

A ride in my dad's car:

And the video from the '07 NETC Dyno Day:

12.29.2008

Dad's Car...

...is a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1. 351 Windsor with a Tremec 5 speed trans, and all sorts of goodies ;)

Here's a preview...many more vids to come this year.

New Project

Here's a very quick tour of my project for next year. It's not exactly new...we've had it for almost five years now...

1977 Chevy Corvette L82

111k miles...THM350 trans...

Needs a good deal of steering bushings, a new battery and some welding...as well as interior and paint, but cosmetic stuff is last on the list...

12.23.2008

I finally took some videos off my camera. Camera is a Samsung 8.1mp point and shoot digital camera that takes decent video. The mount is from Ocean State Job Lot and is made by Targus...cost me $6! So I bought three.

This pic was taken with my Blackberry camera, which isn't that great in low light. But here's my Samsung, a bit beat up since it lives in my pocket book 24-7.

Yes it's mounted upside-down. I just flip the around in the video editor and all is well.

Having fun on the highway on the way to work.

Heading over the bridge.

Came across a crashed Focus on the Mass Pike.

And finally, coming up the mountain on the way home after the storm.

Hope you enjoy, please leave some comments!

12.22.2008

Winterizing Your Vehicle

Winter in New England wrecks havoc on vehicles, with snow, ice, freezing temperatures and maniac drivers.

I winterized my car the other day to make sure she's ready for the season, I suggest you do the same!

Make sure all your fluids are topped off: oil, coolant, power steering, brakes and windshield-washer
Check your tire pressure to make sure it's ideal, higher the pressure, better traction in snow
Put some HEET (anti-freeze and water-remover) and fuel-injector cleaner in your tank
Silicone-spray all rubber seals (doors, trunk and hood) as well as your power antenna so they don't freeze and cause damage
Put new wipers on, preferably winter ones that have a rubber cover on the metal
De-ice and lube door and trunk locks
Check all the bulbs so your not getting pulled over for something stupid!
Put a blanket in your car, just-in-case
And the big one, put snow tires on!

12.21.2008

More SNOW!

Headed back to CT for two weeks today...dropped a friend off in Boston first, realized that Boston doesn't believe in plowing, almost got completely stuck on Summer Street, and got the heck out of there. Then I realized that the entire state of Massachusetts doesn't believe in plowing.

On the Mass Pike there was at least 3 inches of slush everywhere, which means no traction for Macy when she doesn't have snow tires on the front. It took me about 5 hours of steady driving to get home from Boston, which is normally a 2 hour trip (according to the geepus).

That was probably the scariest driving of my life, and I'll never drive so far in such bad weather ever again. Today made me realize that A- I'm a decent driver, there were crashes EVERYWHERE with cars that should've been fine, and B- I REALLY need snow tires. Now. That's the mission of the week...get some new tires for the front.

Here are some pictures from today...I took video as well but since the cam mount is upside down (new one on the windshield) I need to turn them around before I upload them.

First thing this morning after driving for 30 minutes:

THIS WAS NOT A TAXI!

After about three hours of driving on the Pike. The front of Macy was solid ICE!

I was leading a pretty big convoy, no one wanted to pass me since I had the clear lane:

The ONLY TIME I saw snow plows going my way...about five miles before I got off the Pike:

There were, however, plenty of them going the other way:

I'll try to get the video up tomorrow of my epic driving the last leg home. I live on top of a mountain, and I somehow managed to get up it without sliding off.

Stay warm!

EDIT: Forgot to mention that my spoiler met the doom of freezing temps today. It was loose and coming off so I pulled it off (in one piece, it's fine) and stuck it in the trunk. I think due to the weather I'll leave it off till warmer weather. I might also pull off the stickers too.

12.20.2008

SNOW!

Welcome to New England! We get snow, and lots of it, at random intervals. Last night was one of those occasions. Started around 3 PM yesterday and is still snowing outside. Total was about a foot in Beverly. Instead of commuting home I stayed with a friend last night, best decision of my life. Roads were horrible as of 5 PM, almost slid into so many things, and almost got stuck, too.

This pic was as of 7 PM last night:

Around 9 AM this morning:

All cleaned off!

Only damage to my car was breaking half of the front emblem...however I have a whole other set!

It's supposed to snow some more tomorrow as I'm heading home to CT for two weeks. I'll also have more pics to add to this that I took while driving around!

12.18.2008

Swapping a Motor

This is an email I sent to a fellow Mazda enthusiast about pulling the motor out of one of our cars. I may be missing some stuff, so I'll update this and make into an actual how-to later on...

Hey there,

For me the process was a little drawn out because it was my first swap, friends were unreliable and I was going back and forth to MA and CT.

So you're just going to remove it, no installing? Removing isn't hard, it depends on what you want to keep and such. The car I took my motor out was totaled so we took a sawzall to the front of it, doubtful you're doing the same haha.

Tools...what do you have? It's easiest to take out the motor and trans together, and separate them when everything's out. Engine hoist, breaker bars, GOOD set of sockets and wrenches etc.

First thing, take off the shit on top, battery, intake...drain the oil, trans fluid and coolant. Take off the hood. Take out the radiator and hoses. Put the car up on stands, take off the wheels, pop the knuckles from the control arms, pop out the CV shafts.

In the rear of the bay...there are two heater hoses, the wiring harness, power steering lines, O2 sensors, vacuum lines. There's the two VRIS solenoids and EGR solenoid bolted to the back of the intake...those usually break when taking out the motor, so I suggest taking those off. Make sure you write down everything you take off, and remember where you put the vacuum lines.

Inside the car...under where the radio is is the ECU, and the wiring runs through the firewall on the passenger side, disconnect all of that and pull the harness through the firewall so it'll go with the motor.

Under the car...exhaust is the biggest bitch, I just cut through mine...but if you want to save it, undo the downpipe from the cat, where the flexpipe is. There's the shift linkage and another bar that you'll have to take off, one bolt each.

On top of the car again...attach the engine to the hoist, two brackets coming off the intake manifold. I found it easier to have the side where the belts are a bit higher than the tranny, so that the tranny can go down a bit to get around the mount. With the engine attached, undo the pass. side and tranny mounts, followed by the front and rear mounts. As far I as can remember that should be it.

The motor, like I said, will have to drop the tranny a tad to get around the mount.

Before you do this take a look at everything to make sure I didn't miss anything. Anymore questions feel free to ask.

- Ashley

wowzers...

So I slid off the road today...exiting off 95 onto 133, slid across the ramp and went up some snow over the curb and onto the grass. Hit my head pretty hard on the driver window, wicked headache but I think I'll be ok.

Checked the car out, and alignment is no different than before. I'm going to keep a close eye on it to make sure I didn't bend anything. Thank god for that bit of snow I slid up, otherwise I would've hit the curb and definitely done damage.

I strongly dislike my commute.

I also need snow tires, size 205-215/50-55R16. I have Blizzaks on the back but they're too wide to be practical on the front.

*sigh*

12.14.2008

Woes of a Mazda Enthusiast

So along with having an awesome car that I love to death, is having to fix said awesome car when she breaks.

My most annoying problem that's plagued me for the past year or so is the distributor. See, when I had my Probe it was a '95, which has a distributor that works perfectly. When I put the '95 motor into my '93 car I had to use the OEM '93 disty. They have had many problems with that year, with the internal ignition coil and the ignitor module. What solves the problem in the short term is replacing the disty, which I did, and have done about six times since then. What fixes it in the long term is going with external ignition, either distributorless, which I don't want to do yet, or the GM HEI modification with an external coil (MSD ignition so to speak). I'm lazy and it's cold out so I just keep replacing the disty, but I know I should soon bite the bullet and just wire everything up.

Another problem is my suspension, and the "awesome" sounds that go with it. My front struts are shot, and at the moment I don't really care since it's almost winter and the potholes around here are insane. However, I haven't had a sway bar in a year since the old links are sawed through and I don't have the means of getting the rest of them out of the sway bar. Also, my CV shafts need to be replaced, they're starting to make noise, the tie rods (inner and outer) are probably shot, and my car is in need of an alignment.

Also, my motor mounts are shot, which is annoying not only because my car is both losing power because of them, and they make a horrible clunking noise, but because the movement of the motor all the time keeps breaking my normally sweet-sounding exhaust. I keep having friends weld it up for me, one even put in a new flex-pipe since I didn't have one for months, but its broken again, and has an awesome exhaust leak, which comes into the cabin area, and sounds AWFUL. Remedy for this is to replace said mounts (with new OEM ones, which are then filled with urethane), but that job takes about 6 hours (front is easy, rears a bitch) and the use of a lift, which I don't have.

There are some random things wrong with my car which doesn't really bother me or isn't on my priority list, such as the cam tick, which is non-detremental but does make my car sound like a diesal, the lack of a cupholder since I broke the only one in my car on the driverside, some random ghetto-wiring since I'm lazy, etcetc.

Well those were the top-three things to fix and hopefully in a few weeks I'll have some good news to report about fixing any of those.

Edit: forgot to mention that I noticed again, for the second time in a couple of weeks, hitting the brakes hard makes the brake light come one, which means the fluid is low. I haven't checked it yet today, but last time it did that it was pretty low on fluid. When I replaced the rear calipers a few months ago everything seemed kosher, so it could be one of the calipers I used is leaking (they were used). Next time I have the wheels off I'll take a look, and see if brand-spanking new calipers are needed.

Vid Cam Mounting

This was something I was messing with...unfortunately i tried taking a vid from that perspective and the batteries died...maybe I'll try it again later today. The problem is finding a place to take vid from even if I have a passenger, that the cam doesn't interfere with my viewing the road, and that not too much of the interior is showing.

I have some other ideas for cam mounts I'll try at some point. But check out my tripod! It's amazing!

Cruise to OCC

This was on the way to Orange County Choppers in NY. Josh aka Altspace took the vid...what's hard to see is I was taking a video at the same time!

Road trip to RI

Steve and I took a lil road trip to RI to check out a junkyard with Jon and Amanda. We got kicked out of the junkyard by two really drunk guys, but it was still a good time, and Steve got this vid from his webcam on the way back.

Please excuse my swearing and the idiot in the Dodge Intrepid, and my GPS telling me to go the wrong way. And no I don't know what song is playing...it's a song off a 63 track techno CD, I can't be expected to know them all.

Edit: the distributor acted up once on the highway on the way down due to the heat and such. I'll make a post about the idiocy of '93 distributors later.

12.10.2008

Flyer

The flyer I use at shows:

Modifications

Replaced Parts

Where I've gone!

Places I've driven my car:

General Info

Straight from Wiki

The Mazda MX-6 was a front-wheel drive sporty coupe produced by Mazda between 1987 and 1997. It was called the Mazda Capella in Japan until 2002 before being renamed Mazda Atenza/Mazda6.

The MX-6 was mechanically identical to the Mazda 626 and subsequently the Ford Probe. These cars shared the GD (1988-1992) and GE (1993-1997) platforms. The MX-6 replaced the 626 Coupe, although it continued to share the same chassis. Mazda shared the GD and GE chassis with Ford for their own Probe. The MX-6, 626 and Ford Probe were made together in joint-venture plants either by AutoAlliance in Flat Rock, MI for the North American market, and by Mazda Japan for Asian and European Markets.

First generation (1988-1992)
The first generation MX-6 appeared in 1988 and lasted until 1992 in the United States. In some markets the model years were from 1987 to 1991. It was based on a series of futuristic sports compact concept cars of the early 1980s. It was a large coupe, based on the Mazda GD platform, and was powered by the I4 Mazda F engines.

The US market made use of the F2 2.2 L engine, with the base engine produced 110 hp (82 kW), but a 145 hp (108 kW) turbocharged version was available. European and Japanese market versions were shipped with either the F8 1.8 L, FE 2.0 L or FE-DOHC 2.0 L DOHC engines.

The MX-6 was produced with two transmission options, a 5-speed manual transmission or a 4-speed automatic with overdrive. The MX-6 was also known to be a very reliable car, mechanically.

This generation was available in several trim levels, which differ depending on the market the vehicle was sold in. In the United States, the MX-6 was available in DX, LX, LE, and GT trim levels:

DX was the "bare bones" model, offering the base 120 hp (89 kW)/130 lb·ft (176 N·m) F2 2.2 L engine and few options, but most MX-6s sold in the U.S. were equipped with air conditioning.
LX added power windows, power locks, and power mirrors, as well as an optional electric moonroof.
LE was a rare "Leather Edition" model that was the same as the LX, but included leather seating surfaces and a leather wrapped shift knob on manual transmission-equipped vehicles.
GT included all options from the LX, but also stepped up to the F2T 2.2L turbocharged, intercooled engine, which put out 145 hp (108 kW) and 190 lb·ft (258 N·m) of torque delivering a significant performance boost. It also had 4 wheel disc brakes with ABS as optional, and 3 way electronically adjustable suspension, dubbed AAS.

In 1989, Mazda offered a special four wheel steering (commonly abbrieviated 4WS) option on MX-6 GTs destined for the U.S. This system consisted of an electronically controlled rear steering rack that turned the rear wheels opposite to the fronts at low speeds to improve cornering, and turned the rear wheels with the fronts at high speeds to improve highway lane change maneuvering. This option was available through all years for GT models in other markets.

European spec vehicles shipped as the 626 Coupe and commonly received either the 1.8 L SOHC F8 or 2.0 L SOHC FE engine in GLX models, or the 2.0 L FE-DOHC engine in their GT models. 4WS was a common option for European 626 Coupes. Australian vehicles were almost always equipped with the 2.2 L turbocharged F2T engine as the US models, as well as 4WS. They also carried the MX6 name of the American models.
Asian spec vehicles were shipped as the Capella C2 and were available in several trims, most notably GT-R (FE-DOHC and 4WS), GT-X (FE-DOHC and AAS) or GT-S (F8 and 4WS or AAS).

New Zealand received vehicles in either European spec or Australian spec, selectable on order. As such, NZ GTs can have either the F2T 2.2 L turbocharged engine or the FE-DOHC 2.0 L DOHC, with optional 4WS.

Second generation (1992-1997)
In 1992 Mazda unveiled the new MX6, commonly referred to as the second generation. It used the new GE platform, shared by the 626 and Ford rebadged cars, the Ford Probe and the Ford Telstar. It was released in three distinct variants worldwide, known as A-spec, E-spec and J-spec, which relates to their destined markets – US, Europe and Japan, respectively.

A-spec
The A-spec variant was for the North American market only. It was built alongside the Ford Probe and Mazda 626 from 1992 as a 1993 model by AutoAlliance International in Flat Rock, Michigan. There were three trim levels available on the A-spec models:

'RS' - Base model, fitted with the FS-DE 2.0 DOHC I4 engine, making 118 hp (88 kW).
'LS' - Luxury model, fitted with the KL-DE 2.5 DOHC V6 engine, making 164 hp (122 kW). It was also equipped with alloy wheels, a low rear spoiler, CD player, foglights and leather or cloth interior.
'LS M-edition' - A special edition based on the LS, including different, all-red tail lights, chrome scuff plates, an indash 3-disk CD stacker, gold alloy wheels (same design as LS), all gold badges, and M-edition embroidered on the front seats and floor mats. M-editions only came in three paint colors: a trim exclusive burgundy , black, and white. All with cream leather interior and special gold pin striping.

In 1995 the second generation MX6 was refreshed with different 5-spoke alloy wheels, twin airbags and emissions changes.Another major change after 1995 was the addition of OBD-II to the car. With this addition the 164 hp (122 kW) was decreased to 160 hp (120 kW) for every year thereafter. Known as the 'GE2', this model ran until 1997. Interesting to note is that unlike the first generation, the second generation MX6 only had one model with a different moniker - the Canadian MX-6 Mystére.

E-spec
Built from 1991 in Japan, for Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Compared to the A-spec, it has different headlights (a two-piece projector setup giving far greater lighting) and taillights, different front and rear bumpers, fog lights, wing-mirrors (power+heated), steering wheel, interior trim and alloys as standard. The side indicator lights were mounted behind the front wheels, and there are no corner bumper lights. It also came with optional air conditioning and leather interior (standard from 96), and the MX6’s main act – the 4WS system (not available in the UK). The engine was the same as the US version (although not limited by lower octane fuels) – the KL-DE 2.5 DOHC V6 engine, again making 164 hp (122 kW) and with the higher octane fuels used in Europe as standard, slightly lower mpg but with greater performance.

In Australia, the MX-6 was released in November 1991. Only one trim was available. Equipped with the KL-DE 2.5 DOHC V6 engine, sunroof, 4WS etc., with the only remaining options being leather and electric seats. September 1994 was the release of the GE2 update model. Like Mazda Australia did with the GD2, there were now two choices – the 4WS all options MX6, or the 2WS version. They both had new wheels, interior trim, and steering wheel, but only the 4WS version got the sunroof, CD player, leather (which actually only became standard in late '96) and the digital climate control. The MX-6 lasted until 1997, with the last few rolling out of dealers in 1998.

J-spec
This version was also released in 1991, and is very similar to the E-spec (as they are built in the same place), but with minor changes. One piece headlights were fitted, with indicators incorporated in the fog light housing, as well as a different rear bumper with smaller registration plate cutout, similar to the A-spec. Almost everything was an option, but the 4WS was available, as well as the digital climate control, electric folding mirrors, larger centre console, and of course, the Mazdaspeed body add-ons – a subtle lip kit with Supra-style high rise rear spoiler.

Engine choice was the KL-ZE 2.5 DOHC V6 making 200 bhp (150 kW), a high compression version of the KL-DE, or the KF-ZE 2.0 DOHC V6 making 159 bhp (119 kW), all of the K series engines in the MX6 were based on the same engine block and included those found in the Ford Probe, Xedos 6 and MX-3 V6 models..

The J-spec MX6s are now quite common around the world, from the UK to Australia and NZ, with the KL-ZE engine conversion alone being popular worldwide.

4WS (Four Wheel Steering)
Used from 1987-1997 on the majority of MX-6s around the world, this was the MX-6s centerpiece.

It was available on both generations, although the North American market only received it for the 1989 model year. South African MX-6s never received 4WS.

According to Mazda, the system provided:

Superior cornering stability
Improved steering responsiveness and precision
High-speed straightline stability
Notable improvement in rapid lane-changing maneuvers
Smaller turning radius and tight-space maneuverability at low vehicle speed range

The system electronically controlled a rear rack that was behind the rear wheels. At low speeds (of up to 35 km/h), the rear wheels would move in the opposite direction to the front wheels, aiding parking and U-turns by lowering the turning circle. Above these speeds, the rear wheels would move in the same direction as the fronts, meaning control during high speed manoeuvres such as lane changes or cornering was improved. Either way, the turning angle of the rear wheels was slight at just five degrees, a measurement Mazda determined to be optimally effective and natural to human sensitivity.

Note:
When the engine is turned off, the rear wheels would straighten up. They would change back to the angle of the front wheels when the engine is restarted. This is caused by the 4WS control unit powering down, and the failsafe system overriding the rear rack.

If the system ever faults, as a failsafe the rear wheels would lock straight to allow the vehicle normal 2WS functionality.

testing

testing this shit out mann.