ZoomCubed Racing

I always enjoy browsing the Virginia Beach Pick N Pull yard. There were no RX7’s today so I spent some time just looking at some automotive history. I am not much for touring an art gallery, but I consider the Pick N Pull a museum for guys like me. I can view up close and personal cars that I have seen on the road for years. Let’s start with some fresh GM goodness.

I have been a big fan of GM cars due to the great service that I have received from them. I am not a fan of the actual corporation. I am certainly not crazy about taxpayers owning over half of the company. It is a shame that the unions and management ran an once great stalwart of American industry into the ground. Shame too on the government for buying into a broken business model.

OK, enough with my soapbox ranting. Let’s start our tour.

How about a mid ’80s Pontiac Sunbird Convertible for your viewing pleasure. GM stopped building convertibles in the mid to late 70’s and many thought that the American convertible was dead. That was until Chrysler got the idea to cut the tops off of some crappy K cars and give them fancy names like the 600 and the Le Baron. (I doubt that a baron ever drove a Le Baron.) GM got into the mix too by taking some of these J cars and making them convertibles. This one is a classic example.

It was powered by a turbocharged 4 cylinder that looks more impressive than it ran. The red valve covers really did add about 20 horsepower. Back in the day, turbocharging looked like the answer to our problems of needing more horsepower and better fuel economy. The falling price of automotive technology that we take for granted today really killed the need for forced induction in passenger cars, but this is a neat piece of history.

Let’s look at another fine example of late ’80s GM engineering. The H Bodys included Buick Park Avenues, Oldsmobile 88’s and Pontiac Bonnevilles. This was a stable platform that served the General well. It seemed that it was the official car for the over 70 set back then.

GM was trying to make their luxury cars more European-like. They rounded off the edges and blacked out some chrome on some models. One of the European influences was the rear opening hood. I don’t think all of the H bodies had it but looking at this Buick, it seems that it would be eaiser to service the car with a hood of this type.

Most of these cars came with the “3800″ V6. The 3.8 was originally a Buick engine that traced its roots back to the 60’s. The engine lived on until last year and was one of the most widely produced engines in history.

Though some of the pieces are missing from this example, the picture here depicts American luxury of the day. Woodgrain and velour were favorites among the target market for these cars. People also loved a lot of buttons back then. In the ’80s people realized that turning knobs and sliding temperature selectors really was a pain. GM gave them what they wanted–a button for everything. Check out the cellphone mount on the floor. You don’t see those anymore!

I will continue our museum tour in a later post. We now continue with our regularly scheduled program, already in progress.

I love the self service junkyard. Pick N Pull is my local favorite and I took a trip out there today to pick up a few items. These yards are great sources for hard to get OEM parts. There are also great deals on normal wear items if you are willing to put a little sweat into the deal.

I must make a disclaimer here because I love my cars. I name them and I have even kissed a couple of cars on occasion–but I have to say this. It is important to establish that a car is junk when you buy it, junk while you drive it, and junk when it reaches the junkyard. You may buy a Lexus in a fancy dealership where they do your nails while you are waiting or a Hyundai in a dealership that is run out of a trailer. Eventually both of those cars end up in a place like the Pick N Pull. Nobody cares how nice the car once was or how much it cost new because when they get here, they all stink and they are all gutted by vultures like me. They rest in this state for a few weeks and are eventually sent through the shredder and recycled. The metal in a Kia that will be built next year may have come from a Jaguar sitting at the Pick N Pull right now. Enough about the life cycle of a car.

My main purpose today was to get a Throttle Position Sensor and Idle Air Control valve for my Cutlass. The great thing about the late ’80s and early 90’s Cutlass is that they were one of the most generic GM cars built. You can find parts for these cars on many others in the GM lineup. My parts car today was a ‘93 Pontiac Grand Prix.

This old girl had 189,000 miles on the odometer and the engine was largely unmolested. It appeared that the car had been well cared for. I usually look at the condition of belts and hoses on a donor car as well as the oil filter. This GP had belts and hoses in good condition and a Purolator Pure One oil filter. It also had a K&N panel filter in the airbox. Usually someone who doesn’t care about their car won’t go to the trouble to buy a premium oil filter. I like to see upper and lower radiator hoses that appear to be of the same age. This means that someone probably was doing preventative maintenance when they replaced them.

I pulled my parts and grabbed a few bolts off the car too. You really can’t beat the quality of OEM hardware (nuts and bolts.) When you are in the yard, it is always a good idea to pull some off of a car. Many of these bolts and threads are common sizes to a number of vehicles and are better than what you can get at Ace Hardware or the like. At checkout, the counter guy will usually not charge you for them either. Stock up!

I also sourced a couple of relays from the fuse box in the car. Every GM car that I have owned has used these same standard relays. I like to carry spares in my cars just in case. It is also good to have a spare to swap out when you are checking relays on an electrical problem. Again, the quality of these relays are probably better than what you can get at a parts store and the counter guy will often cut you a good deal on them.

I had my reasons last Sunday for needing to get the heck out of my house. I had eaten breakfast at a gas station, gone to church, and still had a few hours to burn until I could finally go back to work on Monday morning.

The wind was coming out of the east–which is not good for riding my Jetski on the west side of Currituck Sound. I decided to call a buddy (Phil) who lives on the north end of Roanoke Island to see what the water looked like there. He said that it was flat and asked me if I wanted to drag my ski to his house. He lives almost an hour away, but I didn’t mind the drive–especially today.

We both put our skis in and headed out. We rode the west side of Roanoke Island to start off with. Unlike Currituck Sound, the water there has some depth to it and a sandy (not grassy) bottom. We rode under the “old Manns Harbor bridge,” past the airport and Burnside and then under the “new Manns Harbor bridge.” These bridges have names and I should know them, but everyone just calls them the old bridge and the new bridge.

We jumped off the skis and cooled off for a while out in the deeper water. It was great. Phil showed me some neat spots and told me stories about the changing shoreline in that area. We saw some remnants of old piers, an old radio tower, and even an old van that was half in the water and half out. We rode the creeks through the marsh on the southern tip of the island at Wanchese.

Directly across a choppy sound was the Bodie Island Lighthouse. Phil has a large ski that rides more like a living room couch. My ski is small and humble and rides more like a barstool. In fact, my ski was Phil’s at one time. He bought it brand new and kept it for 13 years before selling it to me. I wasn’t quite ready to tackle the trip across to the lighthouse, but peer pressure and testosterone prevailed and we headed off.

I rode in his wake for a while which smoothed the water out somewhat. We made it to the lighthouse and then turned south towards Oregon Inlet. We found a sandbar near the inlet and beached the skis there for a few minutes to rest. Phil wanted to make a run under the Bonner (AKA Oregon Inlet) Bridge. I wasn’t so sure but he is quite the daredevil on a Jetski. Once he rode what is now my ski through the inlet and out to the “Whistle Bouy” 8 miles offshore. I guarantee you that the ski will never see that buoy again but Phil has a neat story to tell anyway.

Oregon Inlet is a dynamic piece of water. The channel headed towards the inlet is like a snake doubling back on itself many times before dumping you out at the middle of the bridge. There is always a dredge down there trying to keep the inlet open against shifting sands and currents. I have been told that there have been times after storms where some of the pilings under the bridge were not touching bottom–only to have the sand shift and bury them again.

I agreed to go to the inlet and see what it looked like. How cool would it be to say that I had taken an 8 foot jetski under the Oregon Inlet bridge? It would be cooler to say it over beer around a campfire than it would be for someone to say it after my funeral though. “That dummy tried to take an 8 foot jetski under the Oregon Inlet bridge!”

We were nearing high tide and there were a number of trawlers headed out to sea for the evening. The last of the charter boats were coming in for the night and Phil and I are running full throttle towards the bridge. Some onlookers had wide eyes in amazement as they saw that we were planning to go under the bridge. Phil being a maniac hauled under the bridge and kept going. I went under the bridge, waved at the pretty girls on the beach, and went back into the protected waters of the sound.

With the exception of falling rain stinging my face and the low fuel light coming on, the ride back was very serene compared to the inlet run. Looking back on the Oregon Inlet run, it scares me more today than it did at the time. I doubt that I will do this again, but another adventure awaits.

Though I will tackle just about anything on a car, I have always been intimidated by air conditioning work. A trip to a local repair shop helped me push past intimidation to action.

For the past few years my wife would start complaining when the weather turned warm about the A/C in the Trans Am. Being of sound mind, I learned the first summer that this happened that it was well worth the money it took to keep her cool. So my annual trip to the shop was made recently. These trips usually involve me going in and telling them that the A/C wasn’t working and that I knew that it needed to be charged. I always said, “Please check it really well for leaks because this happens every summer.” And every summer they told me that they charged it up, and that I owed them $200. $200 later I was on my way with Air Conditioning for a couple of months. Two months didn’t get me through the whole summer and I usually bluffed and delayed my way until the first cool day when I could say, “next year I’ll make sure it is fixed right honey!”

This year, I decided to keep a close watch on the car after I got it back. I cleaned all of the fittings with brake cleaner and watched for the leak detection dye to start showing up. It didn’t take long before I pinpointed the location of the leak–a fitting where the line went into the condenser. I could even see it bubbling out. I took it back to the shop and told them where it was leaking and asked them to check it and let me know what it would cost to fix it. They first told me that it was antifreeze, not refrigerant. I know that I was wearing a tie when I went in that place, but I was not an idiot. They were surprised when I told them that it didn’t taste like antifreeze. When you drive an RX7, you learn what different fluids taste like–it really saves time. Brake fluid with a hint of two cycle oil has a very natural flavor with a nutty aftertaste.

They agreed to take another look. I didn’t expect anything to be done for free mind you, but the answer that they gave me back has changed my air conditioning repair life forever. The verdict for this leaky fitting was an estimated $950 plus tax for a new compressor, a new dryer, new o-rings and something called an orifice tube. The good news was that they could have the parts here in a few days.

I gladly thanked them for their time and resolved that I wouldn’t be put in this situation again! Over the following weekend, I read everything that I could on the internet about automotive air conditioning. There are actually some great videos on youtube that are informative about the subject as well. By Sunday evening, I had ordered a dryer, a new o-ring set, and a pressure switch. I also ordered a vacuum pump (to evacuate moisture from the system) and my new prized tool, the manifold gauge set. All of this set me back about $175.

Notice that I didn’t order a compressor or an “orifice tube.” The car didn’t need a compressor–it produced cold A/C fine until the refrigerant leaked out. This orifice tube intrigued me. I didn’t know what one was, but it sounded nice. I thought that I might order a couple extras to have them around. There have been times where I was feeling low and thought that something was missing in my life. Could I have been unknowingly yearning for an orifice tube? Well guess what—the Trans Am doesn’t have an orifice tube! Funny how it was on the written estimate for the part and the labor.

Of course I had a certified repair facility evacuate the old refrigerant before I started my work. It is said that if you vent refrigerant into the atmosphere that you can hear a baby duckling scream. We don’t want that, so don’t ever vent refrigerant into the atmosphere. Al Gore might show up at your house and want to stay a while.

By the end of the following weekend, I had A/C blowing so cold that they say that global warming stopped. In fact, they had to rename it global “climate change.” There have been no leaks over the past month and my gauges show that it is holding pressure just great. My wife tells me that the A/C has never worked this well.

Automotive air conditioning is a simple system. It was some of the easiest work that I have done on a car. The investment in the gauges and the vacuum pump will save me thousands of dollars over my lifetime. I have already serviced two friends air conditioning with some R134 out of the case that I bought at Sam’s Club (only $3.75 per can!!)

That brings me to “finding beer.” Recharge A/C for a buddy and accept a case of beer as payment and it is like found beer. I would wager to say that everyone likes finding beer!

Craig and I had a great weekend at Summit Point with NASA Midatlantic on June 20th and 21st. It was Hyperfest weekend which meant Saturday had extra activities for spectators. Craig and I didn’t check out the drifting, rollover competition, or “Daisy Dukes” contest this time around, but I heard that they were really cool. It was also neat to come around the carousel complex and see spectators watching the on-track action. I am more accustomed to driving around a track with empty grandstands.

Saturday was rough. Hit and miss rain made all 3 sessions on track difficult. The first session was wet with hard rain coming down the whole time. The second session saw no rain and a drying line. Offline was still damp. Session three was crazy. We started dry, then the rain came. The track changed with every lap and every turn. Through all of this, some drivers found the limits of traction. I was surprised at the number of cars that made contact with tire walls or beached themselves in the gravel traps. The flaggers were great and kept us apprised of what was around the next turn. The most interesting flag of the weekend was a debris flag for a groundhog in turn 4. The little guy made it safely off the track and hung out just on the edge of the track for the remainder of our session.

Sunday was much better. Though skies looked threatening, we were able to have a dry track all day long. Both Mazdas ran great. Your only trophy for these track weekends is to take your car home in one piece–so in that regard, Craig and I both brought home a trophy.

As always, we met some great folks at the track. What always amazes me are the different types of car people. Craig and I are both Mazda guys and we will often interact with other Mazda people at the track. But even within the Mazda camp, there are the Miata drivers who love their Miatas and the Rotary drivers (RX7’s of 3 generations and RX8’s.)

It is always fun to find someone else who is as passionate about these old RX7’s as I am. It helps me believe that maybe I am not completely crazy—or possibly that there are other people just as completely crazy as I am. I don’t know what the allure of this car is for me. They are not the fastest or the prettiest ones out there, but I absolutely adore old RX7’s. The greatest compliment that we rotorheads get is someone remarking about the flames coming out of our tailpipes or the backfires going into the corners. Thanks to the flagger who stopped by my pit to say how much he liked the sound of my car coming into his turn.

I will post some pictures shortly of our cars at Summit Point. I also carried a video camera in the car all weekend. If I have some good video, I will post that here too.

“On any given weekend, more Mazdas are road raced than any other car.”

It was a busy day in my garage. I had to pull the Rx-7 out and put the Cadillac in the service bay for some unscheduled maintenance.

My STS turned 215,000 miles this week and it seems that the original starter gave up the ghost. The cold weather has been making the starter do funny things in the morning. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that after releasing the key when the engine started, the starter would stay engaged to the flywheel for a moment before it popped back out. Some folks online said that this was normal and that it wouldn’t hurt anything.

On Friday, the starter stayed engaged and decided not to let go. If you have never heard a starter whirring at high RPMs, you have no idea of the crazy noise that it makes. My neighbor even came out of her house to see what it was.

I sourced a Delco-Remy remanufactured starter and replaced it this morning. The Northstar V8 is a great engine and one of the interesting things about it is the location of the starter. The starter sits “inside the V”, on the top of the engine, under the intake manifold. To replace it, you have to loosen the intake manifold and prop it up–fuel rail and all. You are left with a hole that you can work within to remove the starter. It is actually not nearly as difficult as you would think. Knowing what I know now, I could probably swap a Northstar starter out in less than an hour.

The RX-7 still got some quality garage time today. This afternoon, I swapped out the clutch master cylinder, slave cylinder and clutch hydraulic hose. One of these components had failed and was causing me some issues. I was sitting at a stoplight last weekend with the car in gear and the clutch pushed in and the clutch slowly started to release. Pretty scary feeling. I decided to replace all of the components. After 22 years on the car, it was probably time.

I had a great Christmas and Santa Claus was very good to me. Check out a couple of my garage gifts.

This hose reel is awesome. It has allowed me to clean up my garage by getting rid of my short and long hoses that i had run off of my compressor. It automatically rewinds the hose on the reel when you are done. Just as an aside, if there is ever a tornado, I am going to strap myself to this reel. It feels like it is bolted into pure bedrock!

These magnetic tool holders are just the coolest. I was able to clean up a lot of tools that I had laying around and get them in a more accessible location. I like them so much, that I ordered some more.

This cool decal was actually a birthday present to myself back in the spring. The sliver is reflective and it looks great on the car.

With Christmas over and track day season upon us, the RX7 is in the garage getting ready. Within the next couple of weeks, I will be replacing the clutch master cylinder, the slave cylinder and the clutch line. Also, I will be doing some exhaust work and replacing the transmission mount.

I would like to finish my poly bushing project by replacing all of my bushings in the rear with polyeurethane to match the fronts. If I am going to go to all of the trouble of dropping the rear suspension, I would like to replace the differential with a limited slip unit. This may be too ambitious for this late date and may have to wait until later.

I will try to take more pictures as I work and post them here.

I am always amazed at how advertising has changed over the years. This commercial from 1979 was probably quite exciting, but now it is just funny.

This is my new toy. It is a Kawasaki 750 SS JetSki and it is awesome! This is me riding it this weekend at the reservoir in Rocky Mount