The Daytona: May 10, 2004

Posted in Automotive on May 10, 2004.

I found this thing sitting back in the corner of the garage.  Something about being a 2.2L common block with a forged T2 crank, T2 rods, JE forged pistons, big oil pump, etc.  I dunno, maybe it's good for something....

The CSX: May 10, 2004

Posted in Automotive on May 10, 2004.

Driving the car again in the nice weather.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to do some work on the Daytona.  Tweaked a few things in the cal to fix some summertime "cold" start quirkiness and hopefully addressed a low boost stumble.

The Daytona: May 1, 2004

Posted in Automotive on May 01, 2004.

Well, the car made it through the rest of the winter and spring.  The mileage is about right and the idle has been getting better and better all by itself.  I beat on the car quite a bit, so that may be helping it a bit.  Could be the warmer weather too.  I fiddled with the trans kickdown cable figured out how to do the proper adjustment procedure.  It helped a little, but it's still upshift-happy.  Oh well.

Version 1.1

Posted in Electronics on April 30, 2004.

04/30/04: Version 1.1 - extended the cold side of a fuel enrichment curve to hopefully address a slight instability I noticed during "cool" startup.  It seemed like it wasn't rich enough long enough.

The Daytona: February 20, 2004

Posted in Automotive on February 20, 2004.

Well, the common problem theory is out.  The fuel guage had a cold solder joint, the tach had a bad tach module (the '86 module works in the '91 cluster, BTW), and the temp guage had a bad sender.  I had the meter connected across various grounding points relative to the battery and everything seems to be OK.  I also wedged a piece of plywood under the passenger side engine mount, which may have reduced the front-end shake even more.  I will probably swap the mount (it looks bad) and shim it up perminently to see if that helps.

The Daytona: February 17, 2004

Posted in Automotive on February 17, 2004.

I've fiddled around some more, but can't seem to get the last of the gremlins worked out.  The tach still likes to go wonky for no reason and the fuel and temp gauges read lower than they should.  All of this screams grounding problems, but I have been over them again and again.  Either both the fuel and temp senders are hosed and the tach board needs a going-over, or there is a single problem at the core of it all.  So far I haven't been able to figure it out.  Aside from the exhaust clamps slipping and a few new squeaks added to the collection, the car seems to be working OK.  It is actually starting to run better, though the fuel mileage seems low (hard to say the the speed/distance sensor is intermittent).

The Daytona: February 12, 2004

Posted in Automotive on February 12, 2004.

Well, it took far longer than I could have possibly imagined, but the Daytona is back on the road.  Updating all that wiring and getting the new interior installed turned into a complicated ordeal.  I installed the doors that I got with the '91 interior, but they didn't have power-anything, so I had to transfer the door lock motors and window tracks (plus the harnesses).  Everything was really dirty, so I spent a lot of time cleaning things up and sorting through the boxes of '91 interior parts to try to figure out what goes where (I have never taken one apart before).  Unfortunately, a lot of pieces were broken or missing...the guy that removed them must have used a hammer.  There were plenty of other things that were broken that needed fixing, such as the steering column and various leaks in the trunk.  I also installed the front-end portion of the '89 Daytona Shelby brake and suspension components.  This proved to be fatal:

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The Daytona: December 15, 2003

Posted in Automotive on December 15, 2003.

The floorpans and all associated nonsense are finally, officially completed.  All the welds and seams have been caulked from underneith using polyurethane roofing caulk.  It takes a long time to cure (especially in this weather), but it sticks to anything and resists solvents better than silicone (which turns to jello when exposed to gasoline).  I don't care for the water based acrylic caulk, as it doesn't stick as well and...wel it is water-based.  I also coated the fenders with the stuff as a replacement for the rubberized coating that I stripped off.

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