Penguin Mobile: "Jesus Built my Hotrod"

Had a chance to work on the speed yesterday.

Got the oil changed, slapped my ETS TMIC back on (I had been rolling with the OEM since the accident), threw on my heavy knob and corksport steering wheel again. The little things make it feel like a real car again.

One thing I did, was add extra Tbolt clamps to my TMIC couplers. I always hated how any tbolt clamp out there would leak, even the expensive ones are no guarantee. So I added double the clamps, to hopefully help reduce leaks. We shall see...


So far the car runs good again, still need to swap thermostat since mine is getting stuck, get new front tires, and a few other things.

I am having a lot of blowby pressure, and am developing tiny weaping leaks in the usual spots. Still haven't decided how I want to address it since I do not want to go VTA.

 

What about putting a brake booster check valve between the PCV valve and the intake manifold?

Or using a vacuum pump from a GMC Acadia/Chevy Traverse (12V) to keep the crankcase in a state of constant vacuum. Depending on it's output vacuum you may have to run it in a bleed style to prevent too much vacuum in the case causing the seals to suck in instead of being pushed out.

 

I already have a check valve in line with the OEM PCV valve.

Do you have a part number for this pump? I'll look into it. I'd be interested if it saves me snaking OCC lines everywhere.

 

Update...

It's a new year!

Since the accident in Dec 2021 I had been fighting bad depression. Nothing new to me in my life, but the accident amongst other things made it worse. I got a new psychiatrist who is much better and has actually helped me a lot! It sucks that I lost almost 2 years to depression and shitty medication/side effects, but I must look forward and not dwell.

Last year was the worst financial year that my wife and I have EVER had. Didn't have money for needed house projects or car maintenance. I watched everything around me rot, which made me feel worse. I did buy a 1993 F250 XLT from my friend last year. I committed to that in Jan before we knew how bad finances would be last year, but it's all paid off now. Here it is, in its natural environment, on the back of a tow truck.



It's a 7.3L NA Diesel engine from International, an E40D transmission, Borg & Warner transfer case, and 8ft bed. It's beat up, ugly as shit, has a bunch of interior stuff that needs fixing, but mechanically it all works! It has over 350k miles, no sway bars from factory, and twin traction beam front suspension. I had to rebuild the driveshaft first. While replacing one of the Ujoints, I fucked up my right arm, but thats a story on its own. It's an off road crawler project...

Back to the Mazda...

I swapped the thermostat with a new OEM unit back in Aug. The car would run either really cold or really hot if stopped. I was burning oil and running rich all over town.



Car was still running lean at idle and rich on acceleration. In December I swapped my old shitty JBR Tig gaskets for the AP gaskets, and redid my OCC lines. I also swapped in some used injectors that I sent out to get cleaned, since my original ones were at 96k miles. Dropped them in with new OEM rail seals and corksport injector seals. I have a couple of sets of injector seals from RockAuto, but I just used those to send the injectors out for cleaning. I don't trust aftermarket seals with a rail that sees 1850psi of fuel, OEM has worked great so I stuck with those despite the added cost.




Now it's a new year and we are getting back on our feet.

I'm STILL having issues with the car running lean at idle and rich upon acceleration. I need to set some time up to troubleshoot. I'm going to clean/replace all the HPFP seals, throw in fresh spark plugs, and boost leak test. I also need to replace my coolant tank since it cracked during all the thermostat stress.

The double Tbolt clamp experiment didn't work. I wont recommend it to anyone. They are a pain to tighten since you have to watch placement carefully, and sometimes they would actually slide out of position. They ended up cutting some of my boost tubes, not all the way through, but enough to check when I boost leak test.

That's where I am at now.

I've been going through my garage still cleaning stuff out and finding parts. The heatwave last summer busted my AC, have to save up to get that fixed. My radio head unit is starting to fail, and my roof is all rusted to shit. Since I have the truck to roll in occassionally, I am going to sand the mazda roof, treat it, prime it, paint it, and then probably wrap it to keep that metal safe. This year I will either restore it all, or just gut it, and leave it as a fun mazda beater. But this car is too much fun to get rid of.

Despite all the issues I feel good, happy and motivated. This year will bring about good things.

Thank you all for reading. I hope everyone is doing well!

 

Miss you, bro. Mental health is a fucker. Took a while to find the magic potion for me as well.

For the roof, get ppf not wrap. Lasts longer. Sad to see issues in life get in the way of happiness.

 

Is that ppf stuff what you put on your roof now?

I'm open to ideas to help seal it once it's treated and painted.

Yeah, about this mental health stuff.... it only gets worse with age...

I flew out to NC last November for my buddies 40th birthday. (Same dude I bought the truck from) Our other friend from San Fran flew in too. The 3 of us have known each other since middle school. It had been about 10 years since the 3 of us all hung out together.

We talked about all sorts of shit over the long weekend. One guy has issues with chest pressure and breathing when he gets stressed, my other buddy acknowledges that his inherited ADHD is impairing his ability to work. Both of them say they drink to deal with their issues and refuse to seek any actual help. I tried talking to both of them rationally to no avail. That trip should have made me happy, instead it made me feel more isolated from my 2 life long friends.

We all choose the paths we take. Now I walk preaching to people about mental health. Whether it's therapy, or meds, no one deserves to live unhappy.

 

I feel ya man. My post-crash recovery is not over and I still have many issues moreso after lumbar fusion. Took my neurologist to come up with a good combination of stuff. Still messing with my head. Stopped drinking pretty much. It's a bad crutch. Cooking is my therapy in ways. So is my damn evil Christine. Driving it without other traffic is an escape. Felt like Toretto just then.

And yeah xpel makes ppf and it's awesome. He had to wet sand and prime the roof in places due to rust. Ideally I would have painted it. But the $$$ meant no.

 

Small update...

Got some gaskets and maintenance parts this week.



Lots of little things for the Speed. Spark plugs, ITFP sock filter, new coolant tank and cap, axle seals, valve cover gasket, etc etc....

Oil change for the Mustang.

For the truck... New taillights, Ignition cylinder, headlight switch, license plate lights, necessary little shit....

Should be enough to keep me busy for a few weeks.

The goal next month will be to fix the truck enough where I can drive it to work, so I can leave the Speed mid project at home. If I can do that, I will be able to fix everything faster.

I have to solve the lean/rich issue, and do a leakdown test among other things.

Fucking radio is fucking up constantly. My AUX is dead, and my Android can't connect to the prehistoric Bluetooth. I'm stuck with FM radio and CD's, but the damn radio keeps skipping and scratching up my CD's.

I'm about ready to rip it out and run it over with the truck.

 

Good to see progress! Could hundred bucks for an eonon that eliminates oem HU issues. Sadly no cd player. Or cassette.

 

The CD player is important to me. I have a LOT of underground music that isn't on streaming apps or is out of print.

My half bro recommended a Kenwood unit he got for an old car, but for now it's extremely low on the priority list.

 

I had to revert my Bluetooth version the last two phones I've had to get it to connect to the Mazda. I have Pixel phones and was able to do that through developer settings.

 

You can download it to a USB and connect it to the head unit