What did you do in your shop today?

[MPlayle]

That does indeed give it a more finished look.  I may need to ask to buy one for Miss Ruby if she does not sell soon.

[MiniDave]

I have one of those flapper things if you need/want it.....

[cstudep]

Got the filter housing extension in today. Slid on with a snug fit. Will find out tomorrow how it does. Have to go out to have the muffler replaced, it rusted out in the bottom after only 11 years.

Sweet, glad it arrived in one piece and actually fit what it was intended to fit. It will be interesting to see how/if it holds up to the heat. It prints at a hot end temp of 240 degrees C but it will start to "soften" and slump at a temp quite a bit below that, just not entirely sure where.

I do have some other filament on the way that is supposed to be able to easily hold up to engine bay temps but it is pretty expensive (double the cost of the PETG I printed the inlet out of). If you find this one doesn't want to hold up and still like the idea of it, I could print you one out of this new material.

Thanks for being my guinea pig on material temp testing LOL!

[MPlayle]

I have one of those flapper things if you need/want it.....

The opening on the 1990-1991 Mini Coopers pointed toward the radiator and used a rectangular "snorkel" that swung over the top of the spark plugs.  It was about the length of the valve cover as well.  There is not room for the same flapper thing used with the opening going over the clutch cover.  (Number 21 in the parts diagram.)

[John Gervais]

Something that I played with at one time was a generously radiused doo-dad (similar to an oval stub-stack) that fit inside the air filter housing over the inlet to the carb.  I never had the means to adequately execute it though, but I'd carved it out of a piece of dense plastic and attached it with a couple of screws. 

I no longer have it, though - it was many years ago.

[Jimini II]

I remember when if your muffler lasted 2 years you were doing good! That's what gave rise to Midas Muffler shops that guaranteed your muffler for life - well, at least as long as you owned the car. I don't think their mufflers lasted a whole lot longer, but they figured people traded every couple of years so all they had to do was last that long! There were stories of people who kept their cars for 20-30 years and got a LOT of new mufflers off of Midas.....

I ran a hose from the nozzle on Buzz up to the front grill so I could get cold air into the air cleaner - not sure it made any difference in performance - what's your goal with this? Noise reduction or performance improvement?

I have the same set up on my Clubman Estate and Mokes, it seems to help in the Florida hot summers here.
The negative is when I drive on the CMU events in the mountains of TN and NC it is too cold on 40 degree mornings so I disconnect them and block off the grilles.

[Willie_B]

Had a couple of one hour drives in the last two days without any issues with the snorkel.  Of course the temps here are in the low to mid 70's and I did not stuck in any traffic either.

[cstudep]

Thanks for the update, that is good to know! Even with the low ambient temps I would assume it still gets fairly warm under the hood so it's encouraging to see it holding up fine.

I am planning to get some ABS soon to mess around with and I also have a special material on the way that is supposed to be high heat tolerant and easy to print with. I may use this snorkel as my test piece since it is fairly tall with a small contact patch on the bed and has a little bit of overhang to print as well. If I can get it to print successfully in ABS it should look a lot nicer as you can smooth it out. Also interested to see what this new special blend of plastic will look like.

If I end up with a better looking piece at some point in this process I will let you know.

[94touring]

Pretty handy being able to make pieces like that.

The other day in my shop I changed out two pulleys on my daily driver truck and the serpentine belt.  It had developed a squealing noise which I narrowed down to either the tensioner pulley or upper idler pulley. Both have a bearing built into the pulley.  Replaced both of them and the belt. Ended up being the idler pulley bearing. 

[cstudep]

It is pretty neat stuff, They have little laser cutter heads you can install onto the printer to replace the hot end used for the plastic extrusion. That could be fun as well. Having the software to be able to create my own stuff is for sure useful.

squealing bearings/belts are super annoying (at least to me) so it's always good to get those fixed!

[94touring]

It was a lot easier than anticipated which was a perk.  I figured the radiator needed to come out but just needed to pull the upper hoses to get my arms in there.  Looked like a bunch of belt spaghetti with all the belt routing, but the front bumper has a diagram sticker so it made it easy.

[cstudep]

I recently replaced the timing belt on my Toyota. That was slightly more involved since while a guy has it torn down he may as well replace everything on the front of the motor. All new belts, timing belt, tensioner, water pump, 2 idler pulleys, cam seals, crank seal and radiator since I had it out and they are know to have the transmission cooler fail which then fills the trans with antifreeze. Mine was still original radiator and since it had 200000+ miles and was 20+ years old seemed like a good thing to take care of. Still only took about 5 hours to do it all since access with the radiator out is pretty good.

[94touring]

Mine will be due for a timing belt in about 20k miles.  I looked into what was involved and may just take it to someone. Seems like a pita and if you do it wrong you junk the motor.  This Toyota is about to turn 19!  Going to drive it till it doesn't drive anymore too with prices of new trucks. 

[cstudep]

It is definitely a bit of a chore if you have never done one before my 99 4runner was the 3rd one I have done in the last 2 years. One thing is for sure it is a hell of a lot easier to do on a non FWD vehicle with the front of the motor facing the radiator than it is on one sitting sideways. Doing the one on my son's Highlander was a real hassle at times, especially getting to cam seal that was up against the fire wall. But even it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Which motor is in your truck? Some of them are interference engines and some are not. The V6 in the 2006 highlander was interference which meant you better get it right. The V6 in my 99 4runner in non interference so no worries about destroying it if you mess it up. Honestly though it's pretty difficult to get it wrong if you pay even a little bit of attention.

Wherever you take it I would either insist on them using genuine Toyota parts or buy them yourself and provide them. There is a guy on Ebay I buy mine from I could send you the link to, all OEM parts and the cheapest "kit" I could find to do it all. Right around $300 for the parts it seems like depending on which kit you get. I have heard horror stories of people using non genuine parts and then having to have it redone in 20-30 thousand miles (or less sometimes) because the water pump started leaking or an idler failed. The job is nearly all labor if you are having someone else do it so having to pay for it more than once would suck!

[94touring]

I've got the v8 4.7 in mine.  Rear wheel drive. 

[gr8kornholio]

Wait till gas hits $4+ a gallon.  If it's anything like in 08 they Weill be putting trucks in Happy Meals.  Now of course with the work shortage and demand for $15+ an hour to fill those you may have to pay $20 for it.

[cstudep]

I've got the v8 4.7 in mine.  Rear wheel drive.

Nice, that 4.7 v8 is definitely on my list of best motors ever made, they will run forever with minimal maintenance. But they are definitely an interference engine so staying on top of the timing belt is a good idea.

[94touring]

I've got the v8 4.7 in mine.  Rear wheel drive.

Nice, that 4.7 v8 is definitely on my list of best motors ever made, they will run forever with minimal maintenance. But they are definitely an interference engine so staying on top of the timing belt is a good idea.

There's a few out there with a million miles still driving around.  400-500k isn't unheard of.  At the rate I'm going if it last 500k this might be the last truck I ever own lol. 

[94touring]

Hey are you able to print anything like this?

[cstudep]

How big is it? Not saying it would be impossible but it does look like something that would take a long time to print. Probably several days depending on the size. Also not sure how/if it would hold up to the RPM that is probably spinning at? That is a fan on your VW motor correct?

[94touring]

Yeah vw fan.  The plastic one this other guy made which was a different design didn't actually cool.  The weight savings would be a perk though.  I believe it spins around 8k rpms before the belt begins to slip, holding it around 8k-9k max.  It's 9.25 inches in diameter.

[cstudep]

Looks like the metal one is a little bit more simple of a design? The blades on it look to be flat rather than slightly curved like the second one you posted.

The bed size on my printer is 235mm x 235mm but the "useable" space is 220mm x 220mm. Supposedly you can mod the firmware to use the full bed size but that does not leave much room for error. I will probably get a larger printer at some point in the future as there are a few things I would like to print that also won't print on my machine.

[94touring]

Mainly just curious if it had the ability to do items like this. Had no idea it would take days.

[cstudep]

I think it could print ok, the only thing that light cause issue is the flange once you got past the internal fins. That would print as "overhang" and depending on the spacing between fins, etc.. it may need supports printed which would then come out later. Something like that would use quite a bit of material and you would want to print it with pretty tight layers with heavy infill for strength.

A high quality print prints at a layer height of about 0.15 to 0.20 mm and a speed of about 50mm per second. With a 2mm wall thickness and heavy infill you can see that it quickly becomes a time consuming process as the parts get larger.

Its not that big of a deal though as its usually a start the print and let it go kind of thing. I generally just check on it every once in a while.

[MPlayle]

Had to work on the HVAC system in my Jeep Wrangler today.

On the way home from friends last night after Thanksgiving dinner, all I had was maximum heat.  The fan speed and vent selectors worked fine, but the temperature selector had no effect - just maximum heat.  It turns out the temperature is regulated by a "blend door" and the actuator for that had gone out.  When the car is shut off, the actuators index themselves at particular positions and the blend door actuator indexes at full heat.  It indexed when I got out to the friend's place and then died.

I got to spend an hour contorted under the driver's side dash replacing the actuator.