Saturday 21 August 2010

Back on the road - what a week!!

This is a bit of a conjoined blog post - it covers the days from Thursday 19 August through to Saturday 21 August 2010 inclusive.

Thursday night saw Damian head out to purchase a whole bunch of stuff from the local auto store... Note the flash new fan!!



Thursday also saw Damian's friends Elli and Steve come around with the latest sponsor stickers for Booger Mobile... first up, Jesus Metal, whose sticker goes on the lower part of the passenger rear door.



Looks like a great sticker!!


And there it is... because of the cool night, Damian would need to leave the sticker drying until the next day before removing the backing paper.


Friday saw Damian collect the reconditioned cylinder head from the cylinder head reconditioners... It would remain in the back of Damian's car until Scottie came down on Saturday.


Friday also saw Damian's sister Laura come to visit - she seemed a little confused about the correct positioning of Booger's head!!


Damian removed the backing paper from the Jesus Metal sticker, revealing it in it's resplendant glory!!


Damian also commenced wrapping the exhaust headers (sometimes called extractors) with special heat-retardant wrap. The cable ties on there were just holding it in place for the fitting - they would later be replaced with special metal ties...


More header wrapping, this time with metal ties... Apparently this stuff will reduce the heat radiating from the extractors by 70%... time will tell!!


Moving on to Saturday morning, Damian remembered that there was still one more sponsor sticker to be attached - Tru-In-Tow's sticker would be below Chasing Blakey's sticker on the driver's side.


The Tru-In-Tow sticker is pretty tricky - it has a drop shadow, which means that the sticker is actually put on in two parts...


First the black drop shadow sticker is attached... looks a bit odd like this!!


While that sticker was having time to dry, the exhaust header wrapping continued!!


On with the top layer - a yellow sticker that actually sticks to the existing black drop-shadow!


And this is how it looks - pretty awesome don't you think???



Next cab off the rank was the attachment of special heat-shielding tape to the wires that run past the extractors.



Shortly after this, Scottie arrived - first task - inspect the freshly reconditioned cylinder head!!

All this unwrapping - it's like christmas time!!


It's shiny, nicely reconditioned, and covered in oil for protection!!


The cylinder head sits on top of the cylinders.



Just like this!! The boys got it lined up first go - talk about stumbling into accuracy!!


Next the push rods and cam shaft were attached...


Damian installed the flash new white fan - note that it's not the same fan that was in the picture at the start of this blog - that fan didn't fit, so Damian had to make another trip to the auto shop!

What you also can't see is that the fan is actually hitting the bottom pulley ever so slightly, so Damian put a couple of spacers behind the fan...


Scottie continued putting the head on, and bolting the extractors back on...



Damian reinstalled the radiator, only to discover that the fan still hits the lower pulley ever so slightly... And is dangerously close to the radiator!



Scottie moved on to refitting the carby, while Damian hand-filed the plastic blades of the fan to gain a little more clearance from the pulley...



Scottie asked Damian to remove the old tappet cover gasket and prepare it for reinstallation (the tappet cover, not the old gasket).



Meanwhile, Scottie was having fun, replacing one of the carby bolts that wasn't playing nicely...



And the tappet cover was back on, starting to look more like an engine again!!


Damian helped Scottie get the extractor bolts all tightened up, and sorted out a few other things for him also.


Damian reconnected the hoses etc and filled the radiator with water, ready for a test fire of the engine!!


The engine fired alright, and it was making a heck of a racket... turns out the fan was still hitting the pulley, and the thermostat housing was leaking like a sieve... time to move Booger Mobile out of the shed and drop the water, remove the radiator (again) and see what's going on...



Damian angle grinded the fan, and after a few goes, it was right to go!! It was missing the pulley, and the spacers were removed which brought it back from the radiator... smiles all round!!



Booger Mobile looked quite ghostly when the sensor light wasn't on...



Scottie resolved the problem with the thermostat housing (the thermostat had slipped slightly when being bolted in the first time, causing a gap to be formed)... Damian reinstalled the fan and the radiator, ready to have another crack at starting Booger Mobile...


Success!! The fan was now clearing everything nicely - time to get out the timing light and tune Booger Mobile for the first time in at least a decade!!


Looking the goods now!!


Scottie adjusted the idle...



And the timing was nicely adjusted.


Once it was all sorted, there was time for a quick test drive, and Booger Mobile was back on the road!!

The new fan works a treat - sucking through air like there's no tomorrow!!


After a massive day, Scottie headed home... he will be returning around 5am Sunday morning ready to head to the Corvette Club show 'n' shine down the Gold Coast!!

Stay tuned for another blog post - hopefully announcing Booger Mobile's successful trip to the coast and back!!

1 comment:

  1. Great that Damian and Scottie managed to fix Booger Mobile in time,so that they all can drive to the Corvette Club show 'n' shine.How AWESOME are they.
    Fantastic pictures as always, good luck at the show know "BOOGER MOBILE" will be looking great tomorrow/today.
    Doing it for the kids.
    Well done Damian and Scottie thank you.

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