184,000ish km

Changed my plugs, wires, cap and rotor today. The car is now running a lot better. Misfires have disappeared. I've gotta remember to do this preventive maintanence on a more regular schedule instead of the ad-hoc one I am currently doing now.

Nick and I went touring with his new Mazdaspeed Miata and my P-Speed 240 today throughout the eastern parts of the city. Beautiful open roads, we really got to open the cars up for some serious prolonged driving vs. the stop and go traffic that we are usually submitting to when driving around town. It was nice to handle some great sweeping turns at 70 km/h and really feel the car hug the road. The suspension mods I've dropped in the past two years are really doing their work.

July 30 2006

184,000ish km.

The car has had a really strange idle the past week, and I'm sure that the problem lies in the IACV somewhere. I don't think the part has been cleaned since it came off of the factory floor so I spent all morning trying to clean it out with car cleaner at dad's garage. The idle has definately smoothed out, and the car doesn't out-right die when going from 4k to Neutral, but it does still kiss the 100 RPM mark and hesitate before picking up again to its normal 700 RPM idle.

Next week is a full tuneup (Plugs, wires, rotor, cap). Hopefully that'll make things even smoother.

In other news, I still hafta order my SPL RUCA's to fix my rear camber. Frig.

November 8 2005

Accident Update

I talked to the guy tonight and he said that he wants his brother in law (or some relative, cousin??) to do the body work. I want to go to the shop that Vince takes his stuff to. I'm gonna have to try and sort this out.

November 5 2005

Accident?!

Frig. I was coming home from a Blue Sky meeting today, and some guy decided to try and make a left hand turn out of a side street near Dupont and Symington. I was headed west on Dupont, and he drove out of a sidestreet going North, and tried to make the left. He drove through two cars going east, didn't see me, and drove right into my driverside rear quarterpanel. Now, this wouldn't suck so much, except that he did some serious damage to my Advan's, he hit the car in the same spot as the other guy did back in July, and this guy has no insurance. Damnit.

October 28 2005

178,xxx kilometers

WOW. It's been a while since I wrote in this log; I actually forgot it existed.

So, what has happened?

• Someone ran into me at a gas station in July. Driver side rear quarter panel was damaged, and I ended up getting insurance to pay for it. Of course, since my car wasn't moving at the time (the guy literally drove into me), it doesn't effect me in the least.
• Advan wheels (16x7 +30) painted and mounted.
• Fixed the over heating problem and coolant boiling problem all summer with a new thermostat and water pump.
• KTS coilovers installed.
• Battle Version t/c rods installed.
• New front control arms and lower ball joints installed.
• Tanabe Sustec front under brace installed
• Pulled the engine head and took out upper chain guide. "Side" chain guide is still in there and rattling.

It's October now, so winter season is almost upon us. I managed to put my Advan's on near the end of August, but a few weeks ago had a flat. Stupid gas station that I had the tyre fixed at scratched one of my rims while "repairing" it. No more business for them.

Overheating problem is back, right in time for winter. No boiling over. I'm still at a loss as to what is causing problems.

Winter wheels should be going on next weekend, 2nd weekend of November.

For the winter I doubt I'll be driving much. Driving to 60km to work every day, and 60km back, is gonna be murder on the highways with all the snow; time to go the public transit route.

Apart from all that, nothing else. I didn't get my oil pressure gauge installed, but I did manage to put the sandwich plate in between the filter and the engine block. That should make install easier later on. Since my car was broken into I don't want to have the gauges up on the A-Piller, or in the under-radio-pod, so I'm not sure what I can do. I could put them in the glove compartment, ultimate stealth, but then I can't really see them, can I? (Not as though I'd miss them b/c I never had them to begin with, so it'd be good for diagnostics). I'm going to save the minor engine tune-up (distributor, plugs, wires) for 2006 now.

Had a bad oil leak four months ago. Improperly installed sandwich plate = major leakage on the highway. I lost four litres in a day, and just barely made it home. I lucked out and noticed low oil while on a regular road, one block from a gas station, so I was ok to get in there and fill up right away. If I had been on the highway when it ran dry, I would've blown the engine for sure.

More details to follow..

May 8 2005
174k km.

Well, maybe I didn't fix my coolant problem; or I introduced a new one. Driving around yesterday for a few hours, after I finally stopped I noticed that the boiling reservoir was back. No steam though, just bubbles coming up. I also noticed that I was leaking coolant though, so I think when I pulled the thermostat I loosened a hose a little too much; leak seems to be coming from the front somewhere. Unfortunately it's mothers day today so I can't get under the hood to take a closer look! It'll have to wait until Tuesday! Grr..

On the plus side, engine didn't overheat at all, which is the more important issue!

Wow. It's been almost a year since I last wrote in this thing. But, since I've just finished doing a lot of "regular" maintanence on my car I thought I'd drop in for long overdue update.

First, the maintanence. Replaced oil filter (AutoSense), air filter (paper), fuel filter (300 ZX), O2 sensor (Bosch) and thermostat (Nissan). I'm happy to announce that I think I've finally solved my overheating problem! I pulled the old thermostat and it is definately not an OEM Nissan part. Putting the thermostat side by side with my Nissan one, the Nissan one is looks beefier, and to be of higher quality. When I pick up another Nissan I'll do a side-by-side shot. I believe I've also solved my rough idle by replacing the O2 sensor and fuel filter.

What else what else what else. Uhm, a set of Battle Version T/C rods is waiting to go in, my Advans are waiting to be resurfaced, an old school HKS oil pressure came in (60mm), and my HICAS Momo Boss Hub arrived. For the boss hub, I'm thinking of the Momo Jet wheel in black.

I've officially had my car for 2.5 years now, so I'm also doing a major 2 year tuneup courtesy of PDM Racing, with new plugs, wires, rotor, cap, the works! KTS coilovers are also in the works (thanks SPL Parts!), which should be here soon. Finally, I've picked up a Veilside EII Lip which is waiting to be painted!

With my new job I've also got a stable source of income, which means this should be an exciting summer!

Another day, another journal.

Lately I've been trying to reach out beyond Toronto for 240SX clubs, and car clubs in general. As most people know, the SON crew is mostly GTA, etc., but as of late I've become a little disappointed with the way the board is running. Mostly along the lines of how administration has been performed lately, and the actions of certain members of the board on other forums that can be traced back to SON.

I mean, I'm not trying to point fingers, bash certain people, or whatever. It's just that certain things have not gone the way I think they should have gone. First and foremost was the whole issue with administrative positions on the board. AFAIK the current administration was pretty much self appointed, even though a call for votes was put out. From what I've been able to gather, from my own experience anyways, was that the whole concept of voting for administration was only put out for show. Case in point was the whole debacle for the position of Webmaster, which I myself went out for. People voted for me, yet the votes didn't seem to count. Instead, due to the fact that I don't post often on the boards those who were "in power" saw me as a "noob" and didn't take me seriously. If they had done their research, they'd have known that I wasn't a "noob", and had much respect and credentials to do the job at hand.

Another example was a recent posting by a new user about drifting locations in the GTA. A lot of people started jumping on him, calling him a cop and basically bashing him on the board. Now, sure, nobody knew this guy, and he might well have been a cop. However, what if he wasn't? Never mind that, what if another new user signed up and saw how that user was treated. Would he want to stick around? I'd say not.

The concept of SON, and any car club in general, is a good one. People can network, and if the Basic/Advanced forums of FA are any indication, ppl from all over the world can help each other out, even when there is no chance of physical contact. However, the actions of a few people on SON, rather, their demonstration of ignorance, is shocking! It's kind of embarrasing when people post videos about not to "drink and drift" and those people are bashed to hell on other forums; the embarrasment comes up with the fact that these people are directly related to the club, so the club looks bad as a result.

I've still got faith in SON, and local groups in general. I think this is just a trying moment for people to get through. Who knows. Maybe those responsible will become, well, responsible, and things will turn out for the best in the end.

Oh yeah, to wrap this little rant up. Given all that I've written above, this doesn't mean I am not thankful for SON. I've met a few cool people, and you know who you are. Those who I keep in touch with via PM/ICQ/MSN, well, you're the ones that keep it real. :D

Until then, who knows?