Captain's Log: The Fourth

Three Day Weekend

Hardly did 9anything Saturday, used it as a freebie. Watched the Daytona 500 Sunday (I have a casual relationship with NASCAR), and finished off the day with some Winter Olympics. I must say that with the new NASCAR season, and the Winter Olympics, this is the most "Fan-ing" I've done in awhile. I'm looking at you, Green Bay (maybe next season).

The race was fun, and I actually watched the whole thing. Trying to pick a driver to like right now. Before the race, I had narrowed it down to either Austin Dillon (because of his seaming embodiment of the "3" car and his willingness to "wear the black hat") or Bubba Wallace Jr (Because I like Petty, and I think he see's something in Wallace). I'm still on the fence, as Dillon won the race, and I don't wan't to jump on the band wagon yet.

As far as the Winter Olympics, I have always enjoyed it more than the summer games. Almost every winter game involves speed of some kind. My favorites are the Super G and Alpine skiing, Skeleton and Bobsleigh, as well as Ski Jumping. They just feel faster than the summer games.

ANYWAYS, on to Monday (Presidents Day)

Spent most the day working on the the Rabbit, on and off. Swapped out the intake manifold for a newer revised version. The newer manifold has shorter runner, and will in theory give me more top end. Even more so once I get the Rabbit tuned.

The Old Intake - Longer Runners

The "New" Intake - Shorter Runners

Spent some time cleaning the manifold, as well as the ports on the block. Not too much build up after 122k miles. Plenty of Chemtool and rags took care of the mess.

Installed new O rings on my cleaned injectors.

Crud. This was probably the worst of the five

Didn't get too into it. Just a finger and a rag.

The only snags I ran into were reaching the two bolts on the manifold hidden on the bottom and the rubber spacers between the manifold and it's front bracket.

The first issue didn't take me long to figure out, but it did take me a while to implement my strategy. There are four bolts on the bottom part of the flange that attaches the manifold to the cylinder head. Two of them are on the outside and easy to get to. The other two are hidden, and you have to use an extension to reach through these two holes in the manifold to get to them. The holes aren't big enough for a 3/8th drive socket, but the socket bit (a 6mm allen head) does not come in 1/4 drive.

ADAPTATION.

I took my suuuuper long 1/4 inch extension, a 7mm socket and the 6mm allen bit from a 1/2 inch drive and combined them into one super tool.

I had to sacrifice the 1/2 inch socket, but it will not be forgotten.

"It cant be tight if it's liquid"

Good night, sweet prince

After that, the 6mm bit didn't fit in a 6mm socket, so I had to use a 7mm. The fit was too lose, so I had to wedge something down in between the allen head and the socket. A piece of paper clip did the trick. My tool was made, and off came the manifold.

Long John Silver

After the above mentioned cleaning took place, I started back on reassembling. "New" injectors in, and double checking on my hose and wire connections.

Old versus "New"

This brought me to my next hiccup. These stupid rubber mount things. I dont recall the engine in the junk yard having them, but my car did. The mounts were captured on my manifold, and I couldn't swap them over to the new one.

Stupid

I ended up freeing them from the old intake by cutting the intake up, and them melting and crushing the ABS plastic in a vice. Then I couldn't get the brass insert off. I said forget it and went to Home Depot to make myself a mount.

After installing the manifold and loosely bolting it back in, it looked as if I didn't need them after all (nor would they have fit.) I ended up sticking a few rubber washer in between the mount and manifold for good measure, and called it a day. The Rabbit fired up without hesitation, and a little while later we went for a test drive.

Finished!

Impressions:

I've pretty much lost all my bottom end, or at least it feels that way. I knew that I would probably experience a little drop in low end torque, but the drop was noticeable. I guess 4 inch shorter runner would do that.

I do feel, or think I feel, a harder pull around 4000 to 5000 RPMs, but unfortunately, I currently top out at 5700, so I'm not sure if this surge continues. Hopefully the tune will sort this part out.

On the highway, It looks to be getting slightly (+ 2-4) MPGs. This could just be hopeful thinking (or weather), but next trip to Orlando will be the judge.

Well, that about wraps it up for this one. 

I'm sure there will be more work related stuff coming up this week, and I'll try to get in a non car related personal post here soon.

Ok. Thats it.

Mud Holes, Forever

The week seemed to be dry and all the clothes were too clean.

But we got a chance to get a little dirty before the week was through. 

A few leaks popped up this week, some where passed off to other crews, but we fixed a few ourselves. Friday was the muddy one.

A reuse leak came in a few days before, but it was small so we let it go for a couple days.  Since it was reuse water, we shut (we thought) the main off so it could dry up (it didnt).

We headed out Friday morning to get it fixed. I hooked up to a trailer and we brought out our BobCat and a mud pump.

No matter where you go, make sure your hair is fabulous.

A few scoops taken out for exploratory reasons.

The main ended up not being off all the way, and the somebody turned the main back on with someone else in the hole. Main was shut off all the way, then the repair began. Ended up being a slipped fitting coming off the main tap saddle.

Mud hog pumping down the hole

Squeeeeezing the bucket between the main and other utilities.

I thought the main was off!?

After we got down to the break, I headed back to the yard with a trailer full of mud. That proved to be a task. All that muck settled driving back to the yard, and suction cupped itself to the trailer floor. I had to hand shovel it all out.

Brownies?

The mud did not move. At all. I even shook the tar out of the trailer and nearly broke the hitch.

After getting more dirty emptying the trailer than I did working, I loaded up some fresh dry dirt to back fill the hole, and headed back. Fuel first.

All the lights

Once back, both reuse services were built back in poly. Meter boxes were set, and we began to backfill. All in all the repair went the way it should.

Tee'd straight off the main.

Not much leak action this week, but I'm sure there will be more next week. I think we have a repair scheduled to remove a meter from a driveway, so that should be fun.

See you later!

Captian's Log: 3

This weekend was a little laid back, not too much to report. Spent some time with family on Friday, and worked on the car a little as well.

This Saturday's project was the beginning of the conversion of MK6 Golf parts onto my MK5 Rabbit. Long story short, my Rabbit came with 150hp/170lbft and a 5500 RPM redline. The late MK5s and MK6 Golfs came with 170hp/177lbft and a 6300 Redline. I will be getting the Rabbit tuned for a 6500 Redline, and in prep for that, I am switching over to all the MK6 parts I can.

First step was the exhaust manifold. The MK5 is an open chamber type manifold. There are hardly any runners at all, and its mostly just an empty chamber full of turbulence. The MK6 manifold is slightly less open, with actual runners. It does open up at the end, but is more "header-like" and almost a true 5-1 manifold. I could have bought an actual header, but they stopped making the good ones years ago, and if you find them online, they are usually $1000 dollars. I would never dream of spending that on a full cat back, much less a header. You can get ebay knock offs, but they are prone to cracking, and I would have to cut up my stock exhaust to make it fit.

MK5 on the left, MK6 on the right. Port holes are the same diameter, MK5 is just dirty.

Swap was pretty straight forward. After removing a few pieces and sensors, everything came up and over the engine with no fuss. About half the studs came out with the manifold nuts, but after a trip to the touch, and using jam nuts, they came right off. The studs were then cleaned and soaked in PBlaster, and all new brass nuts, as well as new OE MLS gaskets were used.

Do not pass go, go directly to torch.



Everything was buttoned up, and then the Rabbit was fired up.

 

Word for the wise, PBlaster smokes like a son of a gun.

 

ProTip: Unbolt the exhaust hanger and the down pipe slides right on.

 I don't have a heat shield yet (one is on the way), so I made do with some reflective heat material, and overlapped it on my fire wall. I'll leave it for added protection once the heat shield gets here.

REVIEW

 

Over all impressions are good! Sound has noticeably changed. Idle sounds more "uneven" (like how I think a 5 cylinder should sound), and under wide open throttle, it is louder. There is almost a trumpet-like blast. Seriously, I picture a chunky kid blasting the hardest note through a trumpet or trombone when I hear it.

 

Power is obviously unchanged for now, but again, this is just a supporting mod for the tune.

 

 

So if you hear something on the Westside that sounds like hells angels blasting trumpets, it's probably me in my pokey VW Rabbit.

 

 

 

More later!



More Mud Holes?

Couple more leaks passed by our way this week. Let me show you their features.

This first one was relatively small. A backflow company was attempting to change out a backflow, and in the process split a piece of galvanized pipe.  We had to cut back on it with a hacksaw, and install a new compression fitting with curbstop. We always try to fix our leaks under pressure, especially the small ones. Fixing the leaks under pressure prevents disruption of service to the customer, as well as prevents us from putting customers under a "Boil Water" notice.

Split right behind the curbstop in the galvanized pipe.

 

Next one was a doozy

 

 

 This leak came in at 4:30pm. Sometimes we let them ride till the next day, but in the case of leaks like this one, we decided to fix it immediately. The water main runs directly underneath the driveway, about where the split is between the dry and wet pavement. Trucks were loaded with dirt and limestone, trackhoe was loaded up, and off we went.

 

 

 

Driveway was cut to gain access to the ground and water main underneath. Once we got down to the main, the leak indeed up being a 5 inch split running inline with the pipe. Looked like the pipe had suffered a hit when it was originally installed, and just wore out over time. 

Strike first, strike hard. No mercy.







Ended up staying till 12am

 

 

The split section was cut out and replaced. Sometimes we can install a repair band around the main, but the position of the crack made prepping the pipe too difficult. Before wrapping a pipe, the ideal way to handle a split is to drill a hole at the edge of the split line, to prevent the crack from spreading. The split on this pipe was on the bottom, so we would have to submerge our drill in the water and mud to drill the pipe.

 

After the main was repaired, the hole was backfilled, and water service restored. Didn't get to keep the water on this time. Total repair took around 6-7 hours. Not that bad, but we could have shaved an hour off if we went straight to the clamps and replacing the piece of affected pipe.

 

A repair band was attempted first

Two hymax couplings were used, as well as a new piece of pipe.

Driveway secured.

Bye Felicia.



Captains Log: 2

What I had planned on doing this weekend involved working on my car. I am working my way up to a tune for the Rabbit, so I was wanting to get in some supporting mods, mainly a revised intake and exhaust manifold, as well as fuel injectors.

 

However,

I went to Ikea instead.

 

The Land of Swedish (USA, Chinese, French, Italian) made wonder

 

Now I'm not a super Ikea fanatic, but I am an Ikea family member, and I do enjoy the establishment. The wife and I wanted to tackle the toy issue in our house as well as clean up our media area. While there might be more "quality" furniture else where, I have yet to see someone tackle storage like Ikea does. Ikea quality is fine as well. I've found it to be very solid furniture.


So I switched the Rabbit into truck/station wagon mode and we headed out. The Rabbit can handle pretty much whatever I throw at it. I usually carry my BDM tools with me wherever I go, and that includes a ladder. It can hold all of it with the seats up. That's for another post though.

 

7'x2' is the max safe load I can fit. More could fit with some tetris skills.

The purchase.
Wife trying to price it out before we check out.



Plenty of room left. The Rabbit didn't even squat. I even folded the front seat back up.

 

 

Everything was loaded up, and after we got our snacks we headed out. This is the part of the story where I discuss the "bomb" scare at Ikea, and us having to evacuate. I'll save all the typing, and just link you to the news article. Watch the video! I was interviewed! IM FAMOUS!

 

BOMB AT IKEA! (IT WAS A BAG OF POTS)

 

While I enjoy shopping at Ikea, I less than enjoy assembling Ikea furniture. However one comes with the other, so after a slight delay I started building. This time around I thought I'd be "professional" so I got out my levels. Wrong move. This probably doubled the build time. I made it my mission to not have a single crooked door, and between the bubble and laser level I think I succeeded.

 

Well, that's about it for this weekend. Hope to get into some shenanigans at work and share them here. I'll leave you with some pics, see you then!

 

People leaving Ikea during evacuation

Hanging out, waiting for the all clear (it never came)



Being pushed back even further

Where I stood for a few hours, waiting for my car. We were eventually moved even further back.