New project. 1987 Lamborghini Jalpa. There's no easy way out.

In reply to corsepervita:

Add some Vitamin D supplements to your routine and maybe look at getting a sunlamp to help with SAD.

A heater in the garage helps as well, I would kick mine off in the morning while making breakfast and by the time I got out to garage, it was as warm or warmer than the house. Just be careful about CO if it is propane fueled.

Even though I'm born and raised in the PNW and come from a predominantly Irish and Swedish background, I still suffer with motivational issues when winter hits. Being aware of things like this and making some subtle changes helps a bit.

As one of the GRM folks said in the past, if you've got 5 minutes to spend in the garage, do a 5-minute task. If you've got longer, do a longer one. Even just cleaning and organizing can do wonders for productivity.

My challenge right now is the 4-month old bundle of wonderfulness that is the most important project I will ever have, so other stuff is on a back-burner at the moment.

Keep up the great work!

Stefan wrote: In reply to corsepervita: Add some Vitamin D supplements to your routine and maybe look at getting a sunlamp to help with SAD. A heater in the garage helps as well, I would kick mine off in the morning while making breakfast and by the time I got out to garage, it was as warm or warmer than the house. Just be careful about CO if it is propane fueled. Even though I'm born and raised in the PNW and come from a predominantly Irish and Swedish background, I still suffer with motivational issues when winter hits. Being aware of things like this and making some subtle changes helps a bit. As one of the GRM folks said in the past, if you've got 5 minutes to spend in the garage, do a 5-minute task. If you've got longer, do a longer one. Even just cleaning and organizing can do wonders for productivity. My challenge right now is the 4-month old bundle of wonderfulness that is the most important project I will ever have, so other stuff is on a back-burner at the moment. Keep up the great work!

Yeah, already ran blood work and gone through a rigorous check to see what it is. Only thing that's helped is antidepressants lol. I don't know why but lately it's been hitting me harder. Trying my best to keep it at bay.

I'll try and at least spend a few minutes tonight doing the other ITBs. I've got some really nice connectors with pigtails coming tomorrow to finish up the airbox bit so the harness looks clean and professional.

Positive note:

Fuel regulator, some of my fuel fittings showed up, MSD coil showed up and the rest of my stuff is here. I just need a filter, some hose, and the fuel system will be ready.

Get after it mangdingo!

Stefan wrote: In reply to corsepervita: Add some Vitamin D supplements to your routine and maybe look at getting a sunlamp to help with SAD. A heater in the garage helps as well, I would kick mine off in the morning while making breakfast and by the time I got out to garage, it was as warm or warmer than the house. Just be careful about CO if it is propane fueled. Even though I'm born and raised in the PNW and come from a predominantly Irish and Swedish background, I still suffer with motivational issues when winter hits. Being aware of things like this and making some subtle changes helps a bit. As one of the GRM folks said in the past, if you've got 5 minutes to spend in the garage, do a 5-minute task. If you've got longer, do a longer one. Even just cleaning and organizing can do wonders for productivity. My challenge right now is the 4-month old bundle of wonderfulness that is the most important project I will ever have, so other stuff is on a back-burner at the moment. Keep up the great work!

I second the heater in the garage but do people really have SAD in the lower 48? The vast majority of people don't even have it up here. Too much to do in the winter though to be bothered by it.

Crankwalk, often SAD seems to be triggered by the shorter days, not just weather, so it could hit just about anyone not on the equator.

Corsepervita, keep up the great work, this has been a really fun build thread to read! Thanks!

I found a Task List helps me to keep motivated. The Task List should include anything and everything you can do in the garage, whether it's sweeping, organizing nuts from bolts, changing the light bulb in the trouble light, or even working on the car!

Then strike off the items as you do them, but leave them visible so you can see the progress; that's key. Just like Stefen said if you got 5 minutes in the garage, do two 2 minute and one 1 minute tasks.

No Joke, 15-20 minutes walking/light jogging on the treadmill in the morning, while listening to a podcast about cars, or NFL, or movies...anything interesting, really gets me through the winter. The slight workout gets my energy up, makes me feel pretty good. The interesting topic on the podcast gets my mind engaged at the same time. The combo really lightens my mood. Plus, the time on the treadmill helps the waistline too.

I'm staying home from work to nurse my broken wrist and work on the Motovan if you want to check out a different monumental project for a change.

oilstain wrote: Crankwalk, often SAD seems to be triggered by the shorter days, not just weather, so it could hit just about anyone not on the equator. Corsepervita, keep up the great work, this has been a really fun build thread to read! Thanks!

Well yeah, I guess the sunlight is what I was talking about more than the weather. I don't even notice it being an issue in the winter in the PNW of the lower 48.

Even with 4 hours of daylight at the winter equinox here, most people just ski/snowmobile and then carry on like normal. I guess I always thought that was blown out of proportion but I suppose I was wrong.

For me the biggest thing was always keeping a project going through the change of seasons. It's easier in the south as the changes are less severe, but up north the leaves falling and snow on the ground means that summer stuff is over and it's time for winter stuff. Carrying a project through that transition is tough.

Slightly OT but holding to a positive routine that segments the day I find to be directly related to general happiness.

I cycle to work, work, then spend half an hour in the gym before cycling home again all through the summer, in the winter I change over to running (it's a lot less miserable running through 2 degree rain than it is to cycle through it).

The physical activity does a number of things - one of them is to render it impossible for me to check email, something which infects my other waking hours, so it provides a very clear terminator between home and work. Another is that (for me at least) the fitter I am the happier I am. It also means that I can eat more cheese with no associated weight gain.

I do tend to travel a lot for my work and when I do so it becomes tough (to impossible) to fit in a couple of hours of higher output aerobic exercise, which I really notice in terms of general mental well-being.

If working from home I try to head out before my normal starting time and run 10k, grab a coffee on the way back and then have my working day, at the end of which I'll head out again. Otherwise, especially with working from home I'll end up sat on the sofa with the work laptop on my legs at 9pm. An enforced "at half five I'll run the woods, the ridge, then back over Sydenham Hill" again provides the definitive end to the working day.

TLDR: bring some routine exercise into your day, I (sincerely) believe you'll find it rewarding.

mazdeuce wrote: For me the biggest thing was always keeping a project going through the change of seasons. It's easier in the south as the changes are less severe, but up north the leaves falling and snow on the ground means that summer stuff is over and it's time for winter stuff. Carrying a project through that transition is tough.

That's why I always made a clear divider between the season where I break stuff, and the season where I fix stuff. Keeps me looking forward to the change because I can finally do the things I've been wanting to do for months. Like right now, with Winter coming, I'm chomping at the bit to work on the car. Come April/May I'll be tired of that and anxious to be driving again.

Sorry I haven't responded, gents. Wasn't really sure how to respond to you all. Thanks for the support. Sorry to hear there are others who deal with depression and anxiety. I've dealt with it for the last 10 years and sometimes it's debilitating. Last night me and my girlfriend hung out for a bit. Didn't get any car work done. But it was still nice to get out and hang out.

However, tonight I'm planning on doing more wiring. I've ordered a fusebox for the engine bay on the megasquirt, fuses, IAT/CLT sensors and just need to order a wideband.

Though I'm not sure really what sensor I want to use. My trackday project used an AEM, and it seems to work fine. My turbo car uses an Innovate, which I like. But at the same time I hate the LC1 because of the calibration process on it.

Anyone who goes with megasquirt, what did you find was an easy, reliable, good quality wideband that it uses?

Im running a spartan, but its still on jackstands so no real data on it yet.

In reply to corsepervita:

I have a spare LC1, but yeah that calibration process is annoying. If you need something to get through the dyno efforts, let me know.

I've heard good things about 14point7 aka Spartan:

http://www.14point7.com/pages/products

You might also look at a way to run dual wide bands since you have two distinct banks to tune.

I'm curious to see what solution you end up with.

I picked an AEM in an attempt to factor in quality, availability, and a minimal need for calibration. I am still getting into tuning, but have found that I really like that the controller includes a gauge (not a feature I was originally shopping for.) I don't have enough time on it to comment on durability yet.

A word to the wise, there are several different calibration curves for AEM widebands. I picked an AEM preset that I thought would match from the TunerStudio drop down menu, and it was slightly off. After some farting around, I compared to the calibration curve provided by AEM and found/corrected the error. What is that they say about making an assumption?.....

Innovate MTX-L works great for me

ae86andkp61 wrote: I picked an AEM in an attempt to factor in quality, availability, and a minimal need for calibration. I am still getting into tuning, but have found that I really like that the controller includes a gauge (not a feature I was originally shopping for.) I don't have enough time on it to comment on durability yet. A word to the wise, there are several different calibration curves for AEM widebands. I picked an AEM preset that I thought would match from the TunerStudio drop down menu, and it was slightly off. After some farting around, I compared to the calibration curve provided by AEM and found/corrected the error. What is that they say about making an assumption?.....

Which AEM are you using?

In reply to corsepervita:

AEM part #30-5130 I think.

In a random turn of events, me and my girlfriend were at "first friday" which is an art festival and food festival in downtown bend once a month.

Lady was in a bigass hurry to go get her son. Pedestrian at a stop sign starts to cross. She slightly backs up. The dude stops 1/4 of the way. My girlfriend goes "NO NO NO" and before I can react, she backs up again onto the nose of my 931.

I was pretty mad, but didn't call her names and tried my hardest not to be a dick. She was super apologetic, extremely cooperative. Police report filed, she's at fault, gave me her info, filed a claim as soon as it happened. She texted me her apology and she's been super nice about it, she feels back.

I wish more people were as apologetic as she was. Last time it happened I just got a business card that was like, "I might have hit your car....", still got it fixed, and the dude turned out to be an ex cop lol. But he was also nice. Either way..... my poor 931. Twice in one year. Good thing I never want to sell it, because it'd suck to explain it's been backed into twice lol.

Not going to let it ruin my week. Fuel system E36 M3 is on, and I have parts a plenty to bring to the machinist.

Things that arrived this week that'll be wired in tomorrow:

MSD 6AL MSD Coil Harness adapters (weatherproof)

Other bits that arrived

Y connector AN fittings Fitting for fuel tank

Plans for the week:

Use some of the flat media CF I have laying around from my trackday project to make a box for the ignition setup so I can mount that in the engine bay. Wire up the ignition box and coil, source wires. Double check distributor and make sure it's good to go. Finish wiring the coils. Once my fuse boxes arrive, wire those up for the injectors and the rest of the harness. Wire up relays. CLT/IAT sensors on the way. Still need to order my wideband. Part of me wants to do a dual so I can get measurements on each bank of exhaust. Part of me says "meh" since I'm not going to do tuning individually on cylinders, but part of me still wants to, just to be safe.

Also going to rip out the bullet fusebox (already done) to replace it with a regular fuse style, blade fuse box. The old bullet fuses are a joke and I freaking hate them. Every single Porsche I've ever owned used them, and they all suck ass IMO. The blade fuses are much much better and make a better connection, not to mention are much better hidden from elements, moisture, etc. It wont' be original, but neither is EFI, so screw it.

Ready to throw the air boxes together in the morning. All the linkage bits are painted the way I want them, masked off anything for the bearing races. Bearings are ready to be put inside and it's all ready to be buttoned up as far as the air boxes go. I still need to find a wrinkle finish paint for them since that's what was used previously, but having never used that stuff before I'm not sure what a GOOD quality wrinkle finish paint would be.

If anyone has suggestions on wrinkle finish brands you dig, i'm all ears.

Here's some before and after.

The paint itself has dried properly but because the stuff is so thin it appears to take to the texture of the old metal pretty well lol. Still looks great, but you can see the texture of the metal beneath.

Also finished the wiring on the other ITB side. Though I think I'm about to have a slight dilemma. So the ITBs are made to be a drop in over the DCNF webers. But, near as I can tell, the rail being as big as it is, barely fits in the airbox. It would be physically impossible for it to fit the other way around. Yet looking at the bleed screws on them, it appears they would expect me to.

So this means my butterflies open the opposite way. Though I'm wondering if I can adjust the linkage outside the airbox to turn the rods the other way to get around this, I see no reason I can't. I may even be able to flip the linkage on the ITBs around too. I'll figure it out I guess.

In reply to Not exactly sure what the original wrinkle finish looked like, but I've had very good results from the Hammertone rattle-cans. I think they're Rustoleum? It's pretty durable too.

petegossett wrote: In reply to Not exactly sure what the original wrinkle finish looked like, but I've had very good results from the Hammertone rattle-cans. I think they're Rustoleum? It's pretty durable too.

I'll see if I can find some, rockin'. Thanks!

Someone here did a really great job on their Miata valve covers with a red wrinkle paint. Let me see if I can find it.

Edit: Here you go.
Bonus points: Keith chimed in and said there's a wrinkle powdercoat that they use at FM. I'd be interested to see that plus there's less problems with longevity generally with powdercoat.

Still loving the thread.