Minor Win thread - Life is good!

MazdaFace said:

Got to hear the tater tots heart beat for the first time today! 

Got to hear Hell Spawn's yesterday. Sounds like K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider. SWMBO said she didn't expect me to say anything less weird.

I guess this area finally hit a tipping point with relocated Yankees and Canadians. They had Lay's All Dressed chips at the local (North Carolina) grocery market today. It's been a long time since I've had them. My wife tried them for the first time. She's now also a fan of them.
 

Took the Miata to the shop last night because I've been getting an EGR code.  I was all ready to pull the valve and clean it up and everything but as soon as I opened the hood: the blue vacuum line was just disconnected!  Problem solved!

Checked the GT40 issue and found I made it into Say What...? for maybe the third or fourth time!  Score!

I was offered and accepted a job that shouldn't finish destroying my spine

It was LS parts delivery from my best buddy Mr. Brown.  Time to fix my wrong pushrod length goof and hopefully snag another 40hp.
 

Fast 102 intake with adapter to 90mm tbody

Lumper Howard's cam 598/604 232/236

Fresh comedic 0.040 head gaskets

Oe headbolts

Oe LS7 lifters

7.4 pushrods 

Now to get dyno time arranged.

Knurled. said:

Streetwiseguy said:

It does use a jet pump, the pump is on the passengers side.  You have one bad level sensor.  Both are accessible when you remove the rear seat.

I think it may be a software bug in the instrument cluster or something.  Hear me out on this.

 

I don't usually top off like wait for the pump to shut off.  I don't like to do that thanks to having had enough customers deep-fry their charcoal canisters and send gunk up the system to keep valves from sealing.  I generally look at the fuel level, if it's at half then I put in eight gallons, if it's at 3/8 I put in ten gallons, etc.  Sometimes I over-prepay and it does shut off.  But the last I don't know how many times I refilled, it would go to "Full" yet not shut off.   What I think is happening is, since the gauges don't do a position test on startup, it maybe gets lost in the gauge field and it doesn't track properly after a not-quite-topped-off fillup.  Over time, the gauge gets more and more inaccurate.

 

It definitely was reading full after the last time I added fuel, and I went an appropriate distance relative to the average economy to account for the needle movement.

 

FWIW, this is where the car was at after I topped off (meaning, refilled to shutoff)

 

(it's a repackaged Autel, it works much better for Volvo than brand O or the red brick)

Noted while going to lunch that the fuel gauge was reading just over half (about 6-7 gallons from full) but the trip odometer said 236mi and the fuel economy average was 18something.  Math not adding up. Throw scantool on.

It does appear that something is flaky with the left sending unit.

Won't have time to look at it today, probably will be fine again by the time I do.

In reply to Knurled. :

Perhaps a bit of percussive maintenance on the tank is in order.

It's reasonably easy to access that sender under the seat.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Got out of work early, went to pull the car in, and gauge is reading empty.

I just got done putting together 5 new office chairs and I didn't get a single one of the arms on backwards.

The Rotsun is back! Again!

I like that they had to do a 3 minute recap of the Rotsun's history so far.

The motherberkeleying crossmember is back in!!!!!

Bought a vinyl cutter from a fellow forum member a few months ago.  Casually making various stuff and offering to my Star Wars friends, people seem pretty happy with it.  Had my 2nd and 3rd paid order today.  (I've given a free design to almost all my local friends.  Maybe that's how you get them hooked?  Free crack then raise the $?)

So, on their day off, my two sons and three of their musically-inclined friends are jamming in the garage.  Currently playing "Seven Nation Army".  I'm not even sure which one of them is singing, but it sounds decent.  The playlist has included some Cream, Bowie, Queen, and a lot of stuff I don't know or couldn't identify. 

A week or so ago, i bought a used water cooler. For the shop. I have a shop fridge for water bottles, but always felt guilty about the waste of bottles. 

Now, i dont have that problem! (Definitely NOT some hippy here, but starting to think more about what im leaving behind for my kid to worry about)

So, cost breakdown:

$50 primo water cooler/heater from a friend 

14.99 5 gallon water bottle from food lion 

$2 metal beer stein looking cup from habitat restore

Despite holding them in my hands yesterday afternoon as I was loading everything up, I managed to leave my wristband vouchers, GRM meal tickets, infield parking pass, and my RV camping pass on my desk at home.  Didn't realize it until 300 miles from home.

For only $15, the fine, fine human beings here at the speedway ticket office reprinted everything for me and I'm now relaxing in the camper in Geico Park West.  The woman that was helping me at the window even apologized that it was taking a minute to track everything down - but it was certainly faster than driving 880 miles back home to get them!  And having my wife overnight the tickets would have cost me double! 

Thanks, DIS, for saving me from my own stupidity!

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

That's weird...  I just put one of those in my shop on Sunday!  Different brand name, but it looked like it came from the same Chinese factory:

The hot water function makes good cup noodles, fyi.

In reply to wae :

Oooooo! Hadn't thought about cup noodles! I was trying to figure out what else other than instant coffee or hot tea it would be useful for 

One of my coworkers brought in two dozen donuts today for no particular reason. Somehow I managed to avoid eating any of them, and at least plan to have a reasonably good lunch (usually go out for lunch with a friend on Thursdays). Still have a ways to go in eating better, but hey- it is the minor win thread...

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to wae :

Oooooo! Hadn't thought about cup noodles! I was trying to figure out what else other than instant coffee or hot tea it would be useful for 

French Press or pour-over coffee too

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to wae :

Oooooo! Hadn't thought about cup noodles! I was trying to figure out what else other than instant coffee or hot tea it would be useful for 

remove cup noodles from your thoughts, and get your ass on the bike!

mtn said:

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to wae :

Oooooo! Hadn't thought about cup noodles! I was trying to figure out what else other than instant coffee or hot tea it would be useful for 

French Press or pour-over coffee too

Oooh, for fancy single cup coffee I love our Aeropress. Makes amazing coffee. It would work great with the hot water dispenser.

Yesterday, Reconkid #1 passed the written Driver's exam for the state of Idaho. Today, he passed the Practical exam. I now have three licensed drivers in the house. Why is this attendant increase in insurance rates being placed in the minor win thread? Two reasons.

One- he is now able to drive to and from school and get himself to his early morning classes. 
 

Two- his insurance comes out to $42/month. Not too bad for a 16 year old male.

In reply to Recon1342 :

That's a steal. We're paying $205 a month for my son. That includes the $65 a month we're paying to add his car to the policy. :^(

In reply to CAinCA :

Ouch. 
I find myself wondering if me and my wife's driving records affect his rates...