6/5/2012

So, as I said yesterday, I think I might have a $1,000.00 paperweight in that cylinder head on the engine in Lil' Wiggly.  That bottom end ran like stank in Gil with a stock cylinder head… until it bent the pushrods but that was another issue entirely I think.  I'm running the exact same NISMO “Race Cam #2” that I ran in Gil; the only difference is the $1,000.00 super ported cylinder head.  I'm afeared we opened up the ports too much and killed all velocity.  Sure, the thing will flow metric shit-tons of air on the flow bench, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a useable cylinder head.  I'm seriously considering swapping in a freshened-up stock head to see how the thing will run.  It will only cost me a head, intake/exhaust, and thermostat gasket to perform that experiment as well.  Ok, it will also “cost” me the two or three hours labor to do it.  I think we could have it done in a Saturday if the new head is ready to go.  So, there’s that going on.  As for the continuing saga of last weekend, Sunday I waited for mom and we went to Texas Roadhouse for a steak lunch.  I was prepared to be disappointed but was not.  My Fort Worth ribeye was quite the tasty hunk ‘o dead cow.  After that, I went out in Fiona to look for a 195° thermostat for Lil' Wiggly.  I wasn’t sure if we had changed out the 165° ‘stat when we pulled that engine from The Seven so I was going to try making it run a bit hotter to see if it helped performance.  I've told this next story so many times that I don’t remember if one of them was in here.  If so, deal with the repetition.  One time, when I had this engine in The Seven, running the 165° thermostat, I stopped at a convenience store for a drink and let the engine sit and heat-soak.  The acceleration away from that gas station, until the temperature came back down, was PHENOMENAL!  Also, I thought I noticed that the temp gauge in Lil' Wiggly was hovering around 165° the other day.  So, I fingered I'd swap in a hotter ‘stat and see if it would run better.  I first went to the Boys of Pep.  They had the 195° thermostat but no gasket.  I took the ‘stat and picked out a Hello Kitty seat cover and floor mats then went to the register.  I paid and headed home.  As I passed the house, I decided that I'd better get some RTV or see if another auto parts store had the gasket.  I went to O’Reilley’s.  They had the gasket for 95¢ or something like that.  I bought it and headed home.  I began rounding up tools to do the thermostat swap and was hit with the sudden urge to vent my bowels.  I don’t know what it is about a steak that makes it such a great laxative… but it does.  After doing my best “upside down volcano” impression, I got to work on Lil' Wiggly.  I removed the old thermostat and had a look at it.  “Hmm,” thought I.  “This is a 180° ‘stat.  Interesting.”  I put the 195 in and bolted everything back together.  I filled the radiator and watched for leaks.  There were none.  Oh wait, I just now remembered changing that 165 ‘stat for the 180.  It was that time we put it on crooked and it leaked all the water out as we tried to fill it.  Remember that John?  It was just outside the paint booth door.  Anyhoo, I fired up the engine and watched the temp rise.  It settled in the upper 180s and I looked for leaks.  Finding none, I moved on to “installing” the Hello Kitty floor mats and seat cover.  Of course the mats fit, but the seat cover was a different story.  I took it off again and tossed it in the “passenger” side of the car.  I put away the tools and got ready to go to the JNC car show thingy at Freebird’s.  John wanted me to stop by his house “on the way” so he could install a Datsun decal on the hatch between the Badtz Maru and AK-47 Hello Kitty decals I installed last week.  I called to see if he was home and upon hearing he was, headed that way.  The 195° thermostat may have helped ever so slightly… but nowhere near enough.  At John's house, we installed the Datsun decal and he trimmed it around the others.  It looks good.  There is one spot that he’s not happy with, but it doesn’t bother me enough to worry about.  It actually doesn’t even show up, the blem that is, when sitting in Fiona behind Lil' Wiggly.  John may fix it next week if it bugs him that much.  Eventually I went to Freebird’s and met up with Bernie Long and his MR-2, Tim from Lewisville with his Honda Passport scooter, some kid with an RX-7, and Jeff in his Toyota pickup.  We hung out for a while then all went our separate ways.  Lil' Wiggly performed well enough on the trip out and back and I think, if push came to shove, I could be forced to live with it the way it drives.  But, like I said above, it will only cost me a couple bucks worth of gaskets and some labor to try a different head.  Why not gopher it?