FINALLY A FULL WEEKEND

Finally had a full weekend. Spent Friday after work with my best friends for dinner and beer. We ended up eating after eating. Not unusual with our group. It's great to have good friends who you can just bullshit with after a long week.

Spent Saturday sleeping in, running errands. It was way too hot to do much. No A/C at the house, I was suffering. Temperature inside the house got up to 85 degrees. No fan was working as it was only blowing hot air. I didn't get to sleep well at all. Kept waking up in sweat. I hate summer.

Went to my former roomates daugher's bday party on Sunday at noon. I can't believe I've seen his daughter from a few days old to turning 11 years old. Kids grow up so fast. Left around 130 to head over to SF for the free concert at Golden Gate Park. Concert was held by Alice Radio (97.3 FM).

Alice Summerthing included performances by:

Marie Digby
Ingrid Michaelson
LifeHouse

I think there was 2 other artists, but didn't know who they were. I was bummed to miss Marie Digby and Ingrid Michaelson. LifeHouse was pretty good live. All good though, I was with good company :)



After the show, drove back east to meet up with another friend's birthday gathering. Got me thinking of getting a PS3 soon to play online with everyone. Somehow everyone ended up with a PS3. Im all alone with my Xbox. .....hahaha.

WHAT IS THAT BIG BULGE?

Friday night after work, I heard something from under the car when I got home. I decided to check out what the noise was. Popped the hood and checked everything. Seemed okay, until I saw my upper radiator hose. See anything wrong?



Yeah....that cannot be good at all.... Look at the expansion of the hose before it reaches the radiator endtank. I was very fortunate to have caught this. The hoses were deteriorating from the inside out and is breaking down structurally. This causes the hose to expand and deform under pressure. With 150+ degree coolant flowing and cooling over the years, hoses needed to be replaced every 3-4 years or depending how much the motor is used. I've overlooked this part of maintenance and noticed that the hoses might of been factory hoses from the original vehicle.



I was very fortuante that the hose did not burst and explode when I was driving. It would of made a huge mess and probably ended the life of the motor itself.

On Sunday, I made a trip to VatoZone (Autozone) to pick up some replacement hoses and clamps. Almost shelled out about 100 bucks for Samco Hoses...but decided I didn't need them at the moment. The replacement hoses cost about 30 bucks.




First drained the radiator of all old coolant.




Took the radiator out and did a full flush to rid of any small dirt, soil or buildup that may have found its way inside.




Took the upper radiator hose out. The engine side was a pain in the ass to pull off. The old hose basically fused itself onto the head of the engine. I had to pry it off and use some of my super human strength to pull it off. The plastic bag was used to keep the remaining coolant off the block. (Preventing a mess).




Second task was to take the lower hose off. This one made a mess also as most of the coolant resides in the lower hose. Radiator side was easy...but just like the upper hose, the engine side that connects to the Thermostat housing was fused on. This part of the hose was even harder to get to as on the GSR motor, the part is near the already narrow area of the motor behind the head, next to the intake manifold. I hate the GSR manifold, it gets in the way of everything. To reach it better, I had to take the intake off to get to the housing.




After manhandling the lower hose, the new hose slid right on.




New clamps applied...




New upper hose applied along with clamps...




Once everything was clamped, it was time to refill the system with new coolant and bleed out all the air. Since my motor didn't come with a bleeder valve, I had to do it the long way.

Run the motor at idle with radiator cap off. Turn on heater and fan at full blast until motor reaches operating temperature. Wait for 2 radiator fan cycles to pass. By that time, most of the air should have escaped the system.




Once air has bleeded, cap off the radiator and fill reservoir tank to MAX line.





Discard old hoses....





All done. After 3 hours (which took longer than expected), the motor has new radiator hoses.

FIRE IN THE SKY

Leaving work on Friday evening at about 8pm, the sky was a weird color. Looked like thunderstorm clouds with a red tint to it. Decided to take out the camera to take a few pics. Wished I had a digital SLR or better lens to capture the true colors of the sky at that time of day.

06.08.08 EK SQUAD MEET @ WEKSOS

We were happy to host the 4th annual EK Squad meet at our location on Sunday. Nice weather, nice cars, free raffles, free food. What more can you ask for on a Sunday afternoon? After a decline in attendance from the previous 2 years at another location, the organizers decided to hold it at our location this year. Attendance was noticably bigger than the 2 previous years. I am very happy we were able to host another successful meet.

In one month, we will be hosting our 3rd Annual anniversary meet. (July 27th) It is expected to be bigger than last year. A lot of vendors will be showing off their new stuff for the season. We are keeping to our motto. No trophies, no slutty under aged "models", no politics. Just a meet to mingle, meet new people, have fun and enjoy the hobby and culture. Hopefully I see you all there!

In the mean time, here is some pics from last Sunday:




Better coverage can be found here at www.jsjbrothers.com under gallery "4th Annual EK SQUAD MEET" or at our shop blog at: http://weksos-industries.blogspot.com/ ...and at http://honda-tech.com/zerothread/2320726

RECAP 1.5 WEEKS

I cant believe another week has passed so fast. Did an oil change on Sunday. Since my engine is burning a lot of oil, I decided to try some additive to aid in slowing down the burning. It claimed that it would restore the compression and help in oil consumption. I was very skeptic about it, but my good friend told me it really works and has used it before in his previous cars. Well..it works. sorta. After about a week in monitoring, I did notice the car was a little better in throttle response and in power. This could mean the compression has jumped back up to almost normal levels as I do know cylinder 3 is low before. The car felt like it did the first day I swapped the motor over. Oil consumption was slower as the levels weren't depleting as fast as it did before after a week. I will need to keep a close eye the next few days to see how it goes. I did notice the levels did drop slightly. Gas mileage has been okay lately. I think I might pull another 30+ MPG which is very good since average has been about 22-24 MPG lately. We'll have to see. Using Valvoline 10-30 Conventional with WIX Oil Filter and RESTORE additive. Magnetic Drain bolt.... with something on the magnet. :/ Hopefully it is just dirt....but dirt does not magnetize....grrr On another note...another 3 Muggs came in. I like how the packaging has their faces on the top...makes a great wallpaper !!


On Sunday 6/8 was the 4th Annual EK SQUAD meet that we hosted at work. (EK = 96-00 Civic). We hosted the event which was quite successful. Huge turn out with lots of cars. I will post more when I get the pictures uploaded. Here's a teaser....