The Iggblog

I got into my first evAr “street race” tonight.

I was bebopin along in the left hand lane passing a lengthy caravan of nitwits on, and this Porsche 996 comes bombing down my lane behind me. I did not race the Porsche. (Porsche > IggDawg) == always. I pull over to let him by and watch him gracefully float by at 100+ mph like he’s riding on a massive strip of butter. so smooth. anyways… This other car comes blasting down the passing lane going slightly slower, and was presumably using the Porsche as a rabbit. the car in front of me is getting close, so I get into the passing lane. there’s another car in front of me there too. whatever. I’m in no rush. This other car, now visible as a mighty 98 Toyota Corolla CE (classic editionx0r) gets in the right to try and get around me and the car in front of me. of course he gets stuck behind the guy in the right I was getting around.

So the guy pulls in front of me. there’s 1.25 carlengths between my nose and the car in front of me’s butt. he just wiggles in without a signal. still, no big deal. I knew he was going to do it. the is MA after all. I toss him my high beams for a second, and give a quick toot on my horn. just to remind him that there are otehr cars on the road. as I flash him I notice he has two passengers. so he tosses me his flashers. WTF? no man… you didn’t. It’s not that I care if someone gives me the hazards. it’s just the sheer stupidity of the situation… that I’m letting him know he’s being a jackass and he tosses me the “I win” lights. bah. I was bored anyways. Let’s play a little.

The guy in front of him pulls to the right as we pass the guy in the right hand lane. he downshifts and takes off with all his might, as teh stench from his tailpipe and the puff of smoke let me know. Time for a new cat, kiddo. I keep it in 5th and just keep pace with him. he takes it up to a speed slightly higher than the speed limit before we get near traffic again. I was happy to just keep pace. He’s the only one that actually thinks we’re racing. The passengers in the back are all turning around pointing and laughing or something. apparently I was racing them?

Traffic lets up again, and I smell him downshift again. My exit was coming up, so I thought I’d have my fun and get on with the evening. My clutch is still a little fresh, so I baby it into 4th. He’s taking off like a bat out of hell (well, as much of a bat outa hell as a ’98 corolla CE with 2 passengers can…), and I give it about 7/10 throttle. I’m on his ass in moments and the guys in back look all surprised. I tear past him on the right like he’s standing still and toss him the hazards. I wave goodbye and take my exit.

This is the first time I’ve ever really tried to “race” someone. A mostly stock CRX Si is a capable car, but by no means a “mighty adversary.” but a stock corolla with passengers isn’t even capable. there was no competition here. I just felt like pissing off a stupid driver cause it seemed like it would be fun.

street racing is stupid
pissing off stupid drivers is counterproductive

but all the same, it did make me smile a little. There’s a certain sense of satisfaction that comes with decimating an opponent of any sort who you know has absolutely no chance in the world, be it in a car, a debate, a video game, whatever. I never do this sort of thing, so I figure one incedent won’t tarnish my karma too bad. but yeah. I won a street race. :p

-IggDawg

I finished the clutch install last night with help from Seth. I picked up the replacement crossmember from a guy on www.honda-tech.com . I had to meet him in West Stockbridge, which meant leaving right from work and travelling the length of Massachussetts just about twice over (including the return trip). I got the crossmember that I fux0r’d, and it still had the steering rack, swaybar, and control arms on it. see also: spare parts. he only wanted 50 bucks for the whole assembly. WTF? that’s like 200 bucks worth if I was buying from a junkyard.

Anyways, we finally got the car back together and whatnot at around 4:00 AM this morning. We fired it up and took a quick test drive. clutch was stiff and didn’t want to return, steering rack was stiff, and throttle was funky. basically, she was stiff and groggy from sleeping for a week. after adjusting the throttle and driving my commute, she feels just like she used to only with a slicker clutch.

you know what’s messed up? I took my engine out of my car, separated the tranny, put it back together, dropped the engine back in… and the car STILL WORKED. Ain’t that some shit? I’ve never done anything this involved before. see also: trial by fire. in the process of this whole deal I’ve unbolted EVERY piece of hardware in teh front clip. both crossmembers, the swaybar, steering rack, engine, and completely dissasembled the hubs. no amount of maintainence or repair work is going to frighten me on this car now. I really feel like I own it.

very proud of myself right now.

-IggDawg

So I ordered the crossmember and a control arm from a local junkyard. around 100 bucks for the two. whatever. hopefully that’s the alst I’ll need.

but that’s tomorrow. tonight I rest. and goddamn I need it. I’m going to kick back, drink beer, listen to this fangled “techno” stuff I keep hearing about, and play a fuckload of video games. I’m spent.

-IggDawg

Fux0rd. I think I completely destroyend the mounting point for the control arm where that snapped bolt was. I tried drilling it out, removing it with a bolt remover, and finally just hacking it the fuck off with a set of cold chisels. nuthin. in fact I messed up the plate the nut thingy was welded to. so now I tink I need a whole new rear crossmember. which will only be between 50-100 bucks. but still… all this for one fucking spring in the clutch assy.

and what’s the kicker you ask? there has to be a kicker. cause life doesn’t jsut mess shit up. it messes it up and makes sure there’s some evil irony involved. The original reason I was taking off the control arm was to avoid separating ball joints to remove the axle-shafts. but in order to swap out the crossmember, I have to separate a balljoint. yeah. that’s the kicker.

sorry for not being my usual jovial self.

-IggDawg

Need a tip on bolt removal.

Basically the only thing keeping me from finishing the clutch job on my car is one stupid snapped bolt. One of the lower control arm bolts (the inner one) snapped during “removal.” so the threaded bit is still in there. it’s only accessable from one side. It’s a grade 10 bolt, so it’s pretty well hardened. we’ve drilled straight through it, and it won’t budge. we’ve tried screwing smaller bolts into the hole and coaxing it out that way, but we end up[ fux0ring the threads o nthe bolts we try screing in there. they’re all like grade 4 at best. not nearly as hard. so I’ve got this centimeter or so of broken bolt with a big fucking hole in it. what can I stick in there to get it out (hmm… sounds bad out of context)? cause, as I mentioned before, it’s kinda tough to drive around without your control arm secured.

other than that, the engine is in the car, the passenger side hub and halfshaft are all in place. I’ve hooked back up the fuel, water, vacuum, and electrical lines. all that’s left is the header, shift linkages, a few misc wires, and the drivers side hub/halfshaft assy. w00t!

-IggDawg

Dumbest woman ev4r!!!1!

I was on the pike. beboppin’ down the middle lane going the speed of traffic (65 in a 55). and I see the red Legacy wagon coming up on the left doing around 75. then I see the headlight of a cruiser peek out from behind it. ok… the cruiser isn’t riding her ass yet, but she IS doing 20 over the limit. he just kinda stays a few carlengths behind her till they pass me. then the cruiser gets right up on her ass, like a hairswidth from her bumper. she doesn’t even touch the brakes, and keeps right on doing 20 over the limit with a cruiser right be-frigging-hind her.

dumb yet? it gets better. when the cruiser gets a window, he passes her on the right. I’ve NEVER seen a cruiser pass on the right. nev4r!!!! but then most people have the sense to pull over to one side when there’s a statie on their haunches. at this point I’nm thinking “how the heck does she get away with this? 20 over the limit and I’d be ticketed like that (at this point I snap my fingers for effect).” so then the cruiser cuts her off and rockets down the left lane.

you think I’m done? she SPEEDS UP and rides HIS ass for another few miles. ……do you NOT know what a cruiser looks like? do you NOT know they can hand out, like, tickets and stuff? you’re breaking how many laws? and STILL she doesn’t get pulled over. eventually she cuts across 3 lanes to get to a service plaza. I follow to see if she’s like an off-duty trooper. nope. some early-20s chick stuck in the 80s, wearing lots of pink and black. and a few piercings in strategic locations.
not hot. at least not hot enough to get out of a ticket.

so that’s my dumb chick of the week.

-IggDawg

well…

I finished the removal of the engine and tranny, and the install of the new clutch. the old one was *visibly* bad. but given the time, and teh recent post dated last night including the terms “didn’t sloeep tonight”, I’m goin to bed. the engine install will happen tomorrow.

the only “issue” besides the engine catching on this and that during removal was that we snapped one of the inner control arm bolts. the thing was completely corroded and made entirely of unobtanium. which was weird since no other bolts gave us any isssue.

anyways, the other party to which the “we” and “us” implies is my good friend Seth who was invaluable to the install. He did a similar job on his prelude some months ago in my garage. the experience came in very handy.

so yeah. engine out, clutch in, very tired, all else is well. ‘night all.

-Igg

so… my clutch went out today. I’ll post tonight just to let everyone know exactly how easy it is to yank the engine in a 1990 CRX :p . thankfully it went before I hit the Concord rotary and entered stop-and-go hell. I managed to crusie home with few gearchanges. anyways… the situation is: blew my clutch at 8:00 this morning. Start pulling the engine at 2:00 this afternoon. must be commute ready by tomorrow at 8:00 AM. no work = no pay. I can make up one day with long days, but not two. blarg.

Thankfully this car is less complex than a bowl of cereal. A monkey of mediocre mental affinity could tear the engine apart and put it back together again. shit, I hope I can do it as easily. I wish I was a monkey. this would be cake.

-IggDawg

EDIT: For those linky’d to this entry, see the rest of the week’s entries for the rest of the story. Apparently I am below a monkey of mediocre mental affinity.

So it’s like 5:30 am now. or something. see timestamp. no sleep. dunno why. I didn’t tank up on coffee or anything. just no sleep. oh well. I got to catch up on some much needed C&C:Generals and FTP time*.

I started playing C&C: Generals yesterday when I downloaded the new Omega version of the Catalyst 3.9 drivers. finally the game wouldn’t go all jimmy-fund on me. everything would flicker and basically suck in like 4 different ways at once. so it worked now. and in the span of a few hours over 2 days I’ve got it beat. WTF? the original Command and Conquer back in the day sucked up my social life for weeks. I guess they just don’t make games like they used to. all these great 3D graphics and years worth of design experience, and the original C&C is still debatably the best.

damn. talking about video game lore WITH MYSELF at around 5:30 tuesday morning. see also: rock bottom 😀 .

-IggDawg

*Don’t copy that floppy!!!!

am I n00b? I just stumbled across this:

http://www.worth1000.com/cache/contest/contestcache.asp?contest_id=422

r00fle! some funny isht in there. its a “if hackers ruled the world” contest. some funnAy in there. check it out. mostly I’m just posting the link here so I can get a good laugh when I get home. so you all can suck it.

-IggDawg