Old Car and Bike rambling

My Cyclex 4-2-1 exhaust system has been on for roughly 2 years now and I really dislike the raspy buzzy ring of the exhaust note above 4k RPM. I've been searching for a cheap alternative but have been unable to find something suitable. 2007 Suzuki GSXR 1000 Canister muffler, doesn't fit right Moroso Spiral Flow muffler, is raspier than the original MAC muffler

In part 1 of Back to stock I decided I would give the original carbs another run to see if I wanted to spend more money getting the GSXR750 carbs properly tuned for my bike. First order of business was to clean the old carbs before I mounted them back just in case I had a little build up in the tiny idle jets. During re-assembly I spent a few minutes to understand the accerator pump mechanism on carb#2 and discovered that I had been starting my bike wrong all along. When I had switched over to the gixxer carbs I thought they helped my bike start much easier because I was getting the engine to fire within 2 cranks reliably where the OEM carbs took minimum 3 tries on most cold starts. I discovered that the accerator pump mechanism squirts a healthy dose of fuel into the carbs only on full throttle twist, something I never did. In the past, I always pumped the throttle 2 or 3 times but I never gave the throttle a full twist and so never actually primed the car...

Some people buy a new bike and the first thing they do is "upgrade" it. First thing to go is the exhaust. Louder, less restriction, less weight. It seems so rudimentary that no one asks why or who buys all the original exhausts. Within days of the upgrade you will inevitably see running issues because the carefully engineered fuel maps are out the window. Time to spend money on fixing the tune with engine motronics, maps, free flowing airfilters. The perceived notion of improved performance due to a lighter wallet is rampant. The "It's loud and I'm using alot more gas so it must be faster" syndrome. "I can't ride without earplugs because my head gets numb from the noise." Then the imperceptible loss of the enjoyment of the ride because of the loud popping, the poor gas mileage, the friends who won't ride with you because of the noise. The bike winds up for sale with low miles and a poor running engine. Keep it stock for a year before you up...

I've never labeled myself a mechanic so perhaps the title is a bit misleading. In January, I posted about the OBD2 problems with my van and the past few weeks I've been struggling with a thermostat replacement. At some point, I came to the conclusion that I needed to change the thermostat on my van since it's been running cool for several months. I reasoned that the drive cycle could not activate if the coolant temperature was not getting into the expected operating range. This should not have been a big deal, I've changed a thermostat before in the 200. For some reason, I could not get it to stop leaking when I put it back together. After 5 reinstall and start tries, changing the position of the gasket and using sealants and gasket makers, I found that I had cracked the thermostat housing likely during my first reinstall attempt. Not a huge deal, I found a used housing on ebay and it had all the attached hoses on it for $65 including free shipping. After a few days, th...

The family van is now approaching what some would consider old car status. Though it's a 2002 MPV and reasonably high tech, she has not treated me very well the past few months. 118k miles for the first tune-up is really very nice until you have to find the spark plugs hidden under the intake manifold. The OBD2 system is a great idea on the surface. I was getting a check engine light and an error code that told me I had a misfire on cylinder 6 even though I had changed the spark plugs and another error code pointing to a bad O2 sensor that was not heating up properly. A new ignition coil on plug part, 1 new O2 sensor and a clearing of the offending check engine light resulted in a failed emissions inspection a week later. Note to self: don't change your battery or reset your OBD2 diagnostics right before you get your car inspected if you can help it. There are "drive cycles" that happen automatically as you drive your car that eventually reset the sensors that are rea...

After spending the 2011 riding season with the GSXR750 carbs on my cb750 I'm planning on going back to the stock carbs and airbox. I have also returned the bike to the OEM oil filter after it seemed like I needed more oil cooling capacity in the original finned oil filter cover. I've already written about the advantages of the bst36ss carbs and now I will provide a summary of the dis-advantages of the carbs for me and why I'm going back to stock. After spending a few weeks tweaking the fuel mix, the insulators and the lines, I found that the carbs would get rich after the bike warmed up on hot days, but would run just fine on cooler days. After a nice run on the highway she would start idling lower at stop lights and then die out without throttle or choke (but only on the warm days). I was a bit surprised to find in the last ride I took in cold weather, she wasn't running right either. I don't want to spend much more on this bike in 2012 so I can save a few...

We humans actually need very little to keep going. Food, a warm place to sleep, clean water and clothes. For just about everything else in our lives, there are marketing departments that exist for the purpose of getting people to move items from the "Want" list to the "Need" list. Many years ago, the United States of America was a manufacturing country. Most everyone who worked played a part in making something. Somewhere along the way, it was determined that for the economy to continue to grow (remember that continued growth is unsustainable ), the workers would have to be convinced to buy the products they helped to manufacture. This same phenomenon is happening in China today because they are getting to the point where they are manufacturing more than they can export. Today, media and entertainment are just vehicles for delivering marketing to the masses. Commercials between songs, product placement in movies all help in generating desire for both low and high do...