Challenge against time!!

Its been really long since my last post and i know some are not so happy as well because i owe them past blog post and updates.

Many things have been happening lately which i am suppose to blog about but failed to do so...just to update below are the happenings which i will try to blog about in a separate post

1. Post BBQ pictures and seeing the grill in action

    Well the BBQ was awesome and the pit really did a good job but unfortunately all the photos       were lost as my phone got bricked along with the entire marination process as well..bummer

2. I was hospitalized...arghh..Prolapsed Disc

    Well this happened at the beginning of the month of July and it was worse than a bitter                 journey, thankfully i am the luckiest guy in this world as my gf took emergency leave and               come to take care of me with her dad. Thanks for that sweetheart, it really meant alot. So             happens she also has her own blog and she did write about it which can be found                         here....Crazycurle

3. Updates on the moose

    Well the moose on the other hand received some handsome addons. I managed to get the         windows tinted (3m), eyes were upgraded with Xenon Conversion Kits and with Philips LED     bulp for the evening lights/DRL (which ever you call it). I actually took photos of the entire             process of getting the tint done but as mentioned on no1, its all gone along with the phone

4. Food trip

    2 weeks back me and my close mates made a trip back to my home town just to eat and             literally that is all we did. It was indeed a very well and fun trip. Now this i promise i will share       the experience here, im just pending the photos from my buddy.

5. First love still not sold

    From my first post you would know what im trying to sell my first car but i have not been               anything about it to get it sold, but not that the car has been sleeping under the tree for some       time now, the car actually looks bad. The last i started the car, found out that only 3 pistons         were moving which means one of the plugs were dead. So plans are to fix everything and do     some handsome selling really soon (need funds for the moose).

That's all for now..

DIY BBQ PIT

One of my close friend had just moved in to his beautiful new house and decided to throw a nice bbq dinner. 

When we were talking about it and looking at bbq pits, the idea struck our heads (me being a typical "why buy when you can built one", turns out he is just another hands on junkie) lets just build a pit!

So we picked last weekend to construct the pit, ill let the pictures do the talking....

Blueprint - all great ideas starts on a paper (ignore the right diagram, that's a multi layered pit)

Angle Line used to construct the main structure 

The Smith doing what he does best - playing with his man toys - referring to the power tools of course! 

Bare in mind that there were alot of calculations, physics theories and laws were put to the measurement before cutting it up

45 degrees cut to avoid them from overlapping 

Aircraft grade titanium bolts were used with thread sealant (just kidding, normal bolts found in our local hardware stores) 

This is the key to holding the structure in place, without it, you will have a dancing bbq pit

Half a day went by and walllaaaa...the main structure is up and standing  so solid as if it were on Viagra! 

Here comes the pain in the butt part....shaping the 1mm zinc to sit on the structure

From here on my hands were really tied down (no picture taken during this process) as it was not easy making the zinc shape the way you want it to...after all the pain, cuts and back ache, below is the end results.

The top part of the angle line needs to be copped off

The center bar was added to give the structure of the zinc some rigidness 

Its not really visible but the base on the zinc is layered with a thick grill for the charcoal to sit on and the ashes from the charcoal will go right under. 

As this was the first time for both of us to construct this piece of art, i took us the whole day to complete, several cans of beers, several cups of coffee, and most importantly a big fat bag of laughter and joy.

The end results made it look like as if it had eyes..haha...its actually an opening to place the charcoal so we dont have to remove the top part when we want to top up the charcoal.

All in all, very satisfied with the results and wait to see this in action!

Weekend Shootings...........

For the very first time i managed to give the car a personal hand wash by no other than me :)

As promised on my previous post i decided to take some photos but unfortunately i was only armed with a 5mp Samsung Galaxy with the help of Camera 360 on HDR. 

Introducing my Volvo S40 2.0 Turbo Phase 2.5.....

The puney snail

B4204T

Since this is the final Phase 2.5 of this model, its comes with Remus Exhaust..

Guns & roses.......

As i was reading the news today The Star pointed out all the recent gun shooting incidences for the past 2 months. 

I am actually surprised to know that one can easily obtain a gun and actually know how to use it!....Whats happening to this country..i may need to get a gun as well for protection!!

Weekend Lessons

Thought ill just give a small update of whats happening. As usual, i found my self driving down south over the weekend.

What happened during my journey??

I think i was just after Seremban, i was on auto cruise at 110km/h and 2 Singaporean drivers started flashing me from the back..as usual i gave them way...but just after few seconds they went past i decided, lets just follow this 2 cars since they are doing a good job clearing traffic for me.

These 2 cars was a fairlady and the new ae86 (Toyota GT 86) .... there were doing an awesome job and i was practically going around 180 - 220km/h...after about an hour following this 2 guys i thought to my self ok its enough stressing the moose, time to slow down...and it was a steady journey after that.

Now with regards to following this 2 cars, the 2 buggers were equipped with semi slick tyres which were pretty much sucking onto the tarmac and spitting out tiny rocks to the back...so me being at their tail...now my moose has tiny dots all over the front portion of the car, including the headlights...sigh....

On top of that, on the way to JB i managed a get a nice big splatter of bird crap on the hood of my car, seeing that my GF's maid was trying to do a good deed by washing it off but unfortunately she ended up scratching the hood badly as i think she used a very harsh brush. Actually after seeing that on the hood i literally got a minor heart attack but managed to calm self down.

Headed to the nearest car wash to polish out the scratches but the wound is too deep. Plastic surgery will be needed for this.

So another add on to the list..dam this list is growing..

ps: sorry no photos taken this time. 

Next things to fix/do:

1. Front Lambda Sensor = RM 600

2. Steering Rack cover = RM 300

3. Belt Tensioner = RM 300

4. Service AC

5. Suspension

6. Bushing

7. All parts related to its arms and suspension

8. Rear passenger power window = RM 1 000 (Better find a used one from the halfcut shop)

9. Tint

10. Multimedia system

11. Rims + Tyre

12. Painting = RM 1500 +- (Hopefully 1 layer of paint will do the job)

BITCH is back...stupid Lambda sensor

From my previous post, you can see the CEL is being a pain in my ass.

After changing some rubber hoses, on the 04/05/2013 i also changed the exhaust gasket along with the turbo gasket.

From that day, the CEL never came back on until yesterday morning. When i saw the light, the amount of words that was running through my mind was just unbelievable!

So after taking some Xanax (just kidding), managed to calm my self down and decided to visit Wyn AGAIN to see whats the problem is this time.

When i went there Wyn was also surprised to see that the CEL is back on (some Chinese cursing words did run trough his lips). 

Plugged the diagnostic tool via the OBD2 and found that its the same error. From the device its shows that the front Lambda sensor's reading is fluctuating. 

As usual image from Google and not mine : - )

It was reading -14.xxx then it jumps to -55.xxx for every 0.5 seconds...and the other sensor at the back has a steady reading of -13.xxx (cant really remember the figures, but you get the idea).

According to Wyn to replace this sensor its going to cost me RM600 ++, which is a Bosch. Original from FA will set me back to RM1k ++ and the only difference is the Volvo logo on it.

So for now, he removed the sensor, gave it a good back scrub and fixed it back. Shall wait and see for how long till the CEL comes back on. 

The idea here is, if it comes back on fast then it may not be the sensor, as it is usually some air leak but if it comes back after some time then it could be the sensor itself - well this is his theory.

So will just have to wait and see what happens, in the meanwhile lunch money need to cut down to accommodate a new sensor as i know sooner or later i will still need to change it.

PS: I also made a call to a volvo supplier to check the price. Sensor cost RM 600. Rear sensor cost RM 580.

Next things to fix/do:

1. Front Lambda Sensor = RM 600

2. Steering Rack cover = RM 300

3. Belt Tensioner = RM 300

4. Service AC

5. Suspension

6. Bushing

7. All parts related to its arms and suspension

8. Rear passenger power window = RM 1 000 (Better find a used one from the halfcut shop)

9. Tint

10. Multimedia system

11. Rims + Tyre

Surgery Time!!! Turbo and Exhaust gasket replacement

As planned on 04/05/2013, Saturday early morning i took it for surgery at Wyn's. Did call him in the morning and made an appointment.

As per my previous post, the CEL kept coming back and the doctor says its nothing serious but the exhaust gaskets needed to be changed and thats the reason for the error code being thrown on to the dash. More about this here.

Reached there around 10ish, the first thing they did is to open up her front and gave a good blowww with a huge fan...once she is warmed down, with no mercy they started to rip her apart.

Both of them started from top and worked their way down, first with removing all the covers, intake pipes, air filter, air box etc.

They they hoisted her up and disconnected the water and oil linkage to the turbo. While doing this water and oil will come off so they held a container and retained all the fluids to be inserted back.

I did not really pay much attention to what they were doing as i did not want to be disturbing them or get into their way. If i were to stand there and look sure enough my itchy mouth will start asking questions and soon they will be annoyed. 

After about 30 minutes the supplier comes and deliver the goodies...

soon after about an hour the turbo and exhaust manifold is out...time for me to snooze around..first time seeing the blower :-)

Here is the softy 12t turbo, thinking of man'ing him up to a 14t...hmm sounds like alot of money..

and the culprit...

As you can see one of the gasket is broken, well after 9 years of blowing hot gasses over 100 000 km i guess it is time for a replacement.

They also replaced the turbo gasket, no picture of that.

As soon as the sun reached center of the sky, he was all done and fired her up. No issues starting, and it was idling perfectly fine.

The codes were checked again and cleared off.

Wyn did more checks and found that the belt tensioner was making slight sounds of wearing off. Looks like it cant hold the stiffness any longer. So thats in my next list as well.

Me and Wyn took a long test drive and tested out the car. So far all seems good, need to drive it for a couple of days and see if anything pops up.

Damage:

1. Gasket   RM 170 (2 exhaust gasket we not changed, hence the cheaper price)

2. Workmanship RM 250 ( i guess for half day job its ok la)

Total damage RM 420

Worth the damage or not only time will speak.

Next things to fix/do:

1. Steering Rack cover

2. Belt Tensioner

3. Service AC

4. Suspension

5. Bushing

6. All parts related to its arms and suspension

7. Rear passenger power window

8. Tint

9. Multimedia system

10. Rims + Tyre

The above list is in no order but the ones on bold is on priority. 

After a long day, as a reward, she got washed and wiped cleaned dry by 2 hookers....