Zetec Engine Build Wrap Up (Part I: The Lead-up)

I apologize that I have not posted any further commentary regarding my engine build on here. I'm not really sure who all is following it, and I'm also not really sure where I left off last. I believe that I had left off with getting the headwork done...

Once the headwork was done, I was debating on what cams to put in the car. My initial thought was to use a huge cam setup, that looks really good on paper. 300° of duration and 0.450" of lift on the intake and 290° od duration and 0.381" lift for the exhaust side. If you want to pump a lot of air quickly, these cams would certainly do the trick. However, after talking to my tuner, we decided for a car that isn't going to be trailered anywhere, the Crower Stage 2 cams would be more than sufficient (280°/0.413" intake, 276°/0.393" exhaust). When the cams came, I quickly set to work setting the valve lash on them. The first thing I noticed was that there was going to be contact between the cam lobe and the head material surrounding the lifter. This was not unexpected, so I pulled out the trusty Dremel tool and hacked off a bunch of excess aluminum (weight savings to boot).

For those who are working on a project similar to this with a solid lifter head, you need to remember that when your machine shop does a valve job, or has to replace a valve seat, the distance between the top of the valve and the cam is going to decrease (by thousandths of an inch). Ford only has certain size lifters that you use to adjust the lash on the cams, and with the valve job, I was at or below the smallest size offered by Ford. So I pulled out the trusty dremel again and started shaving material off of the bottom of all of the lifters until they were within spec. Just as I was finishing up the intake side, I got a little bit sloppy and as I was tightening down the cam for final measurements, I mis-torqued the cam and it snapped (they're a very high-carbon steel, which makes them pretty brittle). Time to call Crower for a new cam. Fortunately, the Focus shares its engine with a whole host of other vehicles, including the Escort ZX2 (which has variable cam timing on the exhaust side, for emissions purposes). This allowed me to order just an intake cam, instead of having to get a whole new set of intake/exhaust cams. That put me behind a week, and I was planning on installing the engine in two weeks. I called it quits for the evening and the next evening went out to finish the exhaust side. When the replacement intake cam arrived, the lash was not significantly changed (it can vary from cam to cam and head to head, based on machining tolerances and storage conditions.

That pretty well wraps up the assembly of the engine, so in anticipation, I had scheduled a week and a half off of work, starting on July 31st (Thursday) until August 9th (today). With my work schedule, I have to plan it just so, since I work every third weekend. Fortunately, no one had taken that time off before me, so I was good. I had been accruing all of the fluids and miscellaneous items that I thought I would need, so as not to be rushing around on the Thursday before. Thursday was a rush anyhow. I had to run around and find an engine hoist (key element to engine removal and installation), which I ended up just buying a 2 ton hoist from Rural King Ohio. So if anyone in the Wooster/Northeast Ohio area needs to borrow an engine hoist, I'm renting it out for a flat fee of $30 per use (I do have a guy who's interested in buying it, too, so I'll end up having spent less than what it would have cost to rent one for 4 days).

A fellow Focus Forum friend from Michigan offered to come down and lend a hand from start to finish and I had a few local Focus people come lend a hand as they could on Saturday. Chris (from Michigan) arrived about 12:13 on Thursday night, so we stood around in the garage for an hour and looked at what we were about to get ourselves into. Then we decided that we would head into the house and call it a night. The next 48 hours were going to be interesting...

Impressive!

Ever wonder how to get a 3400 lb car into a conference room in the middle of a building? Here you go!

Randomly hilarious YouTube Video

As I mentioned in my last blog, I enjoy browsing YouTube videos for all of the zany stuff that people post. This is no exception...warning for very mild profanity.

I Love Technology

The internet is a fabulous thing; it allows me to connect with old friends, make new friends with similiar interests, lets me buy stuff that you can't buy in box stores, and most of all, it gives you access to all of the zany antics of people on YouTube. YouTube has a seemingly inexhaustable supply of cool car videos. However, the other day I was watching the latest Ken Block Gymkhana video and YouTube put up a dialogue box that said "Support for your browser is being phased out, please upgrade to a more modern browser". WHAT?!? When did Windows2000 become old? Windows 3.1 is old. DOS is old.

That comment, coupled with the fact that my computer keeps getting slower and slower on a weekly basis has got me thinking about technology. We recently upgraded to a 20" LCD flatpanel monitor and a wireless optical mouse/keyboard combo, since the monitor was sporadically blacking out and the keyboard and mouse looked like they had spent the last 5 years as the primary terminal interface at a oil change place (the new black hardware hides dirt much better). Regardless, the new hardware still does not cover the fact that I am using an 8 year old computer with a 10+ year old operating system.

Technology should make a person's life simpler: Instead of walking or having a horse pull you 5 miles into town (which might take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours), you can pop into your car and be there in 8 minutes. Likewise, instead of writing a letter and waiting for a multitude of disgruntled postal workers to shuffle it around for a few days, you can write an email and have it delivered in a matter of seconds/minutes.

Computer technology (email example aside) seems to exactly the opposite. However, its probably that I look at things from a hardware perspective instead of from the software perspective. One would think that software would become more efficient over time. The exact opposite is true; as hardware becomes faster, it allows programmers to create more gadgets and widgets that you never knew you needed. Take the Microsoft Word Help widget; that little paperclip guy will pop up and help you format any type of document. I bet he'd even help you write a Will. The same thing has happened in cars; who knew that you could program the dash to tell you what direction you were heading, as well as having two separate trip odometers? Remember when you pushed a button in the cluster to reset the counter, and you had to make sure you pushed hard enough to get that last number back to zero? I do, and I'm not that old. How about Sync? Your mobile phone used to occupy the space that your supersized soda now resides in. Instead, your cell phone hangs out in your pocket and lets your car's computer system upload your contacts, then you literally tell your car who you want to talk to.

So how has technology simplified our lives? Microsoft Word has made it so that proper letter and document formatting has become a sacred art kept alive only by English teachers (and apparently some group of computer programmers over in Redmond/Delhi-ish, Washingdia). We can just throw words onto a virtual paper, and it automatically organizes it so that the recepient doesn't think you're ignorant. Sync allows your work day to start 8:17AM and go all the way until 6:32 PM, even though your still only getting paid for 9 to 5. It also allows you to grab your latte (or aforementioned supersized soda) with your free hand that you'd normally use for holding your cell phone. It also allows you to be slightly less distracted as you grope blindly for your cell phone with the ringtone that was catchy last week, but now is just annoying and you just want it to stop. Wait, were we driving a car here? I had kind of forgotten.

Its obvious to me that technology has complicated our lives so much more than it has simplified it. Have you tried to read a cell phone contract lately? Its nice to have unlimited texting, unlimited data, and calling to 10 out of network numbers (as well as unlimited in-network calls, obviously [duh?]) all on one Portable Interaction Portal (PIP?). However, is it really practical? Cell phones started out for calling people, so their physical dimensions were dictated by the necessity to contain a numeric "touch-tone" keypad. As phones progressed, keyboards gradually "expanded" to include more buttons in the same physical space. My ape-like hands have a hard enough time punching out the 10 digits that I need to place a call. I certainly lack the dexterity to "text". At the same time that the keypad expanded, more information was being presented on the displays. Instead of having a 2 row, 25 character/row LCD display, cell phones now have 1080p. Unfortunately again, the physical dimensions have not increased significantly. Having never actually done so, I can only imagine browsing some of my favorite websites with a cell phone. There are things that would barely fit on my old 17" monitor...

So where do we stand? Let me put on my sarcastic socks and suggest something...a federal agency dedicated to filtering new ideas/equipment as they relate to society. The developer has to prove to the agency that a new piece of equipment/software either resolves a pressing societal issue, or is significantly better than an existing piece of technology that the new device is designed to compete with or replace. We'll call it the Department of Technology Advancement Oversight. That sounds terrible, right? The FDA is trying to do something similiar with pharmaceutical development, but that's slightly off-topic, so I'll leave it at that.

Seriously? There is a lot of technology out there that is beneficial, so don't take me as anti-technology. I have a cell phone with an integrated MP3 player. It combines two pieces of equipment that I wanted/needed, but couldn't justify spending the money on an iPod. That's simplifying; turning two pieces of equipment into one. Even the most gregarious people need time to collect themselves and their thoughts (to say nothing of my reclusive self); can you get away with turning your cell phone off while driving and focus on the road ahead? Connectivity has its draw-backs, as it allows people to catch you at your weaker moments. The Internet is a huge tabloid newspaper. Instead of merely focusing on the latest scandals rocking Hollywood or the lives of the rich and famous, it allows any interested party to dig up disparaging information on any person who has traipsed across its absorbant surface. We kind of forget that when we go off playing with our latest toys.

Ultimately, I blame Microsoft. They developed the Paperclip guy and Sync...

Vacation Musings...

Its been a few days, but Rachel, Brayden and I just returned from a long weekend with the Reeder clan. It was wonderful to get away from work for a few days and reset. We drove down to MON, West Virginia to Snowshoe Resort, where Rachel's parents had rented a townhouse for the weekend.

I will admit that I approached the trip with some trepidation, as it was my (our?) first roadtrip with an infant. Fortunately, Brayden is pretty much the perfect child (up to this point, anyhow...) and travelled really well. We cramped ourselves into the Milan with Rachel's sister and her husband for the 6 hour trip. We sent a few items along with Doug and Gail, since its hard enough to pack for 4 in a mid-size car, not to mention all of the infant accessories needed for a few days on the road.

The weather was quite nice on the trip down. Sunny, warm-but-not-hot and traffic was generally light. The automatic transmission paired to the 2.3L Duratec has odd tendencies in the mountains (especially laden as it was), but cruises well between 75-80 (you had to realize that there would be significant automotive references in here, right?). Once we got to Elkins on Thursday, we got a few sprinkles, but the weather was generally quite pleasant. Once we got onto the mountain (apparently ~4848', based on the number of references made to that number about the "village"), the temperature dropped into mid-60s and was pretty overcast. Once nightfall hit, the fog rolled in and it was truly spectacular. Visibility dropped below 30 feet and the wind blew sheets of fog around. I hung out in the hot tub on the back porch and watched the fog roll around for about a half hour. That was pretty much the extent of the weather on Friday as well. Saturday there was a Chili Cookoff in the "village", and there was a 30% chance of percipitation. That turned in to 90% by about noon and we got drenched. Rachel, Brayden and I were hanging out in the village, waiting for the rest of the family to return from their trip down the ski lift to the lake below. When the torrential rain hit, we sought refugee under the eaves of the nearest Starbucks. We finally moved into the main room (is it a lobby? dining area? I'm not really sure what to call it) and decided since we were there we would patronize the establishment. I was soaked to the bone and thought that something warm sounded good. I had something from Starbucks about 5 years ago and knew it had carmel in it. So the first thing I saw was a Carmel Frappachino. Hmmmm...did you know that that's milk that is put in a blender with ice, coffee grounds, some carmel flavoring, and ICE! Yeah, needless to say, the combination of the caffeine and the ice made me start to shiver even more. At least I got a coupon for a $2 Grande cold beverage after 2PM (which we were still hanging out after 2PM, so I gave it to Rachel to get a Vanilla Bean Frappachino). Random Starbucks story aside, it was interesting to watch the fog roll in after the rain stopped. It literally blew in sheets. Rachel's mom kept apologizing for the weather (as if she had control over it), but I thought it was perfect.

There was a Jeep Jamboree going on while we were there as well. For people who think I've got a lot invested in my Focus, they need to look at some of these rigs. There was a crew who towed in two built Wranglers behind a decked out Hummer tow vehicle (all in matching red, with silver graphics, including the trailer). I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit tempted to pick up a Grand Cherokee, or a CRD Liberty and hit the trails. I've got too many other projects to work on instead (like a street "legal" Daytona Prototype replica, or even just finishing the Focus).

One interesting thing to note was the large number of college students that were hanging out for the weekend. It was apparent to me that there were a number of kids whose parents had time-shares up on the mountain. Saturday was a big drinking fest; we got the privilege of watching a guy pee off a ski lift and having every other chair yelling "Chili Cookoff...WOO!" I also heard a few passing references to some drug usage (which didn't really surprise me...I expect that from the snow-board/extreme sports fanatics).

The biggest thing that I missed out on was sleep. Since we had Brayden with us, Rachel and I slept "downstairs" in the main living quarters, so we would have a place to feed him and rock him, if need be. Everyone kind of hung out until 10:30 or 11PM every night, just talking, watching TV, etc. Then Brayden was ready to get up and greet the world at 6AM (like we normally do). The 7 hours in between were spent flopping on marginally comfortable couches (which were more comfortable than the hide-a-bed). That drove me to really wanting a can of Red Bull on Friday night...unfortunately, I hadn't taken any along, which left me to the mercy of the fine retail establishments on the mountain. Rachel ironically wanted a can of Caffeine Free Diet Coke, so I went down to the store to procure a few provisions. Ten bucks and some change later, I returned with two 250mL cans of Red Bull and two cans of Caffeine Free Diet Coke (the last two in the store).

On the way home on Sunday, we drove into PA, then cut across to Wheeling to stop at Cabela's for a little while. I wasn't really feeling going to Cabela's (which is interesting because 10-12 years ago, that would have been my Mecca) because I've kind of moved beyond the whole "Outdoorsman/hunter" phase that I had gone through as a kid. Just before we got to I70 in PA, we ran into "construction", and traveled at 35 MPH for about 30 minutes. By construction, I mean, painting the line down the center of the road. This was, humorously enough, being done by a contractor from Norwalk, OH. Is there no one out that way that can drive a paint truck in a straight line? Construction was the name of the game pretty much the rest of the way home. Just before Wheeling, we merged down to one lane, which brings me to my next pet peeve; the chronic late merger. Why do people let other people get away with this? Someone is always driving all the way up to the very last foot of their lane, then turning on their turn signal to get over. Didn't you see the sign two miles ago that said to merge right? Its people like you who get traffic backed up as badly as it is...to the person in the red Magnum, I'm still not sorry and if I had been the only person in the car, you would have ended up waiting for a long time.

The next construction occurred when we were almost home. We turned off of 21 in Strasburg onto 250 at 9:30PM Sunday and there was a sign up that said "Flagger Ahead". I read it humorously to Rachel, assuming that some lazy ODOT employee/contractor had left it up from Friday afternoon, but just the same telling Rachel that I had to assume that there was a flagger ahead. Sure enough, about 3 miles down the road, traffic was stopped...which brings me to yet another pet peeve; the angry tooter. We were sitting, waiting our turn to traverse the constructin site when someone a few cars back decided to start honking their horn. I'm sorry, did you think that we all just decided to stop and take a break in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday night? Honking isn't going to make the roller go any faster; in fact, based on my experience in the road construction industry, if any of the workers catch wind of your impatience, you'll end up waiting longer. None of them really wanted to be out there on a Sunday night, either.

Regardless, we finally got home and I realized a few things. Vacations should be longer than 4 days. You should always take a day off to recuperate from a vacation. Finally, I think I'm taking after my dad; I'm really looking forward to the week and a half that I'm off here in 2 weeks where I'm going to be hanging out at home, working on my car. As a Miller, I don't really do that well with traveling and I don't really do that well with not doing anything at all (there's a difference between not getting much done and not doing anything at all). I found myself getting a little stir crazy sitting on top of the mountain. There were about 20 minutes worth of shops in the "village" and there was really only so much walking that you could do without needing some serious gear. I like to have the option of having things to do, even though I generally don't exercise those options. Oh, and the other thing that I realized...Nikl Nips from Cracker Barrel aren't as good as I remembered them being 17 years ago.

Motorsports Photography

I lamented earlier about how a lot of the pictures taken in motorsport almost show too much detail, and kind of ruin the whole magic that surrounds it. I got a chance to head over to Mid-Ohio with Dad's D50 this weekend and do a little shooting of my own. I think it probably helped that the subjects were all 40-50 year old cars, so there's a lot of magic to begin with, but I did play around with a little processing. Here's a sampling...




Full Album here.

LeMans

The last couple of years, I have made an effort to watch as much of the 24 Hours of LeMans as I feasibly can. The SPEED Channel only covers about 18 hours (only, right...), of which, I'm lucky if I can watch 5 hours of which. Generally, the racing is rather monotonous. When a race gets spread over 24 hours and 3000 miles, the races are seldom close (although some races have come down to seconds). Fortunately, most of the cameras are concentrated in the pits, where a lot of the action happens. The types of mechanical repairs that can be made in a pit stop are mind-boggling. Granted, they aren't the 6 second stops that Formula 1 cars make, but I remember 2 years ago, Audi replaced a transmission in about 12 minutes. If you're like me, it takes me about that long to pull the car into the garage and round up my tools. To say nothing of the heat resulting from 12+ hours of 200 MPH racing.

One of the curiousities of LeMan is the commercials. Primarily Audi, whose decade-long dominance of LeMans came to an end this year after 3 years of battling with Puegot's 908 HDi Diesel. Regardless, Audi seems to consider LeMans to be their Superbowl. Maybe not necessarily in their huge advertising budget, but in their irreverent, outlandish attitude. This is the event that they really push their R8 supercar. In previous years, its consisted of sticking it to "old money" types. This year, they stuck it to Ferrari. Now I realize that a lot of folks who might be reading this consider Audi owners to be stuck up and crabby people. However, most of them have never experienced Ferrari owners. When you go to buy a Ferrari at the dealership, you pretty much need to be recommended by a current Ferrari owner to even be considered to buy a new one.



Granted, an R8 is merely a dream car for a large percentage of the population (okay, maybe not a large percentage of the population, but for those who love cars), seeing as its list price starts around $115K and rockets up into the $150K+ range pretty easily with options. That's more than my house, so the odds are that Rachel will never allow me to buy a car like that. Its fine, I guess...buying a car like that isn't terribly responsible, but it might almost be justifiable considering the company that it keeps. Its AWD and the engine is pretty reliable (its actually a slightly detuned version of the engine found in Audi's LeMans winning R8 prototype car). It might actually be useful as an all year around commuter vehicle, even in northern climates. What's more, Audi has developed a concept R8 containing a V12 TDI turbo diesel engine (also derived from LeMans testing...finally a series that is revelant to street car development). Consider 500 HP, 750 ft-lbs of torque in a ridiculous sports car that can get 30 MPG. Have your cake and eat it!

Okay, I've gotten derailed a little bit, drooling. The curiousity of Audi running an R8 commercial during LeMans is that I'm guessing the vast majority of people wealthy enough to own an R8 generally have better things to do than sit and watch a race on SPEED for 18 hours. Those are the type of people who probably made a weekend getaway to LaSarthe to be part of the 250K people who chose to spectate in person this year. To me, broadcasting LeMans on TV only appeals to people, who like me, can only aspire to own cars that might share some commonality via the tire manufacturers, or for people who own Corvettes that want to watch Corvette whip the Aston boys again for the 15th time in a row, but would never consider setting foot in France. If I had the liquidity to procure an R8, I'd make sure LeMans was an annual pilgrimage.