Going KA-T

[Mattk]

I won my fantasy football league! Thank you Cooper Kupp! Which mean I won some $$$. Not much, but enough to get a vinyl cutter. This was the fourth thing I made.

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I’m having fun with this thing!

As for the car I had little time. With this Covid wave, moving through our house yet again, school closings and well other drama time to myself is little if not nonexistent. But I have had some fun buying stuff, stress shopping can be fun. I finally got my ECU a MegasquirtPNP, and a gift for Xmas was a set of Dakota Digital gauges. Both have some accessories with them and have required me to modify my wiring. This means going back and changing the harness up to accommodate the new items. More on that when I get there.
Hope I have more soon.

Cheers

[Mattk]

So the other day I was under the hood, reaching way down to grab a dropped bolt and well…knocked the hood support and OUCH! The hood came down on my head and it looked like the car was trying to eat me! In the moment it was not funny; but by the way my daughter was rolling on the ground laughing it must have looking hysterical!

So I decided to fix it. Got an old gas strut I had laying around, apparently from a Volvo.

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I recently went through my junk drawer and found a bunch of old shelf supports or tabs of some sort ?! I think

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Anyway I then drilled a hole in the tab and installed a crush nut.

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Gave a shot of weld through primer and went to the car for a test fit.

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Welded it all in to place with my pisspore welding skills and all is good! Works like a champ. No more car eating here!

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Oh and I got some work done on the electrical system.

Cheers

[cktrap]

I like it

[Gregs672000]

Cool man! I use a Microsquirt V3 for the EFI on my U20, a smaller and slightly less optioned version of the Megasquirt. I have been very happy with this unit and the excellent wiring harness. I'm tuning on TunerStudio and find it to be great. Happy to share information or experience. There's a significant learning curve if you're starting from scratch. Auto tune helps a lot, but there's things like enrichment that take some time to understand and experiment with. Adding a turbo will add another parameter to deal with, especially with timing retard under boost, and overall timing in general. Ignition timing is where the power is at, as well as the danger of detonation. The good news is that there should be a few folks out there who have a timing curve for the engine already given it's more modern and likely to have been posted somewhere. That will give you a place to start from. Did the engine come with a knock sensor stock? Pretty sure the Megasquirt is set up for that. I would start reviewing some videos on tuning now, as it may take some time to gell in your mind. Unless of course you have already done this kind of thing before!

[Mattk]

Thanks guys I think I’m going to put another strut on the other side as well. As for tuning I’m going to let a shop do it from a basic tune. I’m just to lazy at this point.

I did get some time on Sunday. So being that my gauges are on a chip shortage backorder I decided to try some powder coating. I haven’t really got the speed of the process down but I got much faster at the end. I think they came out pretty well.

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Now I have a ton more to do, and planning on getting a couple of my rims done.

[Mattk]

I got my gauges!!!

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I’m SO excited!!!

[cbez]

those look awesome

[Gregs672000]

Ya, cool and unusual look on the gauges. It's so fun when stuff starts coming together... I'm excited for you!
BTW, would have been a great picture of you swallowed by the car... "When car projects literally eat you..."

[Mattk]

BTW, would have been a great picture of you swallowed by the car... "When car projects literally eat you..."

It must of been funny by the way my daughter was laughing! I do wish someone had snapped a pic of it!

I got the gauges in. Had to make the holes larger and pull out the deleted wires. Now I have to go back and make the changes to the wiring diagram.

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I really like these gauges. I was going to get speed but gauges but they are old tech and I did my tach conversion with a speed but gauge and it really didn’t impress me on how they are put together. So I went Dakota Digital (DD.) These two gauges will take the place of the 8 gauge set I was looking at with speed hut and even more for less money. There even a module that connects to the Megasquirt ECU that allows the gauges to use the info from the ECU instead of having to double up on sensors. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Cheers

[Mattk]

Well it’s been a while. In that time I’ve been hit the need for back surgery….again! But now, unlike before it’s an outpatient surgery; so I guess “yay?” Haven’t worked on the the lady. Just too painful right now. But getting a couple of shots in the neck to get me through the summer and moving.
Oh and we finally won a house after loosing 10 houses over the course of a year. Sooo, we’re moving…two whole blocks

Hopefully will get back to work soon.
Cheers

[Gregs672000]

Sorry to hear of your back issues... that stuff can suck! Surgery outcomes have improved a lot since I worked as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, so I am optimistic about the results for you. In the meantime work on the little stuff that will eventually go back on the car... it will be fun to install those completed parts when the time comes!

Pretty great that the gauges can talk to the MSquirt and that you don't have to add more sensors and wiring. I do know that my wideband reads slightly different on the gauge vs what the controller shows on TunerStudio and I've read that this is a common occurance, but I think it's only for the widebands.

[Mattk]

Yup it’s been a while. We’ve moved to the home I’m going to die in, one way or another. Moved my parents into our old home, difficult at best. No haven’t had the surgery, had to find a new non-quack to do the surgery. But I did just get my roadster, Kelly, moved to the new house.

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Now if I can find time I will work on it.

I’ve also been buying some stuff. I purchased a set of springs from Mike Young, what a pleasure it is to work with him. He seems genuinely interested in helping you out. Looking at some other stuff from him. The springs came super fast and nice and shiny black ooooooo

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Can’t wait to get them on!

Maybe the next post will have actual progress on the car

[funkaholik]

Buying parts is progress!

Don't let anyone tell you it isn't.

[ppeters914]

In the meantime work on the little stuff that will eventually go back on the car... it will be fun to install those completed parts when the time comes!

I cannot emphasize enough how important this bit of advice is. I wasted too much mental energy and too many years wailing and gnashing my teeth over the paint, hip & shoulder joint replacements, Covid ad nauseum when I should have been cleaning & prepping parts, buying parts, etc., etc. It may not be practical to get something done every day, but try to get at least one thing done or moving forward each week.

My two centavos....spend freely.

[iloveredmeat]

Hey Matt,

It sounds like you got most of the important life-stuff done - taking care of your folks, getting your family into a new home... all while gutting out the back pain... that deserves a standing ovation.

As for the car, try not to look too far ahead and get buried by what still needs to be done. Do what you can until you get yourself fixed up... any progress is actual progress... and from my own experience, even the little things help keep the motivation. One less thing I'll have to do later.

One foot in front of the other...

And once you're patched up and back to full strength, you can take pride in what you've accomplished, and look forward to putting those pieces in place.

Godspeed Matt.
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