Hmm, I'm back at work, and the car saga is on hold... for now.
I'm trying what I can from the other end of the world, but so far it's just an excersize in frustration.
The wrongly delivered gearbox I sent back to Johannesburg in South Africa, but I got a message from my courier that it's stuck on the border, in need of some paperwork only JapanAuto can provide. So far I am not too impressed with their service... first in sending me the wrong part, then in their lacklustre attitude in fixing the mistake.
*sigh*
So, I rather play with the things I have more direct control over. I am messing with the Operating System on my laptop. It's my favorite... Sorcerer, a sources-only flavor of Linux. I'm halfway through an update of KDE now. The entire download was 14mb... and 12 of those were for the graphics!
There is no binary that can beat Sorcerer on lightness of network traffic.
There is no other distro that can beat Sorcerer on configure-ability.
Keeping up to date is also quite easy, but not so painless for nVidia users. So far every time I had a kernel update I had to spend some time in the command line more.
So, yeah, I am impressed again on just how light Sorcerer is on the network... Good job, Kyle.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The Land-Rover Toyota conversion so far...
So, almost a week into getting the landy back on the road.
The inside is still a mess, but it is starting to look better. We had stripped off the dash to remove the Disco's original ECU. It's almost a whole carry bag og wire loom and computer. This we replaced with Dicktator ECU and gearbox control unit.
Fuel pump is also controlled off the Dicktator ECU, so we hunted down the line for that, and connected it up. Fuel lines are now correctly connected up.
We made a dual battery system with a huge battery that only kicks in when the car ignition is turned on to do the starting. Since this is an automatic transmission, getting stuck with a non-starting car in the bush is not a good thing to think about.
Engine is basically wired up, all injectors and coils working together. Well, almost. Only six of the eight pistons are firing, and we found some perished O-rings. Since the car had been standing so long, stuff like this is to be expected.
Gearbox is getting some lubricant now, it's a painfully slow process as it can only be filled through the dipstick tube.
The thermostat did trip us up a little, as I expected the Thermostat to be the exit for hot water from the engine, and built the hoses for the radiator accordingly. To my surprise when we started the engine, water came out of where I thought the inlet was going to be.
So, I had to re-route the water. Interestingly, there is not quite enough space in front of the engine for a radiator viscous fan, so we put two slimline fans on there. We still need to go do some testing and see whether this will be enough to keep the engine cool, or whether we will be moving the entire engine back to accomodate a viscous fan. Anyways, getting the fans to kick in we need a fan switch, so I made a fitting for that out of stainless steel. The stuff actually welds pretty nicely... if only it was not so very expensive!
I am still stuck with a gearbox from a Prado in there... Hopefully I will be getting the 2H transmission delivered while I am at sea, and fit it pretty quick when I get home. I should also have a little more funds to see this project through.
My advice for anyone attempting to build a Lexus V8 in to any car.... make sure you have ALL the parts laid out before stripping apart a perfectly working car... And this goes double when the car in question is an automatic transmission.....
The inside is still a mess, but it is starting to look better. We had stripped off the dash to remove the Disco's original ECU. It's almost a whole carry bag og wire loom and computer. This we replaced with Dicktator ECU and gearbox control unit.
Fuel pump is also controlled off the Dicktator ECU, so we hunted down the line for that, and connected it up. Fuel lines are now correctly connected up.
We made a dual battery system with a huge battery that only kicks in when the car ignition is turned on to do the starting. Since this is an automatic transmission, getting stuck with a non-starting car in the bush is not a good thing to think about.
Engine is basically wired up, all injectors and coils working together. Well, almost. Only six of the eight pistons are firing, and we found some perished O-rings. Since the car had been standing so long, stuff like this is to be expected.
Gearbox is getting some lubricant now, it's a painfully slow process as it can only be filled through the dipstick tube.
The thermostat did trip us up a little, as I expected the Thermostat to be the exit for hot water from the engine, and built the hoses for the radiator accordingly. To my surprise when we started the engine, water came out of where I thought the inlet was going to be.
So, I had to re-route the water. Interestingly, there is not quite enough space in front of the engine for a radiator viscous fan, so we put two slimline fans on there. We still need to go do some testing and see whether this will be enough to keep the engine cool, or whether we will be moving the entire engine back to accomodate a viscous fan. Anyways, getting the fans to kick in we need a fan switch, so I made a fitting for that out of stainless steel. The stuff actually welds pretty nicely... if only it was not so very expensive!
I am still stuck with a gearbox from a Prado in there... Hopefully I will be getting the 2H transmission delivered while I am at sea, and fit it pretty quick when I get home. I should also have a little more funds to see this project through.
My advice for anyone attempting to build a Lexus V8 in to any car.... make sure you have ALL the parts laid out before stripping apart a perfectly working car... And this goes double when the car in question is an automatic transmission.....
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The neverending car saga....
Well, our Land Rover is been out of action for more than a year now. I thought that changing the engine in it would be relatively easy, at first. So, January last year we gave it to the mechanics for them to work their magic. Straight off the bat we ran into trouble, as the business in South Africa we contracted to manufacture the adapter between the automatic Lexus gearbox and the Discovery's transfer case just did not deliver the part.
Six months later, after many deliberations, we decided to sue, and try getting the Land Rover going in a different way. We decided to go all Toyota, for the gearbox and transfer, and then just do the conversion in the prop shafts. It's just something round that can be cut and welded, right?
First order of business was to locate a 4x4 automatic gearbox. We found one from a Prado, and promptly bought it for N$10,000. Once we were looking at this gearbox on the workshop floor, though, a small detail became apparent. The drive for the front wheels is on the wrong side! We thought about flipping the front diff upside down, and actually built it out before deciding that it was a bad idea and bolting it back in.
Then we decided that we were just going to use the transfer case from a Toyota Hilux. I finally managed to get my grubbies on one, but it turned out not to fit.
Pretty much fed up with the whole thing, I decided to speak to the experts in South Africa, and find something that will bolt on to my Lexus engine. The friendly guys suggested the gearbox from the Land Cruiser 2H. It was relatively cheap, too. N$8500 later my gearbox was on it's way from South Africa.
This should have a happy ending, right? And that happy ending should be about now, right? Nah, I'm not that lucky, and it looks like the entire Universe is conspiring against us putting a Toyota engine in to a Land Rover. The gearbox that arrived was a manual Land Cruiser VX gearbox. There was no chance of me using it, and currently we are trying to swap the gearboxes so that I get the proper part.
At least the guys at Japan Auto in JHB are being really nice about this screw-up.
Pieter finished the engine installation, and delivered the Landy with the Prado gearbox last week. We still need to wire up the engine, and then build an exhaust system. Once this is done, I'll be driving around in 2x4 mode until the proper gearbox gets here and then we can build the front prop shaft. Yay!
Towards the end of last year the Jetta started giving us hassles too. So, a couple of weeks before Christmas, I gave it to Newton to get a new top gasket. Once we opened the engine, we realized that we are going to need new top bolts, as my old ones were stretched and mismatching. Also, one engine mounting was faulty, and I put on another air intake too.
So, I order the parts, and go back to work. Isolde was about seven and a half months pregnant at this time. So, Chrismas happened, while we wait on parts. Turns out that my timing pulley on the crank was broken again, and this part needs to be especially manufactured for my very rare Jetta. Then my mechanic's wife has a baby. Finally, he is able to sort the car out just a week before I get back. On the test drive, however, the engine threw a bearing, and back to the workshop it went.
I got home to an eight and a bit month pregnant wife and the only working car I got is the Yellow Range Rover from the 1980's that has been converted into a competition off-road vehicle. So, it's got no windows, terrible handling on the road and the fuel economy is shot, too.
We had to do something drastic.
I bought my wife the Ford Figo, brand new out of the box. It's a nice little car with ABS and airbags, and a great fuel economy. More importantly, it starts easily in the mornings.
Then Aiden was born. The first month after his birth we were still patiently waiting for the cars to be finished up. The Jetta was running first, with basically a whole new engine and CV joints. Unfortunately her air conditioning unit broke, and so she is currently at another set of mechanics to get that sorted.
So, finally, today Newton will be looking to wire up the Land Rover, and in my eternal optimism I have already booked the Land Rover to have an exhaust fitted on Friday. School holidays start on Thursday, so hopefully we will be able to fit in exactly one camp in the Land Rover before I have to go back to work.
Six months later, after many deliberations, we decided to sue, and try getting the Land Rover going in a different way. We decided to go all Toyota, for the gearbox and transfer, and then just do the conversion in the prop shafts. It's just something round that can be cut and welded, right?
First order of business was to locate a 4x4 automatic gearbox. We found one from a Prado, and promptly bought it for N$10,000. Once we were looking at this gearbox on the workshop floor, though, a small detail became apparent. The drive for the front wheels is on the wrong side! We thought about flipping the front diff upside down, and actually built it out before deciding that it was a bad idea and bolting it back in.
Then we decided that we were just going to use the transfer case from a Toyota Hilux. I finally managed to get my grubbies on one, but it turned out not to fit.
Pretty much fed up with the whole thing, I decided to speak to the experts in South Africa, and find something that will bolt on to my Lexus engine. The friendly guys suggested the gearbox from the Land Cruiser 2H. It was relatively cheap, too. N$8500 later my gearbox was on it's way from South Africa.
This should have a happy ending, right? And that happy ending should be about now, right? Nah, I'm not that lucky, and it looks like the entire Universe is conspiring against us putting a Toyota engine in to a Land Rover. The gearbox that arrived was a manual Land Cruiser VX gearbox. There was no chance of me using it, and currently we are trying to swap the gearboxes so that I get the proper part.
At least the guys at Japan Auto in JHB are being really nice about this screw-up.
Pieter finished the engine installation, and delivered the Landy with the Prado gearbox last week. We still need to wire up the engine, and then build an exhaust system. Once this is done, I'll be driving around in 2x4 mode until the proper gearbox gets here and then we can build the front prop shaft. Yay!
Towards the end of last year the Jetta started giving us hassles too. So, a couple of weeks before Christmas, I gave it to Newton to get a new top gasket. Once we opened the engine, we realized that we are going to need new top bolts, as my old ones were stretched and mismatching. Also, one engine mounting was faulty, and I put on another air intake too.
So, I order the parts, and go back to work. Isolde was about seven and a half months pregnant at this time. So, Chrismas happened, while we wait on parts. Turns out that my timing pulley on the crank was broken again, and this part needs to be especially manufactured for my very rare Jetta. Then my mechanic's wife has a baby. Finally, he is able to sort the car out just a week before I get back. On the test drive, however, the engine threw a bearing, and back to the workshop it went.
I got home to an eight and a bit month pregnant wife and the only working car I got is the Yellow Range Rover from the 1980's that has been converted into a competition off-road vehicle. So, it's got no windows, terrible handling on the road and the fuel economy is shot, too.
We had to do something drastic.
I bought my wife the Ford Figo, brand new out of the box. It's a nice little car with ABS and airbags, and a great fuel economy. More importantly, it starts easily in the mornings.
Then Aiden was born. The first month after his birth we were still patiently waiting for the cars to be finished up. The Jetta was running first, with basically a whole new engine and CV joints. Unfortunately her air conditioning unit broke, and so she is currently at another set of mechanics to get that sorted.
So, finally, today Newton will be looking to wire up the Land Rover, and in my eternal optimism I have already booked the Land Rover to have an exhaust fitted on Friday. School holidays start on Thursday, so hopefully we will be able to fit in exactly one camp in the Land Rover before I have to go back to work.
Friday, March 4, 2011
True Desert Dwelling
Well, the day before yesterday was the first time in months that we had running water from our taps all day long in a couple of months.
This may strike people dwelling in other cities as a little weird, but for us it is nearly a yearly experience. You see, our town's water supply comes from the Kuiseb river. This is a river that rarely has any visible water, and the riverbed is actually a popular destination for people that want to camp under a tree for a day. The drive is also quite nice if one drives up the delta. :)
Unfortunately, when the rest of Namibia gets good rainfall, and the Kuiseb river starts flowing, it destroys the pumps and pipes that supply our water. One would think that with the 20 million Namibian dollars that was spent on this system last year our water supply would be safe this year, but no such luck. We had some pretty heavy rains, and the river ran deeper and more strongly than in previous years. You can tell how thoroughly we are desert dwellers by just how unprepared we are for rain.
Roofs were leaking all over town, and for a
month all the hardware stores were sold out of roofing felt. Even I was up on a ladder with a few tubes of silicone, patching holes in the roof of my garage. The town's streets were flooded as we don't have any storm drains, and the normal sewage system was just not up to the task. I sneakily opened the sewage drain in front of my house to drain a lot of the water in the street away. There were water trucks all over town, sucking up the larger puddles.
So, yes... severe water restrictions, with taps only running a couple of hours per day, and everybody had lots of drums of water, just for in case the taps do not come on at night. Luckily, with my families love for camping, we had no shortage of water containers, and we tackled the shortage as a little bit of a challenge. We filled our toilet from the pool during the day when the water was off, and adjusted our schedules according to the availability of water. Dishes were done at night, and our lawns only got water from the washing machine.
This may strike people dwelling in other cities as a little weird, but for us it is nearly a yearly experience. You see, our town's water supply comes from the Kuiseb river. This is a river that rarely has any visible water, and the riverbed is actually a popular destination for people that want to camp under a tree for a day. The drive is also quite nice if one drives up the delta. :)
Unfortunately, when the rest of Namibia gets good rainfall, and the Kuiseb river starts flowing, it destroys the pumps and pipes that supply our water. One would think that with the 20 million Namibian dollars that was spent on this system last year our water supply would be safe this year, but no such luck. We had some pretty heavy rains, and the river ran deeper and more strongly than in previous years. You can tell how thoroughly we are desert dwellers by just how unprepared we are for rain.
Roofs were leaking all over town, and for a
month all the hardware stores were sold out of roofing felt. Even I was up on a ladder with a few tubes of silicone, patching holes in the roof of my garage. The town's streets were flooded as we don't have any storm drains, and the normal sewage system was just not up to the task. I sneakily opened the sewage drain in front of my house to drain a lot of the water in the street away. There were water trucks all over town, sucking up the larger puddles.So, yes... severe water restrictions, with taps only running a couple of hours per day, and everybody had lots of drums of water, just for in case the taps do not come on at night. Luckily, with my families love for camping, we had no shortage of water containers, and we tackled the shortage as a little bit of a challenge. We filled our toilet from the pool during the day when the water was off, and adjusted our schedules according to the availability of water. Dishes were done at night, and our lawns only got water from the washing machine.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Sorcerer Multilib
Well, when Kyle was building a multilib implementation of Sorcerer, I thought he was wasting his time. He got a newer, faster computer, and in the space of a couple of months he built enough of a Multilib distrobution for me to start beta-testing.
It's truly a statement of the power of Sorcery to be able to entirely reconfigure the way the distrobution fits together, and have dependencies resolved automatically, in the space of a couple of months. I don't even think that Multilib was Kyle's main objective... he was slogging through our grimoire of spells, and I suppose he needed a distraction and something to challenge his mind.
So far, beta testing is going well. One I/R beta had uncompressed tarballs on it, and the installer could not handle that. The next I/R beta had a broken glibc, but Kyle mailed me a proper one. Soon my computer was running a multilib install and I was able to run quite a large chunk of software ever written natively, and the rest through emulators. Quite a feeling to know that you are operating something that could run any software ever created. :)
Unfortunately, a small change to Sorcery blew up that install. I should have backed up my filesystem, I know. Two days of troubleshooting later, with me doing broad strokes and Kyle investigating the particulars, we tracked it down to cp misbehaving in a Sorcery script, and so we had to use the force to fix it. "-f" in two places in one script, and I am well on my way of having a completely rebuilt Sorcery Multilib install. It's amazing just how much everything fits together, and how a small error in millions of lines of code could have such a huge impact on the stability of the system.
Some of the tricks I am using here is an MBR that lets me select which install of Sorcerer to run. Right now I am running x86_64 pure, and rebuilding the multilib in chroot. I'm thinking of reconfiguring the boot loader to just include the "other" boot option, rather than having three boot loaders, as they don't play well together, and I have been using a rescue boot disk much more often than I liked.
So, bleeding edge, wave of the future stuff in OS land here. One day this Multilib will be the default Sorcerer install. There are still some things to be sorted with the installer. It's certainly not for the feint of heart. We have been battling to get it more simple, for years, actually. Unfortunately, once a Sorcerer box is installed, it tends to stay that way. Most horrible blow-up-your computer errors usually happen to me, as I like to thoroughly test all my software at least once a month. When my system blows up, I usually restore from system backups when I remember to make them. So, the installer does not get used nearly enough... Maybe I'll have a bit of time to do some testing in that regard.
It's truly a statement of the power of Sorcery to be able to entirely reconfigure the way the distrobution fits together, and have dependencies resolved automatically, in the space of a couple of months. I don't even think that Multilib was Kyle's main objective... he was slogging through our grimoire of spells, and I suppose he needed a distraction and something to challenge his mind.
So far, beta testing is going well. One I/R beta had uncompressed tarballs on it, and the installer could not handle that. The next I/R beta had a broken glibc, but Kyle mailed me a proper one. Soon my computer was running a multilib install and I was able to run quite a large chunk of software ever written natively, and the rest through emulators. Quite a feeling to know that you are operating something that could run any software ever created. :)
Unfortunately, a small change to Sorcery blew up that install. I should have backed up my filesystem, I know. Two days of troubleshooting later, with me doing broad strokes and Kyle investigating the particulars, we tracked it down to cp misbehaving in a Sorcery script, and so we had to use the force to fix it. "-f" in two places in one script, and I am well on my way of having a completely rebuilt Sorcery Multilib install. It's amazing just how much everything fits together, and how a small error in millions of lines of code could have such a huge impact on the stability of the system.
Some of the tricks I am using here is an MBR that lets me select which install of Sorcerer to run. Right now I am running x86_64 pure, and rebuilding the multilib in chroot. I'm thinking of reconfiguring the boot loader to just include the "other" boot option, rather than having three boot loaders, as they don't play well together, and I have been using a rescue boot disk much more often than I liked.
So, bleeding edge, wave of the future stuff in OS land here. One day this Multilib will be the default Sorcerer install. There are still some things to be sorted with the installer. It's certainly not for the feint of heart. We have been battling to get it more simple, for years, actually. Unfortunately, once a Sorcerer box is installed, it tends to stay that way. Most horrible blow-up-your computer errors usually happen to me, as I like to thoroughly test all my software at least once a month. When my system blows up, I usually restore from system backups when I remember to make them. So, the installer does not get used nearly enough... Maybe I'll have a bit of time to do some testing in that regard.
New arrival....
In the morning of 14th of February, at 5:41, Aiden Vorster was born. Here is a picture of him taking a nap, not even one day old yet. I would have been traveling back to work on this day, but luckily I got a trip off.
It was a natural birth, and I was blessed enough to be right next to my wife throughout. A natural birth really is something to see, and no words can describe it.
Little Aiden weighed 3.65kg at birth, and was 50cm tall. We got Aiden a car seat, and he has already been shopping with us twice so far.
It has been raining quite a lot in Namibia, and I would have loved to go out to the desert to see it, but my Land Rover is STILL in for repairs. At least I can see some changes being made every day, and hopefully it will be done in a week or two. It should hopefully still be nice and green in the desert. We can't wait to take Aiden on his first camp.
:)
Sunday, February 20, 2011
WG Columbus Christmas trip 2010/2011
Our trip started out as normal.
Some of the crew left for greener pastures at other companies, and some days we had good weather, other days not so good. Streamer work was done on the good days, and we actually set about cleaning the entire spread of slime.
Which turned out to be a good thing, as not too long after that one of our electric engines burned out and we had to recover all our gear and head back to port for emergency repairs. So, we went to Mobile, Alabama for repairs. On the way there we had a nice Christmas party, and a few nights out with beers in port itself.
I bought a new camera in port as well. The old Canon video camera just did not take good enough pictures, and the format was NTSC. I am now the very happy owner of a Canon 550D. It takes video, and it's picture taking capability is quite good as well.
We were out of port before the trip ended, and we almost got all the gear out before crewchanging on the 11th. There was even some rough weather to make crewchange interesting. However, our helicopter pilots did not disappoint and soon we were all on our way home.
The video has been made, but unfortunately it can't be put on the internet due to SLB's policies on it's technology... no worries, it's not that interesting anyways...
Some of the crew left for greener pastures at other companies, and some days we had good weather, other days not so good. Streamer work was done on the good days, and we actually set about cleaning the entire spread of slime.
Which turned out to be a good thing, as not too long after that one of our electric engines burned out and we had to recover all our gear and head back to port for emergency repairs. So, we went to Mobile, Alabama for repairs. On the way there we had a nice Christmas party, and a few nights out with beers in port itself.
I bought a new camera in port as well. The old Canon video camera just did not take good enough pictures, and the format was NTSC. I am now the very happy owner of a Canon 550D. It takes video, and it's picture taking capability is quite good as well.
We were out of port before the trip ended, and we almost got all the gear out before crewchanging on the 11th. There was even some rough weather to make crewchange interesting. However, our helicopter pilots did not disappoint and soon we were all on our way home.
The video has been made, but unfortunately it can't be put on the internet due to SLB's policies on it's technology... no worries, it's not that interesting anyways...
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