'89 Stepside "Way Cool Jr."

Erik the Awful · Dec 24, 2023

No worries. I took my week of leave and got a lot of firewood cut, but not much progress on the vehicles. A couple weeks ago I had more leave scheduled to go race in Atlanta, but the car's not ready, so I spent it at the house and got nothing done.

After fixing everyone else's vehicles for the past year, I have a lot of work to do just to get other crap out of my shop, and my motivation is really low. If I can get the title to La Cucaracha (Altima) this next week, I can yank the tank and tires and drag it to the scrap yard, and that'll be one less turd in my way. Then I need to sell my daughter's old Focus. Anybody interested? It's a five-speed!

...but first I have to get back on top of my motivation.

Then I can:
Swap the transmission in WCJr and hopefully start driving it further than the yard.
Finish putting together Roscoe's interior.
Finish building an engine to replace the engine in WCJr that's going into Roscoe.

I'd also really like to sell the Jaguar and start on a new car build.

Supercharged111 · Dec 24, 2023

Where do you burn that firewood? Curious if you have a stove, boiler, fireplace. . .

Erik the Awful · Dec 26, 2023

I have a fireplace, and when it gets cold it helps keep the living room warm while keeping the thermostat down. There's no gas service where I live, and I don't have propane, so it's all either electricity or the fireplace.

A couple years ago I welded up a pellet rack for my fireplace, and I love it. I can fit an entire bag of wood pellets in it, and that will stay burning for 2+ days. I stack firewood on top of it and the pellets keep the fire from dying out while also keeping me from burning through more wood. 24" wide by 12" deep. The front edge is 10" high and the back edge is 12" high. I think the corners are 1/2" angle and the rods are 3/8" with 3/8" spacing.

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The rack in the background of the picture is an earlier attempt at a fireplace blower. I still need to rework it and install an external fan and manifold system, but that's a springtime project because I'll have to remove the fireplace face to get it out.

Keeper · Dec 26, 2023

I love that rack!

Over time, since I don't have a wintertime photoperiod issue (wife), I've come to the conclusion that my low motivation periods are actually me telling me to re-prioritize projects. Once I get a new game-plan together, my battery seems to go back to full charge awfully damn quick. Just a thought.

Supercharged111 · Dec 26, 2023

Erik the Awful said:
I have a fireplace, and when it gets cold it helps keep the living room warm while keeping the thermostat down. There's no gas service where I live, and I don't have propane, so it's all either electricity or the fireplace.

A couple years ago I welded up a pellet rack for my fireplace, and I love it. I can fit an entire bag of wood pellets in it, and that will stay burning for 2+ days. I stack firewood on top of it and the pellets keep the fire from dying out while also keeping me from burning through more wood. 24" wide by 12" deep. The front edge is 10" high and the back edge is 12" high. I think the corners are 1/2" angle and the rods are 3/8" with 3/8" spacing.

You must be registered for see images attach

The rack in the background of the picture is an earlier attempt at a fireplace blower. I still need to rework it and install an external fan and manifold system, but that's a springtime project because I'll have to remove the fireplace face to get it out.

Do you have to keep that going all winter or just a week or 2 here and there?

Erik the Awful · Dec 26, 2023

This is Oklahoma. During winter our night time temps usually dip into the 30s or 40s, and our daytime temps are in the 50s, sometimes up into the 60s. Every now and then we get a cold snap and I fire up the fireplace to keep the PEX in the attic from freezing and to help take the chill out of the air in the house. Two full ricks of wood and 20 bags of pellets are enough for the colder winters. This year it really hasn't gotten cold, so I may have wood left over, and I'm not even halfway through the 12 bags of pellets I bought.

Erik the Awful · Feb 22, 2024

This week the weather warmed up and I got out in the shop to work on Way Cool Jr. I dropped the transmission I built back out - and the fluid is plenty dark. It's a TV cable fail. I did talk with my wife, and I was tired of doing transmission swaps with the transmissions balanced precariously on my floor jack. My shoulders aren't strong enough any more to catch the transmission if it starts to roll off onto my face. I spent $250 on Harbor Freight's 800 lb transmission jack. Absolutely worth it! The transmission sits a bit high, so you have to jack the front of your truck to the moon, but I plonked the transmission onto the engine on the first try.

I also took the opportunity to replace the previous owner's "modified" 2+1 rear springs with a set of factory 3+1s from Pull-A-Part. You northerners can all cry now - all my u-bolts were in good shape and most of the bolts came out clean. I only had to cut three bolts.

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Once I got the transmission and spring swap done, I started work on fixing the TV cable mounting. There's no easy to setup bracket for a Sniper. I cut and welded the bracketry four times last night before I got a setup that I think will work. I took lots of measurements and I think I'm pretty close to the exact same geometry that the factory TBI on a TBI manfold with the TBI bracket gets. Tonight I plan on hooking up my pressure gauge and making sure I'm in spec. If it works, I'll pull the bracket back off, fully weld it, and paint it.

https://static.summitracing.com/global/images/instructions/bmm-9500377-04.pdf

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While I was getting all this done I noticed that my battery terminals had a nasty case of fuzziness, so I finally ditched the cheapskate terminals and put on a set of military-style terminals.

You must be registered for see images attach

Supercharged111 · Feb 22, 2024

Erik the Awful said:
This week the weather warmed up and I got out in the shop to work on Way Cool Jr. I dropped the transmission I built back out - and the fluid is plenty dark. It's a TV cable fail. I did talk with my wife, and I was tired of doing transmission swaps with the transmissions balanced precariously on my floor jack. My shoulders aren't strong enough any more to catch the transmission if it starts to roll off onto my face. I spent $250 on Harbor Freight's 800 lb transmission jack. Absolutely worth it! The transmission sits a bit high, so you have to jack the front of your truck to the moon, but I plonked the transmission onto the engine on the first try.

I also took the opportunity to replace the previous owner's "modified" 2+1 rear springs with a set of factory 3+1s from Pull-A-Part. You northerners can all cry now - all my u-bolts were in good shape and most of the bolts came out clean. I only had to cut three bolts.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Once I got the transmission and spring swap done, I started work on fixing the TV cable mounting. There's no easy to setup bracket for a Sniper. I cut and welded the bracketry four times last night before I got a setup that I think will work. I took lots of measurements and I think I'm pretty close to the exact same geometry that the factory TBI on a TBI manfold with the TBI bracket gets. Tonight I plan on hooking up my pressure gauge and making sure I'm in spec. If it works, I'll pull the bracket back off, fully weld it, and paint it.

https://static.summitracing.com/global/images/instructions/bmm-9500377-04.pdf

You must be registered for see images attach

While I was getting all this done I noticed that my battery terminals had a nasty case of fuzziness, so I finally ditched the cheapskate terminals and put on a set of military-style terminals.

You must be registered for see images attach

Looks like AGE benchstock to me. . .

Erik the Awful · Feb 22, 2024

I have my Amazon receipts. I don't pilfer.

Erik the Awful · Mar 16, 2024

He's dead, Jim.

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Honestly, the picture makes the fluid look more red than it is. If I had a centrifuge I might have tried to spin the particulate out. That's $30 worth of fluid right there!

I got the TV cable adjusted and the pressures track as they should. I shot a bunch of video in the process, and if I get it edited into a coherent video, I'll post it. Tomorrow morning I'll drive it to church and see how it runs on a longer drive.

I did notice a big oil leak, and I traced it up to the oil filter, then up to the oil pressure sending unit, on up to the valve cover, and then I discovered the PCV hose had popped loose. Easy fix! The Sniper hiccuped a couple times, and I'm pretty sure it was the open vacuum to the PCV. I'm really hoping this gets WCJr back in action.

'89 Stepside "Way Cool Jr."

Erik the Awful

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Supercharged111

Truly Awesome

Erik the Awful

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Erik the Awful

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Erik the Awful

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Supercharged111

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Erik the Awful

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