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mattrparks
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Name: Matt
Country: United States
State: Maryland
Metro: Annapolis
Birthday: 11/23/1982
Gender: Male
Interests: God, motorcycles, antique cars, soccer, guitar, bass guitar, computers
Occupation: Computer related
Message: message me
AIM:  mattrparks
Member Since:
9/7/2004
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| Getting close...just two and a half weeks left till the wedding. Unfortunately Heather has the flu or something like that and is feeling miserable. Hopefully she will have plenty of time to get better and be back up to full strength before then.
I went home to Gordonsville for a couple days this week since I'm still not working. Hung out with my parents and demolished some stumps in the front yard with an axe until I got a blister. Got to visit the machine shop and hang out with Josh and Megan too. It was a good trip, but a little shorter than I planned -- I came back early to take care of Heather since she was feeling pretty rotten. 
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| Got to go to a wedding this weekend. Congratulations Josh & Lindsay!
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| Still out of work for a bit, so been trying to be useful.
Finished rocker install on GTP:
Turns out my insurance deductible is $50 to get windshield cracks and chips repaired. So I went to the parts store and got a $13 windshield repair kit. Well, actually took two of them because I had two chips I wanted to repair. $26 and less than an hour of my time was better than $50 plus insurance hassle driving to a shop plus waiting for them to repair it. Doesn't look perfectly new, but looks a lot better and it won't crack in the winter now.
Also a friend hooked me up with a good used battery so now my car cranks easily again and I didn't have to pay for a new battery! Thanks Doug!
Painted the downstairs bathroom this week also (more work than you think...with all the cleaning, removing old caulk, spackling, and all that, it took two solid days).
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| I've been messing with my GTP the last few weeks. I got some fancy tuning software made by HP Tuners. It has a scan tool so I can record all of my fuel/air/spark/throttle information as well as examine Service Engine error codes (I already had a scanner for that though). The more useful part about it though is the editor software which allows me to tune almost any parameter controlled by the computer (which is pretty much everything). I can change the tables controlling air/fuel ratio, spark advance, traction control, idle speed, transmission shift points, transmission line pressure, torque converter lock-up, etc...
When I did some scanning I found that I was having some moderate to severe problems with detonation (aka pre-ignition, or spark knock) at high rpms. So I bought some higher ratio roller rockers which are supposed to help with clearing more air and reducing knock (plus increased fuel mileage and 20 extra horsepower). While I was installing the rockers I found a vacuum leak, which might also have contributed to the knocking by making the mixture too lean. I put rockers in for the front 3 cylinders but still have to do the back 3, which will be harder to get to. That's the project for this weekend.
The vacuum leak issue is giving me some grief. It's a small soft rubber "T"-shaped hose connector which was cracked; I figured should be easy to replace. However, they don't have anything like it in Advance Auto, Pep Boys, or NAPA. I know because I went to all of them in the same afternoon. And I also went to the GM dealership which I figured HAD to have it since they made the car. They don't even have a part number for it, and apparently the only way to get it is to order the whole vacuum tube assembly which costs $41. And they didn't have it in stock, over course. For crying out loud, my car is only 7 years old now, and a popular model...I expect this kind of a run-around for my old '61 T-Bird, or the '74 Yamaha, but it shouldn't be this hard for a relatively new Grand Prix!
For the sake of my sanity and because I wanted to get something done, I switched tasks and started to put in the new struts that I've had for more than a year now...it took me a long time before I got around to assembling them, and another long time before I got around to installing them. I did the front two and that was relatively easy, other than having to take a motorcycle trip (because the car was in pieces) to Sears because I needed a deep-well 21mm socket. The rear ones don't look right though...the new coil springs have more windings than the old ones, and they are all bunched up together. I e-mailed the place I bought them from and they don't think they look right either, so they are going to investigate.
So at the moment I have struts half-done and rockers half-done and vacuum leak temporarily patched with electrical tape and a zip-tie. Meanwhile my battery is going dead (original battery, 7 years old...not a bad life!) so it's barely starting now, my tensioner pulley is squeaking, and I just got another rock thrown into my windshield leaving a big chip. I would like to get something finished soon!
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| I finally found a good home for my '61 T-bird. It's just been sitting around in my parents' driveway the last couple years since I live in Maryland now and I don't have a place for it here. Anyway I sold it to a friend here who had a '62 T-bird sitting in his driveway that he had been restoring. Mine was actually in much better shape as far as the body goes, and he was excited to get it. So now she's not sitting in my parents' driveway, she's got a happy owner who will finish the restoration, and I still get to stop by and see her and maybe help out with the restoration sometimes. Good deal all around!
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