Dr. Jeff Bangkok

Listen To This!

Last Saturday night we cranked up the little blown 1UZ HEMI for the first time.  WOW, what a sweet sound!  We had a couple of small sorting-out issues: a little oil weeping from here and there requiring tightening, burping the radiator of air, and an oil pressure gauge not working (we pulled the oil line to confirm oil flow and pressure).  Using the super-duper GT Unleaded Racing Gas (115+ octane rating), we didn't get a final tune in the ECU because the header collectors are so short we could not get a stable O2 reading, and there appeared to be a vacuum leak which yielded novel tuning outputs.  Some collector extension pipes are being made this week (for tuning purposes only), and new rubber grommets for the injector bottoms are being fitted (the source of the vacuum leaks, we believe).  We will go at it again this Saturday at noon . . .  and hope we can run in that night's big program. Follow the complete blown 1UZ project in my Racing Projects Blog.

The completed supercharged 1UZ.  What a beautiful engine this is!

I woke up at 5:00am to go and meet the wiring  guy, George, and then to tow my race car the 200km to  Pattaya before traffic snarled the streets of Bangkok.  George was almost done when I arrived . . . he finished in an hour and I headed down to Pattaya. It was a good day of planning all the final details of the race car . . . "how it should be done," and "the right way to do it" conversations went on all day.  The drive back was beautiful in the setting sun. I stopped at one of the roadside markets and bought a bag of freshly baked cashews. Nice.  Go to my Racing Projects Blog for more on the day's mechanical progress.

A nice place to find the perfect snack for a long drive!

Max Snacks! I opted for a few grams of the cashews from a giant, 100 pound sack. What counts as a snack varies widely across this big wonderful planet of ours.

This is what the day was about.

The 1UZ V-8 transplant is nearing completion. Hard as I could try, I could only come up with a list of 27, mostly small, things that still needed completion. The day I hear those new headers crackle with the sound of this Bad Boy is getting closer.

I am just back from the Thai Island of Phuket.  It is a beautiful place of mostly sand, palm trees, and crystal clear water.  Once a year they have their Vegetarian Festival which includes a big parade down "Main Street." Lots of fun . . . . if your idea of fun is chasing ghosts off of the corners by stabbing whatever is handy in the kitchen drawers, or around the house or garage,  through your cheeks while under a trance and then parading yourself in front of your friends and neighbors.  Oh, and then having the crowd set off thousands of very large (and illegal everywhere on earth) firecrackers right over your head while you are bearing a litter of your local temple's favorite deities for all to see. It is a very photogenic experience, in a perverse kind of way. By the way, do not even try to order lamb brochettes during this time of year . . . . . I tried and was told, "Sorry, we're out of skewers."  "Why?" I asked.  There are more photos here.   This is what you missed:

The kids love to try and see how close they can come to blowing their toes off. I didn't stick around.

There were lots of kids having fun, but somehow they seemed a little consumed with thoughts of their future participation in the parade . . . . .

Oh, that's where the skewers have gone.

I guess lamb-ka-bobs are out of the question too.

Let's see, what else does Mom have in the kitchen drawer . . . . .

Not Mother's lamp too!  I'm gonna tell . . . . .

Ouch.

The end of the parade is where all the fun, and missing fingers and eyes-put-out . . . . yes, you guessed right . . . The Rain Of Firecrackers!

Phuket Firecrackers Duckers (PFD).

Loitering on parade while the ambulance tended the newly blind (no kidding).

O.K., now that the ambulances have gone . . . . . PAR-TAY!

The last two week-ends have seen good progress on with the installation of the supercharged 1UZ V-8 into my race truck.  The final parts were at last on hand.  The lower supercharger pulley, ATI balancer (with a spacer collar), fuel injectors, fuel system fittings, and blower brackets are all on the car. Please go to my Racing Projects Blog ( above, or here: http://drjeffbangkok.squarespace.com/racing-projects-blog/ ) for more detail and lots more photos.  Here are some photos from the week-end.Intercooler piping to and from the supercharger completed.

Belts were aligned using the sliding blower bracket. A new, shorter belt was sourced locally, and the idler pulley was trial fitted.

The headers have been fabricated.  They are "stepped" from 1 5/8" to 1 3/4" and then on to merged collectors.

The race car is now in Bangkok getting the wiring re-done to the new AEM ECU.  I am really glad I am not doing this job.  I HATE wiring!

My 200 liter (55 gallon) barrel of GT Unleaded Race Gas was delivered tonight, and I'm ready to try it out!

I am just back from a quick trip to The States.  I got to see my wonderful daughter in Philadelphia on my way to attending an international conference in Baltimore.  Unfortunately I got food poisoning at the Airport Hilton Hotel in Newark, New Jersey on the way that put a damper on my time in Philadelphia.  I recovered by the time I got to Baltimore . . . and the National Aquarium.  Here are some photos from the trip.

Baltimore harbour from the hotel window.

These things seemed to be left over from the last Ice Age in Baltimore Harbour.

A view to the US National Aquarium where, interestingly, they have a lot of fish that you can photograph!

A Box Fish head . . . . .

A Large Mouth Fish . . . . .

The underside of a Sting Ray . . .

They even had some snakes in the habitats at The US National Aquarium.  See more photos from the National Aquarium in my Travel Photo Blog section.