Dr. Jeff Bangkok

Gee . . . having a blog is hard! You have to write things and then post them!  I have been very busy lately . . . and am busy today . . . so I will post only these four photos of what I have been up to in the last two weeks.

I went to The Philippines for 10 days and had a wonderful time in Manila and the Taal Volcano region. I took some amazing photographs that I have added to a Philippines album in my Travel Photo Blog link.  Here are a couple of pics from the trip for now:Looking down into the actual Taal Volcano crater lake (above).

I was lucky to have some really excellent light one afternoon at a roadside fruit market.

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When I got back from The Philippines I immediately got to work with my friend Peter to renew work on constructing another drag racing car.  This one a 1970 Maverick that will become a "275 Drag Radial" class-legal race car.  I spent the last three days crawling around under it fitting a ladder bar rear suspension and housing floaters.  It came out nicely!  Here is a pic of the adjustable ladder bar installation as it is today. More reinforcement around the brackets needs finishing, and a new floor needs to be fabricated, but the progress is good. Go to my Racing Projects Blog section of this site for more details.

The ladder bar rear suspension and adjustable backets.

Fabrication work on the Maverick.

Another aborted attempt at racing last night! Peter and I got to the track, serviced the car, started it . . . it sounded pretty good . . . and then . .  the dreaded miss and flashing red light from the ECU.  Jiggle the wires . . . oops . . .  it stopped running.  We tore into the wiring . . .  used a volt meter and discovered no power to the ECU now.  Replaced the fuse . . . still no power.  Hmmm . . . loose wire at the ECU . . .  loose hell, it fell off! Re-soldered the wire to the clip . . .  let's look round some more . . . . . what the hell! Something has been nibbling on the wiring!  Rats and/or mice have been gnawing the insulation on some of the wire.  This is not good!  We wrapped these bare spots, started it up, sounds GREAT,  and I took it to the 'practice pad' to test.  Not bad . .  sounds great . . . strong . . . but it loaded up quickly. It's too rich now because it is tuned for when the fuel filter was stuffed and the electricals were inadequate.  Too rich . . . but my tuner is not here with the computer.  Looks like I am going to have to master the ins and outs of tuning my own ECU.  No racing tonight. Oh well.

Oh well, nothing to do but hang out with my buddies and do some photography.  Andy dropped by with his amazing 850hp wide body street Supra. Nice!

I haven't sold the 1.5JZ in my race car yet . . . even at a great price.

Last week-end was a bit of a debacle for me at the track:  An electrical gremlin pestered me all afternoon and evening.  There was a periodic ignition miss that came and went.  Unfortunately, it reared it's ugly head right when I was at the front of the line in the staging lanes on Saturday night..  I had to 'idle through' the track . . . but when I got to the top end I gave it the gas . . . and NO MISS!  Frustrating! Peter and I fiddled with the wiring, but it still came and went.  I will have to chase all the wires in the ignition system to find it.  Oh well.  I need to spend more time with the car.  It was built five years a go and the heat and humidity may be taking its toll on insulation and causing corrosion.  Time to run some new wire.

I have added many photos to the China, Australia, Studies of Stuff, and the My Beloved Thailand section of Travel Photo Bank section of this site.  Please check them out.

If the old saying, "Drag racing is not a sport, it's a disease that once contracted has no cure" is true, then one of the main symptoms of the drag racing disease must surely be 'building race engines in your mind.' I suffer from this terrible affliction, and am no doubt in the tertiary phase. My thought build-ups, and mind-dyno efforts have lately been turning towards putting a V-8 into my little race truck.  Although I love the idea of my little 191 cubic inch straight six running in the mid-10s on gasoline, I have to admit I am beginning to notice a new symptom of my disease: "Wup Wup envy." By "Wup Wup envy" I mean I miss the sound of an unmuffled (a turbo is also a muffler, in a sense) race V-8. The "Wup Wup" sound of tickling the gas pedal; the lopey idle;  the roar of the open headers at full song under power.  Ah, the music of a V-8!

Which V-8?  I live, work, and race in Thailand.  Yes, I can import a Chevy or Ford V-8 from The States or Australia for cubic dollars, but I would also have to import everything to keep it running forever after too, for more cubic dollars . . . and there are no machine shops here familiar with U.S. iron.  What to do? It just so happens that Thailand is the car-breaking (disassembling) capitol of the world: wrecked cars ("totals") from Japan end up in Bangkok for disassembly into containers of various components.  It's cheaper to do that in Bangkok than in Tokyo. The good news is that Toyota made a wonderful 6-bolt main V-8, called the "1UZ" from the mid 1980s on that is incredibly cheap here.  It is a stout 4.0 litre (242 cubic inch) DOHC, 4-valve, all aluminum wonder that is actually 90 pounds lighter than my current (iron block) 3JZ straight six.  My current race modified auto trans and high stall torque converter will actually bolt up, and, did I say this before, they're cheap.

But . . . . I cannot make the 500+ horsepower on gasoline easily with a 242 cubic engine without turbocharging it (no "Wup Wup"!) . . . unless . . .  I SUPERCHARGE it. Soooooo . . . it just so happens that a freind of mine has a Vortech V9 supercharger, and another friend has a set of new-in-the-box Kelford race cams for the 1UZ . . . at fair prices . . . . with some head porting . . . . headers . . . around one bar (14 pounds) of boost  . . .  with stock internals and injector manifold . . . equal length headers . . . big injectors . . . . maybe I can get the 500+ horsepower . . . to run the 10s in my 1900 pound racer . . . .  Hmmmmm . . . what to do?

This is the Toyota 4.0 1UZ V-8.  Very nice, no?  All the covers and crap would come off, of course.

This is a Vortech V9 supercharger.  It is SMALL, but can be driven at tremendous speed (max 65,000 rpm). It should give me the boost I want.  I am not looking for the ULTIMATE set-up, but reliable horsepower that can give me enough power to 'run on my number' in the e.t. brackets here.

Hmmmmmm . . . what to do? . . . . my little truck with a V-8. I must satisfy my Wup Wup envy!  I must satisfy my Wup Wup envy!

I will sell my 3JZ.

Peter and I hung out until late and then it rained.  Oh well.  Here is another video clip of the Familia race truck launching against the two-step - in November 2008.  Nice sound, no?