My car drew a large crowd, most of whom walked up, saw the Vortech supercharger, assumed it was a turbocharger (mine is the only supercarger in Thailand), looked around, saw the headers, and realized the "turbo" did not have exhaust feeding it . . . "Oh, it's a supercharger!"

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

The 1UZ is a good looking engine, no?

Supercharger placement is the next big job . . . . .

Supercharger is mounted and the intercooler piping is all connected (as of October 3, 2009).

I finally found the 'last lens I needed' for my camera bag.  I now have a lens for every situation I may encounter in my travels: the amazingly sharp Sigma 70mm DG Macro. I shot some test shots in my garden when I got home and they were stunning.  I remembered that I have more then 100 flowering tropical plants in the garden, so I have opened up a new section in the Travel Photo Bank called "My Garden Flowers & Leaves" -- check it out -- it will grow as I take new photos and go through my collection. A few samples:

Ah! Nature!

Yes, these orchids just grow outside on their own . . . . on the trunks of my palm trees.

6:30am: Getting ready for the long trip down the road. Owning a race car in Thailand has been a lot of fun . . .  and very interesting.

A new home for my Familia drag truck for the next eight (8) weeks or so (this IS Thailand!).

Poor thing . . . . having its heart ripped out.  My little 3100cc (191 cu.in.) straight six was an excellent motor and provided much excitement . . . and around 550 horsepower on only 0.9 bar (13 pounds) boost. But I hear the call of a V-8!

I purchased a set of 32 Brian Crower valve springs and nice fuel rails for the 1UZ V-8 yesterday.  Most of my parts order from The States have arrived. The only parts I need now, other than what may need to be fabricated in the process of the engine instllation, are the eight fuel injectors.

High flow fuel rails for the 1UZ.