@RoryAlsop It's the same as teaching a kid how to ride a bike. Don't look down! Don't look at the wheels! Look where you want to go!

@BobCross - Good point!

@BobCross exactly :-)

Morning

Morning all

Morning

@RoryAlsop Afternoon!

It sure is

@RoryAlsop more importantly it's Friday Afternoon!

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 I'm babysitting a script that's generate training data for an ML model.

Lots and lots and LOTS of training data.

On the other side of the office, my new MacBook Pro is attempting to migrate data from my old MacBook Pro over a USB-A to USB-C cable, which oddly seems to be working, albeit slowly.

Migration Assistant was also kind enough to remind me that I have a Time Machine backup on my NAS which, as far as I can remember, is from yet another Mac that I got rid of about three years ago.

@3Dave - Here's the cam card for the one going into the 350:

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Woohoo! :)

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 The rear main seal on the Escalade is leaking. I do not feel like pulling the 200lb transmission out of the thing myself. The shop down the street quoted $1500. :

:(

Tomorrow, I'm replacing the water pump, thermostat and temp sensor on the GXP, replacing studs on one of the struts - someone put the wrong nuts on when we swapped them over from the SoS - and installing my fancy track data aquisition widget.

Then, I have to heat cycle my track tires before the 1st autocross of the season on Sunday. Still haven't figured out when I'm going to find time to install the roll bar.

@3Dave - If you do it yourself, I HIGHLY suggest getting a tranny jack.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 I'm pretty sure I'm going to let the shop do this one. I'm not swimming in cash, but the thing weighs 5000lbs, it's AWD making transmission crap a bit more involved, and I can't really afford to be without the primary kid hauler for a week when the job inevitably takes 4x as long as I'd like.

I considered renting Audrey another car for a few days so I could work on it, but between the rental fees, new tools I'll need, pain and suffering, it's within spitting distance of just paying the pros.

@3Dave - I thought you had taken it down once already?

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 In the Escalade? Nope.

Have you ever had the exhaust down?

And, my garage is still full of useless crap. I don't really fancy doing this one in the driveway.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Not on that car. The only stuff I've done to the Escalade is the water pump & thermostat, oil changes and other little stuff IIRC.

The exhaust are is always a PITB the first time as well. I don't think you can drop the tranny without pulling the exhaust.

I don't think you can do the rear main without dropping the tranny, either. I don't think you can just pull it back some ... you just need more room that that would give you.

@3Dave - Well ... CLEAN IT OUT!

:o)

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Yeah. I've done it on other cars, just not this beast or anything near this size.

Actually, the last time I did a rear seal, the engine was on a stand (SoS). So, that was kind of cheating.

I put the cam in the engine and have cleaned the valve covers & oil pan. Well, at least they are about 98% clean. I'm going to run down to Autozone and get some more carb cleaner to thoroughly clean them. Then I'm going to paint them.

For the exhaust, I use a home depot torch to heat up any rusted bolts until they glow, then wait for them to cool off. After that, they come off pretty easily.

Typically more of an issue on the cat-to-cat back bolts than anything else.

@3Dave - Heat them to cherry red, then hit them with some PB Blaster. This does two things: PB is great on rusted parts like exhaust; The shock of the cooldown usually breaks free any corrosion which might be holding it on.

:)

@3Dave - The joint at the back of the manifold where the exhaust hooks to it (above the cats) is probably the worst ones.

Probably.

If it was just me, I'd make time and space and go buy a transmission jack and a two-post lift.

But, can't leave the wife without a car for that long, and she can't drive a stick.

@3Dave - I hear yah ... personally I go buy a cheap runabout car so your wife would have something to drive while the Caddy is down.

Or TEACH HER TO DRIVE STICK!!!

I know what the issue is there ... as soon as she figures out how to drive a stick, you're worried she'll never stop driving your cars!

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 I've been trying to get her to let me teach her for over a decade. She's not interested.

Fun fact: she has never ridden in either Solstice. Hasn't even sat in one.

Oh, well.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Fixing GXP tomorrow, autocross on Sunday, HPDE on the 2nd. Hoping the car doesn't explode. I'm a little nervous about running 24psi boost on a 104k engine.

104k is just broke in!

But, compression is good (all cylinders > 160psi now), no leaks aside from the weeping water pump, etc. Shrug. Guess we'll see.

Ha.

On a 350, sure. On an LNF... I'm not so confident.

But, that is why I have the G35. As good as my witness, I'll never be stranded again!

I've just jinxed myself. Hooray.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 AND, I forgot I also need to CNC the mount for my Kindle.

@3Dave - And the hits just keep coming ;)

The guy who did that one was kind enough to send me the CAD for the mount.

That's cool

You tie the Kindle in as your dash display?

Yep

That pic is using an Asus windows tablet, but the one I'm using runs on everything - ios, android, osx, whatever.

That'd be awesome. I need to do something like that for the Camaro ... a cheap aftermarket display. I'm wondering if it would only work with OBD2 stuff, lol.

autosportlabs.com/product/racecapturetrack-mk2

On my car, it gets anything and everything that you can read on the CAN bus (also exposed through the OBD port, duh)

What year is the Camaro again?

(I got mine much cheaper off of eBay.)

91 ... pure OBD1

OBD2 is a lot more useful, that's for sure.

Yes, if you can speak the language.

I'd love a diagnostic tool that had all of the FSM diagnostic flowcharts built in.

No doubt. I'll be back in a bit ... time to pick up pizza.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 I'm off to dinner. Cheers and have a great weekend!