first new post on the new bbs

[kg]

jeez, i disappear for a year or two and i come back and the place is all changed around! ;)

it's nice to see a bunch of familiar names still around here, though. plus now with user registration we know that nobody's getting imitated!

anyway, yes, i'm still alive. a few good folks sent me a couple of emails but i was neglectful in replying, and for that i apologize.

life has been about 10,000,000 times more busy since the birth of my beautiful daughter. hard to believe, but she's 15 months old already. :eek: free time has become a lot more scarce... and she's only getting more voracious.

to make matters worse i really have become quite a gear-head and enjoy tinkering/repairing my subaru wrx and my wife's saab 9-3. cars are just big, complex machines and MOST of the time i have a great time working on them.

on last father's day i made my first run down a quarter mile drag strip, up at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. i was happy to drive my little sleeper wagon into the 12s, with a 12.9 ET and a 105+ mph trap speed, despite some hot temperatures. even better, nothing broke and i drove the car back to RI without incident! :lol: i am trying really hard to resist the urge to go back and see if i can get just that little bit quicker/faster, because eventually something WILL break... that's just the way it is.

i haven't posted much of anything related to tube amps in a while, basically because i haven't done a lot of work with them. i've been pretty happy with my current preamp/power amp. the baga is still on its original kt90s from probably around 8 years ago. i haven't opened either chassis in about 2 years. the only thing i've done recently is add a parametric EQ (solid state too) between the pre and power, just to give a little bit more flexibility.

last april 11th, i resigned from my position as the network administrator for a k-12 school district. i was in that role for almost 10 years and saw a lot of changes. the job i've been in since then is at Rhode Island College. the official title is "senior technical programmer," but that's a holdover from many years ago. basically i'm a server admin. we've got about 80 servers and plenty of stuff to keep me busy and challenged. within the next few months we'll be building a new SAN and launching the first tier of VMware virtual servers. i work with a great bunch of guys and that makes all the difference in the world.

anyway, it's good to be posting on ampage again! :) you'll be seeing more of me, i promise.

-ken

[Ray Ivers]

Ken,

I didn't see this thread until just now, but I saw "kg" on the AB2 thread and... well, at the risk of sounding repetitive, welcome the f*#k back!

Yes, things have changed around a lot here - but to be able to see all the latest posts in all forums at a glance, post pictures, send private messages, etc. etc. - I'd have a hard time going back to the old forum now (and I REALLY liked the old forum!).

You ran 12's in a WRX? Just on air/gas, or a "cocktail"? :D

Server admin - I kind of did the Bonsai version of that on the ship, but now I'm semi-retired so I don't even do that anymore. Now if I could just put down the paintbrush and pick up the soldering iron a little more...

Every time I model a circuit, consider power grid drive, see an unusual high-power design - or read a post by someone who obviously knows their s&!t - I think of you. ;)

Ray

[kg]

Ken,

I didn't see this thread until just now, but I saw "kg" on the AB2 thread and... well, at the risk of sounding repetitive, welcome the f*#k back!

Yes, things have changed around a lot here - but to be able to see all the latest posts in all forums at a glance, post pictures, send private messages, etc. etc. - I'd have a hard time going back to the old forum now (and I REALLY liked the old forum!).

i wanted to make sure nobody else took kg, so i jumped in and registered. unfortunately 2 characters is too short for a username, so i had to add the ~s. now i just have to earn back a "lifetime member" description like you. :)

You ran 12's in a WRX? Just on air/gas, or a "cocktail"? :D

plain old pump 93 octane. ;)

the car is hardly stock anymore... there's a mod list here (http://ken-gilbert.com/wrx/kens_wrx.htm) if you're interested. i'm a bit shy of 400 crank hp, which yields a bit less than 300hp at the wheels. not bad for a car that came with 227chp/170whp from the factory. :)

the next step for me would be to rig up some kind of anti-detonation injection (ADI) system. most folks inject a combination of water and methanol. the injection buffers the combustion process and cools the charge air, and yields results very similar to running race gas.. you can run leaner AFRs and more advanced timing before detonating. i'd probably pick up ~20-30hp from it.

Server admin - I kind of did the Bonsai version of that on the ship, but now I'm semi-retired so I don't even do that anymore. Now if I could just put down the paintbrush and pick up the soldering iron a little more...

yeah the jump in job was very good to me. little bump in pay, much less stress, cooler toys to play with, still a 15 minute drive to/from work. i'm still trying to find my old self and start sucking solder fumes again...

in the meantime, here's (http://ken-gilbert.com/images/DSC03004s.JPG) a pic of charlotte...

http://ken-gilbert.com/images/DSC03004s.JPG

[tboy]

i wanted to make sure nobody else took kg, so i jumped in and registered. unfortunately 2 characters is too short for a username, so i had to add the ~s. now i just have to earn back a "lifetime member" description like you. :)
Yer all fixed up, Ken. Glad t' see ya and welcome back!

[Satamax]

Ken, i have to say welcome back too :D Sorry for hassleing you on email :D http://www.forum4x4.com/forum/images/smilies/32tchin.gif

[Ray Ivers]

Ken,

I think tboy should cook you up a special title - I mean, hey, it's not like you don't deserve it or anything. ;)

Man, that WRX is tricked out! I looked for "tack-welded waste gate shut" but couldn't find it - although I did learn a shiny new word ("snorkus") so it's all good. :)

...and if one needed proof that wonderful things come in small packages, they need look no further than that photo. :D

It's great to have you back.

Ray

[Enzo]

Hey, I'm glad to see you here. I look forward to absorbing something from your depth of knowledge.

[Rob Mercure]

Hey Ken,

Welcome back - we've missed you. And you've got a cute young'un - guess you're making sure you' ve got help moving the BAGA as you age <grin>!

Glad you're having fun with the car - just rebuilt the head on my '89 Toyo P/U (22R) in May at 420K - no ring-ridge on the lower end so I left it alone and I've got over 145 PSI per cylinder. But be careful if you journey south - Virginia is the only state, as best I know (ask Ray about CT) that makes radar detectors illegal. If you own one it has to be disconnected and somewhere you can't easily gain acess to it such as the trunk. Your hardwired one is a ticket waiting to happen in the "Old Dominion." (Q. How many Virginians does it take to change a lightbulb? A. Five, one to do it and the other four to tell tales about how good the old one was!).

Rob

[kg]

Hey Ken,

Welcome back - we've missed you. And you've got a cute young'un - guess you're making sure you' ve got help moving the BAGA as you age <grin>!

Glad you're having fun with the car - just rebuilt the head on my '89 Toyo P/U (22R) in May at 420K - no ring-ridge on the lower end so I left it alone and I've got over 145 PSI per cylinder. But be careful if you journey south - Virginia is the only state, as best I know (ask Ray about CT) that makes radar detectors illegal. If you own one it has to be disconnected and somewhere you can't easily gain acess to it such as the trunk. Your hardwired one is a ticket waiting to happen in the "Old Dominion." (Q. How many Virginians does it take to change a lightbulb? A. Five, one to do it and the other four to tell tales about how good the old one was!).

Rob

hey rob, good to see you still haunting the place!

afaik, the use of a radar detector in a passenger vehicle is legal in all states with the exception of virginia, DC., and on military bases.

luckily i don't drive there... and the v1 is one of the "stealthiest" detectors out there in terms of heterodyning signal signature. :)

420k miles... you must be doing something right!

[Rob Mercure]

Yeah, my spectre is still haunting the vacuum <grin> - but I admit it took me a while the condense from the ether on this board - I was way too busy with work and strange/odd projects to quickly dive in - and I guess I'm just slower with age cuz I still don't navigate it as easily as I desire.

Ya know, not being able to easily use a radar detector in VA has created within my nervous system a pretty skilled "cop" detector. With some exceptions cops tend to drive a limited variety of vechicles that come in "police packages" and these cars tend to handle the same way (stiff suspension which follows the road with little bounce - the County cops in Wythe Co. on I-81 use a Camaro but if you observe it it doesn't track like a stock/custom camaro - it tracks like a cop car!) and the manner they're taught to drive along with "hiding habits" makes them fairly easy to spot in time to drop you speed. Have had one speeding ticket in over 10 years (and the $100 "court costs" for the "$5" fine really burned me up!) and I "drive the road" - not maniacally fast but where the vehicle tracks well and where the motor wants to run.

Which brings me to "you must be doing something right." Yeah, I suppose so. First off I bought this truck new and I've done my own maintanence and frequent oil changes but I also got over 300K on a used Datsun truck before this one - that I sold running with more rust hole than body (and that little thang really handled for a truck- L20B engine). But in both trucks I have had to replace the transmissions. Now perhaps the Japanese just don't make as "good" a tranny as engine - but I don't think so and the one I replaced in the Toyo really just needed front bearings but I could buy a low mileage used one for less than the $$ and time to rebuild the original (which went 250K).
Instead, to flatter myself <grin> I think I'm pretty good at knowing "where the engine wants to run" for the road/terrain/speed I want to achieve and I shift a lot to obtain it - both trucks have had 5 speeds and I've always wanted something like a "split rear end" (the two speed rear end common in 5 -20 ton trucks - spent lotsa time driving one with a bulldozer/fire plow on it when I made my living fighting forest fires) - about 10 speeds would be great. And I do live in the Central Appalachians where up and down are a factor of life - Wise is on the top of Guess Mountain and "everywhere in the world" is downhill from here!

Got any great tranny/rear end tips - I notice you like the syntho oils? And have you ever found front end air shocks?

Rob

[hasserl]

Holy Mackerel! 12's in a Subaru? Wow.

I'm a holdover from the old American Hot Rod days, I've still got my old 68 Chevelle SS396 w/ Muncie 4 speed tranny out in the driveway under a cover. I fire it up once in awhile and take the kids out for a ride. Third gear burnouts are cool.

I'm sure you've got a line on something way more advanced, but back in the day when the octane ratings in pump gas dropped so bad the guys use to build water injection systems using the windshield washer system on the car redirected to a nozzle in the air cleaner to spray directly into the top of the carb. Then wired the system to be triggered by a vacuum switch in the intake manifold when the vacuum reached a preset point. Crude but it worked well. Just a little water to reduce the temperature enough to prevent dentonation. Also, as the water steam cleans the inside of the combustion chamber it removes carbon deposits which further reduces the trend toward detonation.

[kg]

Holy Mackerel! 12's in a Subaru? Wow.

I'm a holdover from the old American Hot Rod days, I've still got my old 68 Chevelle SS396 w/ Muncie 4 speed tranny out in the driveway under a cover. I fire it up once in awhile and take the kids out for a ride. Third gear burnouts are cool.

I'm sure you've got a line on something way more advanced, but back in the day when the octane ratings in pump gas dropped so bad the guys use to build water injection systems using the windshield washer system on the car redirected to a nozzle in the air cleaner to spray directly into the top of the carb. Then wired the system to be triggered by a vacuum switch in the intake manifold when the vacuum reached a preset point. Crude but it worked well. Just a little water to reduce the temperature enough to prevent dentonation. Also, as the water steam cleans the inside of the combustion chamber it removes carbon deposits which further reduces the trend toward detonation.

water injection is still alive and very very viable. :) as you've guessed it has become a lot more advanced, basically turning into mini fuel injection setups with which you can adjust the rate of injection across load/rpm ranges. instead of having to compromise with a fixed jet/pressure and fuel delivery rate you can now map it. whereas before running a big jet resulted in stumble down low, and a small jet didn't have the delivery rate capacity up top, you can have the best of both worlds.

the more generic term is ADI (anti detonation injection) because of the variety of mixtures people use to inject. most folks settle on a water/methanol mixture. the meth evaporates quickly, has a high latent heat of vaporization, and prevents the ADI mix from freezing in cold weather. it also provides some extra oxygen to the charge. a lot of subaru guys are swearing by the 100% meth mixtures that the grand national guys love so much though.

it's amazing how much computers have done for the good old internal combustion engine. i have the ability to modify the oem ecu's parameters thanks to some gifted guys promoting open source subaru ecu tuning tools. i also have a hardware piggyback computer that intercepts the wiring harness and offers additional interfaces. with the piggyback comes launch control/flat foot shifting, a solenoid control driver (ie, for an ADI solenoid/injector), shift lights, and simple map switching capability. i have a pretty conservative base map on the oem ecu, and i put the "frosting" on top with the piggyback. it's nice because it's a simple thumbwheel switch to change maps, whereas changing the oem ecu requires a reflash (and a laptop). of course having a wideband o2 sensor is mandatory for tuning, and i have found great results adjust knock sensitivity settings with an electronic det can setup. my car has more bloody db9 serial and usb/obd2 cables than is practical. of course i also have to carry around a 12v-120vac inverter to keep the laptop charged!

with all this stuff though, i squeeze out about 180-190hp per liter. my setup, although pretty darn quick, pales in comparison to what some other guys have. so far on the subaru bone stock internals jdm ej207 v7 block (comes with fully forged bottom) the highest i've seen is over 500whp (on vp c16 leaded race gas of course), which is over ~600chp. 300+hp/liter is no joke. unfortunately us usdm wrx guys get cast pistons and rods in the oem ej205, so we gotta play carefully.

[Luijo]

The Mitsubishi Zero of WWII used water injection in its Nakajima engine. Those were the lasts versions, just trying to get a little more out of that old engine design I guess.
I just didn't know you could get such an improvement in hp with water injection! Does it have anything to do with the unavailability of high octane fuel in those days for the Japs?
I know you guys have a few other things running besides the water...but it still plays a big role it seems.

[Rob Mercure]

So did the "upside down" V 12 Messerschmidt used in the ME 109 - used to be a nice one hanging at the Smithsonian where you could really examine the assembly but I haven't been there in years (and I loved the WWI French rotaries where the crank remained stationary and the cylinder block - propeller - rotated).

Rob

[Luijo]

Yeah, those were funny engines. They were called "rotating" engines. Where they got that idea from anyway?!
BTW, they were used by all the forces at one time or another in WWI. You can see some very early footage of German and British planes with those engines.
Even the Red Baron's Fokker DR.1 used one of those!

[Rob Mercure]

Yeah, I'm not sure what the idea was unless the prop rotated counter to the cylinder "blocK" to cancel torque effects - but the mass of the engine was so much greater than that of the prop it still seems strange.

Oh, just remembered - with the technology of the day there was some problem lubricating "high speed" radial engines and one of the reasons was to "sling" oil to the cylinders and heads though centrifugal force - also helped with the fuel/air mixture. Maybe we can get Ken to put one in his Subaru!

Rob

[Luijo]

Makes sense, in fact quite ingeniuous now that I think of it!
Well, if he manages to put one in his Subaru I certainly wanna see a video of that!:D

[Dutch]

Ken--
Welcome back, dood! It's good to hear the new job is working out. I'm *still* trying to improve my job situation, but I at least got a bite last week. At the bottom end of its pay range, the job I interviewed for pays almost double the $$ I'm making now, which is still low by industry standards, but it's a county job, which means it's a bit more stable than some others....

The kid's cute! Mine's in college--he stopped being cute a long time ago.... :D

C ya,
Dutch