Sump-thing needed adjusting!!

Regular followers of the Booger Mobile blog may be aware of the slight clearance issue that the boys had when installing the slightly taller 250 pre-crossflow engine...

For those in need of a recap, basically the sump isn't clearing the engine cross-member by enough distance, so the boys had the options of a) removing the cross-member (knocked on the head due to the issue of lack of strength), b) lowering the cross-member by making a new mount for it (this is still an option for if adjusting the sump doesn't work, but requires the use of a titanium plate or something, therefore is a small issue), or c) doing sump-thing to adjust the sump (the big bit that hangs beneath the engine and holds the oil).

Since the boys have a spare 250 pre-crossflow engine for parts, they decided building a new sump was the best option to begin with!

Here's the engine block with sump still attached, sitting upside down ready to be adjusted... or sump-thing... (Get used to the sump-thing joke, it's going to be used sump-thing like a dozen times in this blog!!)



After removing the flywheel and doing a couple of cursory scratches on the side or sump-thing, Scottie began cutting!



Here it is, the new, converted sump... doesn't hold much oil now though!!

Meanwhile, Damian was busily painting sump-thing black!! It's how he rolls...

After many adjustments, and some adjusting with panel-beating tools, the (now somewhat smaller) section of the sump was ready to be reattached...

Partially welded, sump-thing wasn't quite right... The area where Scottie is pointing the blowtorch isn't the right shape to be welded, so he decided to heat it and beat it into submission!!

As you can see, it's glowing red hot, and the kink is all but gone... Top work, Scottie!!

And what was Damian doing during all this? You guessed it... he was painting more stuff black!!

Of course, after the section of the sump-thing had been shortened, the connecting piece needed to be adjusted and beaten into submission... Again, Scottie is the man for the job!!

Tired of painting things black, Damian turned his talents to applying foam tape to random items, in this case, the roof rack. The tape should make the board and roof rack less likely to vibrate and annoy the daylights out of him and Scottie while driving along...

Of course, chances are the boys will annoy the daylights out of EACH OTHER while driving along, but that's another story!!

Check this out... it's a little piece of metal that Scottie found, just the right size for the hole in the sump... is it fate? Is it coincidence? Is it pure blind luck????

Scottie took this photo... and the sun was shining very brightly... Best that Scottie sticks to welding, which as you can (barely) see in the photo, is excellent!!

And the roof rack is now attached, using all those nicely painted black nuts, bolts and bits of metal... Plenty of foam tape was used...

The roof rack now provides a handy place for Damian to store things... hey look, there's his watch!!

Scottie's welder decided it needed a little rest (poor darling), so Scottie decided it was time to implement Booger Mobile's remote boot-lid opener or sump-thing like that...

It feeds through onto the back floor of Booger Mobile...

To pop open the boot lid... ingenious!!

Here's the inside of the sump after Scottie welded it up... beautiful work there Scottie!!

Meanwhile, Damian was doing some welding, err, soldering of his own... Preparing a fuse box for attaching external devices - uhf, cd player etc...

Damian suggested to Scottie that since the sump was out, sump-thing should be done about fixing the existing dent in the underside... Thinking that Scottie would use his trusty panel-beating toolkit, imagine Damian's surprise when Scottie grabbed a lump of wood and proceeded to beat the sump into shape!!

The question was - would the newly adjusted sump hold oil? To test it, Scottie used the next best thing - water!!

It was a long, strenuous day, so Scottie decided to have a little sleep...

As you can see, the sump is leaking like a sieve!

Damian's dog Tonka decided to check out Scottie's handiwork... (he too noted it was leaking!)

Bugger - it leaks from this side too!!

Scottie circled all the major points where it was leaking, and decided he'd do sump-thing about it next weekend...

For those of you who aren't sure why the boys are making a new sump, the below image shows the current sump (which was pretty much the same as the sump that's being adjusted). Note the distinct lack of clearance over the cross-member (that large, round black thing in the middle of the photo).

Just to round out the day, here's a photo of the completed remote boot-lid release...

And the gauges that Damian continues to work on... (You'd think that they would give you longer wires to work with or sump-thing, but noooooooo)

There you have it... Another day, another blog post... another week gone in the march towards the 2010 Camp Quality esCarpade...

Will Booger Mobile be ready in time? Will the sump ever stop leaking? Will the boys get a seat in and some wheels on the car at the very least?

Tune in next time for another exciting episode of Booger Mobile innnnnnnn Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!! (Best said in the style of the Muppets "Pigs in Space".)