Another day, another exhaust!!

Well, remember on Sunday at the Nambour PCYC Motoring Jamboree there was a picture of Scottie lying under the car... you remember - the show where Booger Mobile won a HUGE TROPHY!! (Alright, that's the last time that will be mentioned in this blog post.)

He was looking into why there seemed to be a leak from the exhaust manifold where it joins to the extractors.

Damian looked under the car and noticed that the fitted exhaust had sagged considerably - sadly he didn't think to take a photo of it, but this is how low it was after it was first fitted...



Note the lack of ground clearance below the green cross-member.


It had sagged a good 1-2 inches lower than that - you couldn't even roll a can under it!!

Damian took Booger Mobile to a different exhaust shop (Burpengary Performance Exhausts) where he asked for the exhaust to be fixed. Ground clearance was key, and the issue with the leaky manifold/extractor gasket needed to be resolved.

The problem with the leaky manifold was simply caused by a bent bolt... You can see the slight bend in it below - this causes it to tighten up even though it's not actually pulled the extractor tight up against the manifold.



It was also deemed that the existing muffler wasn't suitable - it was a 1 and 3/4" muffler on a 2" system - apparently this would cause the engine to run hot... hmmmm....

The muffler was also moved from in front of the rear axle to it's correct location between the rear suspension and the fuel tank - this allowed for it to be tucked safely up out of the way!!

Check out the massive gain in ground clearance!!

And note the exhaust pipe now goes around the green cross-member rather than under it!!

And the view from the front looking towards the back is breathtaking - look at the ground clearance!! No part of the exhaust pipe or muffler is lower than the rear diff.

This is the old muffler - apparently the silver patch on the right hand end (or something nearby there) indicates a hot spot to those in the know...

And looking from the rear on the side where the muffler is back towards the front...

Of course, Booger Mobile kept it's nice, shiny chrome tip!!

One task down, many to go!! Sometime this week (hopefully) will be a wheel alignment and a tune up (including carby adjustment)...

Stay tuned!! (Pun intended!!)

Nambour PCYC Motoring Jamboree

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

If you don't want to know the result of Booger Mobile's trip to the
Nambour PCYC Motoring Jamboree, look away now

BOOGER MOBILE WON A TROPHY!!!!!

*** BACK TO YOUR REGULAR BLOG POST ***

While Damian was busy with Booger Mobile sorting out the thermostat housing on Saturday, Scottie was up to his elbows in grease inside the engine on his Hilux... literally!

Sunday morning rolled around, and Damian headed north with Booger Mobile to collect Scottie from his house, then head to the Nambour PCYC Motoring Jamboree.

Any time is a good time for a self portrait!! Just takes precision timing!!

On the way, the boys met up with Damian's brother Jason and his son Jake (and Jake's mate Dillon) in Jake's chopped 1972 VW... pretty awesome bit of kit for a first car, eh?


Scottie decided to do a bit of chrome polishing while Damian set up the table.



More polishing...

Last year, the boys entered this event with Booger Mobile on the back of a car trailer... 12 months later, it got to the event under its own steam!!

Booger Mobile was entered into two categories - Category H for Special Interest vehicles, and Category J for Competition, Rally, Drag Cars etc... even though the esCarpade is not a competition, Booger Mobile has basically been set up as if it will be a rally car.

There were quite a number of cars at the event this year, although not as many as the year before - the early morning showers might have scared a few away...

That said, the quality of the vehicles at this year's show was exceptional!!

During the day, Teena, the mother of one of Damian's former campers stopped by to say g'day and check out Booger Mobile...

Meanwhile, Scottie took the opportunity to tighten a few loose bolts on the extractors - they have a tendency to need an extra little tighten shortly after installation due to the heat...

At last it was presentation time, and the boys headed over to the presentation area, not really expecting anything to come of it - how could Booger Mobile compete with the drag cars that had been starting their engines and revving them, drawing huge crowds each time...

Category H came and went, but no trophy for Booger Mobile... Category J came along, and to the surprise of the organisers, the boys and the crowd in general, Booger Mobile won!! (The categories were voted on by members of the public and other exhibitors.)

Damian (in his usual calm and quiet manner) let out an almight "WOOHOOOOOOOO" and literally turned a cartwheel while heading up to collect the trophy...

And what an impressive trophy it is!!

Scottie was driving on the way home, which was via Teena's place to visit Nik (g'day Nikkers), with Damian in the passenger seat grinning like a cheshire cat and moving the trophy in time to the music...

Back at Scottie's place, it was time for a few more trophy photos...

Impressive isn't it?

Then Scottie took his daughter Tahlia for a drive in Booger Mobile... horns blaring, lights flashing, the whole box and dice!!

Bye Scottie and Tahlia!!

When they returned, they both were clearly stoked!!

And the boys posed for a photo with the trophy...

Tahlia wanted to be in the blog again, so she had a turn holding the trophy aloft...

Scottie then did his best with a blue steel pose on the front bonnet...

All in all, the day was a huge success... That said, there are so many things left to get done over the next 6 weeks or so that the boys' heads were spinning...

It's going to be busy and exciting... stick around for the journey!!

Thermostat housing leak and car washing!

With Scottie away still trying to sort out his busted Hilux, it all came down to Damian to keep the wheels turning on progress with Booger Mobile. First task was to stick on the rego sticker, and what do you know - even the rego sticker is green!!



Next cab off the rank was to investigate why the thermostat housing had a slight leak. Off with the thermostat housing...




That's where it bolts on, onto the front of the nicely reconditioned head...

Of course, this was being done with Booger Mobile slightly out of the shed so that the radiator hoses could be removed without flooding Damian's shed!!

And the thermostat housing and thermostat have been all nicely cleaned up, and are ready to reinstall. Now, how to hold the pesty thermostat in place...

Aha!! Using a self-adhesive thermostat housing gasket!!

The thermostat housing was reinstalled, and everything connected... only to find that it still leaked like a sieve!! Damian carefully removed it again, and used gasket goo (the gasket said that it wasn't required, so the first installation didn't use it), and it leaked like a sieve again!!

While waiting for the gasket goo to dry, Damian took a photo of the temporary repair to the accelerator cable that was undertaken the previous week - not quite as dodgy as it looks, the vice grips are simply providing a backing for the adjustment nut to tighten against...

Damian installed the new accelerator cable, and sadly forgot to take a picture!!

However, upon realising that the thermostat housing was still leaking, Damian took another drive to the auto store, where he showed the housing to one of the staff members, who placed it on a desktop and rocked it back and forth - it was badly warped!! The warping is so bad, that you can actually see it in the photo below - it was NEVER going to seal properly!!

Thankfully, and to Damian's utter amazement, they had a replacement thermostat housing in stock... Damian bought it, and a new gasket and some special thermostat housing gasket goo, and reinstalled it.

Firing it into life, Damian noticed that it was leaking from the top radiator hose... a slight readjustment of the hose position and tightening of the hose clamp fixed that!! The water then started to leak through the alan-bolt (seen above) - boy Damian just couldn't take a trick!! A quick call to the auto store later, Damian found that he could simply remove that, put some thread tape on it and tighten it back down again - this did the trick - the leak was FINALLY fixed!!

It was then time to take Booger Mobile for a test drive - it went well - and park it in Damian's side driveway ready for washing...

Believe it or not, these are the before pics!!

Damian got to work washing Booger Mobile...

He had his two trusty helpers there giving him a hand, and his beautiful wife Tricia taking photos for the blog!!

What teamwork!!

Washing, washing, washing...

In case you are wondering, yes, Damian is very tall... he's 6'5!!

Damian's boys doing a great job...

Although they seem to be playing more than washing at this stage!!

Finally it was finished!!

Time to grab the chamois!

After a chamois dry, it was time for more photos - this time with LED lights!!

They are looking the goods now!!

The green ones on the side are far brighter than these photos would make them seem!!

And side on...

From the rear - the rear facing white lights are an esCarpade safety requirement.

Passenger side...

And one from up high, just to try for a different angle!!

Time for Booger Mobile to head back to the shed. Once there, Damian stuck on a nice new Camp Quality sticker on the rear windscreen...

He also adjusted the accelerator cable, vaccuumed the inside and packed Booger Mobile ready for the Nambour PCYC Motoring Jamboree on Sunday.

Finally, some more photos!!

It's all starting to come together nicely now, which is a bonus since the esCarpade is now only 6.5 weeks away!!

Booger Mobile... looking the goods!!

Finally, a bit of full motion video to give a sponsor run down and show how shiny Booger Mobile is!! Damian actually took this video while Booger Mobile was out on the side driveway, but the battery went dead just as he finished, and before the video was saved, so he had to redo it!!



Enjoy!! And the boys will be at Nambour in the morning, so if you get along, remember to stop by and say hi!!