Sunday morning... time for Queensland scrutineering and the 1/2 day experience esCarpade event! Damian was up and about, and met up with Rob, Darren and Laurie in the Snot Rocket (distant cousin of Booger Mobile). While stopped at roadworks, Damian took the opportunity to snap a pic of the car!
Regular blog readers would know that Damian was in the Patrol, not Booger Mobile...
After arriving in Kilcoy and having a coffee, it was off to Kilcoy Tyrepower to borrow their hoist. Car 808 was up first...
And back out again, with a list of to-do's for 2011...
Next up was Snot Rocket...
Time to put this thing up on the hoist...
Rob, can you push it a little higher???
Just how many people need to be under that car???
And done...
Last of the cars to be scrutineered today was the newly registered Shark Mobile (aka car 18K). Michael had a little difficulty actually getting to scrutineering with the nasty thing not wanting to play the game for a while...
Meanwhile, outside the shed the Snot Rocketeers (actually called Team Afro) thought they'd get started on the first item on the scrutineering list...
Lots to see under the Commodore!!
Outside, Penny, the Camp Quality South Queensland Fundraising Coordinator, did her little teapot impersonation after being snotted on by the Snot Rocket...
She chased Rob, who pointed out the actual culprit... Remember Rob, when you point at someone, you have three fingers pointing back at yourself!!
This is what angry looks like!!
Being a good sport, Rob let Penny have a crack at snotting on him... if you open the full size version of the photo you can see the green water coming out of the nose...
Penny posing with Rob and Darren... there was another photo of this, but you might have to ask Penny why it's not on the blog!!
Meanwhile, the Shark Mobile was still up on the hoist... Looks like it will be a long list, which is to be expected given that it has been registered and nothing more!!
The troops gathered around for a driver briefing...
Then Ben thanked Bill for allowing them to use the hoist for scrutineering...
The drivers all started up and headed out the gates, turning left for their half day experience esCarpade... Not having Jason with him (he's away with work), Damian decided there wasn't much point in driving the route in his Patrol, so headed back home.
Apparently the Shark Mobile limped home after the trip - seems to have some overheating problems... Damian can relate to that!!
All in all, the teams were happy to be scrutineered in Queensland, and thanks go to Ben and Dennis for coming up here to sort it out!!
Today's opening shot is brought to you by the rear of Booger Mobile...
Damian headed up to the shed to wait for Dave to arrive, and attend to some preliminary work, such as removing the old radiator. This is the water that drained from the radiator, along with a layer of sludge in the bottom of the bucket... Perhaps the radiator wasn't as healthy as it appeared...
Out with the old, and prepping the new!!
In his travels, Damian headed to the auto store to buy some engine paint. While there, he bought a replacement positive lead for the battery (to go to the starter motor). The old one is on the right - the new one on the left... Perhaps this was the cause of the clickety click click of the starter motor???
The radiator was removed, and the car dropped down off the engine stands for easy reaching by Dave!
Dave arrived with the repaired head... It was welded up inside the exhaust port that you can see there... as well as repaired up and over the top...
More patching up - the poor old head must surely be feeling loved now!! The repair looks pretty...
But you can see how much needed to be fixed...
The new blue engine paint wasn't the same brand as the original paint (noone stocks the other brand any longer - typical!), so it's slightly a different colour... Noone will notice though!!
Couple of coats and it's ready to rock and roll!!
The block was cleaned down ready for the new head...
Dave also checked out the new electronic distributor... it fit nicely!! :-D
The head gasket and head were sat on, with the bolts helping to keep each lined up.
Dave puts a little oil under the head of each bolt... why? Who knows... but apparently it's important!!
Time to spin down the bolts on the head. If you've never seen it done before, check out the short video below as Dave shows us how it's done!!
And the head's bolted down. Time to tension it up!
Next goes on the rocker shaft...
Followed by the tappet cover! The carby is being left off at this stage, as it will be one less thing to avoid when the extractors go back on.
Speaking of the extractors... where are they? Turns out that they haven't been finished yet (getting their heat proof coating), so sadly this means Booger Mobile will be missing scrutineering... So close, yet so far away!!
Next step was to reverse flush the engine. Booger Mobile was pushed out of the shed, then a hose shoved into the block where the top hose connects.
Lots of water comes out...
As you can see, the water goes in at the top, and out the bottom radiator hose at the bottom! This is to wash out any gunge that may have been trapped in the engine from the old radiator.
On goes the newly adjusted white fan...
Then Booger Mobile was pushed back into the shed. Time for Dave to head off (he had another car to go work on), while Damian set about installing the new radiator.
Through the magic of the interwebs... here it is!!
Shiny and new... hopefully it will keep the engine cooler!!
Damian had to drill some holes to attach the top shroud (to keep the air flowing through the radiator), and having noone there to take pics, managed to set the timer to catch an action shot!!
And the shroud is attached...
So Booger Mobile's engine is back together, pending the extractors coming back from getting their heat proof coating...
As it said earlier in the blog, sadly this means that Damian can't take Booger Mobile to scrutineering on Sunday... an awesome effort was put in by Dave to get the head ready in time, only to have something out of their control jump in and cause havoc... typical!!
Well, what an exciting day Thursday has turned out to be!! Damian received some stuff in the PO Box, at his home address, and by courier!!
First up - a pair of bright green beanies!! (Damian has promised a cartwheel picture wearing one, but not tonight!!)
The mother of one of Damian's friends knitted these and sent them through... how cool are they!!
Damian also received one brand spanking new electronic distributor... hopefully this will solve the engine timing woes...
And the 2011 official door stickers arrived... however, since Damian really likes the door stickers that are already on Booger Mobile, these are going to be used elsewhere!!
Damian also spoke to Dave tonight to get the low-down on how the head is coming along. Turns out, the head was cracked... in multiple places, and much worse than first thought... It was touch and go whether it could be salvaged or not, but Dave is confident that after many hours of work on it, it will be alright...
Here's a picture of the machine that decks the head... basically ensures that it's straight and smooth on the face that gets clamped onto the block of the engine!
Dave also advised that the extractors should be ready by Friday, with the head going back together then also.
Time's running out to get Booger Mobile on the road in time for scrutineering on Sunday... will it be ready in time? Only time will tell!!
The current plan (assuming no further dramas with the head, and that the heat-proofed extractors come back in time) is to get the engine back together on Saturday morning... Stay tuned!!
Team Booger Mobile are currently seeking the following:
Tax Deductable Donations - Here we go again!! Each team has a minimum required donation of $5000 - let's see if we can do better than last year's total of $10052.15!!
Sponsors - Your sponsorship helps us get Booger Mobile to the Camp Quality esCarpade - in exchange, you get advertising on Booger Mobile! We are currently seeking sponsors for:
is Damian Sheather, who will unfortunately not be joined for the fourth year in a row by family friend Angus McMillan, who is not up to making another trip in the bouncy old XM Falcon!!
Who will join Damian in 2016?
