I really don’t know much about that particular welder… but if it has a wide variety of settings for heat and speed, it should do you well.
We recently stepped up from a very basic 120V Chicago Electric with minimal settings to another Chicago Electric but a 220V with much more settings and it is a ton easier to dial in the temperature and get good penetration without blowing holes in stuff.
But we suck at welding and only do it wen absolutely necessary… we don’t fab much at all.
As with anything, read reviews and see what a new unit would cost… see if his asking price is realistic and go from there.
Thanks man! Yeah its a bit intimidating but I think it looks worse than it probably will be. I just have to be meticulous when I separate it all out.
[QUOTE=unified112;2301802]I really don’t know much about that particular welder… but if it has a wide variety of settings for heat and speed, it should do you well.
We recently stepped up from a very basic 120V Chicago Electric with minimal settings to another Chicago Electric but a 220V with much more settings and it is a ton easier to dial in the temperature and get good penetration without blowing holes in stuff.
But we suck at welding and only do it wen absolutely necessary… we don’t fab much at all.
As with anything, read reviews and see what a new unit would cost… see if his asking price is realistic and go from there.[/QUOTE]
I read quite a few reviews and people seem more than happy with it, especially when working with thinner metal. Apparently it struggles a bit when you get up to about 1/4" thick. After reading what people paid for theirs though I think if I do go to look at it and decide I want it, I’ll be offering him $300 since they could be had for about $600 new.
Today I got a few minutes in the garage. Didn’t want to tackle anything big so I just removed the power steering rack from my spare subframe and cleaned it up a bit. I still need to order an inner tie rod so I can put together my manual rack. I may do that right now while I’m thinking of it.
[QUOTE=rollinmyda;2301791]Ah I see. The grommets are cleanable though, unless they’re dry-rotting or cut or something I would just reuse them. I can definitely understand wanting clean, shiny, new ones though.[/quotej]
Some I was able to salvage, but not all. And yes, I want 'em all minty fresh. I hate when stuff doesn’t match, so if one part is new or refinished they all have to be otherwise stuff looks out of place.
[QUOTE=rollinmyda;2301791]
Have you ever driven in a car with that rubber sound deadening mat removed? I removed mine carefully so I could reuse it if I chose to. I was just thinking that removing it would more than likely create more dash rattles. I don’t mind having more engine noise, I just can’t handle the rattles from the dash.[/QUOTE]
I’ve had 80% of mine removed for a while now. I ripped out as much as I could get a hold on earlier this year. I didn’t notice any rattles, but the car is loud inside. However it’s hard to say how much that particular part made a difference since I removed the sound deadening and the rubber/foam mat at the same time. And the car is gutted inside so it’s just loud no matter what. Now that the dash is out I was able to remove the remaining 20% that I couldn’t reach before.
[QUOTE=rollinmyda;2301792]Any input on this welder? Sounds like a pretty good deal. I’d need a tank but at least its a quality unit.
http://chico.craigslist.org/tls/4027443060.html[/QUOTE]
That seems a little expensive to me if it doesn’t come with a tank. We bought ours, nearly new, used once or twice, for $350 with tank and a bunch of accessories. Of course may be that deal was just too good to be true, and it was about 8yrs ago. I think offering him $300 is a good idea, I wouldn’t want to pay much more than that, especially if it doesn’t come w/ an argon tank. But then again you’re in Chico and your selection of stuff is a bit less than what I’m used to here in SoCal, so finding a super deal might not be as easy.
Yeah its the little details like that which really stand out. I can understand why you’d want them new. I guess I need to start checking out what parts have been discontinued that I’m going to need. I always forget how much stuff we can’t buy anymore. Basically all of my cowl hardware needs to be replaced. Those clips are so fragile and they see so much Sun that mine were disintegrated.
I may just leave the sound deadening material out. I was just a little apprehensive since I noticed a few places (ie heater core/firewall) seemed like they may contact each other.
Yeah I’ve been watching craigslist for a while and most of what I see posted is arc and tig setups. I’ll have to look at it but $300 would be the highest I’d be willing to go. I wish I lived in a big metropolis sometimes because there’s more deals.
Does anyone have any tips for removing inner tie rods from the steering rack? I need to remove the EF inners from the EF rack so I can install the DA ones. I tried using a standard 17 mm open ended wrench and the nut started to strip slightly. I didn’t want to keep trying and make it completely unremovable. I was thinking of getting a box end wrench and cutting a section out just wide enough to fit around the tie rod and then giving it another shot. I only have 12 point box ends though so I think I’ll try to find a 6 point 17 mm so that it fits more snugly. If anyone has a method they’ve used before that they’ve found works well, please share. Thanks!
How are you holding the rack in place while you do this? I haven’t removed the inner rod ends myself, and obviously if they’re stuck on there then it always makes it tricky, but the Helms gives a pretty simple procedure (page 17-49):
Hold rack in a vise
Unbend lock washer
Place 22mm wrench on rack
Use 17mm wrench to loosen rack end
Assuming you’re doing all of the above I would recommend switching to a good quality adjustable (Crescent) wrench instead of an open end wrench. Open end wrenches often have a pretty loose tolerance. This is helpful in many situations but can cause problems when something is very tight or the nut/bolt is already stripping. If you use an adjustable wrench you can tighten it to EXACTLY the size of the bolt head. For example, the 17mm wrench might have a 17.2mm opening but with an adjustable wrench you can snug it down to exactly 17mm and even have it putting a little pressure on the bolt head.
Oh, and regarding the OEM parts… make sure to place your order before the beginning of the year. I mentioned how expensive OEM parts were getting to a friend of mine and he informed me that prices go up every year, sort of like an inflation adjustment. So come 2014 prices are gonna be a little higher than they are now. I’m actually working on putting together my Honda order right now, I keep putting it off but gotta get this shit ordered!
Yeah I was referencing my helms while disassembling it. I don’t have a vice so I was just holding it with my foot. It wasn’t trying to move though, the 22 mm wrench holds it pretty well. I’m thinking that the vice is mostly noted so that the rack is secured in place not to keep it from spinning. I’ll give the crescent wrench a shot though and report back.
Thanks for the heads up on the price increase! Looks like I need to put together a big list instead of just ordering a few of the things I need right now. Do they increase it by a percentage or something?
This is all second hand info, but from someone who’s been ordering OEM parts for 10+ yrs from a personal friend of ours who works for Honda. He said it was around 5% each year.
Yeah, his comment was that it was essentially a price increase each year to cover warehousing costs, not sure if that’s true or just a guess. I hadn’t bought a lot of OEM stuff in probably 3-5yrs and had HUGE sticker shock when I started looking up prices. Things like head gaskets, timing belts, oil pumps… are way more expensive than last time I bought all that stuff.
Yeah it all adds up so quick when you need a lot of stuff. Between bearings, rings, gaskets, oil pump, water pump, timing belt, etc. I think I had about $1000 of stuff in my “cart”, and that wasn’t even all of what I need to order for this engine.
Yup, my order is about the same although I think I’m going to have the shop order stuff like rings/bearings since their pricing was good on the OEM stuff and I’ll let him determine which bearings we need. I’m ordering way too many little expensive things
Are you having someone else assemble the engine? I was originally planning to go that route but I really want to tackle it myself.
So I just ordered a 17mm flare wrench to see if that’ll work for the tie rod. My crescent wrench had so much slop it was worse than the open ended wrench. I didn’t even try. Looks like I need a new crescent wrench next time I’m tool shopping. I would have bought the flare wrench locally but my nearest ace hardware wanted $40, yeah right…
I started working on my wiring today. Separated all the frame rail wiring from the engine and fuse box wiring and got it all ready to pull. I just need to extend the wires for the wiper motor and drill the new holes through the chassis. I couldn’t find my drill though and then I realized I must have left it at my friends house in Sacramento so I’ll have to borrow one for the time being.
Once again you’re one step ahead of me Are you doing a full tuck? I decided to try a little more of a compromise but haven’t figured out exactly how to execute it. I want to do a little more of a tuck than last time but I want to keep the fuse box under the hood, ensure all important wiring is still protected and not simply tucked under the fender liners, and I want to keep all the engine harness to main harness connectors in the engine bay. I need to spend some more time looking at how best to make that happen.
Maybe I should pace myself and let you get a step ahead of me. That way I could takes notes from you… Haha
Yes I’m doing a full tuck. I would really like to have as much wiring hidden as physically possible. The fusebox will be under the dash and I’ll be creating a new hole in the center of the firewall for the engine harness to run through. I keep going back and forth on whether I want to use a firewall connector or use the method preludewillie used (a 2 part plate big enough to run the plugs through but small enough to hug the harness when installed), but I’m leaning more towards a firewall disconnect. The only compromise I’m planning to make is to keep the windshield wiper motor. As much as I’d like to remove it I think its impractical to not have wipers. I don’t plan to bring the car out in the rain but I can’t control the weather so I’ll be keeping it. I’ll have to extend those wires though in order to tuck them underneath the motor.
How come you are wanting the engine connectors inside the engine bay? I’m assuming for easier removal? That’s why I’m leaning towards the firewall connector. There’s so many ways it can be done…
I’d never seen Preludewillie’s setup so I just googled and found some pics. That seem like a pretty clean way to do it and as long as you can make your own plate it’d be cheaper than a “milspec” style connector. I was thinking about going milspec for awhile but just couldn’t justify the cost or the headache of learning about the different styles and such. Plus the time it’d take to put together would set me back even further and I’m already lagging way too much and I’ve gotten into too many things which are far from necessary. I need to start curbing how many separate projects I take on and try to be realistic about finishing by the end of the year.
And yes, ease of removal is part of it, but the big part is troubleshooting. I want the connectors very easily accessible in case I need to do wiring troubleshooting if something goes wrong. Mainly this is because if something fails at the track I want to be able to fix it quickly and get back out on track opposed to having to rip the whole car apart or simply calling it a day.
I feel the same way about the wiper motor… Probably the most ghetto thing I’ve done but it’s actually working well - I just spray painted the whole thing black and tucked the wiring underneath.
Oh, and regarding the engine building, I’m going to have a shop do the machine work and internal assembly but I’ll put the mate the head/block and put on all of the accessories like oil pump, water pump…etc
Yeah I like that method a lot. I’m leaning towards the mil-spec connector though because pulling the motor later on will be a ton easier. I have completely stopped trying to set a finish date for this project because I’m just going to fall short of it and keep pushing it back. I can understand you trying to wrap it up quick though, I’m sure missing track time is driving you crazy.
Is your motor already in the machine shop getting assembled? As much as I want to assemble mine myself I may end up breaking down and paying someone else to do mine. After talking to a bunch of locals I kept hearing the sane name brought up of a local machinist so I may look into him doing the rotating assembly at least.
No, haven’t taken it in yet, but should be within the next couple of weeks. I mainly am just dragging my feet on ordering parts that I need. For me I don’t feel comfortable taking all the measurements of clearances and stuff, nor do I have the tools. My plan is to just have them do the machine work, tolerances then install the valvetrain and bottom end rotating assembly and then I’ll take it from there. I figure that’s the best compromise between having as much control as possible over the build but also outsourcing some of the process which I’m not comfortable with to a professional.
Are you doing a full tuck? I decided to try a little more of a compromise but haven’t figured out exactly how to execute it. I want to do a little more of a tuck than last time but I want to keep the fuse box under the hood, ensure all important wiring is still protected and not simply tucked under the fender liners, and I want to keep all the engine harness to main harness connectors in the engine bay. I need to spend some more time looking at how best to make that happen.