With Doug,[Jims Brother] as my shade tree assistant, i headed down the the berry farm to resurect the Spleen.. To this day i am still very astonished at that car.. I drove that thing there in October, and shut it off.. i show up in at the end of April and check the oil and coolent.. connect a battery and VRoom! haha! its alive and still kicking! man will this thing ever die??

Doug Jumped in and we took it for a spin.. okay so its a bit creaky.. the brakes are stiff.. but it was sure fun to get back into it.. man.. 6 months of cold dorment sleep.. and brrvroom! amazing.

Well bite me on the ass if today hasnt been the longest time since ive posted on my misc page. I do apologize for my uncalled for absence.. you can charge it to my laziness, who likes to befriend, this hang around his old pal, procrastination! Together they form a band like no other.. ;o) Ya thats right, nothing gets done, they are like a disease, one which never seems to get cured.. i wonder why ;o)

Well i thank all of you who wrote to me asking how the situation with the Spleen is going, this is, it isnt.. or hasnt. During the winter months i put the car away.. i have been since.. oh.. way back.. some 2-3 years to be exact. And only drove it the one winter last year. Seeing as i am now leasing a Daewoo.. [tissue any one?] i havent been driving the Spleen this winter.. instead i opted to put it away and bring it out when the sun and temperature become more stable. I.e Summer.

Yesterday was an interesting day for me.. i finnaly got around to towing my brothers car out from the parking lot.. no easy feat. The day prior i had chopped as much of the ice away as i could. and Yesterday i called in the help of a tow truck service.. expecting your run of the mill tow truck.. i wait.. and what!? here comes this long white full sized chevy van with a tow truck setup.. i roll my eyes at what i realize is going to be an interesting time..

..."You need a tow" "yup" Dude pulls in.. attaches a chain the the underside of my brothers k car.. {one side!] and creek goes the out of rust as pressure is applied.. attaches the metal components to the rear wheels.. raises up the car.. and pulls.. the car jumps out of the holders. Dude is getting pissed real fast.. "im gonna have to charge you extra boy" now im starting to wonder about this guys business.. refer's to me as boy?! then he adds a dash of fuck here.. shit there.. Goddman everywhere.. and after getting it set up again he tries to pull it out.. the car moves from its once resting place..

Its December and the temperature is dropping faster than i care to mention. My Vechile list is bothering me.. i have my hand in 5 and now my brother seems to want to follow suit. Already at age 17 he owns a 88 4 door k and now he wants to but an 88 shaodow es turbo.. [2.2 5 speed] mind you the cars only 100 bucks.. but the cost of keeping a car is great. So i will see what he plans to do with his vechile list growing a mass.. its great to see that he is into mopars.. he could be swiming in Asiatic waters like all the rest of his friends [18 year old friend owns a Mitsu 3000GT!]. But im happy.. So now the list is growing by one. Just for fun here is a run down of the cars we own.. including the joint ventures between Jim and I.

As you can see we arent big Plymouth fans ;-) j/k So there it is for all you who are wondering the grand list of all the vehicles Jim, my brother, and my self own. Id say its a pretty neat part base no? LoL

Okay im out of here.. oh last thing. Any one have thoughts on the following id great appreciate it.

1. 1995-1997 Ford Windstar 3.8 V6

2. 1997-1998 Dodge Caravan [regular non extended]

3.3/3.0 v6.. what about the 4 speed trannies?

3. 1995/6-1997/8 GMC Safari

Im looking for a replacement for my parents's ageing 89 Caravan..

Thanks

Hello everyone. It is now November and what have i done? Many many things actually. Yesterday i completed two days worth of 1st aid courses, im now certified for 1st aid and cpr. I hope i never have to use it, it being the new life save skills i have been taught. 1st aid is quite a traumatic experience.

In other news, The Daewoo is doing fine.. after the incident with a oversized porcupine the size of a pregnant pig im not suprised with how its doing now. I was flying down a road in the far end on Nepean.. its dark not lite by side street lamps and its straight for 6 kilometers. So being as it was after hours, [around 10ish] i gunned the accelerator and cluncked thru the gears. in about half a minute i was moving along nicely at 160km/h. i went to check my rear view to see if my brother was still behind me in the Caravan.. but it was quite distant. i looked back to the road and spotted the HAZARD for 3 seconds before i hit it. Now at this speed i can do nothing.. i didnt want to end up in a ditch, so i hit the poor bastard.

"THUMP-THUMP" it went and rather disconnected from my driving i thought about what had just happened. I later found out after i pulled into a local bank, that i had indeed done some damage to the car. I had managed, or the porcupine had managed to crack my air dam. A nice split about half a foot from the a/c dryer! So i cracked my air dam, i'll just glue it.. no big whoop.. If only i knew what really had happened.

The next morning i looked under the car. I saw the exhaust system, at the braided flex part was saturated with quils, my tranny pan had been dented and was dripping some kind of liquid of which i was hoping was blood. the wiring harness was a true mess, but thats all i could make out. So i took it to the dealer.. they checked it out, and when i came back at about 3pm that day, the dealer told me that the mechanic has found some more *EXTENSIVE* damage underneath the car! To cut to the case about a week later it was totaled at $1266.37!!! I no longer like rodents.

The problems? apparently my water pump was in need of replacement, my tranny pan dented, my a/c condenser was "condensed" 3 front end structural points were bent, my bumber needed to be replaced as the air dam and bumper are one piece. And yes that liquid dripping [EWW!] was infact blood. ugh.. so for now i fixed only the major and completely necessary parts. That being the sturctual points. I'll leave the a/c stuff for the summer and the bumper? Well i got them to "Plastic weld" the crack. Total so far was estimated at 280 after tax. The dealer was gracious to give it to me at 185. They had also loaned me a loaner for the week. An 84 horse power, 4 spd automatic Lanos model.. can you say "zzzzzzzzZZZzzz"

The poor car did manage to get keyed while in my possesion. i will never under stand vandilishm.. theft yes.. but not malicious damage. They keyed the drivers side saturday night. The passanger side, Sunday night, and while they were at it Sunday night they extended the key mark on the drivers side atlittle more.. The worst part of it was that they scratched one of my roommates car [97 civic] and on the same place he just got repainted too after an accident some 3 months earlier. They also got a neighbours rear quarter panel on their 1998 Bonniville.

I told the dealer and she said it was okay and that she expected it. wow.. thats plain weird.. its also sad. That you can expect damage to something just because its loaded with "DAEWOO ST.LAURANT" stickers up and down the sides. Again Vandilism.. i'll never comprehend it.

It has been a long while hasnt it.. many things have changed, have happened. The biggest being "The Mighty Spleen" has been taken off the road. Yup.. regrettably, but needless to say i needed a new car. I would love to say i replced it with a newER FWD Mopar.. but i cant.. but i did insult 'er by getting a GM or Forduh.. Instead i went looking for the "most for the least". The Most car for the Least amount of money. Ya..i wanted a new car.. a Brand [spanking] new one.. so i bought a Daewoo.. A "day-who"? A Daewoo .. pronounced "day-ooh" in Korean.. opps . ya its a Korean car.. the model i bought, er leased was a Lanos.

Okay so im going thru "post-turbo-syndrome"

..in other news.. the Spleens Odometer rolled over to "66666" earlier today. Either thats very cool.. or just plain scary.. depends where you put you money.. "half-full" or "half-empty".. say, what ever happened to "sorda-in-the-middle"? Anyway.. Updated the web page with some *new* pics of the spleen taken some time ago.. oh ya... and like the "plans page" for our Rally Car.. i too am starting a "plan page". Not for our Rally Car.. but for the Spleen.. Call it the "Project Aries - the Es Turbo Story" page ;-)

April 29^{th 2000}

Okay i did some thinking. If the spleen had an engine rebuild at 114.000kms.. then it would have a different milage reading then that of the tranny right? By about 14.000 kms.. SO in light of this.. Ive calcualted something here.. the tranny has some 365 grand.. so the engine should have 14.000 less that that.. some 251.000kms to be exact, and not 265.000kms right? please let me know if im wrong here..

Some other things that have happened.. Today, the 29th of April 2000, Jim and I along with his brother Doug {hi}, went down to start up the Daytona after it had been sitting untouched since November.. Suprisingly enough.. after turning the key back and forth to prime the fuel pump and fuel lines, it started in the 1st turn! Amazing! [i though so anyway] I should also add to this.. it idled smooth! No misfireing or anything.. purring like a kitten is what it did.. and did quite well. The muffler fell off while driving it here back in November, so it had a nice exhaust note.. after it warmed up though you'd be hard pressed to tell if it had one or not.

So Jim gets in the car after some time of idleing the car, [we were waiting for the air compressor to fill up the tires..] and drives around the place a bit.. then i [being quite axious] tell Jim to get out.. ;-) I then begin to drive it a around the property [with a calmness due to the limited space we had.. like under 10km/h] just to get the parts moving.. Well after a bit or driving in circles, the owner of the property came up to us and told us that there is a half mile stretch of road we could drive to stretch out the cars legs so to speak..if we wanted too.. i grin..

Jim grins.. i take the car down the road.. Press the pedal half way.. 2000/2300/2600.. 3200 Rpm. HOLY %^$&!!! The car and engine turn into a whole different beast! By 4000 Rpm i dont want it to stop.. its just a total surge! a Kick in the pants! I love it!! I love it! Press the pedal to the floor.. GAAWWWD!!!!!!!!!! TTTHHHIIISSS IIISSS SOOOOOOO COOOOOLLL!! it was almost like Go-Karting! Im flying down a dirt road at 80km/h and loving ever microsecond! I bring it back.. and every word from my mouth is a profanity.. I cannot control the urge to use the four letter "F" word to describe how i felt.. how it felt! And that tells you something, because i rarely ever swear at all. I was a total boomhauer. I tell Jim.. Screw group 2! Lets go for OPEN CLASS! Jim takes it for a spin.. He takes off and i hear the exhaust note change as the car hits 3 grand. he come back.. like me, he was fumbling to put even the simplest of words together.. all i could make out was: "OHMIGAWDOHMIGAWDOHMIGAWDOHMIGAAAWD!"

Sorry Lord for using you name in Vain so many times.. its just seemed to me the right wording to use at the time ;-)

Jim was impressed like I. For the 1st time we both knew what all those people were talking about.. like Gary Donovan and Jeff Chojnacki .. Gus Mahon and Ben "Benzo" Therien Suddenly "take me now boostmaster!" made sense! We loved it.. Jim then took his brother for a ride.. he came back mighty impressed as well.. and thats hard thing to do as this guy is a huge Cubic-Inch fanatic.. for him if its less than 400 CID its trash.. and for him k-cars "suck and blow". I asked: "still think they suck? ;-) Then his brother went down the road with me ;->.. The whole way down the half mile stretch all he said was.. "HOLYSHIT_HOLYSHIT_HOLYSHIT!" flying down a dirty road at 110km/h and not wanting to stop.. Air time and everything. I have to admit however that the car was quite comfortable.. and absorbed our abuse quite well. We are all very.. very impressed with our 1989 Chrysler Daytona ES Turbo.. We can only dream what the performance with a Garrett TO4 will be like.. man.. when that motor is put in our car.. once its all fixed up.. man there is asphalt to eat! The reason im so impressed with the car is i mean for the shape its in.. and the fact its been sitting for half a year.. and a whole year before we bought it.. it ran flawlessly.. and even with a possible broken head gasket.. geez one can only dream.. ;-) Im [officially] in turbo extasy.

The Spleen has a funny glitch, a Voltage glitch that is. When you first start it up, everything is fine.. rev it? Everything fine. Put it into gear? Everything fine. Turn on the head lights? Ahh, now we're getting some where! the Voltage needle drops passed the center white dot. Begin to drive a bit and it goes lower. Take a right turn [doesnt matter how fast or slow] and it goes back to the center white dot and the lights are at their normal voltage again. Exit the turn and they once again dimm. This isnt only for the headlights, but the blower motor, the wipers and anything, and everything electrical. Stop the car for a red light or a Stop sign and the car is charging. Weird.. just plain "ol wierd.

One last thing here. Spotted a light blue, two door Dodge Aries the other day with Jim that was for sale. This is also the same car we've had our eye on from some time now. The only reason im writing about this car, and mentioning that its forslae, is that its a 5 speed. They are so rare to come by, and the people are asking only $450. Im not telling where it is, and who's selling it, because I WANT IT! ;-) GrEeDy huh?

Okay two [2] last things, Now thats ive seen "Mystery Men" with Jim, Im contemplating a Name change for my Car.

Its April, and our storage lease for the Daytona will be up soon, the end of April to be exact.. oh what to do, what to do.. Anyway, the MSC [Might Spleen Crusher] is running okay. The motor is strong, its the charging system im worried about. Step on the gas and lights go bright, let off the gas and they dimm. The car charges fine in idle, even if you rev it at a stand still its fine, the moment you drive it, things start to happen, like the light dimming effect. But other than this.. oh i replaced the altenator and computer, and i find the map sensor to be a real pain in the butt.. it gets wet and will cause the car to act all funny.. but im happy that the "funky idle" is gone.. funky idle? yes, it would idle fine, then nearly stll and rev reeaal high, then back to normal and over and over and over.. sometimes if i step on the gas it would stall.. But now that the map senor was aired out, and i replaced the computer and alt, the motor runs like a charm, except for the already mentioned charging issue.. its kind of weird when i drive at night.. all the pasing motorist think im having way to much fun with my high beam leaver. ;-)

Its been a long long while since i've updated.. and quite a bit has happened.. well not really a lot, but enough.. 1: We [Jim and I along with my brother and his friend] went to a Rally up in Maniwaki for the Perece Neige rally.. Spleen took a beating.. on some roads we got some air time on some hills, and bottomed out on others.. no i wasnt in the rally myself.. but on some road *that* was *supposed* to get us to a stage.. after about 300km of detouring we were told [after hailing a racer down] that the 1st two stages we saw were it.. WHAT?! aw we were soooooooo pissed er.. angry.. "upset" and we you get the idea. Well to make a long story short after the rally and a day later i found out that, that loud rattle wasnt in fact the door.. but that my left rear shock tower had broke.. clear. a week later i managed to get it fixed for $200. The body shop guy at first wanted 350-400.. and i said Nah.. and well they eventually lowered the price to a more reasonable level. Still have that stalling phenomenon.. All in all though, the rally was fun because i got to do some "manouvers" like drifts and wipe outm, dougnuts and the sort.. made everyone who was in the other car quite jealous.. ;-)

Well i would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year/Century. Im quite sure its going to be fine.. and all this Y2K nonsense will be shown [as ive always said] to be a big money marketing/making scheme. But dont sue me for defamation of character, i made the move last night to Win98. I had reached my limit with the corruption errors and problems that exist with Win95. SO i did the unthinkable. I asked my brother: "Is there anything on C:\ that you want to salvage? He saved what he wanted on D:\ and i did it.. I did the infamous "FORMAT C:\" to which I was offered a warning in Capitals non-the-less to the tune of ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THIS?! I hit "Y" and man was it a relief to get Microsoft of my drive of a few minutes.. no more pains, no you need to reinstall windows warnings..

After a few tries i finally got the CDROM working.. to make a long story short, its working.. GREAT so far, but i should tell you that im curently knocking on my desk... which, if you might not know.. is made of WOOD! ;-)

Its still quite green outside.. really suprising considering that OTTAWA is known for its bitter winters.. and deep.. deep snow falls.. but its just starting to snow right now.. so its fun/tricky driving out side.. The Spleen is running great, although i find that im knocking "wood" again so to speak as i say that. Im hoping things will work out.. i need a blower motor and a regulator still.. i should get them out of the Daytona sometime this week.

Well its my sisters birthday and the Spleen reached 364 grand on Sunday.. this is the first time this week that i got to update.. with exams and school im kept rather busy.. as one could imagine.. i brought the spleen into work to day like always but this time it was looked at again by a fellow mechanic.. the parking brake lost all tension.. so upon inspecting the line the mechanic found that the line came undone because the bracket was week.. so he put it back together and now im not using the brake as much. This past Saturday we recieved our first fair share of snow.. man was it tricky.. not to mention fun.. i almost hit a pole in front of a "convienent" store.. and a Ford Ranger.. i decided the curb was a better option. One thing though.. im finding that not matter what force i apply to the brakes they will "Lock 'N Slide" on snowy/icy surfaces.. maybe im not alone.. i guess everyone has this.. [im hoping].

Today was the last day of class for this semester. Im so joyed by this.. school now is oh so expensive and the subject matter relentless.. sometimes i wonder if proffessors wonder how hard it is for students these days.. I know i know.. "we have it easy" but i assure you we dont.. i mean we have to get jobs to go to school.. there is only so many loans we can afford to take out.. and because we are going to work it means we cant enroll as full time students thus leading it to take longer to achieve a degree.. Man.. Canada was voted "The best country to live" but latley im seeing it hard to see why.. we are over taxed, under paid, and like in all societies.. its a small "largly ignorant" few that make the decisions and we have to follow.. ack! anyhoo.. some 30 days till the millenium.. wow!

In other news... I Gave the Spleen its real 1st tune up in ages.. Oil, [10w30] Filter [ac delco] new air filter [?] plugs [ac delco], wires [prego] replaced the heater core pipes [leaking coolent] newused map sensor and new fuel filter.. the cost? the cost? 216 after taxes and labour.. but it runs great now.. it was getting hard to start in the morning.. it would crank.. run for a second or two then sputter out... i would have to force feed it fuel to get the running.. then it would idle violently until it got up to temperature.. personally i think it was that BLACK SLUDGE that was in there.. but its real good now.. this will be my 1st winter with this car.. hopeing it wont be too too cruel.. God only knows our fuel prices are 66.9!!! a liter!! Man.. you Americans have it great.

For those that are wondering.. the car didnt pass safety.. it didnt need it! Seems there is a thing with passing cars on to family members.. and all thats required is for those involved to sign a paper declaring no money was passed between them for the car.. sign here and there and voila! hehe... that was great and painless.. so ive spent about 500 in repairs on the car right now.. weither its worth it or not its to late to wonder.. winter is vast approaching.. i still need to get the Heater fan replaced.. had it checked out.. The mechanic @ my work put direct power to it.. and nothing.. so its off to the daytona and get me a heater fan!

Well the car is fixed.. drives better.. handles *tighter* and its quiter.. its a nice improvment.. but that low "chevy Z24 type sound" was nice.. but the new exhaust seems to have given me a sense that my car is worth it.. that its worth more than 75 bucks that one guy offered.. and this was a dealer! Well im now working on getting the floor done.. and hopefully it will pass saftey.. and all will be alright with the world.. again.

My boss, after much encouraging on my part came up with some prices.. God Bless the mans soul.. he charged me "at cost" prices and half the cost of labour.. i tell him i have to think about it.. i mean im not *cheap* but i want to figure if the car [yes the Mighty Spleen] is worth the investment.. What can i get i ask myself.. What can i get for the same money that im putting into this car? Nothing i conclude and tell my boss to do the work.. and i gead off to school

November 3^{rd 1999}

We are ever closly inching our way to the new millenium.. wow.. its been a quick year i must say.. and one filled with many events that are sure to be remembered.. anyway.. today i ask my boss if i can get my car checked, to see what it will need for a saftey.. He says sure and my car is on the hoist in a matter of minutes.. the mechanic gives it a once over and jot's down the following he feels it will need..

so considering its age, mileage.. not bad.. not bad at all.. the floor i know will be the killer.. but i mean its to be expected to be expensive.. So after the "insepction" im told to take my car out.. and wait for my boss to figure out the costs.. the biggest problem ;-)

October 28^{th 1999}

My Father tells me that "He no longer wished to reknew the car [Mighty Spleen] under his name.. i say fine and take advantage of the two week limit given. I know the car wont be easy to saftey, well.. i think.. i know its going to need a new muffler, th brakes could be checked out.. umm the drivers window.. whats else? is leaking part of a saftey? i ponder, but i'm quikly distracted with thoughts of halloween and all the kids i can scare out of the candy.. Nah.. but i like halloween just for the excitement thats gained.. what i mean to say is that Halloween night.. the air.. its filled [to me] with electricity.. its a night you feel like doing stupid things.. i dunno.. im not normally like that.. but the air i swear is tainted that night.. maybe by the Govenment?! ;-)

The Spleen  

Over Heating Adventure  

Our Beloved Daytona