WINTER NEWS

So I have the winter snow toy out now (Polaris XLT), the car is in storage and I am really missing it.  I have been doing a lot of riding up north near Piseco Lake, NY area.  There is almost no snow down here but two hours north there is still snow up to your knees with a hard packed base in the trails.  We have been putting on about 75 - 100 miles a weekend, not bad for a Saturday afternoon.  We had a few pictures of some awesome days but the film broke in the camera so it put an end to that.

The year of autos is more than over in the North here as cold weather and snow have long since moved in.  The day before New Years eve we had a large Nor Easter that dumped 12.3" of snow but most of that has melted now and the days are getting warmer.  The 2001 summer season will be beginning in a few months here and I cant wait.  I am feeling a much better since my double hernia operation on 10/12, be careful boys, this was pure pain for a few days after having the operation.

_____________________________2000 NEWS______________________________
The problem I was having with 'hotstarts' at the end of this summer is now solved.  I had an area company rebuild my starter with more copper than original and much more than "parts store" starters.  Cheap starters have much less copper than original GM starters and the rebuilt one has even larger and more windings as well as a H.D. solenoid (larger than OE).  I also went to NAPA and got a thick 1 gauge cable from my remote solenoid (IH truck) to the starter solenoid.  The result, it spins over the motor like the plugs are out whether hot or cold.

I redid my trunk this year, I have a few pics and added them to a new page.  I repainted the perimeter edge and trunk lid bottom with body color and also splatter painted the interior of the trunk.  It looks great, especially the splatter paint on the inside.

The Speed Demon Carb I have had to be sent back to BG for a "rebuild/recalibration".  This cured the off idle stumble and the throttle response is still crisp as ever.  The idle is clean and can idle for a bit now without fear of "loading" up.  I still think I have some tuning to do with the accelerator pump cams or squirters.  There is sometimes a bit of a bog under full throttle (have to wait until spring).

Part of this front-end redo I installed a Hellwig 1 1/4" swaybar with polybushings.  This really flattened the car out in turns and takes the "tank"ness out of it.  The car is much tighter in the front now, I do recommend this upgrade.

I also redid the entire front end and installed a set of disk brakes with polygraphite bushings.  I took only a few pictures of this procedure, mostly of the finished product, check it out at the Front End Rebuild page.  This is one the best improvements I have made to date and the car handles so much better.

For the 2000 season I installed a Torque Tech 3" full exhaust system with two 40 series Flowmaster Delta Flow two chamber mufflers.  This is definitely not a sleeper exhaust sitting in traffic and when punched is close to open header decibels.  Check out a few of the pictures here at the Exhaust Install page.  After driving it around it doesn't sound that loud except when punched.  Then I went to a Burger King drivethru, hearing the speakers was bad and I think I scared the girl in the window.