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Bajaha posted:
Just anneal the old one. Heat to red heat with a torch of any flavor, then let air-cool. They get a bit of oxide flake on the outside that eventually reduces the thickness to unusability, but I think I'm using the original crush washer for my '76 motor by annealing it every oil change.
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Apr 7, 2019 02:22
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i've had good luck cutting new washers with tubing cutters and some copper pipe. My job gives me access to a full range of different sizes of copper pipe and tubing so I get free washers for life.
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Apr 7, 2019 03:06
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Thanks for the tip! Got the car in for a safety inspection and it almost passed. The inner CV boots both have a pinhole in them so they got flagged. Well, I guess lets get started. here's one of our victims.  Access isn't too bad for the bolts, but getting the driveshaft off is a bit of a pain, you have to maneuver things around, disassemble almost everything on each corner, then pull the suspension over to make a gap between it and the control arm so that you can pull the axle through and muscle the driveshaft end through the small gap that you're limited to.  Patient is on the table ready to get taken apart.  This was a huge pain to take off as you have to chisel the stupid cover off and it does not like coming off. Snap ring removed for the CV but I couldn't get it off with the 3 jaw puller so I went the other route.  Don't have pictures of the process since it's the greasiest work you can imagine, that CV grease just loves getting everywhere. I took off the hub side CV joint by hammering it off, it's held in with a snap C clip on the stub so some percussive persuasion and it comes right off, then you take off the outer boot then then the inner. Reassemble the inner boot first, then put on the old outer boot and reassemble the outer CV joint. It's a bit of extra work but it all works out in the end. Got the caps back on the inners by using a few long bolts and nuts to squeeze it slowly back on then hammered the lip that I bent up when chiseling it off.  And with that, started reinstalling the axles. Like I mentioned before, the access isn't all that bad.  What's left is to torque everything, get the brakes on the other side back on, and replace the upper control arm on the passenger side. Yup, I hosed something up when popping it out of the knuckle. The tool to press it out is too short when its fully assembled, so I've been taking off the end piece that leaves a ball end, which managed to break off a piece of the thread on the balljoint in the upper control arm. poo poo. It's got a torx socket recessed in the bolt on the ball joint so the thinner wall there is what cracked off. New upper control arm is on its way from Rockauto as I'd rather pay $60 to fix it rather than $300.
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Apr 7, 2019 22:17
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Every time I did anything with boots alone, the joint failed in short order afterwards. Here's hoping since I wasn't there you won't be plagued by the same luck! 
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Apr 7, 2019 23:14
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Usually I would just do the axle but I was hopeful it would be like with Subaru's where you can do it in place (no way) and local prices for driveshafts were crazy and I didn't want to wait a week for shipping, but that plan failed the moment the upper ball joint had it's threads damaged so it's kind of a moot issue now. If I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it this weekend I would have just ordered new axles, but eh, you can't know what you can't know. The boots were cheap and available at $20 a piece at piston ring and I'm crossing my fingers that it being just a pin hole in each there wasn't any contamination in the joint itself. I've taken the suspension on either side apart enough that it's almost muscle memory at this point. E: Missed this photo, it's interesting that they went with this kind of half-shaft setup, it's nice as you don't have to worry about clipping the diff seal when installing/uninstalling the axle . 
Bajaha fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Apr 8, 2019 |
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Apr 7, 2019 23:44
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My BMW is the same, diff ends in these flanges that the driveshafts bolt to, its pretty neat. (Although a PITA to get all six bolts in and out.)
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Apr 15, 2019 04:31
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New Control arm arrived and it was time to remove the old. I was hoping I could do it without removing the strut but... Sooo close but not enough clearance to get the bolt all the way out. It's a 16mm bolt and it seems like I've misplaced my regular 16mm wrenches so I only had a stubby and a ratchet, and the clearance was tight, at least with the strut out of the way it wasn't too terrible.  New control arm in and everything torqued to spec... again.  With the mechanical bits out of the way, it was time to start messing with the interior stuff. Before I went overboard and connected things permanently I did a quick twist connections and test with the components to make sure it'll work, and GREAT SUCCESS, we have sound!  The sound system is actually pretty baller. It sound fantastic, I was worried that it might have blown speakers but nope, everything sounds great and it's got great clarity and good bass. Here it is installed with the trim and all.  With the new parts it passed a safety earlier this week and got registered! While at the insurance place, I figured it's getting nice enough to register something else so with today's weather being fantastic we went for a cruise to the park and took some photos  Gotta say, I'm pretty happy with how this thing looks now    Unfortunately, with the nice weather we found out the AC is not functioning as it should. I'll hook up gauges and see how the system pressures are looking, it could just be low on charge but I guess we'll see. Overall the thing drives nice, is comfortable, but is a huge pig on gas. With our new carbon tax on gasoline this thing is going to be rough on the wallet.
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Apr 21, 2019 23:14
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Yeah, it's the gas that's gonna be tough on the wallet.  It looks great, I love the white.
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Apr 21, 2019 23:35
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You have done awesome it looks great!
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Apr 22, 2019 00:05
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Good work!
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Apr 22, 2019 02:07
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How much faster than the Boxster is it? A lot, or like a whole shitload?
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Apr 22, 2019 03:25
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White is a much better colour too as you can't see dust or water spots right after a wash like you do on the black. A boxster in white with the coco brown interior is on my list. With regards to speed, we're just not going to go there... it's actually surprisingly close, we didn't do a direct comparison but the cayenne is deceptively quick and the softer suspension makes quick acceleration feel more exciting, although sitting lower in the boxster has that going for it. E: The cayenne's exhaust is also  and turns money into noise at an incredible rate in a beautiful way.
Bajaha fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Apr 22, 2019 |
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Apr 22, 2019 03:42
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If I hadn't been following the thread, I don't think I'd believe that's the same Cayenne. Awesome work.Bajaha posted:... I've misplaced my regular 16mm wrenches so I only had a stubby and a ratchet, and the clearance was tight, at least with the strut out of the way it wasn't too terrible. Time for another  post from yours truly- ever wonder why there's seldom a 16mm combination wrench (for example) in mixed imperial/metric wrench sets? As best I can make out, it's because 5/8 is an almost perfect match for a 16mm (seriously, 16mm is .6299", 5/8" is .625", so there's 5 thousandths betwixt- a delta WELL within the manufacturing tolerance for an actual 16mm combination wrench) and someone is actually looking out for the consumer's interests.  TL;DR: don't have a 16mm wrench/socket, but have fractional inch wrenches/sockets? Use a 5/8". glyph fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Apr 22, 2019 |
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Apr 22, 2019 18:20
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glyph posted:If I hadn't been following the thread, I don't think I'd believe that's the same Cayenne. Awesome work. I'm going to say I don't think that's why, because 3/4" and 19mm are even closer but almost all sets have both.
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Apr 23, 2019 00:03
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LloydDobler posted:I'm going to say I don't think that's why, because 3/4" and 19mm are even closer but almost all sets have both. Huh. I'm nearly certain I'd learned that here. Carry on.
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Apr 23, 2019 17:26
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I'm gonna go with '16mm just isn't used often'. More annoying lately is the seeming trend for cheap fasteners to use metric hexes on imperial threads.
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Apr 23, 2019 17:32
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I've been MIA for a little bit, but things are still happening. Meth Porch is wearing new wheels, well the old wheels that were refinished and wrapped in new rubber.  It looks fantastic, and I'm really liking driving it around, but man it's stressing me out. It's developed an engine tick, sounds like a lifter. Apparently the cylinder scoring issue sounds just like a lifter tick. No other symptoms, fuel consumption is still normal, no oil residue in the tailpipe, and the noise disappears above ~2k rpm. So it's either nothing or a catastrophic something, and not knowing is stressful so I think I'll try to get rid of it and see what happens. Still undecided, maybe it would be worth it to overhaul the engine if it is that. Looks great and drives great otherwise.  Interior cleaned up nice too, the leather is a lot brighter than when I got it, so much gunk came off.  Also we've decided to sell our impreza, it's a great winter car but with a family in mind my wife wants to trim things down and get one SUV (that won't be stressing me out with every little noise it makes) for her and I can keep my toys. So in the spirit of making it look presentable, it was time to refinish the headlights. I had previously fixed them but didn't seal them with much other than waxing regularly. That doesn't work at all as I've learned.  A quick sand and the remnants of a mostly used spray can of clear and voila.  Gud enuff  And since I've now owned a sports car for a while, I decided to actually use it for something sporty. Signed up for HPDE and had a blast!  It's a great driving experience, the boxster feels really balanced and it's actually forgiving in the turns if you overcook the entry and start letting off too much, just roll back on the throttle and the back settles right back in. Now I just have to get good. Managed to complete the HPDE and got my time attack license so now I can actually race it on the track. Playing all day with some other cars on the track was thrilling, you get into a good rhythm and chasing each other through the corners was a hoot.  The first time attack was fun as hell. Before this all I've ever done was autoslalom events in the Baja and Veloster and it's nice to have a consistent track where you have lots of laps to figure out your lines, your braking zones, and learning from your mistakes. With it being a timed event I can actually get some feedback and see if what I'm doing is working or not. Learning to properly heal-toe is a challenge, creating new muscle memory and getting used to shiting while braking is going to take some work.  Speaking of Autoslalom/Autocross/AutoX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVNh-mxh_VY Definitely got hooked on time attack and going to make it out to a few more Autoslalom events this year. Going to have to start looking at brakes and tires soon. The textars are working fairly well but holy poo poo do they ever dust, my wheels and the entire side of my car goes a dark grey after a day at the track, it's nuts. Looking for a good compromise pad that'll be decent on the track but daily drivable and OK for AutoX, and low dust. I'm asking for the holy trinity aren't I?
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Jun 21, 2019 03:12
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Meth Porsche looks fantastic I sure hope the engine is alright
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Jun 21, 2019 04:35
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Bajaha posted:Looking for a good compromise pad that'll be decent on the track but daily drivable and OK for AutoX, and low dust. I'm asking for the holy trinity aren't I? I was never really satisfied with compromise pads. They either dust a run, make noise, don't stop great on track and are "streetable", or dust a ton, eat rotors, and stop you right NOW (once warmed up  ). I think most track folks will tell you to pick up a spare set of rotors and track pads and just swap the whole lot when you're doing a weekend track event. For autox you may be able to find something workable since you don't really see the high temps of track days, though. Maybe some sort of lower dust pad has come out in the last few years and isn't on my radar for that.
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Jun 21, 2019 12:20
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You're not going to find a pad that does that. I've heard good stuff about the PFC pads.
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Jun 21, 2019 18:30
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Agreed with above, if you're really lazy like I used to be you'd find a street and track pad that are rotor compatible so you don't have to pull the entire caliper off each time you swap. Eventually you get even lazier and leave the track pads in.
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Jun 21, 2019 18:37
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Plus anything more aggressive/track ready tends to generate a lot more dust. For things like auto-x specifically, the pads aren't usually getting really hot, and need to have cold bite. Even my stoptech street pads feel and work much much better if I go and do a couple of hard stops. It's the continued lapping on a track that really puts the heat into them. So anyway, it's possible a higher performance street pad could work for you, but it would depend on the track/time attack aspect. jamal fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Jun 21, 2019 |
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Jun 21, 2019 19:15
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Hope the motor in meth porsche is OK. I'd be a little concerned just because it doesn't sound like it did it before. That's probably the biggest single issue of unease with me and the 996. Car is solid as hell, drives great, but you just know if that M96 motor shits the bed, the car is an instant roller short of dropping $20-$30K on rebuilding a motor (if you can). Good luck man.
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Jun 21, 2019 20:44
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BlackMK4 posted:Agreed with above, if you're really lazy like I used to be you'd find a street and track pad that are rotor compatible so you don't have to pull the entire caliper off each time you swap. I might end up going this route, I've seen a few guys do the whole rotor + pad slap at the track but I don't think I want to be doing that much work every time I want to race. That and the caliper bolts are supposed to be replaced everytime the caliper comes off but they're not TTY so I've been just re-using. Swapping pads is simple at least with the monoblock calipers as its a single retention bolt and they slide out. Would have to tie back the brake sensors in the wheel well rather than messing around with removing them and putting them back in with the pads. They're pretty brittle and easy to break, regular handling would guarantee the sensors would break. BlackMK4 posted:Eventually you get even lazier and leave the track pads in. This is more likely, but I've heard some track pads can be pretty hairy to drive on while they're cold. The obvious solution is to just get a dedicated track car and trailer it, which means that the next "family" car will need to be something with a decent tow rating. Gimli race track is a fairly small venue, 1.3mi track. Turn 1 is the quickest corner with the most braking, I've been typically doing around 170-180kph at the end of the straight and I'm wanting to be at about ~110kph through the corner. I know I'm not driving hard enough to really tax the brakes but with practice I'm sure I'll find their limits. Like I mentioned the OE textars feel surprisingly nice (not that I really have a good point of reference) and I haven't noticed them fading during TA sessions (5 hot laps) but I did notice a bit of fade near the end of a longer stint on the track during friday lapping days. Into corner 3 is another decent braking zone as 2 is taken pretty much flat out.  For the Cayenne motor, I hope so too. I don't know if its weather related as when I bought the car it did have a quiet tick but wasn't really noticeable above the other engine noise, but now it's definitely more pronounced. PO may have been pretty lax with oil changes so with a recent oil change maybe some gunk found its way into a lifter causing it to be sticky at low RPM and at higher RPM the oil pressure is high enough to overcome the sticktion? Friend of mine was saying dump a quart of ATF in the crankcase and run it for 1000km and then do an oil change, it's supposed to help clean up stuff like this. I remember reading that this was an old mercedes mechanic trick as well so maybe it's worth a shot. With the cylinder scoring issue it supposedly goes down hill real quick and would be burning oil, but I don't have that. I looked up engine removal for it and well, yikes, a lift is a must.
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Jun 21, 2019 21:15
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Bajaha posted:It looks fantastic, and I'm really liking driving it around, but man it's stressing me out. It's developed an engine tick, sounds like a lifter. Apparently the cylinder scoring issue sounds just like a lifter tick. No other symptoms, fuel consumption is still normal, no oil residue in the tailpipe, and the noise disappears above ~2k rpm. So it's either nothing or a catastrophic something, and not knowing is stressful so I think I'll try to get rid of it and see what happens. Still undecided, maybe it would be worth it to overhaul the engine if it is that. Looks great and drives great otherwise. My BMW had a tick develop that was the final straw for me selling it. There was a procedure to temporarily fix it, though. With the car warmed up and in Park, keep the RPMs at 2500 for 3 minutes on / 3 minutes off and repeat the process until the tick goes away. It worked for me each time I did it. The condition is exacerbated by repeated short trips. I don't know if it applies to you, but similar age German metal, so maybe?
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Jun 21, 2019 23:07
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EVERYWHERE 
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I'll have to give that a shot, I did notice that some days it's more noticeable than others so maybe a cycle like that is happening accidentally while driving around. My wife does have a fairly short commute so likely that's not helping. This weekend was another time attack event, the weather started out cold and wet but by Sunday it was beautiful weather. Got a pretty decent sunburn.  My brake sensors seem to be acting up, end of the first day I got a dashboard warning for brake pad wear, I had checked them recently and they were pretty good so I was surprised, upon driving home and refuelling, the warning disappeared. I checked all 4 corners inners, and outers, and there's plenty of meat on the pads, as in 7mm+, and the sensors aren't touching the rotor. There's plenty of brake fluid so that shouldn't have triggered the warning. The next day at the track the warning would pop up after a few laps in one of the hard braking zones, and would clear upon shutting off the car. I guess the heat is causing something in the sensors to give a false trip. Meh. I'm on the lookout for a new brake setup anyway so I'll be replacing the sensors.
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Jun 25, 2019 01:38
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Gimli? Same as the glider incident? Cool!
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Jun 25, 2019 04:19
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That's the one.  The track has an interesting history and apparently quite a few well known names in motorsports history have raced here, I'll have to bug some of the old timers next time I'm there and hopefully not forget what they tell me. At the previous event one of the more experienced racers was telling me about the experience, apparently he was at the track when the plane came down. Crazy stuff. The whole local community has been very inviting and there's definitely a spirit of just wanting to enjoy racing and see others get into the sport.
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Jun 25, 2019 04:43
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Any further news on the motor?
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Aug 14, 2019 14:16
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Meatpimp's trick did not seem to work, it's still got the tick and it seems to vary from day to day based on ???. It does burn a little oil but not much, had to add a couple quarts to bring it back to full. This has been the weirdest car to sell so far. I've had a few people who dropped out after a good test drive because they couldn't sell their cars and thus didn't have the cash to buy this one, I've had so many trade offers, from a '79 Chevy El Camino, '70's Mercedes Coup, 04 BMW 5er with the V8 motor, similar vintage land rovers, mid 00's Ford F150, and who knows what I've forgotten. It just seems no one wants to pay cash. I did have one guy come and test it, he liked everything, but the last thing he did was throw it into low range and lock the diffs. Of course, in typical german fashion, it decided that that was it's prefered mode and it wouldn't get out of it. I had to lift it up and take the transfer case motor off and spin it by hand to get it past a tough spot and it's been OK since. I've finally sold some cars, as the Veloster and Impreza are now gone, and I've got an adventure coming up in Iceland that I'll be taking plenty of photos, I get to drive a Dacia! Otherwise I've been looking around for a car to turn into a dedicated track toy and there's so much choice and I have some vague requirements and not a well defined budget so I'm currently just paralyzed by choice. In semi AI related things I'm also working on an off-road wheelchair for my wife for the trip so that's been taking up some time. Work has also been really busy and I've been putting in some good overtime so haven't too much time to document much or update this thread. I did attempt a valve cover gasket job on an acquaintances SOHC 2010 Legacy and oh man what a pain compared to the earlier models. E: oh poo poo, how could I forget, someone offered a gold chain necklace with appraisal papers showing a value of ~$11,000. Wild. Bajaha fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Oct 23, 2019 |
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Aug 19, 2019 01:42
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An AI'ers introduction to Iceland Iceland is a fantastic small island country in the north atlantic. It's a sparsely populated nation just outside the arctic circle with viking roots and is truly the land of ice and fire. Sitting on the divide between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, Iceland is ripping apart by about 2cm a year and losing about that to coastal erosion, and is characterised by its quite lively geologic activity. The landscape is diverse and otherworldly, the people are friendly, the food and accomodation is shockingly expensive at times, and the weather can be brutal and unpredictable. To give a better feel of its size, it's roughly comparable to the size of New York state and has a population of around 360,000, less than half that of my home town of Winnipeg. It is also home to some of the best driving roads in the world.  click for huge. Paved roads in iceland are pitch black, beautifully smooth, and wonderfully winding. Iceland has a very european feel to it, which is as expected considering it's roots and proximity to europe. The roads are narrow, shoulders are non-existent, and other than a few sections near the capital of Reykjavik, the highways are entirely single lane everywhere on the island. Speed limits are set at 90 kph on highways, 80kph on gravel roads, and 50 kph on city streets, with smaller residential and touristy areas limited to 50kph. The road signs are european standard for the most part, so for a Canadian traveller it took some getting used to and a quick google to get an idea on the more obtuse signs. City streets are tighter than the average north american city but easily manageable, and plenty of roundabouts to go around. The traffic lights also have a quite nice sequence of Red -> Red & Yellow -> Green to give an early warning and to get you ready to go, it seemed to really improve traffic flow as you didn't have people sitting at a green and with the stop-start in the car allowed me to kick in the clutch to start the car and get in gear in time for it to turn green.  Now, we started our adventure in Reykjavik and being an AI'er, opted for doing a self driving tour of the island. Our chariot for the trip was this late model Dacia Duster 4x4. 6 speed manual with fancy features such as hill descent control, automatic stop-start, hill start assist, and some off road gauges for pitch and roll. 1.2 liters of turbocharged fury producing a modest 123hp.  In terms of size, it's comparable to a Nissan Juke. In terms of everything else, it's nothing like the Juke. For a small SUV it's well laid out inside, feels spacious enough and was comfortable enough for the long journeys that were ahead of us. The ride was quiet but if you listened closely and had the window cracked, you could hear the high pitch of the turbo spooling up as you squeezed the throttle. It was slow, but not punishly so, it reminded me of 90's honda's with its peppy puppy like demeanor on the road. If I could import one of these I would in a heartbeat.  Outside the city and outside the larger touristy attractions, you really get the sense of isolation. The views are spectacular and you can go quite a few hours without seeing another soul if you stay off the main routes. We ran into a few areas of construction and it's fascinating to see how the roads are built. Coming from a place with a quite extreme climate and clay in the ground, I'm used to seeing roads being dug out 5+ feet with various grades of gravel, then reinforced concrete with asphalt over top at times. Here because of the more temperate climate (temperatures range from as cold as -20°C in the winter to +18°C in the summers) and the natural porousness of the volcanic landscapes, the roads are dug shallow, filled with coarse lava sand, and what looks like some sort of sealant to bind it all together. We encountered a good amount of rain throughout our trip and water pooling on the roads was not an issue. Road noise was not an issue from the tires and as I mentioned before the roads were very smooth and a pleasure to drive on.  That is not to say we didn't encounter any potholes or rough roads. While major routes and the ring road around the island were paved, many of the secondary roads were just gravel, and with those the surface was not as smooth. Which brings us to the wildlife. Other than birds, the major wildlife you'll see in Iceland are the sheep and ponies.  The sheep are everywhere. In places you wouldn't expect them and they'll leave you scratching your head wondering why the heck they ventured up to where they are when there's perfectly good grazing land lower down and more easily accessible. None of them are wild, they are all from one farm or another, but during the summer months they are left to their own devices and free to graze where they please. In the fall the farmers all get together and start rounding them up. The same is for the icelandic ponies. It can be quite the sight to see a large herd of ponies trotting down a road being lead by a farmer back to his/her fields.  Now, in my opinion, while the main roads are fantastic and truly should be considered some of the best driving roads in the world, the real hidden gems are the icelandic f-roads. F roads are historic roads that go into the highlands, they are unmaintained and they have a reputation for being some of the most dangerous roads to drive on in the world. Off-roading in iceland is prohibited and is punished with heavy fines, but with the condition of the F-roads I don't see why you'd feel the need to venture off road. Driving on f-roads is restricted to 4x4 vehicles only, it is unlawful to drive on them with 2wd cars. They are challenging roads that are rewarding to drive on as you get to see some incredible views of the countryside On our trip we took quite a number of F roads, F261, F210, F225, F208, F338, F337, F985, 550 (formally F550), 570 (formally F570).   Not all f roads are created equal, for some long stretches of them they were relatively smooth, comparable to rougher gravel roads back home, but with much nicer scenery of course. The mountains were covered in vivid green moss that incredible to see.  The roads also famously tend to have unbridged river crossings. The one below the very first river I ever forded.  In theory I knew what I was doing, but in practice it definitely a rush to just drive through a river. Slow and steady, in 1st gear keeping my speed around 5-10kph, at this crossing I had to go a little against the current which wasn't ideal but it's a nice rocky river bed with small stones and the water was up to the top of the tires at its deepest. The Duster has its air intake just off center on top of the radiator so it should be able to go through fairly deep water without worrying about hydrolock.  Successful crossing, adrenaline pumping, and continuing on our journey we went. As I mentioned, sheep can be found everywhere, and depending the route you choose, they may be your only company that day.  The contrast between the vegetation, the changing colors of the fall season, and the various geological features was stark  And thankfully the sheep weren't our only company on this particular road (F208 for the pictures so far) We caught up with little Suzuki Jimny  They gave us some tips for the river crossings, that it usually is shallowest along the edges of the crossing as most people tend to just plow through the center, and we watched as they crossed before following their path.  Throughout the trip we forded well over a dozen rivers by the end of it, the majority of them were smaller and not too deep spring fed rivers and streams.  Some were very calm although deceptively deep.  And others were quite a bit wider and a little deeper.  The duster took them all like a champ. The deepest of the rivers had us with a small crest of water flowing over the hood as we splashed in, and had some larger boulders that you bounced off of, the key was just to hold the gas steady and to never lift. If you stop, you're dead in the water.
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Sep 21, 2019 21:29
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That's not to say it's all river crossing and scenery. Some of the more challenging roads we drove one had some quite steep inclines. F985 up the glacier is a short little F road with some steep inclines and cliff drop offs, make a mistake and you won't be having a good day. Unfortunately it wasn't the most photo friendly place to be as we ascended into the clouds and the weather was not cooperating, visibility eventually went down to a few feet and when were near the summit we decided to cut our losses and turn around.  The inclines hit 14° which is apparently a 25% grade road. Let me tell you, if feels pretty drat vertical. On the way up I made the mistake of attempting one of these in 2nd gear and had slowed enough to drop out of the power band, leading me to stalling on the steep incline. The hill hold and a little abuse of the clutch allowed me to start back up but that was nerve wracking. Reversing down a steep slope that was winding up the side of a mountain with no visibility was not my idea of fun. Many of the F roads have unique feels to them, as best as I can describe. They'll have different challenges, different road surfaces and degrees of windiness.  Going up 550/F550, you start following a glacial river that cut its way into the rock, and start climbing up into the highlands.  The fall colors just add the beauty of the area, the whole world just pops.   Following along a power line service trail (F338) it's a twisty rough road that's a track through a lava field.  You bounce around, and switch between soft volcanic sand and solidified lava flows with these incredible burst of color as you drive along.  Once you get to the cross roads, we took F337 back towards more populated areas.  And apparently someone's lost an exhaust gasket.  Taking you along the foothills of seeming painted mountains  Unfortunately for us, the weather was mostly on-and-off raining and low clouds which dampened some of the visual impact of the scenery.  But this being Iceland, you wait 5 minutes and you can get rewarded with some occasional clear sky peaking through  All while the landscape is changing and you hit soft black sand with small outcrops of grass.  Which rewards you with a stunning view from the top and a treacherous winding steep path down.  Now, one of the final roads we took, F261 and F210 proved to be the most challenging. They were rougher roads and had much bigger boulders that we had to traverse. A few we heard on the underside. The road starts out tame enough as a rough gravel track with a great view of the nearby glaciers  You follow a large river bed that's currently quite dry and you slowly climb up as the trail progresses   Continue through a small valley, and around some small mountains  Climbing and climbing the entire way.  And as you keep on going you get closer and closer to some stunning views  At one point, we crossed the deepest and strongest river thus far. I did not take a good photo of it, but it was deeper than I expected and the large waves you can see down the center gave some indication of the current.  As we crossed the river, the water went slightly over the hood but the momentum kept us going and we made it across. Definitely the toughest crossing we attempted. On the other side we continued and eventually the road was becoming harder and harder to discern from the surroundings  until all the soft soil just kind of ended...  And we were greeted with some phenomenal views  So with a spirit of adventure we continued on, and crawled along the solidified rock.  Which eventually led us to this soft black sand  At the foot of a glacier  And this soft sand trail led to a rather wide glacial stream, which while it was low, was still the soft sand surface. As I walked towards the river bank to assess it, I noted that I was sinking into the soft fine sand and even though the depth and current looked manageable, I decided this was not a certainty so we turned back. No low range gearbox and the soft sand left me worried it would bury itself into the sand and that would be that, so we took the safer route and devil we knew with the larger river crossing we first went through. By the time we came back, the river had swelled from the rain throughout the day. Not having much of a choice and having a cavalier attitude, we attempted to cross it with a little more speed this time. As we entered the river it's extra depth became apparent. The water rose over the hood and splashed up onto the windshield, we felt the car momentarily float and a few moments that felt much longer later, we felt the front wheels hit the rocky river bed and the duster pulled itself out of the river. Not fully unscathed as we had managed to knock the front plate off, most likely during this crossing.  I'll follow up with some more automotive related icelandic things, but for now I hope that adventure was fun to read through.
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Sep 21, 2019 22:25
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Iceland is a very beautiful country. I've been there twice for EVE Fanfest and didn't wander much outside of Reykjavik or Keflavik but I did manage to tour some of Reykjavik during my second trip because I stayed for two weeks. Next time I go I am definitely thinking about renting one of those overbuilt Hiluxes they have and just driving around the whole country.
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Sep 21, 2019 22:57
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Those pictures and that write-up are awesome. I wonder if anyone rents out anything with wider tires and low range.
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Sep 22, 2019 05:36
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That rules immensely and makes me want to go.
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Sep 22, 2019 15:02
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opengl128 posted:That rules immensely and makes me want to go.  Great writeup, I now want to visit Iceland very badly.
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Sep 22, 2019 15:11
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IOwnCalculus posted:Those pictures and that write-up are awesome. They have these vehicles they call superjeeps and they run like 44" super soft tires. Look up Arctic Trucks.
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Sep 22, 2019 15:41
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Yup, superjeeps are a thing and they're   Note: I don't remember actually seeing an actual 'Jeep' in Iceland. Plenty of Hiluxes, Mitsu's, a good number of Fords. Saw a converted military style camper with giant wheels, thing looked like it climb a mountain dead on. There's a good number of these modified vehicles running around, and they're mostly diesel as fuel prices in iceland are  , we paid around 240 isk per liter, which comes to about 7.31 USD per gallon. Our fuel costs were quite significant as we put on around 3700km of driving and averaged around 7.7l/100km with all the f-road adventuring. There's a whole spectrum of cars in iceland, from the tiny euro subcompacts up to the giant lifted trucks with all the gubbins. Most popular seems to be those Mitsubishi Pajero with a lift and fat tires, and you see some cool stuff like the air lines to the wheels and various snorkels and such. I'll have to look into renting superjeeps, from my cursory look it was that you could go on an excursion with one but not just straight up rent. There's blue car rental that has a modified land rover defender that's the closest thing I found to a modified rental. We rented with Lotus car rental and the biggest thing they have available is a hilux I believe. I'll definitely have to take a closer look as I definitely need to go back and explore more of the highlands in a more capable vehicle. Similar to the superjeep theme, I mentioned I was working on a modified wheelchair to tackle the less accessible aspects of iceland, and in that I succeeded with the Mk.1 prototype.   I bought a fat-bike that I stripped for it's tires and rims, and handed the bits to a local bike shop that sourced the hubs, axles, and did the lacing of the wheels and threw it all together. Upgraded from the thin and hard plastic wheels that came with the chair to 24x4" off road tires. Some of the more touristy attractions where very nicely paved (as kerid crater was above) and would have been fine with a standard issue wheelchair, but once you get off the beaten path or a ways away from the golden circle touristy areas, you end up with rockier or softer surfaces that would have been unpassable with the standard wheels.  Technique was to balance her on the rear wheels and that made pushing much easier. the wide tires handled surfaces like the black beach above without issue. As you can see the front castors are still the original ones and they sink in deep. Over larger loose stones it worked great as well, the fat-bike tires are kept at a relatively low pressure and they flex around any rough surface and make it much easier to traverse. For the MK2 design, I will be sourcing some more appropriate front castors and working out a brake system, as the factory one fouled on the new wheels so there was no actual brake system with this setup. With larger front castors and a bit of spacing, it'll also rake the chair a bit more backwards which will help keep more weight on the rear wheels and hopefully make the front dig in less. On the smoother trails I was able to push her being level but was always worried as we had the front wheel catch a rock and cause a tumble. A seat belt might be a good idea for a future iteration too. In any case, the chair survived and was well worth the effort and expense to make Iceland more accessible. As I may have mentioned in my write up, Iceland is a very geologically active area, they have a thin crust and there's plenty of natural hot springs around the island. Every little village has some form of hot spring pool and driving along you will see some mountains just steaming in the distance, and at times you'll find steaming rivers.  The Islands water is some of the best in the world, the tap water is straight spring water and is incredibly tasty. The hot water in iceland is all the waste water from the geothermal power generation stations, as it's natural hot spring water it has a sulfurous odor. There are actually two hot water systems, the cooler hot springs feed the hot water system directly after having done the work in the geothermal stations, but the hotter hot springs would still be scalding hot after being used for power generation so they run a water to water heat exchanger to warm up the fresh cool spring water. To prevent corrosion of piping, they add a sulfur compound to it which gives it that familiar hot water smell. Another side benefit of this is that they run the hot water piping underneath the roads in the cities so they have naturally heated roads in the winter. I personally embrace my inner tourist and while I love going off the beaten path and exploring the more raw aspects of the country, I also enjoy doing the touristy crap like taking a LARC-V tour of the glacier lagoon.  They take you into the lagoon, you get to see magnificently huge icebergs and the glacier that is producing them, and you even get to taste some 1000 year old ice.   Which brings me to the next point. Iceland is very much in its early stages of tourist development. The most popular areas near Reykjavik have been built up, but the further you venture the less safety and more at-your-own-risk things get. I remember travelling with my parents as a kid to Banff and the surrounding areas and the over the course of a decade I got to see first hand how the attractions changed, with the addition of sectioned off areas, boardwalks, signage, etc. Iceland feels like the places I visited when I was a kid, for better or worst. You can walk right up the edge of a waterfall and if you're not careful you can over the edge.  Personally I really like the freedom this gives you, but I understand the necessity as things get more popular the need for preservation and preventing people from damaging the natural beauty of the areas.  And again, getting to these places, it's incredible to see the landscape change from vivid orange and reds  To the cracked formally molten rock flows just a few minutes away  And further still, Iceland has a few quite long tunnels. The longest of which we drove was just shy of 8km long, and when they tunnel, oh boy do they tunnel. Canadian tunnels I've been through tend to be along the edge of a mountain, or shorter distances, with concrete reinforcement and ventilation shafts or openings as you go through. These looked to be blasted direclty through the center of the mountains. The only ventilation you have is the turbine fans above that push air from one entrance to the other and the only place to stop is emergency breakdown areas every couple kilometers. You're not supposed to, but... I like photos.  Which leads us to the 2nd most populated area in Iceland, Akureyri. Which has a very charming quirk where all the traffic lights are hearts for the red lights. 
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Sep 22, 2019 16:52
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Dude that wheelchair is awesome. It Also lol'ing at the extreme off-road vehicles in a place where the act is prohibited. I guess when the roads are extreme on their own?
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Sep 22, 2019 17:25
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That wheelchair is boss.
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Sep 22, 2019 18:32
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