Blog entries tagged Auto

This year Theta Formal was in Dubuque on the Miss Dubuque dinner boat, which was nice... definitely something different than normal. It was funny because a few of the girls had just gotten back from a Carribean Cruise, so they thought that our small dinner boat was HILARIOUS.... it's a friggin dinner boat on the Mississippi and it costs $35 a person, what do you expect? It's sorta like how my car is really really funny to ride in after riding on a bus.... err... wait.

Anyway, while on the boat, I spilled a drink on myself and Kari spilled marinara sauce on her dress, we rule. After that we all went back to our hotel where we swam and hung out. It was fun and some of the thetas are 'slightly above average,' so that makes the 'not …

"Ah, come on farva, man! Same team! Same team! What's Thorny gonna say, Rook?!"
-Super Troopers

Ever since I moved to Des Moines, almost every time I drive to Mount Vernon on a Friday, I am behind a cop. And almost every time it's a cop out of its jurisdiction. Later, I found out that there is some place in Johnston or something that trains Officers... so I'm assuming that the cops I follow are all leaving from this training.

So Anyway, today I was driving to Mount Vernon behind 2 cops: the first from Davenport and the second from Muscatine. We were going about 80 mph for a while and then my radar detector started going off. So I hit the brakes and see an Iowa State Trooper on the side. The cop pulls out and I immediately …

This morning started off awesome when I was getting on the interstate from University to go to work. There were 2 semis and quite a few other cars about 6 feet apart and no one seemed to notice my turn signal (which made it impossible to merge). Naturally, ultra road rage kicked in. At this point I glanced forward and saw that the light was green at the end of the ramp to get back off of the interstate, so I floored it down the ramp and came back up onto the interstate from Hickman.

At this time, I just felt like catching up to everyone that wouldn't let me in so I could cut each and every one of them off, haha, I am a loser. So I'm doing 85-90 weaving through the 3 lanes of traffic that make up Interstate 80/35 in …

This afternoon I installed new upper intercooler piping and a Greddy Type S Blow off valve on the car. It was actually a pretty easy install. I did it in about an hour and a half and it turned out really well. Here is the old version, and here is what it looks like now.

I also helped Nathan install some mirrors on his accord. It needed them pretty badly. The new ones are power and have turn signals in them, which is dope. It was interesting hooking the mirrors to his existing power controls, especially since the box that it came with was from another country and every word was spelled wrong... The turn signal lights were pretty easy once we got a wiring diagram from Grimes Automotive, but routing the wires into the car sucked sooo …

So the first step to any serious engine modifications is to install a means of monitoring what's going on. This is simply to make sure anything you install doesn't cause you're car to die, blow up, etc and also so you can tune it to get the best performance possible. Last night I took the first step in ordering some new gauges.

After days of searching I decided to go with a set of Autometer Phantom gauges. They have a good rep and cost less than $180 per gauge (like Apexi and Greddy). The first gauge that I needed was a Boost/turbo gauge. Most of the time, if your car has a turbo, the stock turbo gauge is crap and doesn't give accurate readings. The second gauge that I wanted was oil pressure, which is a pretty common gauge to get for …

So I'm driving home from work all speed demon, road rage style and I'm in the fast lane of "Interstate 80" doing 85 or so. I come up on this semi doing about 65, with a motor home next to it doing about 70.... the far right lane was open, so I punched the gas to the floor to dart accross 3 lanes in between a motor home and the truck behind it... As soon as I hit the gas my car jumped once (cause the turbo kicked in hard)... and then it jumped right back down, vibrated, and just wanted to coast for the rest of the day. Luckily, I still had enough speed to squeeze through the hole and over to the right lane. I then coasted off the shoulder, parked and started calling for rides.

After I got a hold of my uncle to come pick me up, I got out …

I get so many emails about this and I'm sick of rewriting it, so here is a small tutorial on how to convert your Eagle Talon to use Eclipse body kits. It's actually not too tough. Here's what you will need (parts):

eclipse tail lights

eclipse head lights

eclipse reverse lights

eclipse body kit (of course)

15 feet of 12 guage wire

I think that's pretty much it, however you might have to pick up some bolts here and there.

The front bumper cover is kinda tough because it requires the most customization (if you're keeping the actual bumper on, otherwise it's easy). I decided to keep my front bumper in case I get into a wreck. To do this you'll have to cut the corners off of the actual bumper so your cover will go over it. …