Eurotrash Motorsports

Last saturday, Jeff and I decided it was time to change the front brakes on the truck.  We were ever right!  The rotors were rotten, the pads were rotten, and everything was seized together.  After 15 minutes with a sledgehammer, and still not being able to remove the driver side front rotor, we covered it in WD-40 and waited another 15 minutes.  After that, it practically just fell off when we touched it!  We learned our lesson for the passenger side, and went straight for th WD-40.  Worked like a charm!  In no time, the brakes were chaged and we were ready to burnish them.

 

Our next brake challenge was bleeding the fluid in the BMW.  Technically, this should have been done before my day at Calabogie… but you won’t tell right?  Anyways, better late than never.  We expected a challenge, as niether of us had ever done it before, and we were worried about stripping the seemingly seized on bleeder screws.  We raised the car up on jack stands, and removed all the wheels.  Starting with the longest system (the furthest from the master cylinder), we bled the passenger rear.  Jeff and I developped a pretty good system of him pumping the pedal, and me working the bleeder screw.  The first pulse of fluid coming out of that caliper was scary -  it looked like used motor oil!  After what seemed like forever, we saw clear again!  Moving to the driver rear, then the passenger front, and finally the driver front, we completed our brake flush with no real problems!  We’d be ready for the AutoX in Shannonville on tuesday! 

 

With Jeff on vacation for the next few weeks, you’ll have to be patient with the pictures, but don’t worry, they’ll come!

Ok I left a teaser here a couple of weeks ago and completely forgot about it. Better late than never :)

As Shawn mentioned in a previous post, Metric Homes has generously donated the use of one of their company trucks and trailers. The donation was a two-way deal however. Basically if we could fix the truck for a good price, we’d get to use it and the trailer at our leisure.

To give you a bit of background information on the truck, it is a 1998 Ford F-150 XLT Flareside (smaller box). It has a 5.4L Tritan V8 engine and has seen it’s share of miles on the road.

We used the truck for one event as a baseline to see how the truck would hold up while towing a loaded car-hauler.

After that first event the following issues became clear:

1. The exhaust was toast
2. Two out of the four tires were done
3. There was something loose in the front end that would cause a “death shake” if you were traveling over 80 km/h

We knew how to fix the first two issues but the last one through Shawn and I for a loop. After a quick trip to our friends at J&R Auto, we were told that it could be the tie rod ends but in order to get a proper diagnosis, we should replace the two worn tires. We were also told by our mechanic that he had never seen or felt anything like that shake and was genuinely scared – comforting right ?

Shawn and I spent some time that next week shopping around for tires and ended picking up two Toyo Open Country H/T  (265/70 R17) tires from Talon Tires in Montreal. The next item on our list was the exhaust system. Most of the parts we’ve purchased to date for the car have come from No Limits Autoparts so we figured we’d give them a call about an exhaust for the truck. Dealing with them was SUPER easy and the next day, Shawn picked up our new Walker Bolt on replacement 2.5 inch catback system.

Replacing  the exhaust was a true test of determination. Assembling the new system took all of 5 minutes. However, removing the remainder of the original system took the better part of 2 hours. What had happened was the original system rotted and broke off after the catalytic converter and the portion that remained had been clamped down so hard that the pipe diameter had constricted. As a result, Shawn and I spent the rest of our afternoon grinding, torching, and heaving on this little two foot piece of pipe until it finally came loose.

After completing the work on the exhaust, getting the tires swapped, and having an inspection performed by a Ford dealership, we took the truck back to J&R to have the work done.

In the end, the “death shake” in the front end was caused by (get this) there being TEN LITRES of water in the passenger side front tire. TEN LITRES!!!  We don’t know how it got there but we figure someone forgot to drain their compressor and it just blew the water in with the air when we filled up the tires.

Two tie-rod ends were also replaced and an alignment was performed.

So for now, the truck is fixed. After replacing the exhaust, however, it became clear that there is most likely a leak in the exhaust manifold that will have to be addressed when we perform our regualr engine maintenance.

Make sure to check out our video page for more info about the exhaust work.

Stay tuned for more!