grease under the nails

still...

Okay barely noticeable a few days and lots of dishes later. Friday was the Timing belt day. The thing I had forgotten, was just how much sh!t needs to be removed to get to the belt. But, it all came apart, all went back together, sort of smoothly, not rushed but it still took a while. Pulled into the barn around 10:30 or so. Got the tools unloaded, sorted out, space cleared to work in and started around 11am. Worked pretty much straight at a moderate pace, until about 3pm when the car fired right up the first time. I did a couple extra things like take the glow plugs out so it is easier to turn the engine over to line up the pump, camshaft and crankshaft. Then after it started I did a quick oil change. Toss in a fuel filter change and that was about everything. Pretty dirty, and no, for some reason i've never been able to work as well with gloves on. Sometimes I'll wear the mechanix gloves. Heck I picked up a pair from Ocean State Job lot for $8 on tuesday for the work. And then those nitrile gloves. Hands get too sweaty and I can't feel the bolts and nuts and stuff. Need to feel. So i generally get dirty. Kept it mostly to my hands and face (working under and wiping sweat = dirt on exposed skin).

It was fun being a mechanic again. Kind of remembered fondly all those get-to-gethers in michigan and around when I was mostly focused on cars instead of bikes. Instead of racing I'd go help work on cars once or twice a month through the year. It always seemed to be most frequent in the winter. More often than not we seemed to be crawling under and over cars on frozen concrete slabs of pole barns or garage floors. Didn't have to worry about waiting for the engine too cool off before taking it apart. But this time was a solo adventure. Might have been the first time I've done a timing belt with out someone either watching or helping, usually more than one or two. This was just me. And my own set of tools. No borrowing the odd one from someone to make the job easier. Heck I managed to add an extra 30 minutes at least when I left my Serpentine belt tensioner tool at the house. Sort of managed to get it back together after dropping the 12" crescent wrench on myself once or twice (that son of a bitch is heavy). Timing was bang on exactly where it was when I last changed it (forgot to check before i took it all apart - but based on the smell from the exhaust and the engine smoothness - it was probably slightly retarded, the timing that is). Just a moment of clarification: retarded and advanced are two terms for talking about the timing of the injection, advanced is early and retarded is late. Advanced generally means better power and fuel economy at a slightly higher combustion temperature meaning it runs a bit leaner and cleaner and burns some Nitrogen as well as fuel. Retarded is less powerful, tends to not burn the fuel completely or at as high of a temperature making more soot (incomplete combustion) but doesn't burn as much nitrogen. More power better economy and less soot is generally where the car (ECU) wants the engine to run. And for the most part as long as the static mechanical setting (timing belt alignment) is good and in a certain range, well then the fuel pump can adjust the timing where ever it needs. Anyway. It is pretty cool stuff. Rather simple and elegant. And so much more exciting than spark ignition systems.

And the other thing that hit me, well more of a slow realization. I haven't worked on the car in this physical shape. As a result i wasn't totally wrecked the day after. Legs were fine for racing. I think just riding on Monday and not at all the rest of the week and the single track on the course played a bigger part in my results than anything else on Saturday.

I did manage to give myself a bit of tendinitis in my left shoulder. Pretty severe inflammation/pain in the upper bicep tendon. Fortunately as most cyclists know from their tiny bicepts, ya don't use em much on the bike. And at least it was the left shoulder, not the right shoulder so there was zero pain from lifting the bike or running with it on my shoulder. But man. It hurts. And I know this pain. I've had it before. But it seems to be getting better a bit faster than in the past. When I was way out of shape they gave me MRIs, and lots of vitamin I but everytime i thought it was getting better I would stop taking the Vitamin I, only to find a week later after the last of the ibuprofen has washed out of my system that I was in just as much pain as before, and then it would take a whole week for the Vitamin Ibuprofen to build up enough in my system to have any effect on the inflammation or the pain. Sucked.

But hey at least I can still ride. And after getting the car put back together Saturday was slated to be a great race. Wet, raining, and close. Only about 35-40 minutes from the house. So nice. More on that later. It sounds like Shedd Park was pretty Epic this year. Sunday we just made Crepes and went to ballet and the farm and hung out and watched some football. Tried to stay up and watch the Cowboys and the Skins but I fell asleep somewhere in the 3rd quarter...

will write up the race later... and what a great race it was. My strengths are really not weaving between trees on little single track sections, but it still was fun. Wet and slick and muddy, and raining, and a beer after the race as a recovery drink. What more could ya want.

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