Greetings and welcome!
I sure wish I had a better trail update for today, but the weather isn’t playing along. For now we are out of business until it snows at least 6-12″.
The only hope apparent for that is the nine or ten clippers or small disturbances showing up on the 16 day GFS forecast model. Today we will kick off the parade with about a half inch to an inch possible. The NWS says some freezing drizzle is possible mixed in there too.
Some of the clippers look bigger with a couple of inches possible, some look weaker, and will probably only bring light snow.
One thing that is pretty certain is that next week will be a cold one. I am seeing upper air temps in the -4 to -13F range, and with clear nights I’d expect at least that for low temperatures some nights. Many daily high temps next week will be in the single digits or low teens.
As I said yesterday, the best part of it is getting some frost in the ground and a solid ice layer on lakes. That has been progressing well already with almost no snow on the lakes and hit and miss snow cover on the ground.
Next week’s cold might bring the chance to hear the ice on the lakes ‘singing’. As it expands it makes strange noises. About the best that I can describe it is if someone yelled “Bew” into a culvert pipe at different pitches. It echos thorough the lake valley and sometimes you can hear it run all of the way down the lake. It is already doing that, but on the really cold nights it is more frequent.
Progress on the RXL has been hit and miss. The miss was the EFI interface chip that would let it talk to my laptop and help me set up sensors. I dropped the ball and ordered the wrong chip, getting a UART instead of a TTL signal level. I can put a low cost translator IC chip in line and make it work, or get another interface chip that has it. It works now, just not well. The right one is already on order.
The hit was doing a fuel pressure test last night. The pump tested out ok, but the fuel rail wouldn’t hold pressure for even a second or two, indicating a bad pressure regulator. That would explain the symptoms.
The regulator is an NLA part, but I have one on the shelf that might be good. If not, then it is time to get creative. There are aftermarket adjustable regulators with gauges available pretty cheap, and that would allow me control of the fuel rail pressure, adding a lean/rich adjustment. The hardest part would be adapting it to the fuel rail with a flange or some machining. I will be looking into that the next time I get a chance at some shop time, hopefully later today.
Art asked about the time and date of this weekend’s benefit. It is Saturday and it starts at 4pm. For more information click the thumbnail of the poster and it will enlarge to a readable size. You can also get more info on the FaceBook page Benefit For Dale.
Have a good Wednesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB