Welcome to the projects page. Below are summaries of all the various projects I have worked or are working on. Some are automotive related, some are from when I was in school and other are just useful information. Each project has its own detailed page which can be accessed via the description or the links on the left.
I've never been afraid to think outside the box and even though I am an engineer I am not naive enough to think man knows everything or even most things. Indeed we do know a lot, but truth is stranger than fiction and just when we think we have it all figured out, Mother Nature will come along to let us know we are wrong. We should never be afraid to grow and learn. Hopefully with some of these projects you can grow and learn too.
As I am a bit of a motor head, you can see quite a few of my projects relate to cars and trucks I am working on. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments.
1978 Chevrolet K10 Restoration
This was my summer of 1999 project, to rebuild and restore my old 1978 K10 pickup. Overall it turned out well. I learned a lot and that when you cut a corner to save some time and money, you end up going back and doing it again. It was a lot of fun, but as I did this when I was home from college for the summer, I needed to finish it in 3-1/2 months. Never again will I try and do a project like this on such a short time frame. It was the one thing that made it somewhat unenjoyable at times. Check it out.
This is my current project vehicle. I cannot just buy what I would want; I can only build what I want, so here is what I am starting with. I picked this up for $3200 complete. It did not run but was a complete car and all the numbers matched (not that it really matters much to me). This will be a highly modded and rodded Corvette. Subtle that you won't know at first glace, but obvious when I roar past you. I am planning a LS1 or later power plant, 6 speed manual, EFI, at least a late C4 suspension but possibly an entire C5 drivetrain transplant. Interior will have a custom gauge panel, all the power options, GPS, and I will indeed be getting rid of those vacuum operated headlights (you know the ones that stick and you end up with one light up and one down) in favor of electric actuators. The plan is a dark metallic blue with dual white racing stripes that wrap the car. Check it out.
I tried the Singh grooves on my 1995 K1500. I ended up doing it twice as the first time it didn't work out as I would have liked. The second time this was the only vehicle I had registered or insured. When a mistake of antifreeze having drained down the exhaust manifold (I didn't know) made me think something was terribly wrong when I started it up (think lots of white smoke that wouldn't stop), I realized why you never experiment on your primary (or in this case ONLY) means of transportation. Quite the fool I felt when the mechanic told me he could find anything and I just needed to let it run and burn off the antifreeze trapped in the cat converter. Check it out.
Due to my diligent documentation on the Singh Groove Experiment on my personal vehicle, I was approached by Mr. Singh and an associate of is in August of 2006 to do some definative testing of the groove concept. To that end I built a custom dynamometer and ran some very detailed tests on grooves in a 3 cylinder Geo Metro engine. Put on you Engineering Hat as these reports get quite technical.
I may like a lot of old school things when it comes to cars and street rod design, but carburetors are not one of them. EFI is that way to go, especially a fully programmable EFI. My old '78 needed to be upgraded so out went the old Edelbrock carburetor and on went a GM TBI and a MegaSquirt!. After I tuned it fairly well, I took it on its maiden voyage from NJ to Ann Arbor MI for one of the first MegaSquirt meets. It ran like a champ both there and back. (Although that new POS PepBoys alternator almost left me stranded, that's why they are so inexpensive, they are significantly lacking in assembly quality).
This was taken from the September 2000 issue of GM High Tech Performance. It is a good comparison of various GM and aftermarket heads. All heads were flow tested at various lifts and then compared. This gives a good indication of how the heads flow at full lift as well as during different lifts giving us an idea at how well they breathe overall. Check it out.
This was a condenser unit I built for on my 1978 Truck. Basically it traps any water vapor, oil or crud coming out of the crankcase before its sucked back into the engine on the PCV port on the carb/TBI. This should help keep the exhaust cleaner as well as keep moisture from building up inside the engine. Additionally there was a small catalyst chamber to use to help breakdown the oil and gunk into lighter hydrocarbons that could be sucked back into the engine and burned. Most modern oils are resistant to this as they are engineered to resist breakdown. Still it is an interesting device. Check it out.
This was a unit I played with briefly from Bruce McBurney's book. I haven't done much with it for quite a while. Interesting to look at though. Check it out.
