Hard-Copy Journal for 18 June, 2013

I finished the article for The Blitz and went to Michael's to get the photo of the both of us with the car.  When I got there we wrenched on the car a little bit.  Michael had put his spark tester on one of the plugs and we found it does indeed have spark.  He then decided that we need to see if it ran, but we still haven't cleaned out the carb.  He heard of a technique of testing if a car runs without the use of a carb.  If you soak a rag in gasoline and place it over the intake, the air passing through the rag would also pull some gas vapors into the engine which, in theory, would allow the engine to run.  What could possibly go wrong?  We try it and sure as shit the car fires right up.  I was in charge of the gas rag so after about 3 or 4 seconds I pull the rag off.  The car sounded solid.  No coughing or sputtering, no visible oil leaks, and the exhausts sound great.  I think we're going to keep the exhaust.  We tried it a second time, but there was some blow-back through the intake which caught the rag on fire.  I threw the rag on the ground, blew out the fire on the intake, then stamped out the rag.  Apparently using a gas-soaked rag as a makeshift carburetor isn't the best of ideas.  Anyway, we learned two things about the car.  First, it runs so we don't have to buy another engine.  Second, flame leaps up through the intake.  This is not ideal.  We'll have to figure out why later.

After the fire fiasco we decided to curb the rest of the work today.  I also had a class to get to.  He took me to lunch where he reviewed the article I wrote.  We also discussed ideas for the theme of our car since so many people have already done the A-Team theme.  These ideas can be found on the last page of this notebook.  We also made a To-Do list for the remainder of June.

To Do List For June:

•     Get the carburetor from my Opel so we can test the engine for the LeMon Opel.
•     Try to get the brakes good enough so we can move and stop it easier.
•     Finish Stripping the interior.
•     Test the transmission and clutch.

 COSTS SO FAR:
=========================
LeMons Budgeted Items:
     Previous
               $300
     Today
          None
               $0
     Total Expenses
               $300
     Budget Remaining
               $200
=========================
Off Budget Items:
     Previous
               $0
     Today  
          None
               $0
     Total Expenses
               $0
=========================
     Misc. Items
     Previous
               $1,240
     Today
          None
               $0
     Total Expenses
               $1,240
=========================
     Grand Total Expense:
                $1,540 

::Theme Ideas::

This is how we brainstormed to get the idea for Project Phoenix.