Brian's Blog

Tiny Diesel – Tiny Engine Bay

Brian — Mon, 21 May 2012 01:45:49 +0000

For for the first time in a long time, I’ve had a chance to do a little automotive maintenance. Fritz was overdue for an oil change according to the windshield sticker. (I know I haven’t ever changed it) The oil pan was surrounded by a thick plastic pan with gaskets— It’s apparent purpose is to collect oil and let it seep out of all areas to create a bigger mess. That was the first part to go in my ‘not gonna go back on this car’ pile. It uses a massive oil filter, and it is plenty hard to get to.
Next thing I wanted to tackle was to clean out the intake manifold. These engines are bad about clogging up the manifold to the point it chokes off the incoming air. This is a result of the oily engine blow-by mixed with the sooty EGR gas. Getting everything off to get to the manifold bolts was bad enough, but getting to them was entirely harder than it needed to be. I ran into a part I’ve never seen before: an EGR cooler. It looks expensive. Check out the pictures below to see how much gunk was built up. It was pretty bad. I got it all cleaned up and put back together… now I can move on to the next thing that needs fixin’ on Fritz.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Re-Elect Barack Obama!

Brian — Sun, 20 May 2012 15:36:10 +0000

If anyone is considering voting for BO after knowing just a few simple facts shown in this video, I beg you to provide me a reasoned argument why you think this is a good choice.

Why We Must Re-elect Obama!

We Need More Engineers and Fewer Lawyers

Brian — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:08:07 +0000

“In the midst of Congressional races around the country, one stands out to techies. Thomas Massie, an MIT whiz kid who pioneered touch-based interfaces and founded SensAble Technologies in the 1990s, is the favorite to win the Republican nomination in his Kentucky district next week. SensAble was recently sold on the cheap, but in a new exclusive, Massie explains why he left the haptics firm years ago to lead a simpler life of farming, family, and guns — lots of guns. Along the way he built a solar-powered, off-the-grid house and became a local hero of the Tea Party. Now Massie is leading the charge to get more engineers into politics, and if he wins, he could be a force to be reckoned with in Washington, DC.” (from slashdot)

From MIT Entrepreneur to Tea Party Leader: The Thomas Massie Story - Gregory T. Huang

“We need more engineers and fewer lawyers” in politics. As Massie explains, “Lawyers are taught to take a position, whether it’s right or wrong ideologically, and defend it—to go collect facts to support it. Whereas engineers are taught the inverse of that, they’re taught to collect facts and then come up with an answer based on the facts. He said, ‘That’s the kind of thought process we need more of in government.’ On the stump, that’s what I’m trying to convey, that we need more problem solvers in Washington, DC.”

Republicans Don’t Want a Constitutionalist

Brian — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:17:44 +0000

The problem we have and have always had but is usually out of sight, is the corruption within the Republican party. They do not want anyone, assuming any office, local, state, or federal, who is a Constitutionalist; and will go to many many lengths to see that that never happens.

Corruption of the Republican Party

Flying around Possum Kingdom Lake

Brian — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:58:39 +0000

My company goes to great expense to do some really cool things for their employees. Two weeks ago it was my group’s turn for our employee appreciation event. We went out to a public airstrip at Possum Kingdom lake and met a few pilots that brought a few airplanes and we climbed in and flew them around for a while! Here are a few pictures I brought back with me:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]