Home again and I meet another Samurai Enthusiast

Monday, Aug 1

Happy Colorado Day!  Thought about doing the usual compiling of Colorado pictures over the last year; but it turned out not many pictures available!

After an hour and 20 minute delay due to personnel issues on the part of United Airlines (sick flight attendant); we managed to leave Kauai and survived the 6.5 hour long plane ride home at almost 8:30PM HST.

We got back to the overcrowded cesspool that is Denver at 7:30 AM MDT (I think), my mind was fuzzy from the uncomfortable sleep positions I tried after dinner on the plane.  I don't think I slept more than a few minutes at a time before some pain caused me to shift positions.  Oh well.

The Things picked us up and we all went home without further incident.  I was wiped out and after some light unpacking and a light breakfast, crashed till mid-afternoon.  Martha, on the other hand, powered on to her first day of the new school season!

Tuesday, Aug 2

I drove the Sammy to a new mechanic's shop: Big Nick's Gasoline & Diesel Repair.  The shop is the one that recently replaced Thing Two's truck's radiator and they had good reviews from neighborhood friends.  So I decided to have them do the radiator flush on the Sammy, see what kind of vibes I would get from them since I'd not met "Big Nick" before.

The shop is only a 12 minute walk from home, so conveniently located.

Turns out, he's a Samurai Enthusiast!  He looked over the Sammy and remarked on how good a condition she seemed to be, cosmetically of course.  I dropped the Sammy off, and would have it back about an hour later.  No issues, radiator flush done, and good vibes received about Big Nick and his operation.

The Sammy awaiting her radiator's flushing,

kind of looks like she's smiling eh?

Nick also showed me his son's Samurai rig:

Yeah, not street legal...

The above rig started life as a Suzuki Samurai but has been quite modified.  It's got a Toyota Engine in it, giving it an additional 85 HP and is the most easy, drop-in, engine swap for a Sammy.  It's also now an automatic transmission vehicle.  

Since they were going to drain the old coolant from the Sammy, I asked Nick to also remove the old carburetor's thermal choke which I'd left in place when I removed the old carburetor.  

Now, the choke is gone, and it's a single hose forming a loop for the coolant to just flow through:

Tomorrow, I plan to drive the Sammy over 100 miles to stress test the cooling system after it being flushed.  I'm also trying out a way to carry more gas with me in the cargo area of the Sammy:

The ROK straps hold it securely, the wood base should prevent rubbing damage on the bottom.  If it spills, its not on the side with the exhaust pipe and it's open to the air of course.

If the above proof of concept works tomorrow, I'll make it a bit more clean in terms of straps and such.

Oh, also found a minor leak on the gas tubing leading from fuel filter to the Sammy's gas line.  Replaced, and no more leaks.  The Toyota 3K carburetor continues to run great.