Well, I figure a moment like this deserves a brand new thread.
As you may remember, I was getting ready to go to pump out the methanol from the Z06 where it is stored for the winter and to add the WW fluid.
First thanks to Arun and Colin for helping me get my head wrapped around this. I had one technical issue that I only had an idea for this morning when I was walking - that being how to seal the drain hose onto the end of the braided methanol line. It came to me when I was walking that I would try using tape.
So rather than trying to suck all the methanol out of the tank I went with the recommendation of removing the braided hose on the injector fitting instead.
Let me take you back a few days.
I bought some bookshelves in GP about 2 hours away from here. Trips get made often and in this case my dad was going there and so mom said that they could bring the bookshelves to my place for me. I buy and read a not of history books and some of these tomes are heavy and it is not uncommon to bow the shelves but solid bookshelves are expensive. These are a matched pair that are 4 feet wide but unusually have a center vertical piece so that the individual shelves themselves have a shorter distance in between where they are fastened so it is less likely to bow. Lets say that I'm about as fussy with my books as Manny is with having his shop clean and tidy. So, this starts to go wrong when mom calls me to tell me that dad said he's only going to bring back one of the bookshelves first as they won't fit lying down between the box fenders of the truck. Of course I reply that as the shelf is only 12" deep and it has to go vertically on its side there is plenty of room for the two of them in between the fenders and that she "needs to find something big and heavy to beat some sense into dad". Alas no bookshelves arrive. My mood, while it may seem silly, is very black at this point.
I don't hear from mom or dad until Sunday night when I elect not to even take their phone calls and yes I know, pretty juvenile of me. So be it, I'd rather not talk with them while I'm this PO'ed.
So back to the methanol.
So I arrive and oh joy find that the battery minder has been working its job and that the door opens, I pop the hood, locate the line (much excitement!!) and try to put the larger ID sized hose I have with me - I was smart enough to bring two different sizes. It will almost fit but not quite. So I manage to stretch it a bit using a deep wall socket and finally get it on. Good thing it was only about -2 at this point as plastic becomes a bear to work with. I also wrap the area with tape as per my plan. As a precaution to check for leaks I wrap a piece of paper towel around where the tape was put.
I hop inside the car, open the Akly Control door (where Manny did such a clever job of mounting it too), hit the key without starting the car, wait for the chimes to die and hit the "test" button - I am expecting to hear the pump whine and see methanol come through the line. NOTHING!
However black/sad/depressed I was feeling it got worse.
At this point my cell phone rings and while I know it is mom or dad I decide to answer it and indeed it is mom.
Back to the bookshelf story now. They are going back into GP on Wednesday as Dad has some engineering stuff to do. It now gets more complicated. Now I have to go along myself since my Aunt has a doctors appointment in GP and as she never bothered to get her driver's license in her life other people have to drive her. In this case guess who?? So now not only do I still have to go to GP to get the bookshelves which is something that I had hoped to avoid doing myself, but I just became a taxi service as well which could entail many stops at various stores on the way home.
My cell phone dies at this point..............
Had I known this I would have picked the bookshelves up myself last week and avoided all of this.
Back to the methanol. My stories are never simple eh! So I go back to my old office with Manny's business card in hand to call Manny for help with this matter. Dave answers (and thanks for all your patience too Dave!) and so he gets stuck dealing with me.
Dave tells me that actually the red diode light on the Alky control should be coming on whenever you turn the key on - nope I tell him, no light. So we talk more and I'm thinking it must be a lack or power, maybe a fuse failed. So Dave talks me through where everything is and so off I go back to the car. This time I remember to take out the headlamp that I have for my son to read with in the dark so I can see better. I find the fuse box, there are three wires including the black one with the red end attached together and I follow this one back to the fuse. It appears that it might not be plugged in all the way (hope!!) so I push the two ends together and hop back into the car. With the headlamp on I look into the space where the Alky Control it installed and my heart basically stops.
Someone has turned the dial to the "zero" of "off" position!!
Now harken back to April when I went to Manny's to test drive the car and Manny told me "Never turn the dial" and of course I never have. No one else has ever driven the car nor been in the car when I was not in it. While I can not think this conclusively, my only assumption is that the car was only ever out of my hands once - when the fuel pump failed and it went to the locak GM dealer to be replaced. We know how that experience went for those of you that read that thread.
I can not figure out why they would tinker with that knob at all but I can't think of any other time it could have happened. I do remember that the knob was set between 6 and 7 and so I turn it to that and hit the key.
Nothing.............
So I start the car. For one thing the noise inside a garage almost scares teh daylights out of me and a huge smile comes over my face.
Better yet, the red Alky Control light is on now!!!!!!!!!!
So I can see the hose, push the test button and methanol starts to flow!!
Happiness!
So I stop the car after a while and check my paper towel. It is wet, but not dripping. I have this vision of the car bursting into flames and my house burning down at the same time.............so I replace the paper towel and start the car and push the button again. I have visions of methanol spraying all over the headers at this point! So I stop the car again, put a new paper towel in place and repeat until it stops flowing.
Then I add the WW fluid and hit the test button and then get out and confirm that the container has blue fluid in it which it does! Oh joy, the methanol has been drained, WW fluid added and run through the system.
The car didn't explode or burn and my house is still standing. I feel a certain sense of accomplishment.
But I am left with one final unanswered question.........
Can you guess? And I probably need to address this to Manny or Arun.
How critical is the Akly Control knob setting? Are things totally screwed up now? Like I said, I remember it was between 6 or 7 (I think) but not where it was exactly. How critical is the setting??
And thus my story ends. A small victory and hopefully some good news from Manny or Arun later and I would be feeling much better about things.
Outside of my bookshelves anyway - LOL!
Cheers,
Garry
As you may remember, I was getting ready to go to pump out the methanol from the Z06 where it is stored for the winter and to add the WW fluid.
First thanks to Arun and Colin for helping me get my head wrapped around this. I had one technical issue that I only had an idea for this morning when I was walking - that being how to seal the drain hose onto the end of the braided methanol line. It came to me when I was walking that I would try using tape.
So rather than trying to suck all the methanol out of the tank I went with the recommendation of removing the braided hose on the injector fitting instead.
Let me take you back a few days.
I bought some bookshelves in GP about 2 hours away from here. Trips get made often and in this case my dad was going there and so mom said that they could bring the bookshelves to my place for me. I buy and read a not of history books and some of these tomes are heavy and it is not uncommon to bow the shelves but solid bookshelves are expensive. These are a matched pair that are 4 feet wide but unusually have a center vertical piece so that the individual shelves themselves have a shorter distance in between where they are fastened so it is less likely to bow. Lets say that I'm about as fussy with my books as Manny is with having his shop clean and tidy. So, this starts to go wrong when mom calls me to tell me that dad said he's only going to bring back one of the bookshelves first as they won't fit lying down between the box fenders of the truck. Of course I reply that as the shelf is only 12" deep and it has to go vertically on its side there is plenty of room for the two of them in between the fenders and that she "needs to find something big and heavy to beat some sense into dad". Alas no bookshelves arrive. My mood, while it may seem silly, is very black at this point.
I don't hear from mom or dad until Sunday night when I elect not to even take their phone calls and yes I know, pretty juvenile of me. So be it, I'd rather not talk with them while I'm this PO'ed.
So back to the methanol.
So I arrive and oh joy find that the battery minder has been working its job and that the door opens, I pop the hood, locate the line (much excitement!!) and try to put the larger ID sized hose I have with me - I was smart enough to bring two different sizes. It will almost fit but not quite. So I manage to stretch it a bit using a deep wall socket and finally get it on. Good thing it was only about -2 at this point as plastic becomes a bear to work with. I also wrap the area with tape as per my plan. As a precaution to check for leaks I wrap a piece of paper towel around where the tape was put.
I hop inside the car, open the Akly Control door (where Manny did such a clever job of mounting it too), hit the key without starting the car, wait for the chimes to die and hit the "test" button - I am expecting to hear the pump whine and see methanol come through the line. NOTHING!
However black/sad/depressed I was feeling it got worse.
At this point my cell phone rings and while I know it is mom or dad I decide to answer it and indeed it is mom.
Back to the bookshelf story now. They are going back into GP on Wednesday as Dad has some engineering stuff to do. It now gets more complicated. Now I have to go along myself since my Aunt has a doctors appointment in GP and as she never bothered to get her driver's license in her life other people have to drive her. In this case guess who?? So now not only do I still have to go to GP to get the bookshelves which is something that I had hoped to avoid doing myself, but I just became a taxi service as well which could entail many stops at various stores on the way home.
My cell phone dies at this point..............
Had I known this I would have picked the bookshelves up myself last week and avoided all of this.
Back to the methanol. My stories are never simple eh! So I go back to my old office with Manny's business card in hand to call Manny for help with this matter. Dave answers (and thanks for all your patience too Dave!) and so he gets stuck dealing with me.
Dave tells me that actually the red diode light on the Alky control should be coming on whenever you turn the key on - nope I tell him, no light. So we talk more and I'm thinking it must be a lack or power, maybe a fuse failed. So Dave talks me through where everything is and so off I go back to the car. This time I remember to take out the headlamp that I have for my son to read with in the dark so I can see better. I find the fuse box, there are three wires including the black one with the red end attached together and I follow this one back to the fuse. It appears that it might not be plugged in all the way (hope!!) so I push the two ends together and hop back into the car. With the headlamp on I look into the space where the Alky Control it installed and my heart basically stops.
Someone has turned the dial to the "zero" of "off" position!!
Now harken back to April when I went to Manny's to test drive the car and Manny told me "Never turn the dial" and of course I never have. No one else has ever driven the car nor been in the car when I was not in it. While I can not think this conclusively, my only assumption is that the car was only ever out of my hands once - when the fuel pump failed and it went to the locak GM dealer to be replaced. We know how that experience went for those of you that read that thread.
I can not figure out why they would tinker with that knob at all but I can't think of any other time it could have happened. I do remember that the knob was set between 6 and 7 and so I turn it to that and hit the key.
Nothing.............
So I start the car. For one thing the noise inside a garage almost scares teh daylights out of me and a huge smile comes over my face.
Better yet, the red Alky Control light is on now!!!!!!!!!!
So I can see the hose, push the test button and methanol starts to flow!!
Happiness!
So I stop the car after a while and check my paper towel. It is wet, but not dripping. I have this vision of the car bursting into flames and my house burning down at the same time.............so I replace the paper towel and start the car and push the button again. I have visions of methanol spraying all over the headers at this point! So I stop the car again, put a new paper towel in place and repeat until it stops flowing.
Then I add the WW fluid and hit the test button and then get out and confirm that the container has blue fluid in it which it does! Oh joy, the methanol has been drained, WW fluid added and run through the system.
The car didn't explode or burn and my house is still standing. I feel a certain sense of accomplishment.
But I am left with one final unanswered question.........
Can you guess? And I probably need to address this to Manny or Arun.
How critical is the Akly Control knob setting? Are things totally screwed up now? Like I said, I remember it was between 6 or 7 (I think) but not where it was exactly. How critical is the setting??
And thus my story ends. A small victory and hopefully some good news from Manny or Arun later and I would be feeling much better about things.
Outside of my bookshelves anyway - LOL!
Cheers,
Garry
