Oil and Belts

On Saturday Monkey and I started the Stage zero work on the R.
We started an oil change with Mobile 1.
While under the R I notice that I am also in need of a drivers side CV boot.




Once the engine cooled down to a non flesh searing temperature we started on the belts.
Because the B5234T5 "White Block" is an interference engine, getting the timing belt replaced was VERY HIGH on my list of things to get checked taken care of.



Moving the expansion tank helps access to the belts and tensioners.

When I ordered my timing belt from IPD I also got the Cam Locking Tool.
The tool was expensive for a rarely used item but cheap for insurance.





The next things on the list will be plugs, wires, distributor, coil, and not so much stage zero but a cold air kit.

On Sunday Kevin and I worked on the interior of my car. Kevin did most of the work on the interior because he has the skill and is anal enough to get it done correctly and I'm so damn ADD that I couldn't, ohh Zombie Land movie preview... Now what was I saying ? Oh, ya. Kevin did most of the work on the interior and I cleaned my wheels until broke the Black-Magic-Bullet that he bought. Mental note: If you are going to break a wheel cleaning tool, clean the owners wheels first.

Volvos New and Old

I dove up to Kansas City on the 11th to see Kevin and to go to the Heart of America Volvo Club group photo shoot at the Airline History Museum.

There were 16 Volvos there (only 14 pictured).

It was a VERY unique opportunity to be able to shoot my/our cars with a 1958 Lockheed Super G Constellation, model L-1049G .




After the shoot was finished the group went to Winslow's BBQ for some eats and general bullshitting. The club has a very broad range of members and they all seem to be really great people.

When the food was done and I tired of small talk with the club (I'm sure as I get to know them more it will be less trying to hang with them and it will be more like an outing with friends. It's just hard to follow conversations when you don't get the inside jokes, can't put names to faces in the stories, and so forth.) Kevin and I headed off to shot some pictures of our cars.

The first shoot quickly ended because an employee of the power station where we were shooting was sent down run us off by his boss. We were only about two feet into there property due to the fact that I was shooting the 70-200 2.8 and needed a little more room. I would have stood my ground stepped two feet forward and told the guy to "piss off" but I didn't like the location that much and didn't want to "shoot the messenger".

After that we found a neat spot to shoot Kevin's T-5 near the Broadway Bridge.




Then we headed to the Power and Light District and shot these images in a parking garage.





When we got to the garage we found the location where we shot the R by itself but the light was not good for two cars so we decided to move to the upper level. Access was blocked off to the upper level but they left enough room for a car to squeeze through and we did just that. After about 20 minutes security came to see what we were doing. I showed the guard the images we had already taken and he seemed totally cool with what we were doing and hung out with us for the next hour or so while we got the shots we wanted.

Those were the best four shots of the night and the garage was the last location we shot. We looked at Liberty Memorial and the Plaza but there were issues with both location and we were both dead tired.

I did learn one important thing that night. When you have been out with a friend all night, are driving in separate cars, and go through a DUI check point. Don't answer the officers questions with "WE" did this "WE" did that. The cop looked in backseat of the car, looked at me, leaned into the car looked into the empty passenger seat, looked back at me and asked "Who is WE"?
After reexplaining the whole car club photo shoot and pointing to Kevin's Volvo ahead of me and telling him that we, was me and the guy in the red Volvo ahead of me at the check point, the officer laughed and sent me on my way.