This
page is ever-evolving and does not have all
text or
images
included. I began fabrication during the summer of 2008 but
two
young
boys, kitchen
remodeling/cabinet construction, and life in general has relegated
this to the infamous "as time permits" category.....
First of all, I bought the IROC
in July 1988. It
has a 220HP
V-8 (LB9, 305c.c./5.0L) with a 5-speed manual transmission (boy was it
hard to find a manual!), T-tops, and god's little 1/2-acre of rubber
(stole that line from a ZR1 review in "Car & Driver", I believe).
I
bought
this car because
my
1979 Berlinetta, which was an excellent car, was totaled when I was
rear-ended by a cement-truck at a red light on tax-day
1988. (The driver was high, but I luckily saw him coming and
accelerated just before the impact.) Initially I bought a
1978 Z-28
(350,
4-speed) which became known as "the Beast" and was my winter car
for the next three or four years. (The IROC has never seen
one of
the salt-ridden winters! It's stored after the first snowfall
or
road salting, and it comes out of hibernation only after enough rain
has fallen during spring to wash the roads of that car-eating scourge.)
Why did I buy the '88 a couple of months after buying the
The Beast? The Beast unfortunately developed a
rather
sudden "bend in the middle option" and it kept overheating.
(Made
for some interesting outings--especially dates.) But I
digress.
Let's jump to discussing the carputer, which is still in
progress.
I decided to put a carputer
together for two primary and one
geeky reasons:
To have the ability to
easily access the OBD-1 (ALDL) data.
This desire arose in the 2000-2001 driving seasons, when my
car
began to loose power, hesitate, and lurch. I replaced the EGR
valve (boy was that fun!), looked for vacuum leaks, replaced relays and
sensors, replaced the fuel filter. All to no avail.
I then
checked the fuel rail pressure. It was fine, but I suspected
that
perhaps it was my fuel pump. Now, I wasn't going to drop the
rear
axle to get to the gas tank/fuel pump, unless I could be sure.
A
co-worker told me that he had software and that if I had a laptop, we
could install it and drive around to diagnose the problem.
While
the s/w diagnosis was inconclusive (OBD-1 just doesn't cover the range
of parameter that II does), it sparked and interest in installing a
computer. Having it ready and at hand. But I didn't
want to
carry a laptop or put a micro-atx mobo in my car. I knew that
I
would have to wait for technology to make it practical. This
ALDL/OBD-I desire kept
me from going with a linux solution for which there doesn't seem to be
support, which I would have preferred (the
cheap engineer in me). But the XP route did lead to Road
Runner!!!!
The second reason was that I
wanted to remove the Pioneer
12-disc
changer and not rely on CDs (whether in the changer, or as mp3s on CD-R
and played in the DEH-P7600MP).
Hey, my mom didn't react this
way,
but I am a technology geek and an e.e.. Who else would have
owned Betamax and Amiga?
