legacycentral bbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcXtUWkD ... re=related

Thats awesome!

TurboXS RFL!

Bwaaaahahahhahahaha. That gives me all sorts of ideas



Phil is alive?

Phil is alive. Though I'm also getting married next week. My return is short lived. I see a lot has changed since my last visits.

Phil, you're getting married? For real? Congratulations man!!

Condolences!

BAC5.2 wrote:Phil is alive. Though I'm also getting married next week. My return is short lived. I see a lot has changed since my last visits.

Fairly typical in forums from what I've found. There's usually quite the turnover.





My Leggy has been slowly evolving. No dyno yet, but that doesn't mean I haven't been tuning. I picked up a EJ25D for $200 and I really really want to put the heads on....

BAC5.2 wrote:Phil is alive. Though I'm also getting married next week. My return is short lived. I see a lot has changed since my last visits.

Here lie Phil's balls...may they rest in peace.

Dan, good to hear about your car coming together. I'm glad you stuck with it. Still doing FSAE?

Quiet Nick. One of the ground rules is that I will never drive a car I hate. No automatics unless it has GTR in the name, and no mini-vans. As long as it can get at least 20mpg, I'm solid. And the possibility of another motorcycle or project track car is always open down the road. The only thing I gave on was if the cost of the car clears $50k, then I can't do many power mods. So my GTR will have to stay mostly stock power wise, but wheels and tires are fully open to interpretation.

Thanks for the congratulations fellas! It's going to be one hell of a time and I am definitely excited.

BAC5.2 wrote:Dan, good to hear about your car coming together. I'm glad you stuck with it. Still doing FSAE?

Naw, I had to transfer schools due to some drama and other things. Here at MNSU we have a thriving FSAE program, but it is too much of a time commitment for an ME major like me, where things don't come easy. That is part of why I had to leave UMD. Spent too much time on that, my car and work for a full engineering load.


As far as my car goes, I'm in way too deep to turn back. I'd loose my ass if I tried to get out of it. Over the winter I ate my words about not having head studs that bottom out. Ripped the threads out of the block after 20k miles. After everything was said and done it was about a $1000 oops, including buying another block from someone, having it bored, blah blah blah.

But i did learn a few things. One is that Cobb's bearing come from Calico, at least my buddy and I are about 99% sure.

The most important thing is, THAT'S HOT RODDEN BABY!!!

Cobb's bearings DO come from Calico. Not a bad thing, but I bet they charge more...

My school has a Baja team which I might join, or I may start an FSAE team. We'll have to see.

I took 19 credits this semester, but I am only taking 13 next semester. If I can balance a 16 credit load (including masters courses), a new wife, and FSAE then I might give it a go!

Cobb rod bearings $100
Calico $60
Calico rod and mains $160



FSAE or anything like Baja for instance is fun, but they are a serious time commitment. In FSAE your are designing and building everything short of the motor, sans intake since that needs to be redone because of the 20mm restrictor. You source some parts like calipers, dual master cylinders, a differential, but it all needs to me made to work. For intstance, pretty much everyone uses the Torsen FSAE diff, but on the low end you need to make a housing for it to hold oil. This year our team only saved all the gears (its a modified audi helical center diff) and built their own carrier and housing. Many people use mountain bike rear springs and dampeners, but you need to figure out rates based on tires and suspension. The list goes on.

Most of the guys that work on our car are in the Automotive Engineering Technology major which consumes about 1/3 the time a full mechanical Engineering major does.


Starting an FSAE team can be a daunting task. The hardest thing is getting the interest of students and finding the ones that are willing to put in the time. Up at UMD, I was able to get plenty of people to meetings, but getting them to actually do any work was tough. Most of them thought they could show up and build a car. They didn't understand that there is a lot of desk work to be done before any parts are cut or welded.

Also, finding sponsors is hard when you don't have anything to show. If you have a decent design on paper already that helps, a lot. Companies don't want to give out thousands not knowing if there will be anything to show for it. A car can easily cost $15-20k when everything is said and done. Don't forget travel and lodging in Michigan.


I'm not trying to scare you away. More like shed a little light on what it really takes to actually make it to Michigan. Then you have to pass inspection......

Good luck

Yea, I figured it would be a lot of work. But most things that are worth it, are. Like getting my BS and MS in Mech. E at the same time.

Still, building the things you mentioned are all things that I figured you'd want to do anyway. If they don't have it OTS, you gotta make it. No big thing. Of course, it's easy to say that. Its something else to do it. You are required to become expert in every component, and I have a very difficult time trusting other people to do the job right (because I've been let down very often). Still, I'm sure it would be FAR too much to do on your own.

I just don't know if we have the equipment and tooling on campus to build what we need. I don't know if there is a CNC mill or the necessary equipment to build carbon fiber... anything.

Baja seems like assembling parts that are already produced. A much less daunting task. Still, looking at the car we entered last year, I can definitely build a better race-car.

It all comes down to time. I have the motivation, but I just might not have the time. Starting the team requires me to commit to it, and I just might not be able to do that. It would be awesome to put on my resume though...

For me it was time. I got killed this semester in Mechanics of Materials. The funny thing I worked harder this semester than I ever have before at school itself. The math part just doesn't come easy. I can come up with ideas and draw stuff really well in Pro E or whatever, figure out a process to manufacture it, but when it comes to a system of equations, I'm often left scratching my head. I'm seriously re-thinking whether or not I could get through machine elements or kinematics.


Its also really frustrating when some people hardly do any homework and ace their test, when you spent hours studying and going over problems. That and a professor that docs a half of a letter grade for not showing a unit conversion makes you want to rampage.

I feel the same way about Differential Equations.

That sucks to hear that about Mechanics of Materials. I'm taking that over the summer, lol.

I also have worked harder this semester, but simply from a time aspect. 19 credits takes a lot out of you. Last semester was more number intensive. Calc 3, Diff EQ, Phyics 2, and an English class. I did well, but MAN I was getting backed up!

The only classes I don't spend time studying or reading anything for are English and Philosophy classes. I sail through those for some reason.

Missed ya Phil. Congrats on the marriage. Dont be fooled, the hard work only gets harder and if you stop trying for even an instance, it over. But dont let me scare you. Ive been married 8 years, Ive got 2 kids under 2 and I would not trade any of it......not even for a fully built tleg with an H6R
& turbo swap. Give the relationship time though, dont let her rush you into the kid thing. Just buy her cats when she gets the urge. Once youve adjusted to the new terms of your relationship, ie marriage, then you can sell the cats (we had 4) have some kids, and buy a dog. Life is good and you still have the tleg!

I sail through all the gen ed classes too, like speech and urban studies and what not. When I bust my ass for a C in Statics, it makes me re-evaluate things. Diff EQ and Calc 3 were fine for me since they are usually a defined sequence for doing things. Its the classes where I need to derive a system to get what I need. Mechanics of Mat sucked partly because the prof is the Civil dept head and she really stressed statically indeterminant structures/bodies, which owned me. I could tell you what is happening, but putting it on paper is the difficult part for me.

I dunno, there is a Manufacturing Engr. Tech program that is a lot more hands on that I am looking into. I'm 26 now and I want to graduate before I'm 30, lol. I want to go into sales anyways, which I already have a ton of experience in already.


It all depends on what you want to do with an engineering degree. Somethings you just need to get out there for and get your feet wet. If you want to be in design, then a solid background and possibly grad school is where its at. I'm great with people and like sale a lot so thats where I want to go.

smh0101 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcXtUWkD ... re=related

Thats awesome!

Sorry for the hijack. Have you seen the video of the BOV with the turkey caller? Its a riot, especially when he pulls up on a civic at a trafic light.

I'll do R&D for a while, then migrate into management or something.

I'm getting my BS and MS right now, and I'll get my PE once I've got the requisite 3 years experience. After that, I'll get my MBA and move to management.

I know I'm kinda 'third man in' on the engineering degree discussion but I thought I'd throw out a few things I learned my last couple of years in school and over the year and change since I graduated with a BS in AE.

Dan - Stick with it. If you really want that degree you have to fight for it. The further along you go the more they throw at you, both intellectually and work load. I've no doubts you've heard this before, but man it's worth it when you get done. There's always going to be prick prof's who reem you over the table for minor things. There's a time to fight it and a time to take a deep breath, relax, and take it like a man.... Freshman year was supposed to be the 'weed-out' year, that's just a lie, every year is a weed-out year. The biggest thing that helped me through diff-eq, multi, dynamics, astromechanics, etc. is having a firm understanding of how the equations are derived and what they physically represent. From there it's a matter of mastering the nitty grity of the mathematics and putting in the long hours. I still remember going literally months with only four hours of sleep at night and living in a constant state of sleep deprivation. Don't know how I did it, but damned if it wasn't worth it.

Phil - Goodluck with the goals you're carrying now. Don't misunderstand, but I only know a handful of people who are actually headed towards doing some real R&D work. It's far from easy to land one of those jobs and even then it's usually a matter of who you know. I swore up and down and back up again that I wouldn't end up in management - since I graduated I've spent over a year as a program manager and the hardest math I've done is multiplication. The other day I got pretty excited because I had to calculate some thermal expansions as I rarely get to pull out my old texts (btw, I only pulled them to find the coefficients). My situation is kind of unique because of the company I'm with, guess what I'm trying to say, is don't limit yourself when it comes time. But with a BS and a MS you'll be sitting pretty.

One thing though that both you have, and this makes all the difference in the world, is a goal and an aspiration to do something worthwhile. Without that drive, you're almost doomed.

Good luck guys! I've always enjoyed the 'geekiness' of the BBS and the high percentage of engineers around here - even if most you guys are just lowly gear heads who don't have the mastery of engineering like us wingnuts .