winterize brunnhilde

Winter is coming. Freezing nights are coming, and along with the White Walkers that are our mortal enemy. It is time to mount the defense.

cantonese congee - part 2

I had not made congee for years until recently. One reason that I hadn't because I thought a bowl of congee does not constitute a meal for a hungry man. Congee is typically eaten as a light breakfast in many Asian countries.

smoked ham hocks

It is a nice fall day and I want to take Mini out for a short drive. I also want to check out a ODB reader which concerns me as it has a burnt component that I can see through the translucent case. I cannot open it as it would be viewed as I had tempered with it.

porsche love - part 1

I am enslaved to my vehicles. When you drive them as fast as you skills capable the maintenance and operating costs can become quite substantial. I try to do all maintenance and repair work myself and so far I have done quite well. The Mini has never been touched by anyone, not even warranty work by the dealer.

cantonese congee

This is probably my fifth time making congee. I made a pot of mostly seafood congee for my ill neighbor. I simmered the rice into congee which took over 8 hours. It smelled so good that today I decided to make myself a pot too.

high altitude heater pump for brunnhilde

Often a well laid plan can be foiled by poor planning or just a lapse of judgement. Before taking the cross country trip I knew that I may need to use the diesel furnace in the high elevations at the Continental Divide. I planned ahead and ordered the high altitude pump to replace the normal sea level pump for the Eberspächer furnace, and a couple of parts that I expect I will need sooner or later.

trailex open car trailer towed by brunnhilde - part 1

Based on Brunnhilde's towing capacity I carefully chose an open trailer to stay within the specified limits. The limits are 5000 lb max towing capacity and 500 lb max of tongue weight. Armed with this two numbers I quite quickly narrow down the offering and Trailex 8045 emerged as the uncontested winner. It is the lightest open car trailer of this usable deck size that meet my check list of requirements.

getting the porsche to the track - part 2

Taking a car to the rack track and driving it flat out with other cars can take a heavy toll on the car's exterior, especially the paint. I had been on the fence as to should I spend a few thousand dollar for a well installed paint protection commonly referred to as clear bra. As I am fearless in tackling just about anything that I have zero experience I would finally decide that I want to give my hands and my head a try. I have no disillusion that it would be challenging and most first time DIY fail. I expect it to be as challenging as drywall or big concrete job for first time DIY without training, let alone cumulated experience.

getting the porsche to the track - part 1

It has been a very long time since I want to take the Porsche to the track. I've come to the conclusion that it is safer for it to be on the track than on public roads. Tracks are where this car belongs, and not tracking it is tragic for me, and equally, for the car.

rear view camera for brunnhilde - revision 2.0

With the 8045 Trailex trailer in tow Brunnhilde becomes a 40-foot road train. Additionally backing up to the trailer tongue requires precision driving which is impossible without a spotter. For backing up even with a spotter the task is far from easy as most people do not have the skills of how to negotiate the tow vehicle to steer the trailer into a tight spot.

new hdtv for brunnhilde

I repurposed the 23" 1080p HDTV from Brunnhilde for home use. I have been looking for a replacement. The 22" LG opened box arrived shortly after I return home from the cross country trip. It has just about everything I looked for feature wise. It is a little lighter than the Samsung it replaced but less number of ports and without the fancy touch sensitive buttons that I hate.

cross country trip to pick up the car trailer - part 5

Arriving home and I could not wait but to put the Mini onto the trailer to check everything out.

cross country trip to pick up the car trailer - part 4

Leaving Toronto I headed in a beeline to Trailex in Ohio. It is located, you guessed it, just SW of Toronto but because of Lake Erie there is no best route to it so pick your poison. The detour to Toronto in this trip added may be a thousand miles in a 3000 mile each way cross country trip.

cross country trip to pick up the car trailer - part 3

Finally I made it to Toronto. Naturally for someone in Portland is to catch up with the much better Chinese food there as here the best are one that I make. Still the world is in constant change and quality and selection of food is no exception. Even in TO, bad Chinese food is aplenty and buyers aware. In truth, of the countless restaurants we went only two that I feel is worthy especially in a metropolitan that has the choosiest of Chinese cuisines.

cross country trip to pick up the car trailer - part 2

Each trip I return to Toronto I revisit my college to take stock of the changes, and to reminisce the college life. I happened upon the university's open house day of sort for prospect freshmen as well as future freshmen.

cross country trip to pick up the car trailer - part 1

There was no room for error to prepare Brunnhilde for a cross country trip to pick up the Trailex open car trailer. I planned my trip to also visit my family in Toronto.

mini love - part 46

This was the second time I remove the supercharger from Desire for inspection. Last time I remove it the power take off gear housing as bone dry without oil. Surprisingly the gears showed no sign of premature wear. I fill up the SC with GM SC oil and had since driven on track many times. To my surprise somewhat, the high pitch noise did not subside with the replenished lubricant. Fearing the PTO housing seal may be leaking and all the oil got sucked into the SC compressor housing I remove the SC for the second time to investigate.

trailer prep of brunnhilde - part 6

This is one of many catch up posts, so it is foto heavy with little text. The fotos should tell most of the the story. This post pretty well wrap up the trailer preparation of the brake system for the open car Trailex tailer that I would pick up in Ohio in late August.

trailer prep of brunnhilde - part 5

As a part of preparing for a Trailex open car trailer I had to install an electric trailer brake controller. As Mercedes Benz didn't provide the wire for the trailer electric brake I needed to retrofit a wire with adequate current carrying capacity all the way from the cockpit to the trailer hitch connector. I wanted to retain the existing connector. This requires finding the right crimp contact for this Delphi type connector that is a part of the interconnect between the harness and the trailer connector.

energy bank for brunnhilde - part 1

I have not post for months and have a lot of catch up posts to write. I have hundreds of photos that I want blog posts to document them, for posterity.

The coach batteries in Brunnhilde has been losing capacities steadily noticeably since a couple of years ago. Recently they have gotten to the point of threatening the ability to support the DC refrigerator during an overnight stop transiting interstate highways in a trip to Iowa to pick up the open car trailer. It happen after I used the audio system quite loud for hours and then went to sleep. I estimate that must used up extra 25 Ah of energy. When I woke up I noticed the voltage had drop below 12.0 V.