The random chat thread for throwing out things that don't matter

@haloruler64

Been there, done that, have the tee-shirt so I know the feeling.  Glad you got it back operational.  👍 

Haha thank you.

Got the basemap flashed. Stock car claims 186 HP and torque from a 2.5L in 87 octane. Dyno runs have generally seen numbers super close to the bhp figures given by Mazda. This 91 octane tune should get me 20-25 whp when it's all done, but no refinements have been done, just a basemap for now. The difference is pretty huge, I LOVE it.

If I get around 200-210 bhp in the end, that's a LOT of power for a FWD daily driver.

Also been venturing into reflashing. My Outback XT is the first vehicle I've owned new enough to reflash the stock computer. Found a well developed basemap for similar year Legacy GT and copied all the tables over to my own ROM, data logged for a week to understand the OEM tune and went for it. 

That first reflash was nerve-racking! But in the end it worked out. Stock tune was putting 215/230 down to the wheels but with lots of little driveability quirks, like a full second CL>OL delay. Basemap bumped me a couple whp but the additional 20lbft of torque, vastly improved driveability and throttle response are the real winners. So far everything is holding together, no significant knock and the map is for 91 octane so I should have plenty of margin running 93 most of the time. 

Flashed again yesterday with some cruising speed economy tweaks, hopefully I can get this thing above it's abysmal 20mpg average if I keep my foot out of it sometimes... At least on the highway.

Edit: Identity crisis inbound, my "dad car" is becoming faster than my "race car."

Success! ...kinda. Got 23.5mpg on a 200mi drive. Best I've ever achieved in it, but logs show some minor knock. Gonna have to tweak a bit more. 

Looking through logs I found some oddities with the AVCS (VVT) values... Left bank is slow sometimes... And then overshoots when it tries to catch up. I guess when I get home it'll be time to hunt for banjo bolts that still have filters in them, maybe swap the OCVs around and see if the problem moves. Interestingly enough it seems many Subaru techs recommend changing the OCVs every 75-100k miles as their performances is noted to degrade. This makes me wonder if it's worth trying a new lift OCV in the toy since I still have the occasional bog when I hit the high cam. I know the lift OCV is clean as a whistle and last time I pulled it out the problem disappeared for months then started popping up again. 

late season snow storm for us

So it was too wet today to ride into work on my bike but not wet enough not to drive to work with the top down and the heater blasting 

Having seen T-bone's snowy garden pictures, I thought I would post photos from this year's garden (thus far).  I took these pictures today, April 26th, 2021.  Although the growing season is a lot longer out here in Central California, these photos are by no means an attempt to post garden bragging rights.  I am still quite the novice at this culinary sport and have yet to grow a decent crop of tomatoes -- my 4th year trying.  I changed the location for attempting to grow tomatoes this year.  We'll see how it goes.  Also practiced composting materials since last summer and have amended the soil with home-made compost and some store-bought fertilizer. 

So far we have planted 8 tomato plants (4 kinds), 3 zucchini squash, 1 yellow squash, 4 butternut squash, 3 kinds of cucumbers, pole beans, cantaloupe and collard greens plus our resident fruit tree/bushes: 3 kinds of blueberries, zante currant grape, thornless boysenberry, yellow nectarine, white peach, and apricot.  Oh, and I almost forgot the herb garden that has at least 10 different herbs basking in the sun.  I still don't know what I'm doing when it comes to gardening, but I'm having fun and pulling weeds is a relaxing pastime when I go for walks in the garden between virtual meetings for work (still working from home).  We also added 5 new planter boxes along the side yard fence to grow flowers for cutting and bringing into the house.  I don't know if there will be enough sun along the fence to be successful -- we'll see.

Last year I canned a lot of pickles and put up several jars of boysenberry jam and apricot pineapple jam.  This year I am hoping to add to the canning duties some home made salsa -- if I can just get the tomatoes to grow!  🙂  

Beautiful garden Uncle Mush! 

Since getting the Mazda ECU fixed, I'm on revision 1.0 of the tune. 350 miles later it's been wonderful. Totally different car, and getting better fuel economy to boot! Sent off some datalogs for a new revision but I doubt there's much to fix. 

That looks fantastic UM! we wait until mothers day before we plant up will have to take some photos when we get the plants in the ground. This year we are doing a dye garden with indigo and Madder root 

Posted by: @t-bone

That looks fantastic UM! we wait until mothers day before we plant up will have to take some photos when we get the plants in the ground. This year we are doing a dye garden with indigo and Madder root 

 

Thank you for the compliments.  Much appreciated.  You have piqued my interests.  I "Googled" dye garden (because I was not familiar with that phrase) and see that it is growing plants to make textile dyes and/or paint pigments.  Are you and yours' weavers?  Will you continue to grow veggies and fruits, as well?  I seem to recall that you also do canning.  

Posted by: @uncle-mush

Posted by: @t-bone

That looks fantastic UM! we wait until mothers day before we plant up will have to take some photos when we get the plants in the ground. This year we are doing a dye garden with indigo and Madder root 

 

Thank you for the compliments.  Much appreciated.  You have piqued my interests.  I "Googled" dye garden (because I was not familiar with that phrase) and see that it is growing plants to make textile dyes and/or paint pigments.  Are you and yours' weavers?  Will you continue to grow veggies and fruits, as well?  I seem to recall that you also do canning.  

My Wife is a mad sewist. She makes all her clothes makes some of mine and my eldest daughter is also possessed of mad sewing skillZ. They actually do a podcast and like people follow them. They both knit also but no one is doing any textile constructions yet. They do dye stuff and we have done a few classes on the natural dyes used for centuries such as indigo, madder, and black walnuts which we have in ample supply. The chemistry is very interesting pH is key and indigo pigment needs to be fermented to release its magic. We are getting geared up to play around with the process re dying a vintage jean jacket (I corrected that from gene jacket -professional problem 😉 ) that is very faded and in need of some mending. We have the dyes from other sources but this year we are going to try to grow and process some on our own. 

beats watching TV. 

Yes vegetables for sure and we are getting ready to harvest some Rhubarb (its a perennial here) this weekend. I put in 8 new ground boxes and 3 raised planters behind our lilies to account for the new crops. Hoping we have another great year with squash. Other than tomatoes they are my favorite 

Not too much work on the OBXT basemap lately, been travelling for work these past few weeks. Got highway mpg up to 23.7 but I think taller (and narrower) tires and the slight drop I plan may help more than anything else at this point. 

On the other hand, replaced both the AVCS oil control valves and just that alone netted me another 15whp and 5ftlbs. I guess they really do degrade with age. 

Ordered new OCVs for the toy as well. With luck they will make a difference. 

Well it is done. The garden prep anyway. 5 yards of garden soil dumped on the drive way and 9 hours to get it where it needed to go before the rain. Just me and my wheelbarrow. Not as sore as I should be but I am in pretty dam good fitness these day. Got in some bonus time to get all the seedlings planted need to do the seeds (squash and such) directly in the soil. 13 miles just walking in my yard lol  caught a shot of the new garden shed also  time to dust off my painting skillz once the rain stops