The very next day, a tiny bit hung over, everyone made it to camp. Nads was the last to arrive in his blue Taco, almost at midnight haha.

Breakfast tacos… can’t go wrong with that. Allan’s kitchen setup is pretty nice. He always cooks some really tasty food.

The rest of the week called for cool temperatures but no rain in the forecast!

Nadine and I slept inside our Land Cruiser. We have plenty of room to sleep, and I prefer this over ground tent sleeping.

The downside is you have to unload all the gear to make bed. Eventually I’ll get a roof top tent for the Land Cruiser.

Lambo always supervising, making sure we didn’t forget anything.

Mike was one the first guys I met, when I got into camping and off roading. He recently built a off road trailer with a roof top tent for his family. If you want your friends or family get into this, you might as well try to make living outdoors very comfortable.

Everyone had breakfast and all packed up, it was time to head into the Ozarks!

What was supposed to be a 4hr drive, ended up becoming a 6 hour drive. The gas stops seemed to take the longest. Mike and I was getting roughly 10mpg and had to stop 3 times. Plus with a bigger group, everyone taking breaks adds to the time.

Eventually we made it into the trailhead!

I love dirt roads. You’ll go to places where most people haven’t been.

Eventually the deeper you go, the trail becomes tighter, and more bush growth.

First water crossing of the trail. The Ozark National Forest is known for water crossings, and Im glad I had my snorkel installed in time for this.

Eventually we made it into the campsite.

Always have get that campfire going. This is heart of any camping.

The campsite was decently big enough for 5 rigs. There was a tire swing too, but a bit too cold for that today.

My portable avocado tent. A good privacy tent that allows a lot of light in, but you can still do your business without people seeing you.

The humble home away from home.

Getting more fuel for the campfire.  As the temps continued to get into the low 40F, this was a good way to warm up.

We always eat good when camping. No hot dogs on a stick here, or cold sandwiches.

Pork belly with vinegar is the best combo. Especially if you are drinking.

Bellini with fruits to offset the fatty pork belly.

Roasted corn. Very cool how heat is used to cook something typically bland, and produces a chemical reaction that is very tasty and juicy.

As the night went on, we all hanged out till the campfire slowly died off.

More to come…..

Thank you Ryan Magahis for letting use your photos!

Living and working in the city is nice and I do like how lively the night can be. But there are times when you just want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and just escape. Some of my my other off road buddies was thinking the same thing.

The original plan was to head into the trail head on Friday late Friday afternoon. Unfortunately some of my friends have kids, and with the school schedule it would bad hard to make the 8hr drive into the Ozarks.

We decided, on Friday, to all meet up at Caddo Lake State Park. This was halfway point from Houston to the Ozark National Forest. The really nice thing about camping is how relatively cheap it is to reserve a camping spot. Plus the money goes towards the park maintenance. This this state park has paved roads into the campsite and very RV friendly. Very clean and organized, but I still prefer the ones with dirt.

The people with no kids were the first to arrive. The weather called for a cold front which brought rain the whole day. When we arrived the rain had just stopped thankfully.  Started to get the campfire going because damp wood does take a lot longer to warm up.

Daylight was getting low, and I had to start prepping the food. I offered to cook on the first day, but the only issue was the meats I had in the cooler was still frozen. The current 40F temperate wasnt making it easier to defrost the meats. I placed the meats on top of Ryan’s 4 runner. The engine was still decently warm to thaw the meats out.

It got dark pretty quick, but my headlight made it easy to see what I was cooking. I’ve learned in past camping trips to cook simple, one pot type of meals. Pre cutting the food is also important. Food and cleaning is messy if you do all the chopping at home before the camp site.

I cooked up some spaghetti tacos. It’s a spaghetti with taco seasoning hahaha. Not the best combo maybe, but its all one pot and not requiring a lot of work. You got the protein, carbs and veggies. Pretty simple.

No camping is complete without a camp fire. Patiently waiting for the others to arrive…

More to come.

Special thanks to Ryan Magahis for some the pro photos!

 

 

As I’m continuing to work on my motor, you learn new things as you go. Sometimes you make newbie mistakes, and some of those mistakes are frustrating and cost a lot of time. One mistake I did was redoing my oil pan.

About a month ago, I finished assembling the engine block, and the last step was to install the oil pain. Unfortunately, I was rushing things and one of the bolts that goes into the oil pain didn’t tread exactly right. I didn’t want to keep on going and risk stripping the bolt or ruining the block. I decided to call it and work on other things on the motor. Recently, I was talking to my friend Kwon, and he recommended to tread chase the block and bolts.

I went to Harbor Fright and bought tap die kit for $14! Not bad at all. Mainly tap die kits are used to make new treads or bolts, but they can also be used to tread chase too.

This was able to clean up the dirt that was in the treads and bolts. Made is alot easer to hang tread the bolts into the pan. A little bit of dirt inside the treads can risk for stripping the treads or bolts.

I had to clean and remove the old sealant from the block and pan. That was a pain. The initial install of my silicone was a bit too much and too thick. Some parts of the silicone was still wet even after a month of setting in. Learning from this, I was able to reseal the oil pan properly and feels good knowing I did it right.

Stay tuned.

Another vital component while at the track, is making sure your oil doesn’t overheat. Most stock cars are not equipped with oil coolers, because on the street you wouldn’t see the extreme temperates that are generated at the track. If an oil overheats, you lose the oil’s lubrecating properties. At track, you can and will kill the motor motor if you don’t address this issue.

Some AE86 came with the factory oil cooler but mine didn’t. The OEM version is discontinued. If you happen to find one for sale, the seller is asking an exuberant amount of money. Aftermarket companies makes oil cooler kits for the AE86 and those are pretty expensive too. I opted to buy a eBay universal 19 row oil cooler. Yeah its eBay and its a gamble I’m willing to take to save at least a few hundred dollars. I will be setting up gauges to monitor the vitals, so I say this is a calculated risk. At least I can make sure the oil cooler is really doing its job.

The eBay oil cooler kit didnt come with instructions. So its was like figuring out a puzzle piece.

I had to mix and match fittings. Eventually I figured it out.

I made sure to label the flow too. You can get it wrong and basically could route the oil lines where it never gets filtered or cooled.

The good thing everything fits. Later on I will need to shorten the AN lines, once I have the kit inside the engine bay. This should make a big difference at track and keep oil temps down. Stay tuned.