My Computer Ninja: The Blog

I recently had the distinct pleasure of needing to remove a broken exhaust manifold stud from an aluminum cylinder head on my drag racing car, even when using a torque wrench graduated in inch/lbs. As you may well know, there are only 3 types of people in this world. Ones that have not yet broken a stud, those that have already, and those that never will.

Well, congratulations are in order, because I graduated from class 1 into class 2 in a flurry of expletives. I had just completed a porting job on my exhaust manifold, and in the process of bolting it back up, the last stud (always) decided to break on me. Now, this isn’t one of those “easy break” deals, either. The remainder of the stud was recessed with respect to the plane of the head. So, it is with much reluctance, I now had a research project on my hands.

After searching the web for a while, the conclusion I came to is that the “easy way” is to take it to a machine shop. Well, that just isn’t good enough for me. I figured the machine shop might only charge $40 or $60 bucks for it, but then there are all the gaskets to buy and the downtime to deal with and on and on. There has to be a better way.

Well, there is. And I documented it for all of my readers. Here it is.. enjoy!

Chris Miller's Outlaw Street FWD car, courtesy GRS Motorsports

Chris Miller won the Outlaw Street FWD competition at Old Bridge Township Raceway park this weekend, capping a weekend full of the fastest FWD racing in the country. Miller faced a hard charging Fernando Cunha who joined the  NRGTech racing team in running into the 8’s all weekend. In  the end, Miller came out victorious, as engine issues struck the CLM motorsports car.  Miller ran an 8.75 at 172 mph to cap off a great showing as the CLM car blew the head gasket in the semi-final, and the whole thing let go on the launch in the final round. Hit the jump for the in-car video of the race, courtesy GRS Motorsports.

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According to an SEC filing released today, the internet’s favorite electronic retailer Newegg will be going public.  The offering is being underwritten by JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup. A date and ticker symbol have yet to come, but the IPO will likely happen before the end of the year.

Newegg has been around since 2001, and sales in 2008 are purported to be over $2 billion. Newegg prides itself on speedy delivery and low cost on some of the most popular electronic goods, and has become a go-to establishment for the cheapest prices on the latest consumer electronics with a computing emphasis.

The issuing is expected to bring in $175 million for Newegg which, according to the sec filing, will in part be used to expand their business to Canada and China.