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Keith had just finished searching the small shack he had found, after searching for mysterious energy signatures. There was so much junk and mechanical equipment scattered throughout. One thing he did find interesting was that there was a car – a rather old one – peeking out from underneath a pile of random metal tools and garbage sitting outside.
He had spend the better part of yesterday trying to clear the junk off of it instead of looking around and searching the inside. He had already wasted so much time on the rusted vehicle, but yet he came back the next day, with a hope to get it out and running again.
Keith went to a crowbar poking out from the pile of junk near the bottom, and pulled on it. He had tried to get it out yesterday to help pry off some of fused garbage, but it seemed to be JB Welded on as well. He pulled it several times from different angles, and even kicked it, but that only served to made his legs and arms sore.
Suddenly, he had an idea. He pulled a hydraulic jack that seemed to be made of more oxidized material than solid metal, and lined it up underneath. Grabbing the jack rod, he moved it up and down until it touched the crowbar, and even more, putting immense amounts of pressure onto it. He grabbed a metal pipe, and hit at the underside of the crowbar, hoping that the instant force, combined with the constant force from the floor jack, would be able to snap it out.
After repeating this process multiple times, jacking it up further, and hitting it more, the entire car, along with the pile of trash on top of it, was lifted upwards, one side suspended in air by the jack.
Keith groaned in frustration, and kicked the jack out. And then the crowbar decided it was the perfect time to fall out. Whatever. Better late than never. He used the crowbar to start hacking, smashing, and prying off literal chunks of the mound.
“What’d they do to this thing?” he muttered to himself, using the crowbar as a bat to break and knock off a few empty tin cans. “It’s like they dunked this whole thing in epoxy.”
After a few laborous hours, he had pulled, knocked, and bashed all the trash off. Keith had also used the crowbar to smash open the window and disengage the door lock manually. He took the keys he found in the house, and pushed them in the ingition column. He didn’t even know why he tried to start it, the battery was clearly flatter than a sheet of EDM cut steel. When he shifted the car from first to neutral using the stickshifter, the car rolled slightly.
Good. So he wouldn’t need to replace the wheel bearings. Who knows how long this car had been out here for. That was a stroke of luck… that would be counteracted by the fact that there wasn’t actually any coolant… or gasoline. Trivial issues.
He leaned against the wall of the house, frustrated. The things he would do out of boredom would probably put any career mechanic into a fit of rage due to the sheer difficulty, but it was either this or keep searching for more clues to the strange energy signatures for all of his short pitiful life.
The next day, he hauled the car back to his shack using his hoverbike. It had bounced around a few times, so he had to stay relatively low to the ground at a slow speed so it wouldn’t flip over and get more wrecked than it already was. Once he was home, he grabbed several jugs of gasoline and motor oil that he had set aside for his hoverbike and generator, and put them next to the car.
He didn’t have much left but he would be able to take the several hour trip to the nearest town to buy more, when necessary. Keith decided he was going to buy a new battery the next time he went to the town to buy food and supplies, which was only a few days away.
Over the next few days, he occasionally went out to search the desert, but still spent most of his time poring over old books and current clues he had taken pictures of or written down and printed out. Near the evenings, he spent his time working on the car, doing some basic maintenance work. He did a valve adjustment, checked the belts – which were not great, but also not terrible, and dusted off the interior (not like it would make it look any better than it already did, it was a travesty). He also took off the fuel tank and took a look inside to make sure there wasn’t any gunk inside, and it looked fine.
That weekend, he left to the nearest town and bought what he needed. He replaced the old battery, and prayed to whatever deity was out there that it would work. He then filled up the coolant, but left the motor oil untouched in case there was something wrong with the motor – which he would have to take apart and drain the oil. Best case, the engine would work, but worst case, he could find shards of metal, or pieces of metal in it. He didn’t even know the condition of the engine itself, what if the car was left out because it didn’t work? He also poured some gasoline into the fuel tank.
Keith pushed the key into the ignition column, and twisted it to the third segment, activating the starter motor. The engine turned over for a few seconds, until it finally started. And it ran! It ran a little rough, but it seemed fine. He let it run for a few minutes, before turning it off. Keith punched the air in celebration, and patted himself on the back. Not really. Mentally. But you know what I mean.
He went to work, draining the old motor oil, and found out there wasn’t a whole lot. That’s why he didn’t run it for any longer than he needed to. He poured about 3.5 quarts of 5W30 motor oil in (good for desert use due to viscosity), writing a mental note to buy more when the time came for basic maintence for his hoverbike. The old oil he saved in a jug to use to lubricate hinges and other moving mechanical parts. Plus, there was no other way to dispose of it without lugging it to a disposal site.
He went back into the cabin, and started the engine again, making sure it still worked. It did.
Keith went back in, and drank some water before sitting down. What exactly did he want to do with this car now that he had it running?
He spent the next couple of hours thinking of ideas, before settling on something that could be achieved relatively easily, but would also take some work and resources.
His plan? To make a custom engine boost system with a little more than a meter of flexible tubing, a large tank of propane, and an air pump.
He already had the tubing, which he had laying around somewhere. The two things he would need to wait to buy with more money, which he was kind of running out of. It would be fine, he could just sell more scrap and random animal bones to recycling centers and weird collectors.
A week later, he had a small electric, battery operated air pump used for inflating everything from air mattresses to inflatable boats, and a 20 pound tank of propane. Using a manual boring tool, a pointed metal rod and a hammer, he chipped and drilled four holes into the intake manifold, one for each cylinder. He then used the smaller pipe portions to push into the holes, which were then held in place by silicone caulk. He grabbed a drain pipe, one of those flexible black plastic ones, and ran it through the shattered front windshield. He connected the four tubes to the drain pipe using a liberal amount of duct tape.
For the actual fuel and air boost, Keith made a custom manifold using cardboard and duct tape, making an enclosure around the output of the propane tank and the output of the air pump. He set the propane tank on the passenger seat and the air pump on the center console armrest.
It was a very rudimentary, manually activated boosting system for the poor engine, which would probably be running a fairly rich fuel-air mixture (higher fuel to air ratio, not all fuel is burned). Also kind of forced induction? Not really though. Whatever it was, it worked. At least Keith hoped so.
The next day, he was ready for the maiden voyage of the boosted vehicle. His plan was to do an unboosted top speed run on a stretch of flat desert sandstone, and then go for a second run, but with boost to compare top speeds.
Smiling nervously, he looked at the car. The front hood now had a large cutout in it to ensure the piping not interfere with the hood closing. Sure it was probably unnecessary, but it did look pretty cool. Now all that was left to make it even more tackier was cheap carbon fiber stickers that would peel off on the second day after installation. He put on his helmet, which was probably way past it’s expiration date. The plastic visor was also tinted an odd shade of yellow from age.
He climbed into the cabin, sitting down. He rested his head against the steering wheel, breathing slowly.
“This is so stupid,” he whispered, before starting the engine. The engine sputtered to life, not quite as slow as it was originally. He drove it to the testing strip, a flatter, harder portion of the desert. He gave it some gas in neutral, letting the engine warm up a little more. After the temperature gauge reached the midway point, he lined the car up to a nearby rock.
He pushed the shifter into first, and let off the clutch. The car lurched forward, driving forward at a low speed. He shifted into second, nearing 6000 RPM, just shy a few millimeters of the redline. He picked up speed, and shifted it into third, going even faster now. He reached a speed of nearly 60 MPH before shifting into fourth, climbing into 70, and then near 80, he shifted yet again into fifth gear, which eventually peaked out at 103 MPH without hitting the redline. The poor condition of the driving surface must have been slowing it down slightly.
Keith slowed the car down, and turned it around back to the starting rock. He went at it again, going into first gear, then second, then third, and then at fourth, he used his right hand to switch on the air pump, and turn the propane tank valve all the way to the open position. Nearing redline, he took a look at the speedometer, hopes up.
“Fuck.”
It was at 83. A 3 MPH boost, if it even boosted in the first place. He slowed the car down, and turned around, not bothering to complete the test. He groaned, annoyed that the money he spent on this project was pretty much a waste. Not completely though, he just had to remake the drainpipe intake thingy and a new tank of gas that would actually boost his engine performance.
Keith thought about it, rolling the thought over in his head. Propane was the cheap option, but it didn’t work. What other gas would actually boost his car though? He thought about it for a second, before the answer came to him.
“I’m going to need some nitrous oxide for this.”