Yea for PUB@2011

[Matt Bowen]

Pagoda University at Blacklick Oh.  This was my second one.  Joe Alexander has all of us to his home and technical presenters and show us how to maintain our Pagodas.  It has been every 2 years for a weekend in July.  Great fun and meeting allot of the people on the forum.

Well that sounds great.  Too bad I missed this one, will have to learn all about the car in the next two years so I can get schooled!

[glenn]

PPP  Plenteous Pagoda Praise...

Hooray, hooray
PUB 2013 is (only) two years away.

[Richard Madison]

Just did the arithmetic (had to convert from Kilometers to Miles, took me a while).

Here's proof of the value of attending PUB...in addition to the seminars,  part swap, demos, dinner, meeting other Pagoda people, and more, my car logged a bit over 16 miles per gallon going to PUB and, after the adjusting and more done by the PUB experts, the car did 20 mpg on the trip back...thank you PUB!

Richard M, NYC

[JamesL]

Wow, that's impressive. Which screw do I need to turn and which way do I turn it?

[Richard Madison]

Tosh:

You know better than that...took half a dozen PUB experts and maybe 3 man-hours to get it right...hope it's right.

Here's a quick step by step:

The CO sniffer numbers were high...a few spark plugs showed unburned gas...the oil dip stick smelled of gas so we knew the engine was running rich. When we tried to get the idle speed below 1,000 rpm, the engine started to surge.

First step was the accelerator rod geometry...the rod going across the engine passes through a brass bushing in the bracket on right side of the engine...that worn bushing was replaced. This changed the position of the main rod slightly so it would no longer mate with the small rod on the left side...that rod was exchanged for a slightly shorter rod. Now the rods were properly fitted to each other.

The leaning of the mix was done by turning the small screw in the back of the fuel injector...about 6 clicks in the lean direction. CO was still a bit high. The barometer was removed from the injector and a shim was removed to lean the mix a bit more. The CO level was now acceptable.

The spark plugs were changed for 6 new non-resistor plugs. The air intake screw near the manifold was turned to slow the idle to about 800 rpm. On a test run, the engine stalled at stop lights so the idle was pushed back up to 900 rpm. (The tach, revolution counter, is not always accurate so 900 on the dial might actually be 800.)

Now we noticed the engine had a miss...maybe one of the plugs was not firing. After some testing, it was found that Plug Wire #4 was dead. Another plug wire was installed and the engine smoothed out.

The lean / rich adjustment was a continuous round of rod geometry, barometer shims, injector screw clicks, then back again. Another major adjustment point, changing the injector rack movement, was not needed this time. The CO sensor made it quite easy to measure changes in the mix.

Richard M, NYC
P.S. When I say "we" above like in "we noticed", don't include me. "We " means the people who knew what they were doing. I don't know lean from rich except in food I shouldn't eat.
 

[66andBlue]

After all the planning it is sure nice to know that y'all had a good time at the PUB.
Here are some numbers:
54 members and 12 guests attended, plus 10 local friends of Joe.  Unfortunately 2 registered members did not make it in the end. All together 76 people - that is a new PUB record!
I have posted a summary of the financial details in the Full Member section in case you want to know what your money was used for.
Now get ready for the next one! 

[Iconic]

Alfred,
How many Pagodas ?
Was there an official count of 230, 250, and 280 SLs?

[Raymond]

I counted 22 Pagodas on Saturday.  We had 20 for the group photo shoot on Sunday.  I didn't count by version.  There was also Waqas' 250 SE, a 190SL, a 300SL, a '67 BMW 2000 CS, a vintage Mercedes wrecker visited for a little while and there were a couple of Finbacks.  Plus there was Joe's W107 race car.  I probably missed something but it was indeed a viisit to Valhalla for wrench heads.

[ja17]

Hello Ray,

I figure we had near 26 pagodas in all.  20 at the photo shoot, one red pagoda stayed at the shop and did not make it to the photo shoot, George Allen did not bring his blue  pagoda  back for the photo shoot, Michael S. left Sat with his pagoda, Greg Mavian had both his pagodas here on separate days but did not attend the photo shoot with either, and one local metallic blue pagoda one (Bill ?) was only here on Sat. I figure at least one or two more slipped by the count.

[71Beige280SL]

I was sitting in one of the technical sessions at PUB 2011. Joe's shop is an amazing place and my eyes were wondering the entire time...no offense to the presenters! I looked to my left during one of the sessions and noticed Joe's library of technical manuals. I had to snap a picture with my iPhone. Apologies for the quality of the photo. Aren't the hand drawn Mercedes star on the spine of each manual fantastic! BTW, the Pagoda manual is on the middle shelf, far right.

[JCO]

This was my 1st time at PUB, and all I can say is what a great event, and a great group of people attending.   I was extremely impressed by all the open knowledge sharing and willingness of everyone to help each other out.   Thank you again, Joe Alexander for allowing us all to use your yard to enjoy the weekend learning more about our pagodas, and for sharing all your expertise.   I look forward to seeing you all again at the next event.

[Tom Colitt]

Hi All

I'm very sorry for the late post. After Garry and my 2400mls road trip back to LA in the Jaguar E-type (which many may have read about in the "Other Cars" section, I hadn't made it back onto the site to read this great thread and only yesterday did I post my congratulations and thanks to Joe (and of course Mary too) to another thread that I found somewhere else :-) I guess, I might as well re-post it here, but I also want to add that this thread right here shows once again how everybody is participating in any way they can to the success of not only this event, but also the whole Pagoda SL Group. Whether it be the relative newcomers or the seasoned (or unseasoned :-) experts. I'm proud to have been a member from day one and look forward to the good work that will continue to come out of this team spirit.

And one more thing. Richard! What was your oil consumption on your return trip? Don't leave us hanging like that :-).....

(Now my post yesterday: I hope better late than never, but I just now found some time to check out the site for an after PUB thread and I was thinking it would be a long one. Maybe I found the wrong thread or maybe everyone just needed a little break, even from one of our favorite subjects, the Pagoda.
Joe. It was so nice to finally meet you. By my excitement you could probably tell I was like a kid in a candy store at your place. When I first arrived I had a big smile at all your hidden treasures spread around your property. I also noticed the rally 107 immediately when I came in and I thought again, I was in the right place. You have helped me and everyone else, since the days of the Yahoo group and even on this trip I learned more new things and made a few new good friends. Thanks for eveything. I will try to participate more, but I also know that there are many people out there who are knowledgeable and can help each other, so I'll leave all but the "nuttiest" topics to them :-)
Last night, I woke up at 4am and started to write an article on one such nutty subject, that occupied me, Naj, Iconic and a few others on this trip. The constant speed solenoid (and it's non-existent factory wiring) on 1970 and 71 model years. For now, I'm on to putting together my first Corvette Stingray for a customer, as well as Garry Marks 1970 Jaguar E-Type which already is largely apart under the hood.

Thanks to Alfred too for the good discussions we had and your effort on this event and again Joe and everyone, thanks for a great time at PUB 2011.

Regards, Tom Colitt