YUGO & United State of Updates of other videos

Aloha everybody! James here to share some exclusive stuff + a lot of major and small updates regarding the state of everything I've been cooking YouTube wise and more. There might be some very minor spoilers but mostly to do with you just knowing what I'm working on.

To make it more interesting I'll keep a few surprise projects lowkey.

I'm currently working on 10+ Main channel videos. For real.

I was going to make a patreon post all the way back in March or early April but we had multiple major delays to do with the YUGO that have been consuming me alive but more on that later. I briefly mentioned in the past is that I prefer to make YUGO themed patreon updates only after the video's are public, to avoid any spoilers, so the idea is the same here.

Before jumping straight to video updates - I'm doing well. Life's been taking unexpected swings and turns in the recent years but the therapy and taking care of myself has gone a very long way. Sadly the YUGO fixation (especially this April) pushed a lot of stuff back in all regards, so there's been a lot of delays and pushed responsibilities I'm actively working on now.

I just got back from LVLUP Expo which was absolutely amazing! I didn't take enough pictures and videos myself, as my phone's memory is full from YUGO footage. My friends, however, took a lot of funny footage that features me or stuff I saw, so I'll be sharing them as the time goes!

If you enjoy good entertainment conventions - I can confirm together with multiple friends of mine that LVLUP was totally worth the money. I really enjoyed the amount of activities you could do outside of panels and exploring vendors. Will probably share more of my thoughts on some livestream perhaps?

It was an absolute pleasure meeting viewers & colleagues! My apologies for never doing meet-ups at cons. Maybe I will do some panels in a distant future with other people but unlikely to do anything on my own officially or unofficially anytime soon.

To be clear, I just don't think direct large meetups are my thing. I'm totally cool being around my friends & colleagues when they are doing their panels and whatever :]

I will try to be a bit more open about my con travels though, sorry I just don't use social media other than occasional DM check and maybe IG posting cos that's where a lot of my friends are. I will probably start using IG and Bluesky more as the time goes but for now I'm doing stuff at my own pace.

Before covering a lot of WIP main channel videos let's talk about YUGO updates! (SPOILER FREE SECTION)

It's difficult to do it spoiler free AND address the amount of work I've been putting in this YUGO, so I will use some data to address my points.

Check out the amount of VIDEO footage I have for this new YUGO video episode.

When I say that I've been working hard on this YUGO - I'm not being hyperbolic.

It will be super difficult to address the level of work done to this thing in a form of a video but I'll try to illustrate it to my best ability without dragging out the whole thing when it's out.

Up until approximately a week ago I've been spending 8-10 hours in the garage working on this thing EVERY SINGLE DAY, primarily the wiring.

Why? I think this wiring schematic will answer the question perfectly.

This is just one of the schematics but one of if not the most important one. That's actually how it's documented by the engineers by the way. I didn't make it more "complicated".

As you can imagine the wiring isn't much better. However, the schematic I've shown actually only features SOME of the electronics and not all...

For context, I have 2 YUGOs and I refer to them as "main yugo" and "prototype yugo" or similar terms.

Main YUGO is the one you saw in the videos and the one we put a race engine in.

The prototype YUGO is the second YUGO I've only briefly featured in the recent YUGO video where we towed it across the desert. This is the YUGO I'm currently focused on restoring the most. This car is insane from engineering perspective and you will see what I mean when the video is out. This yugo has 10 times more electronics than our main yugo.

This is a warning on ignition coil by the way, not brakes or some other part that you'd expect to see asbestos in...

WHAT'S THE STATE OF THE MAIN RACE ENGINE YUGO?

I've building a new banger engine for in it ever since we lost our race engine but it's in the back of my priorities as I want to get this prototype YUGO working first. Once I'm ready to work on main yugo again my plan is to put a really good Honda engine in it to set a baseline and create custom fabrication necessary for future upgrades and then improve/build new engine if necessary. The engine might get briefly featured in the prototype yugo video.

WHAT'S THE STATE OF THE PROTOTYPE YUGO?

Cranks but no start due to no spark. We replaced almost everything possible and we reached the unfortunate point where it's 99.9% the ECU issue, however, I opened it up the other day and there are no obvious signs of any damage.

We are in talks with some talented people in Europe who might be able to resurrect this ECU as it's impossible to source them in any other way. The OEM ECU is extremely rare, possibly no surviving variants in running yugos left in the world.

However, the ECU itself is based on 90's Porsche's & BMW Motronic FI Ecu, so it's theoretically possible to frankstein this thing.

As you can imagine, this whole situation (combined with sourcing other obscure parts) is very expensive and time consuming but we are making rapid progress.

I don't have an ETA on the video but we have a plan and it may give you a general idea.

Step 1. - In the following days I'm going to get professional help from wiring specialists to rewire the satan's harness and 100% narrow down if it's just wiring issue or the ECU is actually toast. I've done everything to the best of my ability to troubleshoot it but rewiring it would solve a lot of problems long term and make future trobleshooting easier.

Step 2. - If the ECU is toast and we can't resurrect it - Use a different ECU with same pin layout and pray to god this whole thing won't blow up until we can figure our next steps. Optimistically nothing bad will happen but at least we will know for certain if it's ECU issue or something else. Reasoning behind it will be explained in the video.

WHAT'S THE STATE OF THE WIP VIDEOS?

Here's a list of a few videos I've been working on (besides secret projects) in non-particular order. This list is more to give you an idea, as to why it's taking me so long to finish them, rather than the videos themselves. There are a lot of videos from your and my favorites series that I'm not going to list. Couple of very important notes -

1. Things can change

2. This will cover some of the videos I'm working on, so might be considered a mini spoiler, I won't include pics, just gonna run through summaries of their current completion state.

Banned from Garry's Mod -

I'll just say that I've been working on this video since the last episode on and off, my own expectations for my gmod videos are generally high, so it's been making it harder for me to finish, as I feel like the longer I wait the higher the expectations are. I really like this video though, just wish I can finish it this month or maybe June.

My Summer Car Online FINALE -

This video is going to be long, like really long. I wanted to publish it around the same time as the YUGO video but we had so many delays I kind of pushed this video back, as there's still a lot of footage I need to cut down. I will prioritize this video soon though.

Unusual Discord Videos 13 -

This video is done, just need to finish the intro. I don't like posting multiple unusual discord videos without much space in-between, so I'll probably finish it after 1-2 other videos.

VRChat Experience series -

No comment.

SKYRIM VR Video -

This video has been pushed back pretty far because there's a lot of footage I need to cut and the last one didn't do too well, so I figured it's not something people are really interested in.

I might prioritize Oblivion VR video more than the Skyrim one.

TF2 Video -

My TF2 videos are always in a state of limbo, as by the time I feel satisfied with the video I accidentally collect enough footage for 2 more and the folder just keeps ever growing.

I decided to push this video back until I finish some other ones but it was more than half-way done at the time of my decision. I don't think it'd take long for me to finish this video tbh.

So in other words - I'm juggling between videos a lot. If I didn't spend so much time on the YUGO and other life stuff it'd be way easier, as I always used to jump between the vids, just not to this extent.

The good news is that I'm finally getting back on track and as my schedule is clearing up I want to heavily prioritize finishing a lot of videos, especially those that are almost done.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little summary of the state of things and I'm sorry for being so slow with my upload schedule. I'm very happy with the stuff I'm working on though, so I hope you enjoy! See you soon :]