9/5/12

Got some Mustang parts!!!! (Mach 1 front lip to be mounted on OG JDM Erebuni front bumper)



FDs are kinda interesting.

 

9/14/12

The Raging ---- Sore makes a 30-100mph pull on low boost, blowing the wastegate open.

Stacking another 10psi spring on top tomorrow, and jacking boost over 20psi.

 

10/3/12 - GRM $2012 Challenge recap

























Finished 23rd out of 36, but the car had a Top Ten finish overall in it. I didn't know it until it was too late, but my turbo had been falling off most of the autocross day, which was explaining the weird spool up, which was part of why it was impossible to drive. (Pro driver took out the Timing Box and DNF'd his second run in the car, and then refused to take his third run.) I was told that the car had a 40-41 second run in it if the stars aligned properly. (FTD was 38.6... in a Jeep Cherokee, no joke.) The car had tons of grip, great turn-in, was very stable... until you tried to brake or hammer the gas at the same time you turned the wheel.

Then the drags... i made about 3 passes trying to figure out why i wasn't building more than 12psi of boost, cranking the boost controller and getting nothing. (But still trapping 100mph.)

Turns out my turbo had damn near fallen off, and there was a 1/3" gap between the manifold and turbo all around. The fact that it was still building 12psi just tells me that the F2T has insane exhaust velocity. Fixed it with 20 minutes left to go, although the gasket was pretty screwed at that point. Only had time to dial in boost back to 17psi, ended up with a 14.2 @ 108mph. For reference, the track sucked, it was ***** hot, and that was the same trap speed as the MK1.5 MR2 that ran a 13.02.

At the time, i thought that if i had another 30 minutes, i could have gotten another second or so out of it, but turns out later that night that my clutch was dead, so that's that.

I put 2500 miles on it from Wednesday to Sunday, it never really skipped a beat, and got 37mpg combined through the whole trip including the weekend of beating the **** out of it.


I'm gonna Top Five this car next year. Currently shopping for clutch, LSD, and will run real tires on it next year. 11s or bust.

 

11/14/12 - I'm a waffle

Alright guys... i'm at a bit of a weird place with this car at this point and could use some direction.

First, Future Plans:

1) Install new clutch
2) Rebuild turbo (T67 or GT35R compressor side?)
3) Install Meth
4) Install built head
5) Install Ground Controls that i just scored
6) Install PFC FCON setup


Now, My Dilemma:

I'm not 100% happy with the way it looks, and i'm really not happy with the interior. (Well... lack thereof. It's mostly gutted from rear seats back.)

The outside is missing something, and i need to find some better quality fog lights that will mount where you see the shitty Harbor Freight ones mounted in the pictures.

I'd like to find a set of rear window louvers, but they're unobtanium. I have an Erebuni bumper to go on that i've repaired, but it's for an 88-89 bumper. (I have purchased an 88 MX6 GT parts car, but the bumper is fucked.) I could cut more holes in my 90 bumper to fit the Erebuni, but then i'd kinda really want to find the Erebuni sideskirts.

The inside... the dash is completely fucked, but i'm OK with the dashmat i've got. I plan on replacing my ProSport gauges with some period-correct HKS gauges to go with the FCON setup.

But beyond that... i don't know what to do. I'd like to have a nice stereo, but i won't have room in the console/dash for it with all the FCON stuff. I want a shorty console and i've done a half-assed one, but my ******* seatbelts are still in the middle below my elbow.


I need ideas if i'm going to keep this thing long term. It's a blast to drive, it's comfortable, it's ridiculously fast, but i get the feeling that it's only 90% there.

Throw 'em at me. Ridiculous ideas accepted and encouraged.

My only Requirements:

1) Cheap
2) Cheap
3) I refuse to remove the dash under any circumstances.

 

Random bodykit talk

As for your bumper bitching.... That's what the Erebuni does!

(This is actually a picture of the car that my bumper came off of.)



I believe these are the sideskirts:



I would KILL for this kit, but it's unobtanium:






And i don't even hate the "Eurotrash" look on these cars:

 

NICE! I really like this car.

 

Moar waffle

Thinking about it... But i can't decide between that or an old-school looking Panasonic.



The car has a factory lip, which makes it a pain to really attach anything else...

Unless i do the Erebuni bumper. I already have a Mustang Mach 1 lip that is easy to make fit, and i think it would look BOSS.


I agree with you, but then to get anything worth getting, we're getting into the "Spend money" thing. And i need to keep as much rubber under this thing as possible. I have a clutch rated for 505ftlbs sitting on my dining room table. I'm going to use ALL OF IT.


Yep, i've done that before... will probably go that route with whatever i get.

Disregard the headlights... they were an experiment that i'll probably try again.





They looked better when they were freshly done. I'll just use LaminX next time

 

11/29/12 - There Can Be Only One

Ok, so apparently my parts car for the F2T Miata project has some things i can use in my red MX6. WOOT!

Manual seatbelts have been acquired so i can finish off my shorty shifter console project, and i have MINTY MX6 seats!!!! Annnddddddd THEY'RE MAROON YAYY!!!!! Annnnnnnd a SHORT SHIFTER!!!!

 

12/19/12 - Lifetime Warranty Means You'll Be Replacing it Your Entire Lifetime

Autozone sucks. I removed 4 alternators and installed 3 over the weekend. I can now do this job in 10 minute starts to finish. It books 3 hours.




Gave Swank Force One an oil change for christmas!

Yep. That's straight up diesel oil. Chevron Delo 400. On sale at your local Autozone for $39/case. (3 gallons.) And an STP Corvette ZR-1 oil filter. ($3.59)

 

2/7/13 - I need Band Aids. Lots of them. For my boo boos.

Things!!!! (Sold this piece of ****)

 

2/21/13


Oh, and this freshness should be dropped off today.

I dub thee: Home School Prom Queen




This looks fun.

It's bad.

The BOV isn't working because well... it's not actually seeing a vacuum/boost source. The car has massive boost leaks to the point that it's fouling out the o2 sensor, which is then tripping a "lean condition" code.

Something isn't right with the wastegate which is part of why it's so slow. I think the diaphragm is fucked and it's just staying open all the time.

I already tore the wideband out. I think the wideband is fine, but the install wasn't drawing power/ground at a stable/good source.

The VAF extension is made of AIDS and fail, and could very well also be part of the reason the car runs like dog ****.






FML.

 

3/11/13 - Shifting Gears, Let's **** Up Another One!

Started work on the black car. It needs a LOT of work, but luckily i'm up to the task.

With the help of Adamvanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, i compression tested it on Saturday. 120psi even across the board on a cold-ish motor. I'll call that good. Gave me the go-ahead to start tearing it down. Motor will be pulled and every seal/gasket replaced, and my spare fresh rebuilt head will go on.

Pull this off first. This was a huge pain in the *** because someone in the past had replaced the exhaust manifold studs with M10 studs. Which is a GOOD thing, but makes it impossible to get a socket over the inner bottom two nuts. Has to be done with either needle-nose vice grips, or an adjustable wrench.




Once i got the turbo setup off, noticed oil on the valves, and the valves were blatantly not sealing correctly. Yup, this head is fucked. You can also see some of the wiring nightmare i'm tasked with cleaning up.



The car is an 88, but has 90-92 taillights (all red, looks way better, too bad one is cracked), but whomever did the swap also put a 90-92 grill on it. YUCK.



I have most of the parts laying around to do a full 626 front end conversion on one of these cars. This car might be the one to have that happen. Just for ***** and giggles, i test fitted the 626 grill to make sure it would interchange. It does, and looks pretty decent. I think we'll roll with this.

 

3/18/13

Worked on it some more. Bad news. Car has some holes in the floor that were repaired (and i use the term loosely) as terribly as possible. Can't find another car fast enough, so i'm rolling with this thing and will just patch it as best as i can.

Piping off, cruise control removed. Took harness off of most of the motor. The wiring is in bad shape. All the wiring at the water neck sensors snapped off, and half the sensors are toast anyways. I'll just strip the circuits out of the harness and repair the wire that feeds the ECU. I'll put in a new programmable Thermostatic control module to control the fans, and we'll use an aftermarket water temp gauge.

None of the injectors were sealing. Leaking gas everywhere.



This is probably fine, right?



Never seen this sensor on a manual car before. Though, this is an early build date (June 1988) and there were some weird stuff on those early cars.



Greeeeaaaaaaat.




Saving for future reference. These cars are a pain in the *** when you **** up the vacuum routing.

 

3/24/13

I'm getting really good at pulling these motors by myself. v.v

More vacuum line goodness.




My body is ready.



Awful car is awful.


This is probably fine.


Working on a GRM $2013 Challenge budget means that when you **** up the threads on a tie rod trying to pound it out of the spindle, you just re-tap it. You know... because the boot is still ok and a new tie rod end costs AT LEAST $7.



Oh oh oh oh oh ohohohohohOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHHHHHH!!!!



I came!



Raped another one.



Pwnt.


Dat stance.


Oh look.

 

5/9/13

Goodies are arriving for Home School Prom Queen.

I have many more things to unpack, but here's a preview or two.

Addco front hard poly endlinks.


Peep THIS old school ****. History lesson: These are Axxis Metal Masters made by their parent company. WIN.




80 feet of heatshrink! (This is not just for Home School Prom Queen, but also to tidy up the 6 PFC FCON harnesses i need to crank out.)

 

5/11/13

Got some parts. Did some stuff.

Parts.


More parts.



Doing things.



This motor was ******* disgusting.





I'm guessing the cam or crank seal was leaking. Or... both. Yep. I just cut off the timing belt because it was soaked in oil. **** re-using that thing even though it only had 10k miles on it.




Better than expected...



235k miles. Still has crosshatching. Win.



Cleaning. 2 cans of degreaser, half a bottle of purple power, and 5 cans of brake cleaner later.







This head is gross. Not using it.

 

Going to have to stop for now. The page i need to pull the next updates from is blocked at work due to "crude and inappropriate material."


So yeah... you know it's good.

 

bottom end on that black one looks great! Did not realize you had gotten another one.. you are a sick and twisted individual.

Subbd.

 

I'm not keeping that one. I'm building it for a GRM guy "mndsm" so he can have a fun beater/GRM Challenge car. Dude doesn't have time to do anything fun for himself, and i don't really have the time either, but i've done enough of these cars to be able to put together a stupid cheap and pretty reliable 350whp setup for him to enjoy for a few years. (Eventually the motor in the black car will go in a B2200 truck. Black car isn't in great shape chassis-wise, has limited time available to it.)


I've thrown around the idea of picking up a nicer one to replace the red car with, but i'm afraid it just won't be the same.

 

More black car.

5/20/13
For now, though... i think we're probably going to end up with these pimpass AutoGauges (And i'll find some cool bulb condoms to use.... purple?)




My darling Petit Racing boost gauge. (For now at least... we're gonna need a 30psi gauge in the end.)




And an MTX-L more than likely.