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Update time! Budget billies! Total cost? About $330. Using some B6 HDs that spent two seasons on a spec Miata (no leak, good shape, too cheap to pass up!). Set of coil over sleeves with 7" 350lb springs off amazon. Bump stops from a Mini and then 450lb springs from Summit.
My friend also made a little manual boost controller. It seems to work well, had the car running between 160 and 170kpa before, although the other night something changed and it was pushing to 194kpa. Man was it moving when it did that! Good news is, the clutch held, so we can hold off on doing that for a bit longer. May need to shorten the spring a bit or something? Who knows. Made from plumbing parts. It fits in nicely.
Now he just needs to get the exhaust patched up so we can tune everything that isn't boost. The 02 sensor reads lean at idle and cruise, but I can assure you it is anything but. It is fouling a set of plugs every other week and not burning oil. Pressure in the exhaust is high enough to make it so boost is reading correctly as far as we can tell.
Since we were doing plugs so often on the Miata, we thought he should check the plugs on his daily. A 265k mile '98 Buick Regal. He hadn't done them in the 30k he owed the car, looks like the previous owner hadn't done them in a long time either....
Not so running and driving now... I am going to be looking at it tomorrow. The roof apparently doesn't line up perfectly anymore, which has me worried. Doors do open and close though...
He found out you can't follow a Subaru with 400TW all seasons that deep into a corner before braking if you car is running 700TW General RT43s. At least I managed to drill in that if you are going to go off, go off strait so you don't flip.
Good news is, no one is hurt, noone else involved, no property damage or anything else like that. As offs go, could have been a ton worse.
Yup, he's done. Put a fork on him. Trans tunnel is bent from landing on a rock it looks like, the windsheild frame is 1" away from the drivers quarter window, and the roof won't latch. If you site along the body, the front is twisted relative to the rear. It also looks like the driver side front sub fram rear.mounting point is pushed over half and inch inboard or so.
The whole driver side front suspension is toast, subframe ears are bent, crank pulley is bent (motor sounds healthy thogh, no crank nose wobble). Steering rack looks bent a d binds up as well.
We got him back to my friend's place on a u-haul dolly yesterday, towed fine behind his 98 Regal. We just kept it slow. Probably going to strip all the good parts out and find a new shell.
Yup, he's done. Put a fork on him. Trans tunnel is bent from landing on a rock it looks like, the windsheild frame is 1" away from the drivers quarter window, and the roof won't latch. If you site along the body, the front is twisted relative to the rear. It also looks like the driver side front sub fram rear.mounting point is pushed over half and inch inboard or so.
The whole driver side front suspension is toast, subframe ears are bent, crank pulley is bent (motor sounds healthy thogh, no crank nose wobble). Steering rack looks bent a d binds up as well.
We got him back to my friend's place on a u-haul dolly yesterday, towed fine behind his 98 Regal. We just kept it slow. Probably going to strip all the good parts out and find a new shell.
Good luck fellas. Pleasure meeting you two. Can't wait to see what you have planned for the new build.
Short term, it is just going to be a direct swap over with everything cleaned and an upgraded clutch and a few "While we are in there"s. Not much progress yet since my friend had his basement flood not long after getting the shell.
There is paint in the works, if we can find someone to do it cheap enough (if we do all the scuffing, cleaning, and masking first, anyone know anywhere local to north jersey?), or figure out a way to paint in the dead of winter without a shop (haven't really figured that one out yet).
Short term, it is just going to be a direct swap over with everything cleaned and an upgraded clutch and a few "While we are in there"s. Not much progress yet since my friend had his basement flood not long after getting the shell.
There is paint in the works, if we can find someone to do it cheap enough (if we do all the scuffing, cleaning, and masking first, anyone know anywhere local to north jersey?), or figure out a way to paint in the dead of winter without a shop (haven't really figured that one out yet).
Sorry to hear about the flood. That stinks. Sounds like you've got plenty of work ahead of you.
Car is mostly stripped. We got the engine and trans out last night. Just need to get the wiring harness and brake system out now. Turns out the subframe is really bent. The engine mount studs did not want to come out of the holes. Thankfully, the driver side mount was just about done and just pulled apart with enough jiggling and prying.
It was my friend's first time pulling an engine, so he had to pose with it.
Turns out the steering rack got hit a bit harder than we thought....
And something is growing in the #3 exhaust port? Coolant? If so, the only way I can think it would have gotten there is a cracked head.... Half tempted to just put it in, toss in some Subaru coolant conditioner (RadWeld) and see what happens.
My friend decided he needed a garage to work in with the way the weather is around here. $160 from Harbor Freight later and he has one. This thing is actually super nice. Add some 11W LED lights and it is a pleasure to work in.
Also, we decided we really didn't like the idea of a cracked head with what appears to be coolant in the exhaust port, so $300 we snagged a replacement 1.6 locally. Will be getting some new seals and a timing belt job before getting slapped in.
Updates! Wiring harness got pulled and hung up serial killer style.
This is the kind of mess we were fixing. This is after it was field repaired when it was found to be only twisted and e-taped...
All laid out and being picked and checked over. New wires being run for gauge power, IAT, boost control, wide band and the like.
The last of the after market cruise control and alarm system were annexed. Had to fix everywhere it was spliced in...
Some of the splices we made. Non insulated crimps and heat shrink works nicely.
Repaired, re-pinned and re-wraped ecu wires. I actually ordered new pins off digikey to fix some of this... The zip ties holding the new wires are temporary. We forgot to pick up more tape, so they will be loomed and taped nicely once more is acquired.
Added a fused power run to run the gauges off a relay switched by ECU power.
Assembly started a bit ago actually, with the main body panels. Also, with the warm day today and yesterday, painting of the engine bay finally happened. It ended up Toyota White Pearl or something like that. I have also gotten a report that the new 1.8 diff is in and most of the rear end is together with the harnesses put in everywhere but the engine bay.
New motor getting a check over, a pan with a drain and some seals. I don't think this motor ever saw anything other than good synthetic. It is in stellar shape for the supposed 130k it has on it. Also has a gates racing timing belt as far as we can tell. Super impressed.
08-20-2016, 12:10 AM
0
please trash the sunflower wheels.
