Went from one gay car to another. Now to make this one faster than the last.
08-21-2013, 03:47 PM
#182
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Location: Troy, Michigan
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Videos will come with time. A few people have shot videos while riding along but I haven't seen them yet.
Status update:
The slave cylinder issue is fixed. The culprit was the adapter fitting that was included in the kit. Something seemed off when I initially installed that fitting, however I just kind of made it fit. You know, push the end of the fitting into the slave cylinder and hammer the hell out of the roller pin until it's in position. To fix the leak, I cut the male AN fitting off of the troublesome adapter and cut the original GM fitting that goes into the slave cylinder in half. I welded them together to make my own adapter fitting. This was a great start, however I realized that in forcing the original adapter fitting fit, I had gouged the sealing surface on the slave. I found a new slave cylinder locally after a bit of calling around and the installation of my DIY adapter was simple and seamless. Most importantly, the leak seems to be totally gone.
My adapter vs. the fitting that came with my new slave cylinder:
Ready to go in:
Interestingly, the Autozone slave cylinder, which was sold as a Duralast product, has the same casting as the original slave cylinder. I guess ap makes all of them.
After getting the car going again I went and did Miata things. Two of those Miatas are owned by females so it's not what you think.
I also put the car on a scale. This is without the soft top installed and ~1/3 of a tanks of gas.
There's an auto-x this weekend that I intend to go to. I'll try to make sure my Gopro is charged and ready for action. My driving impressions so far, however, are that this thing is excellent. It feels solid, very well planted, and its ability to put power down out of corners far exceeds what I expected to get from street tires. In brief, I'm a happy camper.
Status update:
The slave cylinder issue is fixed. The culprit was the adapter fitting that was included in the kit. Something seemed off when I initially installed that fitting, however I just kind of made it fit. You know, push the end of the fitting into the slave cylinder and hammer the hell out of the roller pin until it's in position. To fix the leak, I cut the male AN fitting off of the troublesome adapter and cut the original GM fitting that goes into the slave cylinder in half. I welded them together to make my own adapter fitting. This was a great start, however I realized that in forcing the original adapter fitting fit, I had gouged the sealing surface on the slave. I found a new slave cylinder locally after a bit of calling around and the installation of my DIY adapter was simple and seamless. Most importantly, the leak seems to be totally gone.
My adapter vs. the fitting that came with my new slave cylinder:
Ready to go in:
Interestingly, the Autozone slave cylinder, which was sold as a Duralast product, has the same casting as the original slave cylinder. I guess ap makes all of them.
After getting the car going again I went and did Miata things. Two of those Miatas are owned by females so it's not what you think.
I also put the car on a scale. This is without the soft top installed and ~1/3 of a tanks of gas.
There's an auto-x this weekend that I intend to go to. I'll try to make sure my Gopro is charged and ready for action. My driving impressions so far, however, are that this thing is excellent. It feels solid, very well planted, and its ability to put power down out of corners far exceeds what I expected to get from street tires. In brief, I'm a happy camper.
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08-22-2013, 10:18 AM
#189
I've no idea lol. I just know this thing is epic, and so is that one guys that has the turbo f20c swap and a plethora of uber expensive parts (1BAD?), and Bryans, and others like hfmx5t that have 400+whp monsters with tens of thousands put into the car and years of fabrication/work..etc. Soviets is apretty awesome street car too. There's got to be at least 10 here that deserve lots of praise.
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08-22-2013, 11:16 AM
#190
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Location: Taos, New mexico
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BONER. Man something doesn't do it for me right now with the exhaust, but really that's nitpicking.
Seriously epic build you have here sir. I salute you. +1 on being in the top 10.
Seriously epic build you have here sir. I salute you. +1 on being in the top 10.
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08-24-2013, 09:32 AM
#192
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Location: Troy, Michigan
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Thanks guys! It feels good to see my car listed amongst some top notch builds.
Yeah, those mufflers aren't for everybody and I was also a bit unsure of the aesthetics at first. Somebody expressed the same sentiment on my FB page. The long term plan, however, is to tuck them up a little further to accommodate an aluminum diffuser. I think they'll look right at home then as they'll be incorporated into the rear end as opposed to being tacked on beneath it.
From a functional perspective, I love those mufflers. They're reasonably light and remarkably quiet for being straight-though canisters.
The car has done about 500 miles now since the swap and I haven't had any issues since replacing the slave cylinder fitting. That's a relief, particularly since I haven't exactly been easy on it.
Yeah, those mufflers aren't for everybody and I was also a bit unsure of the aesthetics at first. Somebody expressed the same sentiment on my FB page. The long term plan, however, is to tuck them up a little further to accommodate an aluminum diffuser. I think they'll look right at home then as they'll be incorporated into the rear end as opposed to being tacked on beneath it.
From a functional perspective, I love those mufflers. They're reasonably light and remarkably quiet for being straight-though canisters.
The car has done about 500 miles now since the swap and I haven't had any issues since replacing the slave cylinder fitting. That's a relief, particularly since I haven't exactly been easy on it.
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08-27-2013, 01:07 PM
#193
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The car now has ~750 miles and 8 auto-x runs under its belt and all is well.
The biggest issue I had at the auto-x is that the cooling fans couldn't keep up with the generation of heat at idle so I had to do a couple of cool-down highway drives after runs, which was inconvenient, but the car never actually overheated. This was a known issue, however, and I have since fixed it. The problem was that the cooling fans extended about a 1/2" above the radiator in their original position and therefore didn't have a good seal against the radiator--they were sucking air that had not passed through the core. This issue was exacerbated by the ridge that exists around the perimeter of the radiator, which didn't allow the fans to sit flush with the core. I converted the fans to pushers and put them on the front of the radiator, where there is more space, and they now have a good seal. After that, the temperature stayed rock solid during 15 minutes of idling on a hot day--I declare this car ready for stop and go traffic.
Racing this car is a ton of fun. The thing held its own even though I was not driving it to its full potential. The only thing I can fault the car for is it has a tendency to understeer. That, I hope, can be fixed by installing a rear sway bar.
In addition to being quick and fun to drive, many people get excited about this car. Some of the responses that I get when I open the hood are priceless. An unintended, but welcome, consequence of having a swapped car is that it sparks conversations with a lot of cool and interesting people, including some that may have some pull at companies that I'd like to work for. A lot of good could potentially come of this project and I'm excited to see what the future has in store.
Anyway, enough blabbing. Time for some photos!
And a bit of video, too:
The biggest issue I had at the auto-x is that the cooling fans couldn't keep up with the generation of heat at idle so I had to do a couple of cool-down highway drives after runs, which was inconvenient, but the car never actually overheated. This was a known issue, however, and I have since fixed it. The problem was that the cooling fans extended about a 1/2" above the radiator in their original position and therefore didn't have a good seal against the radiator--they were sucking air that had not passed through the core. This issue was exacerbated by the ridge that exists around the perimeter of the radiator, which didn't allow the fans to sit flush with the core. I converted the fans to pushers and put them on the front of the radiator, where there is more space, and they now have a good seal. After that, the temperature stayed rock solid during 15 minutes of idling on a hot day--I declare this car ready for stop and go traffic.
Racing this car is a ton of fun. The thing held its own even though I was not driving it to its full potential. The only thing I can fault the car for is it has a tendency to understeer. That, I hope, can be fixed by installing a rear sway bar.
In addition to being quick and fun to drive, many people get excited about this car. Some of the responses that I get when I open the hood are priceless. An unintended, but welcome, consequence of having a swapped car is that it sparks conversations with a lot of cool and interesting people, including some that may have some pull at companies that I'd like to work for. A lot of good could potentially come of this project and I'm excited to see what the future has in store.
Anyway, enough blabbing. Time for some photos!
And a bit of video, too:
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08-27-2013, 03:18 PM
#195
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Yeah, the torque that these LS engines put out is no joke. The car does look like a bit of a handful in the video, I think primarily because I had to rely on the throttle to keep the car lined up properly through turns due to the tendency to understeer. Consistently getting that right is tricky so tuning the suspension such that the car is fundamentally neutral should eliminate a lot of room for error. Beyond that, it's just a matter of self control and not overcooking corners.
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