I was debating if I should do a build thread on this car or not. I've lately been pretty lazy on documenting work I've been doing. And most has been pretty basic stuff. But anyway everyone loves pics so why not make one.

After 3 blown engine in my 91 BRG it was time to start fresh. I learned a lot from that car and enjoyed building it but I wanted something less extreme and more comfortable. More of a grand touring build with AC and no stripped interior. A balance between performance and comfort.

I stumbled across this Silver 99 Sport with a jackson racing m45. Supercharging it never crossed my mind but the selling point was it was california smog legal and the owner had the smog done.

Within 24 hours of owning the car I had it on the day curious of how much the stock kit made at 5psi. Turns out its a 148WHP. Not a bad start.

The plan for the car is handling and safety first. I added a 949 big grip kit, replaced all the bushings, extended lower ball joints, r-package tie rods etc.

Next safety and chassis stiffening. I'm in the process of adding a harness bar to my roll bar and getting the seating position as low as possible to clear the roll hoop. Planning on doing door bars and some other chassis bracing as well.

Finally add some power. I built a 2.5" exhaust for the car, Added a JDM 4-2-1 header. Next is intercooler and a megasquirt. Finally, I'll play around with a smaller pulley and water meth. That should keep me busy tinkering for a while.


Literally within 24 hours of owning it I had it on the rolls






Needs more Torquez



First track day at streets. I didn't care for the alignment much. No confidence in the car




949 big grip kit. Love those Xidas



Running they're recommended "race" alignment with the new extended lower ball joints.



She's heavvyyyy. With driver an 2/3 tank. corner balanced and got the cross weight to 50%



No driver. And it's only going to get heavier. I miss my 2050 lb NA



Old and New



2nd track day at Chuckwala. Much better with the new suspension setup.



The shop fabricator helped me build a custom 2.5 cat back.



double heat shield to keep the supercharger insulated



JDM goodness (I abandoned a racingbeat that wouldn't clear the blower)




Arts and crafts project for future door bar clearance



turned out not to bad.



I need all the space I can get









The Seat is 1/4" from the floor. As low as I can get it



Still not enough clearance when I put on my helmet





More to come. Plenty work in progress

 

I will be watching with interest. I am stupidcharging my 1990 and have the same issues with the broomstick.

 

I must know, what did you do for your door cards? I have been looking around and there is tons of info for doing Na->nb doors but not Nb->na/anything else doors. Also how tall are you? (curious bc of the helmet clearance)

 

I'm 6'1". For helmet clearance I ended up using my sparco sprint seat with the same mounting bracket shown. The sparco has a sling bottom like a hammack that lets your butt sit lower and gave enough head clearance for a 1" gap to the roll bar with a helmet on.

I used NA door card tops. Then got a thick piece of card board to cut the shape of the lower section and mounting holes etc. I picked up upholstery adhesive and fake leather from a local fabric store to attach the leather. The moutning holes I used eyelets so they wouldn't wear over time and bought push lock plastic fasteners to hold the card to the door. The pull tab is more fabric from a store plus an eyelet to mount to the door frame with a bolt.

example eyelet but you need to verify correct diameter required:

 

I've been busy with this project but have been to lazy to post updates. Here's what's new.

-went racing (burned 6 quarts in 2 days (3 hr track time)
-compression tested and cylinder 4 is 30 psi low, leak down says its rings and intake valves
-removed the stupid charger (turbo is now in the works)
-started building forged internal block
-finally got around to finishing a head I ported a year ago
-struggled to build an MS3X. finally got it all work after a lot of trouble shooting
-bought a tinyiox
-integrated the tinyiox
-blewup the tinyiox
-bought new cpu and soldered it to repair the tinyiox
-shipped it to jbperf to fix
-not to self, don't short out electronics! it's a big hassle
-installed Zerek fab door bars (nice pieces, great deal on the initial groupbuy run)
-mounted a fire extinguisher
-ported the **** out of a gt2560 turbo. I'm curious what min boost I can run before I get any creep
-did some DYNO tuning on the bad engine.