When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I honestly love subaru's, but I've come to the realization that I'd likely never be comfortable owning one outside of some sort of warranty...
I honestly didn't have a good taste in my mouth with the brand prior to owning one, but I figured I'd risk it because the profitability was there to fund awesome Miata things. After a turbocharger and a timing belt tensioner both failing spontaneously without warning, this will be my first and last Subaru. 2 friends of mine experienced catastrophic engine failures on their new WRX's this last year on just a boring commute to work. Warranty covered their full long-block replacements, but most of us at work are generally fed up with the brand lately. I cant really think of anything in particular that they do exceedingly well at besides straight line acceleration in poor conditions which should be given with AWD.
In more exciting news, I have submitted the order I hinted at above for the next phase of the build that will bring the miata to the next level. Working out details with a MT vendor on when I can pick it up. It'll be a good first stepping stone for a lengthy piecing together of parts. I'm going straight to ALLOFIT because if I've learned anything, its that going to SOMEOFIT then breaking parts is a waste of time and money. MT hasn't led me wrong so far!
The wait is over, just got the new paperweight in the garage. Picked up a K24A2 from a local yard with 94k on it. Everything looks to be in exceptional shape on the engine and the price was great. Will be tearing it down shortly to do routine maintenance and Kmiata upgrades.
Can't wait to get this thing in the car, but I'll have to be patient. I have a lot more parts to buy before the big teardown begins.
Started a pile of projects that I've been putting off for too long due to being lazy and not wanting to work in the cold over winter. First off, started cleaning up the K. Pulled off all the accessories that I will no longer be needing which ends up being pretty much everything. Need to do some digging to see if the OEM parts I'm not using are worth anything to the Honda guys as I will have no use for them.
The second project was finally putting some time into figuring out the fuel system issues I had. I had 2 different things going on at once. The first item was that my fuel gauge didnt go above a 1/2 tank. The video below explains pretty clearly why that happened. I relocated the wires so they didn't interfere with the fuel level arm and the issue should be fixed. The second issue was that I had a fuel cut on hard left turns only when the car was about under 1/4 tank or so on fuel. I found the filter sock sitting in the bottom of the tank when i removed the pump assembly. I tossed it on, so now we will see if that fixes the problem.
The third project was getting the door assemblies re-worked. The OEM door panels have pretty much seen their day. They are beat up, stained, and ugly. I have intentions of buying LRB panels to gain some leg clearance. Does anyone have good tricks to removing the black tar junk that is put on the doors under the clear plastic film? While i was pulling the doors apart, i also noticed that one of the window bushings was gone, and the other looked like it lived a good life. Time to upgrade to delrin ones and clean the rails out. Might get to that this week. I also noticed an unwarranted use of zip ties so i cut those out. More on this door project later...
Lastly, does anyone know what this piece is called? Does anyone have one laying around I could buy from them on the low-low?
Need to do some digging to see if the OEM parts I'm not using are worth anything to the Honda guys as I will have no use for them.
Engine harness maybe $100ish...I think I've sold a couple at that price but the buyers are few and far between.
Intake manifold is probably not worth anything, but the TB is as the electric TB goes bad so there is a market for them. eBay is probably your best bet, I think used they go for $40-50.
Exhaust manifold you might get some money for but again, buyers are few. Guys looking to switch back to stock from a header maybe?
Waiting on a bunch of important parts to come in this week to make any decent progress, but one of the issues I had since I bought the car was that the previous roll bar in the car had used holes that I am no longer using. Water was able to work its way into those holes while driving in the rain which made for a moist interior. I thought of a few methods of patching these holes, but I decided to hit the easy button and bought 3M aluminum tape. I'll be using this for a few other projects, but it pretty much sticks to anything so it fits my needs well. Time to clean the interior out now that the holes are patched.
Also got the delrin window bushings installed, so the windows function as they should
Long overdue updates. Lots has happened. I'll do my best to summarize.
March 20, 2018
Decided from Day 1 on this project that I wanted this build to have some level of street comfort that my other builds lacked greatly in. One of those items was some level of vibration, heat, and noise barrier. Found what is essentially aluminized bubble wrap on Amazon. Keeping weight in mind, the 40 sq feet I'll end up using on the car weighed in at a feathery 2 lbs.
Wrapped the fuel cover lid as it was rattling pretty bad for some reason. The barrier material was very easy to work with using 3M spray adhesive as you can see it forming to contours easily here:
Started covering the entire interior
March 22, 2018
Received in custom LRB aluminum NB1 panels (no speaker holes).
Bought these clean looking Rockford Fosgate 3-Way component speakers
Cut my own holes for the speakers in the door panels to fit the RF speakers that I bought
Decided on insulating the door panels
Don't need all that extra metal behind the door panel, so out it comes. Still kept power windows because racecar.
Decided that plain aluminum panels would kind of really suck to rest your arm on during the summer heat, so bought some automotive suede material and got my craftiness on
Finished Product
March 24, 2018
Tried out my buddies TIG welder. First time ever TIG welding. First time welding in general since sometime in 2008 with a MIG. I need to buy an AlphaTIG for upcoming projects. First weld is the top, second is the middle, and third pass is the bottom. Pretty damn happy with results.
03-05-2018, 08:40 PM
0
