Any news?

 

I think he shot himself...

 

I'm still alive. Got the new crank bolt from Rosenthal a few days ago. Still waiting on the tap that's being delivered via delirious camel through the good ole USPS. Tracking shows it left Columbus, OH on May 28th, became disoriented and traveled 160 miles in the wrong direction to Mentor, OH on May 29th, returned to Columbus, OH on May 30th, and has stayed there recuperating for the last 4 days. Expected delivery to Fort Myers, FL somewhere between June 3rd and Nov 27, 2017.

 

Why don't you just go buy one from sears?

 

I went to Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, Ace (two of them), Lowes, and Home Depot and none of them had metric taps above 12mm. I checked the Sears website and "14x1.5 tap" doesn't bring up anything under $50, which I wasn't willing to pay, so I didn't bother going to the store. At this point I've lost that anxious energy to get the thing done so I don't mind waiting a few extra days for the tap to get here.

 

Are you going to JB weld this thing in? lol.

 

Duct tape and bubble gum.

My plan is for the tap to clean up the messed up threads so I won't need any creative engineering to hold the bolt in. Either that, or I completely destroy the threads, pull the motor, swap the rods and head over to my spare block and run it like it is. That will give me the exact same motor setup as my last car (1.8NA block and pistons, aftermarket rods, '99 head).

 

Muhahahahaha

 

So glad to see this.. NAO WE NEED BOOST VIDEOS!

 

YEAH BUDDY

'Grats, I'm sure you're stoked.

 

huge success
i like

 

That's awesome news.

 

There are plenty of openings for HPDE1 at Sebring on June 15-16. And I know someone local who is just putting a rollbar up for sale if you need one.

At least come out to ride along that weekend if you can't participate.

 

^This. Join us and spend all the monies...

 

Thanks for the invite guys. I'd definitely love to come up and ride along. I'll have to see how my schedule looks and I'll let you know if I can make it.

 

I've got like 15 miles on it without anything breaking so far! We've been getting rain from tropical storm Andrea for almost a week straight which really sucks for driving the car, especially one that you have absolutely no confidence in. I finally couldn't take it anymore and drove it to dinner last night.

The tune is stupid rich, but I didn't even bother bringing the computer since it's so wet out and with no AC we had to keep the windows open. Hoping it will clear up a little this evening and I can start to get the tune dialed in.

First picture of the car not in the garage/driveway in like 6 months.

 

Sweet! Good to see that thing on the road again!

 

Awesome! Yeah this storm has been hitting hard. Me and a few guys at work got emergency texts all at the same time about tornado warnings and to stay indoors. Anyways, glad to see its running. I always love driving downtown for some reason, idk why. Looks good man, can't wait to see in person

 

The car started smoking again after a few drives, but it seems to be getting better now I'm hoping the rings were just getting seated and it wasn't ever anything like before. I've also got a small oil leak somewhere I need to find but I don't think that should be a big issue and seems to happen with everything I put together. I made it to work and back today, about 26 miles.

The wastegate I bought used was running a little over 20psi and the car is making a weird noise I can't figure out when it gets into boost. It's a rattling/breaking kind of sound, I was almost hoping whatever it was would just fall off so I'd know what I needed to fix. I pulled a spring out of the wastegate and it's down to 12 psi and the noise went away, not sure that's a good sign but at least it's better for now.

I took a quick video tonight, the tune has too much fuel and too little timing, but it's definitely coming together. The video is horrible, taken from my antique cell phone, but you get the idea.

 

Found the oil leak yesterday, I had assumed it was something simple like an oil supply/return line or the oil pressure sensor, but of course I couldn't be so lucky. Short of leaking through a hole in the side of the block I think it's about the worst possible place it could be. The stupid rear main made it about 100 miles and started peeing everywhere. Looks like the tranny is coming back out, for the 273483587th time. I hate this car.