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Alright fellas. My winter break is over (been over for a week now but im lazy so I haven't updated this). l'll fill you in on what I did.
The first week and a half was spent with my trying to get my NB1 ready to sell.
I bought the car to flip, thought about keeping it, but stuck to my plan of selling it. I bought the car not running. Previous owner claimed it needed a fuel line and wiring hooked up (motor swap not finished). So I bought the car, towed it home, sourced some parts, and put it back together. Went to primed the system to gain oil pressure, and fired right up. BUT, I had a problem, a big one. The motor had rod knock. I tried contacting the seller to either take the car back or give me money for a replacement motor but of course that didn't happen. So I cut my losses and found a BP5A JDM motor in san fran. It was just a long block, no accessories at all. So I pulled the BP4W, swapped over everything, dropped the 5A in, fired right up. But once again, we had problems. The car sounded like it was not timed correctly or misfiring really bad, I checked timing twice before I fired the motor tho so I was fairly confident I got it right. But it had fresh plugs, wires, and coil pack so I knew it most likely wasn't that. So I tore the front of the motor down and checked timing once more. Everything checked out. Puzzled, I put everything back together and did some thinking. I though the only thing it could be was ignition, it was getting fuel, I could smell it on the plugs. Long story short, it turned out to be one of the coil pack plugs wasn't clicked in all the way. DOH. :facepalm
Now that the car was running and driving I went to get the car registered. I had to smog the car before I could get tags, so AAA gave me moving permits to get the car to the smog shop. Well on the way to the smog shop it threw a check engine light. So I scanned it, and it was a VSS malfunction. All the trans writing was ripped out of the car by whoever pulled the original motor. I guess they forgot to disconnect it? So I had the pleasure of re-wiring the trans. Fixed that, cleared the code, and drove around for a bit to go through the drive cycles. ANOTHER CEL came on. So I plugged in the scanner, and it was an IACV error. So I changed it. Finally. No more CELs. I drove the car around for 120miles or so, made sure it was good to go, and it was. To the smog shop I go. And they can't smog the car because they say there is something wrong with the car. "Its idling at 1500 rpm and is inconsistent". I try to explain to the guy that there is no way this is physically possible. But he is positive that his machine is accurate and my car is fucked. So I take the car to a smog shop down the street and it passed immediatley. Sold the car a few days later. Boom. Done.
Now I could move on to my car. At this point, time was running out. I had just about a week to swap in the built motor. That was my #1 priority. My original plan was to sort out the suspension issues first, but thats all stuff I can do relatively quickly, with not very many tools. So that got put on the back burner for now. I pulled the car in the garage, put it on jack stands, and got to work.
Motor came out with no issues. Just another motor pull.
Out with the old.
Got all my accessories swapped over to the new motor
Put the clutch on. Was pretty.
Went to mate the trans AND.....it wouldn't go on. No matter how much re-aligning of the clutch disks, wiggling, shoving, or cussing; the thing just wouldn't wanna mate up all the way. So I asked Andrew at TSE what to do and he said use the bell housing bolts to slowly and evenly tighten the trans onto the motor. This worked, although I was very paranoid about damaging the pilot bearing/flywheel. But there was nothing else I could do.
This is how close I was able to get it before it gave me the finger.
Getting the motor in the car with the reroute was a pain in the ***. The reroute was hitting the firewall, I had to play tricks with the load leveler to sink the drivers side motor mount in the hole and let the other side slide in when lowering the motor, and having someone pull back on the trans with a pry bar helped some too. But eventually it dropped in.
Everything all hooked up ready to go. I was kinda shitting my pants for a bit because it took longer than I expected to build oil pressure. But we are all good.
For my first 50 miles with the new motor, I took the car up my all time favorite backroad, Highway 9 in the Santa Cruz mountains. It felt AMAZING to drive the car again. The clutch feels great. Its heavy, but to too bad, and modulation is actually really good for a twin disk. Not to mention the new light flywheel. Super happy with it. I was on a stock flywheel and ACT street HD iirc previously and this is a worthy upgrade for sure. That clutch is for sale. Had plenty of life left in it (60%). PM me if you want it.
AE92 Corollas and s2ks are basically the same thing right?
In all seriousness, the miata isn't going anywhere. But, I did pick up this wonderful machine a few weeks ago. I took it to the track and can confirm s2k is amazeballz. Anyone wanna buy a e36 m3?
I bought the car sight unseen in Cali. It was a customers car, so they guys at work called me and said it was for sale. I inquired. I acquired.
Parts List: •Sakebomb FP Spec Ohlins long stroke dampers •Sakebomb Wilwood front BBK •Sakebomb rear BBK •Hardrace front sway bar •Hardrace roll center adjusters •AP2 motor •Recaro Profi SPG Seats •Schroth harnesses •Hard Dog roll bar •Wedsport TC105N 17x9 • 255/40/17 rs4 square •AP2 diff •Ballade Axles •J’s Racing pillow ball rear control arms •NRG Innovations rear toe links •Kraken 19 row competition oil cooler •Koyo radiator •invidia q300
Here are the pics the PO sent me before I bought it.
The car needed a clutch. So I had it towed to my work and they did the clutch for me. I opted for the ballade N/A clutch with the ballade 10lb flywheel and OEM bearings.
Here is the car on the trailer ready to be towed out to indy. HUGE shout out to AFM/Albert for letting me use his trailer.
This is a dirty car on a trailer. Such wow.
I took it to the track the next week after arrival. Was fun. 10/10 will do again.
The drive to the track had my ears bleeding. The drone was horrendous. I promptly ordered an invidia q300. It's perfect. No drone, and quiet till you get on it.
The day after I got back from the track some **** head decided to stick his knife through the sidewall of my basically new front left re71r. So that was fun. The rears weren't as new so I had to get a whole set of tires. I wanted something with more longevity than the 71r so I opted for the rs4. I had the tires mounted up yesterday and that about sums up where we are.
My text track outing is on May 11th at Putnam Park. I am competing in the SCCA Time Trails thing so well will see what comes of that. Gridlife midwest right after.
The car was kinda loose at the track so I got a new rear sway bar to fix that since the stock AP1 rear bar belongs on a semi. Other than that I wanna put a hardtop on it and mabe a wing.
I also got a go kart to feed my addiction. Its a 2011 margay that I'm gonna be running the 206 class in. so yea.
I am staying out in indy for most of the summer. I should be back in the bay for a couple weeks before school starts up again. I want to get the car caged so that is what Im gonna be working on. I have some more goodies for it waiting back at home as well. I got my alignment issues sorted out so now I just gotta get the car broken in, new fuel system in, new tires, install hood vents, and install the other goodies I have at home.
Last edited by icantlearn; 04-23-2019 at 12:31 PM.
Alllrighty tidy. Update time. Before we begin. Can we thank our lovely mods/admin/whateverthefuck for changing my username on this great forum? Great. Thanks guys. Really funny.
I went to the Gridlife Midwest festival in the s2k. I was in street class for time attack. I didnt win. It was fun. Probably selling that car. Who wants it?
My freshman year of college is officially over. I survived...barley. I made my return to California last Tuesday, and oh man, its nice to be back. You may be asking yourself. I wonder what the first thing to do when in cali is? Easy. Tacos. Acquire tacos. If you said anything else, you fail. Go home and re-think your life.
Anyways, a while ago I picked up an APR GT250 from a friend of mine. He was going to use it on his car, but as is the MT circle of life, he parted out and bought a fiata. SO, as my first order of business I decided to install my new jewl.
But first, pictures. We love pictures.
Here are the mounts, the welds are noice and stronk.
The wing stands were painted gold as the previous owner had a red and gold themed car. I sprayed everything satin black, don't worry
First things first, I had to weld in the mounts as this wing is chassis mounted. Is this the best solution? Probably not. Do I really care? Not really.
I had to drill out the spot welds for the oem jack bracket. It sat right where the mount goes on the frame rail. So I deyeeted it from the car. Weight reduction bro. This is also conveniently the location for the battery tie down bolt; so I had to get a bit creative since the frame rail is boxed and I had no way of getting a nut thought the bottom. I opted to weld a stud to the steel plate on the wing mount. and then use a nut on top. The stud is a bit short, but it works, so whatever.
Moving on, the stands protrude through the trunk lid, luckily I have 2 spares in my body color so I grabbed the original one from the car and started hacking it up like an ape. This is the same trunk I used for my failed science experiment with my "diy spoiler" from way back. It already had holes in it so I didn't feel bad cutting into it. Did I do it as clean as I could have? Probably not. Do I really care? Not really. this trunk was all scratched up anyways.
MMMmmmmm carbon.
And that was that. I drove to the shop to do a quick oil change and install the splitter because I had a track day at thunderhill the next day. But then this happened. I got a flat. I got out of the car, and the front left was ded. Lovely.
Check out how balooned the tire was. I was able to limp the car to the nearest gas station thanks to the CHP patrol guy. He gave me 10psi pf air to get me off the highway. I filled up the tire with air and started to drive home. I made it about 5ft before I realized something was fucked. So I pulled into the neighborhood and had a friend pick me up. I didnt know what was wrong at this point so I grabbed one of my 9" wheels and the jack. When I got the fucked wheel off I quickly noticed what was going on. I was glad it wasnt a bent wheel or anything mechanical, but now I had no tires to go to the track with. The search began. I hit up everyone I knew, and nobody had anything I could rent. I swung by the former TSE HQ and took a peek at what he had. He offered to rent me a set of older 225 rc1s on an assortment of 15x9 wheels. 2 gen 1 6uls, 1 storm s1, and 1 konig dial in. His terms were simple, it was $150 to rent the wheels and tires, but I could never bring them back. Hm. ok. works for me
ing
I was on my way to thunderhill east at 4am on saturday since I finished the car at midnight the night before. We decided to sleep at home and then leave early instead of drive into the night and sleep in a shitty hotel. It was a **** show. I had to drive to the shop to pick up my splitter since I left it there the night before thinking I was going to drive my car there and throw it on. Then I had to drive 40min home, get the keys for the trailer, drive 40 min to san martin which is the opposite direction. get the trailer, drive home, put the splitter on, put the air dam on, and load everything up. Keep in mind its like 10pm at this point. So yea, my neighbor and friend (who was towing me to the track) and I were both shlumped at this point and decided to just leave early the next day.
I have no footage of this event because I left my gopro in Indy. But ho-lee-shittt. This car is so good. The wing balanced the car out beautifully. Im sure the tires had a lot to do with this as well but I was in love. This car friggin rips. I had a passenger all day and put down a 2:05. Meh. Ill take it I guess. I bet with sticker 245s, no passenger, and a cage/gut id be closer to where I need to be time wise (1:57).
On the drive home, I decided that this car would no longer be a street car. Its just too much. No a/c, a leg press for a clutch, no cats, no airbags, etc. Its just time. The only saving grace for this car is the bose sound system which I quite liked. But thats just not enough to justify keeping it on the street. I felt like im leaving a bunch of time on the table with this car being a heavy pig (2700) with passenger (2550) without.
So this first thing I did when I got home was start stripping the interior. I started with the doors and center console. The passenger airbag I already removed. Getting the black tar off the doors is a pain in the ***. Im just using wd40 and a rag lol.
And now we are all caught up. I need to figure out a way to keep the car weather proof. The carbon top isnt water tight, and I want to get rid of the power windows but I need to figure out a solution to keep the windows up. I gotta do more research.
Next up is the fuel system. I am currently maxing out he stock fuel pump. Frankly, im surprised it hasn't taken a **** on me yet. The plan is to tune for ALLOFIT, and have a rotart switch for GLTC, NASA ST4, and my kill tune.
There is a place called La Cueva off of prospect ave in Saratoga. Truly the best mexican food I've ever had. I always go for the al pastor burrito. Its so, so good.
Speaking of a cage. I just booked my car in for a full cage at TC Design for May 14th. I said I want Andrew Kidds cage but I wasn't sure the FIA bars were necessary. Tony said he can do taco gussets to the A-pillar for the chassis rigidity and much esier ingress/egress. I will have X style door bars, along with front and rear shock tower bracing. So thats what im going with. Really stoked on this. Can't wait to drive my car again.
When I got back from Thill, I started gutting the car, the last pic I posted was the door panel off the car. Well, I never posted an update pic on here. Getting the sound deadening out was kind of a pain as I didn't have dry ice. So, I got a pack of dust off cans (compressed air in a can), flipped it upside down, and blasted the areas I wanted to hit, then want at it with a hammer. Worked decent, although you can see residue still. Oh yea, I also picked up a Racetech halo seat. Its really, REALLY nice. I have a fire suppression system on the way as well, but yea, that's about it for the miata for now. I need to decide between getting a custom suit made or saving 300ish and just get a regular off the shelf suit. TBD.
Now this is where things get spicy. If you don't care about anything else but miata, move along, if you do, well here.
As you may know, I had a yellow s2000. Well I sold it. I wanted something more street friendly, had more torque, and didn't try to kill me if I went to the track.
Welcome to my 2002 e46 m3. Awesome car. This car is better than my e36 m3 was in every single way, except for sound. Still don't like s54s, sorry Ian. Comfortable, good sound system, handled really well, just a really good car.
Here is the trio all together.
I then shipped the e36 out to california. A good friend of mine bought it off me.
Driving the e46 made me realize its potential, so this is when I sold the s2k. I needed to thin out the herd. But, being the freak that I am, I stumbled across this for a price I couldn't pass up.
Its a 09 m3. DCT. Now lemmy tell ya. Im in love with this car. I am not a massive fan of the manual in these cars to I was fine with the dct. Its so fast, crisp, seamless. Its just perfect. This car is the complete package. 8300rpm V8, amazing seats, killer sound system, just.....nice.
I really like the stock suspension (its on eibach springs), but these AST 2 way dampers popped up for a good price so I jumped on em. I might re-sell, or not, idk yet.
So yeah. That was the end of the e46. We are about all caught up now.
Does anyone know if looping the heater core hoses will pose any issues on a race car? I heard I will need a reducer but nobody has confirmed.w
this is what I read on M.Net: If there is no restriction in the heater hose as mine is right now (with hose bypassing the heater core), too much hot water recirculates and not enough goes to the radiator = ineffective cooling.
01-10-2019, 12:41 AM
So I had the pleasure of re-wiring the trans. Fixed that, cleared the code, and drove around for a bit to go through the drive cycles. ANOTHER CEL came on. So I plugged in the scanner, and it was an IACV error. So I changed it. Finally. No more CELs. I drove the car around for 120miles or so, made sure it was good to go, and it was. To the smog shop I go. And they can't smog the car because they say there is something wrong with the car. "Its idling at 1500 rpm and is inconsistent". I try to explain to the guy that there is no way this is physically possible. But he is positive that his machine is accurate and my car is fucked. So I take the car to a smog shop down the street and it passed immediatley. Sold the car a few days later. Boom. Done.
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