New to the forum, with plenty of pictures
 

Hey all, Stephan here from Eau claire Wisconsin.

I am fairly new to miatas, but a long time car guy.
Currently in my stable are:
69 Caldwell Formula Vee (open wheel race car)
91 Mitsubishi Galant Vr-4 1953/2000(Built motor, suspension mods, typically broken and on jack stands)
64 Plymouth belvedere (Long term, good intentions)
91 Miata (stock, daily driver for now)
97 Volvo 850GLT wagon
And I cant forget my 86 Honda Spree

Although I have always liked the miatas, my initial intention was to find a blown motor car, and swap in something stupid. Being a long term turbo guy, I want something that makes big boosted power. I'v thrown around all the ideas out there. Initially it was going to be shoehorning a 1/2jzgte, or a rotary. I then decided to follow the Mitsubishi path I know so well, and build another 4g63t and use a "billhousing" with a Toyota trans.

Now that the Miata is my DD, I am trying to keep it as mild, and reliable as possible. I am currently fighting the urge to boost the 1.6..but Im certainly going to give in. Im a granny on the streets, so I have no use for power, but man do I feel the need to keep it handy.
In the future I plan on building a 1.8 with a MHI turbo, like a 16g, or a 20g as I have many laying around. I am going to turn my current miata into a toy, and likely buy a nice, low miles NB for a DD.


I have been into cars since a kid. As a youngster, I loved corvettes and Vw bugs. I ditched the corvette envy in middle school, but still dig old VW's. Many of my friends in highschool had DSM's, and rx7s...When I practically lived in the auto shop, we did everything from swap motors to fully building 4g63.

My good friend is a big stealth guy, and thats what really buried my passion for boost. He has a big twin 16g stealth thats running in the 500 safe HP rage. After I had helped him do tons to that car, I decided to finally buy a turbo car, and I bought a 91 galant vr4 with bent valves. I fully built the motor, and turned it into what was supposed to be a track car. The constant headaches have kind of led me to take a break from it for a while, and move onto some other projects.

I am an autobody technician at a very quality local bodyshop. My cars definitly dont reflect that, but in the near future I will begin tearing into all of my cars for new paint work. First up is my formula vee.

My good friend is a former Indy 500 driver, aand a current driving instructer at Brainerd international raceway. I'v helped them with restoring a few of their race cars, and I have a few free tickets to the driving school.
If you ever go to a car show and see the BIR race car on display, I restored and helped paint that car. (See the laster picture in this post)
I plan on spending alot of my off time hanging out there, and racing this summer.

Anyways, i suppose I can get onto the pictures:

Heres my miata

Attachment 206417


Galant Vr4

Attachment 206418

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...gaylant003.jpg

Vee
Attachment 206419

Attachment 206420

Plymouth

Attachment 206421

and the Bir Race car, and owners car we did
Attachment 206422
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...s/IMG_1411.jpg


(sorry no assembled pictures of this one yet)
Attachment 206423
This is the other one, it will look just like this:
Attachment 206424


And I guess thats my intro. Everyone will probably skip the ridiculous amount of text and go straight for pictures, which is cool too :laugh:

Welcome. One of the best fucking intro threads ever. Make sure you share as much info and pics with us as possible, I have a feeling they will be extremely interesting:)

Haha, thanks man, I do what I can.


Heres a video of the vee:



I was on STORAGE tires, and my valves were way out of adjustment (hence the popping) with old gas, and it was in the middle of winter...Needless to say, the car wasnt performing to its full potential.


Heres my VR4 shortly after the build:
Galant VR4 Video by Zach - MySpace Video
(this is on my friend who filmed the car's myspace page)
I had a hanging caliper, it wasnt fully broken in, I had a horrible dump tube, high idle, and I was only running ~8 psi


Heres right after I installed 272*/272* street cams

Galant vr4 brian crower bc0101 272's Video by Winnebago Warrior - MySpace Video

+1.

Welcome aboard.

I loved that Vee! I envy you!

I really wish I could've tried one when I young.

If you want to turn that Miata to big power you're going to need to do some reading. Early NAs have a weak drivetrain.

You've come to the right place and we love to see real car fans come in.

Welcome. You got my vote for best noob thread. Nice cars.

I see your location in your initial post, might wanna put it in your profile.

Chris

Welcome to the forum. I'm a huge vr4 fan, what all have you done to it?

Thanks for the welcome guys.

Well..That would take a pretty long time to type.

Some of the highlights are:


all of the obvious things like Micropolish crank, standard block work, and head work, hot tank, etc etc etc.
Eagle rods
MHI EvoIII 16g turbo for break in, set at 8psi.. freshly rebuilt MHI 20g sitting on the shelf with external tial 44mm wastegate mounted on o2.
Wiseco pistons: 9:1 .040 over
Bc0101 Cams. Matching 272*'s
COP setup
Intake, Intercooler kit, and exhaust built by myself.
Tein Coilovers
Whiteline 26mm front sway bar
strut bars
and to mention, I have done everything myself but the machine work...This was my first personal build...but I have done a handful of jobs for my friends in the past, mostly including my friends big HP stealths. His "racecar" Is a near thousand horse big single 6g72 with a full cage, chromoly subframe, 6 inch deep intercooler core, and all the goodies.


Nearly everything under the hood has been replaced. The crank, and valvesprings are about all that are original. Once its broken in and Im going to rev the snot out of it and I will throw in some beehive springs.


I built most of the car while I was in college, working part time at a produce warehouse working my ass off making 7.50 an hour. Its been an ongoing project for about 3 years and Im simply getting fed up with it. I had an oil leak that was going through my oil pump shaft, and out my sprocket. Not thinking, I replaced the pump seal. once I actually payed attention to what was going on, I found that it wasnt a pump problem whatsoever. All I can figure out is there was a machining flaw on either the pump face, or gear.
The pump is ~$400

Its currently sitting on jack stands waiting for me to work on it.

Doing the job includes:
Drop driveshaft
remove transfer case
remove x member
remove drivers axle
remove tie rod from knuckle
remove accessories and belts
remove upper, and lower timing covers
mark, and remove timing belt (interference engine, nothing to breeze through)
remove oil pan
remove pump



Then putting it back together is an even bigger ordeal, and with the pump and new timing belt it cost me around $500 and atleast 20 hours...mostly because I like to take my time and do things right.

Ill have it back up within a month or so. I work 45 hours a week at the body shop, help out at a custom helmet shop, and Im beginning to take on side work to put a little more in my pockets...and I have to keep the lady interested. To say the least, Im busy.

Sounds like a very thorough build. A year ago I had no clue as to the potential of those cars. A friend of mine has a shop that specializes in DSMs and one of his shop cars is a VR4. After seeing the build, the dyno pulls and then riding in it I was sold. I guarantee that yours will turn a few people into VR4 fans once they see and ride in the finished product.

Welcome to the site for sure, great intro thread.

Anything going on with the 850? My dad leased a couple of those (the 2nd was actually a "V70R", same difference as you know). They were decently quick and both had the 2.3 5 w/ "high pressure" (Volvo's term) turbo.

To make a long story short.. I had a PCV issue, and it backed oil into places it shouldnt be.
I'v replaced the turbo, entire pcv system, had the intercooler flushed, and taken it to two different mechanics and I cant seem to get rid of the smoke.

I kept messing with it, until I finally got so fed up I just parked it. This isnt an uncommon problem with the turbo 850's, but I dont have a dealership closer then the twin cities (~90 miles, would need trailer) and I'v already spent enough on it.

I bought the car for $2900, then did tons of maintenence (~$1200 in new parts, everything from struts and brakes to spark plugs), put a total of 330 miles on it, and this happened...eventually I will trailer it to the cities and demand it fixed prior to it being given back again.

very fun, and practical car. 190hp in a biggy heavy volvo doesnt sound like alot of fun, but its was still plenty peppy.

Welcome! I'm a student at UW-Stout, but only the VW and Duc are up here with me, the Miata stays home in Milwaukee.

Oh cool. Were you at the stout car show at the dunn county grounds last weekend? I got there at around 1:30, but left at about 2.

The local club (cvscc) puts on some pretty decent autox's at Cvtc (chippewa valley technical college, here in Eau claire) in the BIG lot.

You should try to make it out for some local events this year.

Some nice toys!

Welcome to the forum :) that vee is kik ass

Welcome!

I vote that mods immediately remove newb title, as this member should not be considered a newb anywhere.

Let us know what your plans are with the Miata...

I can tell you a boosted 1.6L is a very good thing. I like to keep it sane on the streets as well, but it's just enough power on tap for whenever you do feel inclined to burn through your favorite twisties or embarass that MustangGT/WRX/G35 that thinks bought is faster than built.

i want the galant. best sleeper.

Haha thanks man.

My miata plans are pretty short for this car. I would like to build a wastegate pressure setup. I dont want to make my daily driver TOO unreliable. I would likely run a 14b, or a 16g on this car. Although mine is in OK shape for a midwest 91, I dont think its THE car to dump money into. I want to buy an NB eventually.

My miata WILL be tracked.. but non-competively

Currently I only have a full exhaust, w/o cat
I would like to have a decent suspension
so-so turbo setup
sticky tires :)
I will be repainting it soon (blue with a HEAVY pearl, up in the air on the stripes)

But we will see how it plays out. I recently found a 97 for a fantastic price..so my car may end up as a spare. Im not buying anything soon, but I would like to start with a little better base.


And it got pounded with hail on friday..I was planning on claiming it til I got ahold of the insurance company and found I only have liabillity. Also, I work at a body shop, so they cut the check to the shop, that goes to me, I fix it myself and profit....but not anymore.