Less than a month before the first Angle Factory event, but the solo 2 school less than two weeks away. These things in mind, powertrain in mind, I’ve just re-installed last years motor. Surely a disappointing thing, but time and money haven’t allowed anything else. The old Toysport header, was sold in anticipation of the turbo installation, so I’m just running a stock manifold. I’ve also ditched the old exhaust (custom muffler shop job) for the new stainless Megan catback underaxle, which I’ll join up to the header with a T3 test pipe. But… none of this is installed yet. The car currently sits with engine and tranny in, with harness partially hooked up, and various other bits not quite together. I did put everything on the new Cusco mounts, but I did not install the new flywheel and clutch. Those, I figure I’ll save for the coming motor, which will be the original plan (pending some miraculous sale) of a turbocharged GZE. Step by step it shouldn’t be too difficult of a thing, and I hope to have it done in a couple months… assuming I can put some money aside.
- Get the current motor running on MS
- Clean up the GZE block and assemble motor , incase the old one actually lets go.
- Do all the fab work, based on fitment in my second, not running car.
Sounds simple enough… but I wonder if I’ll really go through with it. I still struggle to define what my ideal motor would be. I think 150whp would be amazing. That’s certainly achievable with the turbo. Stockish AE101 20v’s can even make those numbers with care and attention. 20v swap isn’t really much less involved than turbocharging though… and I already have all the turbo bits left over from a winters broken plans.
Ideally, I find a cheap AE111 bottom end, run it with the large port head and a mild cam. Everyone talks ITB’s but that’s show style stuff and I don’t need bragging rights. Run single throttle body on MS, with a header and be done. Clean engine bay. I can put it all together myself at home. The problem is getting rid of all the turbo parts to pay for that.
That’s something else. My current hope is to have the car ready just in time for the solo 2 school, only one weekend away. My current to do list is…
- finish underhood work: hooking everything up, checking that everything is tight, adding all fluids, all brake and clutch lines were apart even
- adjust rear end… was making a HELLUVA lot of noise. I don’t want to rebuild yet. Try adjusting preload and backlash.
- Get the bumpers painted, fix one of the rear brackets
- Finish the rear shock towers. I already did some grinding to see what was really under there. It appears to have started from the inside (which seems odd to me). I found rust in the trunk, but none in the fender. Neither was really drastic after spending some time with a wire wheel. I’m not going to bother having stuff welded in back there at this point. I put some rust converter on it tonight… next is seem sealer. Then paint, and install the Cusco brace I have lying around. I ordered a tri-bar add on for that brace today to help things out.
- Get the new bumpers painted to match
Touch up many rock chips etc on the body
Then it’s just a matter of getting time at the shop to do my alignment and giving everything a thorough once over. I feel like it’s gonna be really hard, especially because Andrew just got me hooked on Narutimate Hero 3, and I can’t stop playing.