Rally Pat

From here, we were right up against our time limit for the evening but we had basically accomplished everything we set out to do. From here, there will be some shots of us putting the car's suspension back together, and where we left it on the rack at the shop. At some point either this week or next, it will likely be coming to my house to be finished off as its basically all little stuff from here on out. The big work that we needed the space in the shop for is done.

Here is where we had to slow down quite a bit. The first problem we ran into was the studs for the new engine mount "uprights" was thicker than the stock Porsche hole. No biggie, quick to drill out. The next mistake was mine - I had the engine mounts backwards, so the crossmember was way off. This took us a little while to figure out, which I didn't take a ton of pictures during since all three of us were holding things up and switching parts around. Once we got that sorted, Sean noticed the "air duct" on the back of the F body alternator was a little too close to the steering shaft on the steering rack. I used a pair of plyers and removed the duct from the rest of the plastic shield.

We lowered the car over the cart we had the engine on, just to get a look at things initially, determined pretty quickly we needed to pull the radiator back out and did so. Then we hooked up the engine hoist through the engine bay, and began lifting up the engine into the car. Our friend Carson stopped by for a visit, and ended up staying till we left that evening and helping so huge shoutouts to him as well.

After we confirmed we had taken care of the last exhaust stud, we turned our attention to preparing the subframe to recieve the engine and adapter mounts. We drug it outside, washed it off, removed the old engine mounts, and screwed in the AN adapters for the steering rack. We were pretty sure we were ready to start the process of installing the engine, hopefully for the last time. With that, we attached the headers with the new hardware and gaskets that came with the kit. I also laid out the new hardware to bold the subframe in, which includes the 1/2 drop spacers that come with the kit.

Found myself a little more downtime while I stayed out of Sean's while he was working on that last stud. Check out this beautiful Japanese imported Lancia Delta HF Integrale - one of the most famous rally cars of my childhood. This one is amazing, very low mileage.

The last stud was giving us trouble, because of course it was. This involved a little smoke wrench action to add some heat, but it still wouldn't come. We ended up drilling it out too.

Sean stepped away for a bit to help some other people in the shop, so I took a little break myself and wanted to take a look at the chinese wiring harness I bought. This thing is super nice. I paid less than Backyard Bob on facebook or craigslist charges to standalone-ize your harness, and I paid less than half of a professional harness rework service. The whole harness is super nice, and I am very pleased with the purchase so far. It has included relays for fuel pump and fan control, as well as a small fuse panel.

More power steering route pictures, and some comparisons of the banjo bolts.

I got my eBay GM Power Steering Banjo adapter, but the two bolts included were the same length and were too long. Its supposed to be one longer and one shorter. Not to worry, Sean apparently has a collection of banjo bolts and one in his stash was the perfect length. Like every LS on Earth, this one had a few broken exhaust studs and Sean worked on extracting and/or drilling those out while I fiddled some more with the power steering pump. I still haven't completely settled on where I am going to run the hose yet, but this banjo fitting puts us in a much better position than we were in with the stock Corvette fitting. I have some real options about where I can aim the hose now.

Gonna be lots of posting today fam, give me some time. It takes a while to write each one and pick the pictures I am going to post for each blurb given the 5 picture limit per post. I write and post one post at a time. Also got a new phone too, so hopefully the pictures are a little better. Sean and I are back from our respective life changing events - he got married and I bought a house and moved in to it, so thats why we haven't been around making progress on this thing. We finally planned to get together on Saturday the 21st, to start chipping away at it again. We were off to a rough start because of the rain. It was pouring like crazy Saturday morning, and nothing is worse then pushing around an unpowered vehicle in the rain and mud. We made the decision to wait till the afternoon to see if it would clear up, and luckily it did. We got our start around 1PM, doing or usual routine of dragging the car around with Sean's truck. The main goal for the day was to physically put the engine in. In order to facilitate this, we had to drop out the subframe first. Easy enough, and its cast aluminum so its pretty easy to lift.

Craigslist blows now, FB is where its at

Just joined a group for building Barra powered cars stateside. Just saying.

I've been thinking about building a drag car next, so I've definitely looked at retired Caprice's. I need to buckle down and finish the 944 though before I start another project.

I would never buy anything without a title ever. Even disposing of cars is hard without it.

Looks like there are lots of cans for sale on eBay

We'll be back here soon folks! My wife and I decided to buy a house, and Sean went and got married, so we both have been pretty occupied the last month or so. I was hoping to have the car running by LS fest, but I don't think I am going to make it at this point. I purchased a standalone wiring harness from Alibaba, haven't had a chance to inspect it in person yet, but other people have given great reviews. Few advantages: Main one is cost, obviously. This was only like $200 something dollars, compared to a PSI harness which is like $600ish for basically all of their manual harnesses. Another is fresh wiring. Instead of fucking around with a 20 year old dirty, oily, maybe cracked harness with sketchy connections and connectors, its all brand new cabling and connectors. I also don't need to mess with trying to "standalone-ize" a harness myself, or pay the (usually $300 or so) cost to have someone else do it. It has a three wire hook up and it even has an included fuse box and relays for electric fans and fuel pump, as well as a broken out ODBII connector so you can put it anywhere. The other two things I ordered are a banjo power steering adapter, which I am hoping will help me with my clearance issues I am having with the Corvette power steering pump, and a flexible dipstick. We have some more house stuff to take care of the next week or so, but it shouldn't be too much longer till we can get back to it and drop the motor in!

I have the Harbor Freight 21 Gallon, and I've had it going on 8 years I think? Just like anything else, make sure you maintain it. I check the oil before every use and change it at least once a season, drain the tank a few times a season, etc etc.

Very cool. My dad bought a Fox body when he was terminally ill and I would love to track it down and have it back.

Without getting in to detail, basically the same. Used to call it cowardly...then I went through some stuff.

Apparently according to AMD, the Ryzen 5 2600's max temp is 95c, but I did see that around 80c is when it starts to throttle. Is it showing signs that its throttling under load? There is nothing wrong necessarily with letting it run hot as long as it is not throttling.

Basically any of the Corsair Hydro products would get you there, or any decent All In One water cooler. Also since the 3000 series just came out, now is a good time to upgrade your CPU for not much money either. The 3000 series CPU's consume less power and should run cooler under load. Since you have a Ryzen 5 2600 already, all you should need is a BIOS update. Even a Ryzen 7 2700 is only $170 right now. https://www.microcenter.com/product/505630/ryzen-7-2700-32ghz-8-core-am4-boxed-processor-with-wraith-spire-cooler

Amazon Basics

I think that ECU is going to get cracked a lot faster than people think.

The only thing that sucks now is they have all those premium brands now and lots of their coupons don't apply to those products lol

Also interested in a door! Wife and I just bought a house, so I will have something to show in a couple weeks lol. All I have right now is the same apartment garage from my project posts.