cruizin01

On 4/11/2022 at 9:26 AM, TimTheAzn said:

Thats sweet, any engine bay shots?

Nothing fancy. Just a basic alu 5.3 cam and springs. VS 7875, Holley, Flex, etc. 

Turbo trucks?

I don't understand why fb and twitter are still things. Never had accounts on either, don't see why people still use them nowadays.

I get that its super easy to create a group and join but the layout is TERRIBLE. It its complete garbage as a replacement for a forum imo. I hate it!

Right there with you. I've already seen it happen with 3 car forums I've really enjoyed. I technically have a facebook, but I've only logged into it for marketplace use in the last 10 years.

 

For sure, all forums are dying. Luckily some of them are still around enough to use as a knowledge base but thats about it.

Figured I'd do my quarterly update on the GMW.

I think last time I updated I was still having the engine noise from the cam phasers. I think that has fixed itself. I did put fresh oil in it but I don't think I changed the viscosity. But whatever, if it's fixed it's fixed.

In December I ordered some new front seat leathers from Lseat.com. There are a bunch of guys in the e30 group that used these guys with good success and the price was right at under $500. I upgraded to perforated leather so it looks more like the original.

I'm really happy with how they turned out. It was quite a bit more work than I expected. But I also have zero experience with upholstery work. The rear seat backs didn't turn out great because they require stretching, etc but I made them work. I probably have 6 hrs in each seat. Luckily the seats were in pretty good shape overall. The foam on the bottom seat bolster was worn so I repaired that with some foam tape I had.

This original leather doesn't look bad but it was the passenger side. The driver's side was shot.

I also "needed" a newer Bluetooth headunit so I found one of these continental units to install. Its nothing fancy but it looks period correct and it inexpensive.

With the new seats and radio I'd say I'm pretty much done with the interior. Its far from nice but it's complete and matching.

The last several months I've been back and forth with trying to work out a better braking solution. The booster delete Wildwood kit works ok but under panic braking it's less than ideal.

I was digging around and saw some guys were using Tesla iBooster setups. Basically electric boosters than can run in standalone mode with basic power and ground. There was a list of vehicles that use what look to be most identical setups. I ordered one from a late model Honda CR-V because it was like $180 versus $300-500 for the Tesla version.

These take very little modification to bolt into the car. I needed mine turned 45* so I modified the mounting plate and bolted it in. The clevis rid needed modified as well so I cut and welded it to length. The Honda uses a remote reservoir which was perfect because a normal reservoir wouldn't fit.

Once everything was plumbed and wired I tested it out. The pedal was very spongy and the unit pulsated at the bottom of travel. I kept thinking it was a bleeding issue because the master cylinder was upside down. No matter what I did the pedal never felt right.

Long story semi shorter, I bought a legit Tesla booster from a model Y I think. It looks very similar. Master is slightly different. Actual booster looks almost identical. I replumbed it the same way as the Honda booster. The pedal didn't feel spongy and didn't pulsate so I thought I was good.

The pedal was very hard during driving and would barely stop the car. I went though everything I had done several times. Rebleed the car a handful of times. Even reinstalled the Honda booster. I eventually realized I had hooked the front and rear lines up backwards at the MC. So I fixed that with the Honda booster still installed. Still spongy pedal, minimal brakes.

Last night for the final time I reinstalled the Tesla booster, plumbed the lines correctly and WHAT DO YA KNOW IT FREAKIN WORKS! I was so excited. I probably have 20 hrs or more fighting this thing.

It almost works too well. I didnt take the car up the road but in the driveway the boosted brakes stops the car in a HURRY. I might have to make some adjustments to the pedal travel to lengthen it but I'm super happy right now with it.

Anywho, I received rear LSD rebuild parts so I'll be doing that soon.

I recently traded my B6 S4 in for a B8 S4, so plans so far are wheels and a little lower, dual pulley and a tune if its in the budget this year. Also, hopefully I can get some stuff done on my Rx-7 and maybe get it finally running this year.

I have some black 19x9.5 Ultraleggeras Ill be looking to sell soon. I think they are the right fitment for S4's. If you're interested.

Best thing every single person can do is to be smart, get healthy and get vaccinated.

-Picking up another BMW in a few weeks

-Wheels, tires, suspension for said BMW

-Sell TT-S. Profit.

-Rebuild E30 LSD

-Have a nice converter made for the C10

-Maybe have it tuned finally? Probably not.

-Drive everything more!

Thats one of the reasons I made sure to keep all my stock parts on my BRZ. Ive had too many cars where I took it in the shorts because they were modded. I sold my '13 summer of 2020 for $18k I think. Low miles, bone stock. Then I resold the blower, brakes, susp, etc for another $10k. It was actually very little work to throw all the stock parts back on it. Between the forums and IG I had everything sold in probably 2 weeks.

But to your question as someone else mentioned I would try ToyBarn. I know Denny Dotson will buy some modified cars too. This seems like an easier transaction than BAT to me at least.

E46 chassis?

I haven't really seen anyone swapping N54's into those, especially locally. N54 swap seems complicated and expensive to me. But I guess it would be cool.

Ive seen several E46 LS swapped cars locally. My buddy is LS swapping his E90 car right now.

But yeah I dont really know any shops locally that are doing this type of work. Its rarely profitable if I had to guess.

Nah, I was by myself. Ordered my food to go so I wasn’t around too long. I was at the high top by you guys then that guy and his kid came in and I saw him looking for a table, so I stood up and told him I didn’t need it.

 

If you ever end up back in the area outside of Sunday, Arch & Eddie’s next door is really good. Same owners, so you can still get some of their beers over there too.

Oh ok, I dont recall you then.

Yeah, my friends from P3 gauges ate there a few Saturdays ago and we had planned to eat there but as you know they were closed. Next time we are down that way we'll stop in.

Pretty sure I was right beside you at Sixth Sense on Sunday lol. I recognize your wife because when you guys sat down, I kept thinking she looked a lot like someone I know. I live about a mile up the road and get lunch there about every weekend. Wish I would’ve know the E30 was there!

You were big guy behind me with the boy?

What the heck are the odds of that?

World is weird.

Yeah, first time we've ever been there. Pretty decent little place.

Yeah i was parked around back. I should have parked on the street I guess.

Love the car, I bet this thing is a blast to drive and probably handles great too!

 

I like that you got a pic of the rear ends together :lolguy:

I set the suspension up pretty soft just because its strictly a street car but due to its lightness and decent tire it does pretty well. I did add some aftermarket sway bars to keep the roll in check.

bahaha, nice catch.

great stuff... no clue if its an option, but can you lock the cam for good and delete all the cam phasing stuff just to troubleshoot to see if thats the issue?

I dunno if you can permanently delete them. Id hate to introduce another thing to try and tune around. Im assuming there is power to be made with the cam timing as well. If I set the cam timing at zero versus the 6-10* it request on intake and exhaust when it rattles the noise is gone. So Im pretty confident its something in the phasers but I dunno how to fix it.

Ill figure it out one way or another. Im stubborn like that.

Thought Id update for anyone that cares and just for my own info.

Pretty much been driving the car all summer with very little issues. Haven't had any break downs or really any failures (knock on wood).

Im not 100% satisfied with the tune that ZZP "finalized" for me. The drivability still sucked. I basically had to fail the maf and force the car to control via speed density. The fueling isn't nearly as accurate but the car drives pretty great. Id still like to get it right but after paying 2 different tuners to tune it I cant justify it for a little bit.

Recently the engine clatters a little under light load, slightly above idle. I narrowed it down to the cam phasers. I swapped them out and the noise got better but not resolved. I put new solenoids in and again that helped but its still there. If you unplug them or turn the ignition cam timing off via HPTuners the noise completely goes away. So I dunno whats going on there. I checked the engines oil pressure tonight and it seems on par with what guys on the net see with theirs. I may drain the oil, put 10w30 in it and see if that changes anything.

I think this winters projects for it are a diff rebuild and some black seat leathers. The diff I swapped into in earlier this year is noisy. I think its the pinion bearing. It whines under light load at highway speeds. Ill probably do a full rebuild on it. I think new seat leathers to match the rest of the interior will help the interior drastically.

Im still working out a plan for power brakes. I have a Tesla iBooster but the master cylinder comes out on the wrong side. I need to find a RHD donor car to get the correct one. Hopefully I can get that working before next summer as well.

Couples pics from today with my wife. We drove down through Hocking Hills, Lake Hope and down to Jackson for lunch then back up. Not sure how many miles cause the odometer is dead but the car handled everything awesome.

I enjoy this far far more than I ever thought I would. Its not very precise or fast or quiet, but its just a really fun car. It sounds good, is reliable, quick enough to slide it when you want and gets thumbs up everywhere it goes. And its a 10 footer so I never have to worry too much about it.

Can't believe the TMZ video I just saw where the C8 still had the engine idling with the front end totally smashed after the crash.

 

I was surprised there wasn't an inertial cut-off switch.

I didn't see the video but that's ridiculous if it doesn't have a pyrotechnic to disconnect the engine +12v power in an accident.

On a similar note, did anyone see the pictures of the Tesla Plaid flying into the ROOF of the house and killing that woman and her dog? I think it was on Jalopnik.

Sounds and runs like stuff I self tune. ;-)

Pretty disappointing looks wise for all that went into it.

I dont know how much work it is to pull the rear axle but anytime I mess with the gears on my C10 I just pull the rear axle out onto the floor. Makes it way easier to work on and you can use the ground as leverage to hold your pinion flange so you can get the torque you need. Kind of hard to explain but it just makes the job a lot easier imo.

I dunno if that setup uses a crush sleeve on the pinion but you'll want a spare set of bearings unless your gonna press and unpress the bearing each time to set your lash.

I hate setting up rear ends!

https://imgur.com/a/rbWgKIZ

 

Not many good pictures of the interior done fully, this shows the cage though.

Looks fun Aaron.

because bravadas are just Syclone/Typhoons without the turbos and have nicer interiors. Change my mind.

I drove a really nice bravada in high school and there is NOTHING about that thing I remember being fun except for it being decent in the snow.

I would buy any beat small rusty rwd manual car LONG before I would take the nicest bravada anyone would offer me for free. Assuming I wasn't looking to put $10k+ worth of mods into it. And still it doesn't scream "fun car" to me.