cruizin01

Happy Tuesday Gents, Spent Friday night and some of Saturday replacing the oil cooler. I had to remove some stuff and pull the engine forward 4 or 5" to get it off and replaced. I did go ahead and move the engine mounts forward about an inch to give the engine and other things better clearance. This caused me to have to modify a few other things but everything is better situated now. You can see the cooler down behind the oil filter. I wanted to get the exhaust started even though I dont have the catback I'm going to use yet. I used the flange I cut off the cat to start with. It was a 3.5" hole so I flanged some 3" and made a dump pipe and welded on an o2 bung. Since the car has the charge piping and coolant system finished I was able to start it up and let it get warm. I was hoping to be able to check oil pressure but shes engines only had a switch so Im just assuming its good. No leaks which is great. In my excitement I forgot to check to see if the charging system was working. I did notice the tach isnt working which wasn't a huge surprise. Engine is way louder than it sounds in the video. But it does make good turbo noises. Went and ordered my driveshaft yesterday, need to finish up the brakes, steering column repair and interior reassembly.

Im gonna try some compound before wet sanding I think. Even with just a rag on a small spot I knocked off most of the oxidation. I have a whole trunk lid to test on before doing the rest of the car. But yeah I think I can make a 10 footer out of it. . Spent a few minutes looking for my coolant leak. Its worse than a heater core. The damn oil cooler on the back of the engine is leaking at the stamped fitting for the hose. I "messaged" it just slightly during install and it didn't like it. I wont be able to remove it with the engine in its current spot, so Ill be removing some parts in hopes of moving the engine forward enough to get it replaced... Sucks but this is really the first crappy hurdle Ive had to jump.

Morning Gents, Nothing all that exciting in this weeks updates. Just lots of random stuff needing done and finished up. I checked the front lightening harness for proper operation and went through and cleaned out the unnecessary wiring and loomed it up. Pulled the factory fuel pump out and replaced it with a Walbro 255. Worked on the interior a bit. My friend gave me a black hatshelf but with no speakers so I removed the ones from the yucky tan shelf and cut the grilles and reinstalled them. I dont love it but they'll work for some basic radio functions. I put the front bumper back together with all the parts that came with the car. New lower spoiler clips, some non functioning fog lamps, and some trim bits I cobbled together. She aint pretty but she's mostly a complete car now. I have some plans to try and match red up between the panels. I have a few other things I finished up but didn't host the pictures yet. The heater hoses between the engine and the heater core are installed from random left over pieces I had laying around. Everything is tight so Ill have to keep an eye on everything. I did attemp to put coolant in the car and have a leak somewhere thats running down the trans. Im thinking my heater core might be leaking. The gas pedal is installed after redoing a bracket several times. Not overally happy with it but Ill make sure the pedal is where I want it in relation to the brake pedal and possibly redo it. Probably work on interior reassembly this week/weekend. I am planning a trip to cleveland in 2 weeks to get a steering spindle I need and a catback exhaust Im buying from a guy. I may put together a downpipe in the mean time. Thanks for reading.

My friends have gotten cards from this guy in Westerville. OG10KTECH I guess is the name of it? Sounds like he has lots of cards he sells to guys locally for retail. I dont know anything about that specific card though.

Man, I tried to like driving a newer truck everyday and hated every minute of it. Cant park the thing anywhere, gets worse gas mileage on the best day than any other car I have when Im beating on it (that's 2x-3x as fast). The throttle response and shifting is SOOOO lazy to try and eek out every little bit of fuel economy that its miserable. Ill gladly spend $60 every so often to rent a truck from Menards when something wont fit in our small SUV. Which is next to never. And yes I own a truck with an 8" bed that I love but mainly because it has a RideTech susp and I dont have to drive it everyday.

Put in some more productive work over the past week. Finished installing the Solstice intake. I enlarged the hole in the fender area to make the filter fit in the fender area better. Turned out ok I think. BMW trans fluid is perfect for a Japanese trans right? Installed the Chase Bays brake booster eliminator and slave hoses. The quality was pretty good except for the clevis they supply for the brake pedal. I ended up using the factory pin and enlarging the clevis they supply to fit. Works great now. Sorry the picture is crooked. Finished wiring the up the engine with the Buick Regal harness I had made and supplied PCM. I didn't have many options due to how short the harness connections are. I also mounted the fuse/relay box. I lucked out and have this random aluminum bracket from a BMW that turned into the perfect PCM holder. I have no idea what it was for but with a few trims and a couple bolts it works perfect. Mounted the eBay FPR on the fender last night and routed the hoses. I may change that up slightly later on but it functions for now. Mostly assembled engine bay. Waiting on some tbolt clamps and some other random items but its pretty close. Over the weekend I was able to get the engine cranking over but not with the key. I fixed a wire under the dash and then it would crank no problem. Last night I hooked the fuel up but still couldn't get any engine noises. After a mostly sleepless night I checked all my connections before work this morning and realized the injector plug was loose. Snugged it up and she purrred to life (yes I use that term VERY loosely). No o2, working maf or map I would say is the reason for the smoke but its pretty exciting right? Only been 2.5 months since I bought the car and now its running. Obviously still a bunch to finish up but having it running is a big step.

Saw on FB. Makes you wanna break some $hit Im sure. Hope its found.

Part 2 The starter was in the way of using the factory steering joint setup so I cobbled this together. Pretty happy with how it turned out. Welding the shaft. Kept the joint in water so the grease didnt burn out. Using a polyeurothane insert to hopefully keepthe noise down. And the finished product. I painted the intercooler and the bracket and got it remounted. More soon ..

Quite a few updates to post today. Bare with me here im trying to post this from my phone, so excuse the typos and random order. I needed to mount the e30 expansion tank and my car didnt have a mount because 318's are radiator mounted. So I order a new bracket from BMW and buzzed it into place. Then the tank just snaps in place. I was able to route the factory solstice hoses to work aside from one extension that needed to be added. Ive since pulled the engine and trans again for stuff that needed finished. I got the seal I needed for the shift rod and was able to install it. This should keep any trans fluid from leaking out the rear shaft. I just used some measurements and found this little guy on ebay i think. Its all back together and seems to be working like it should, shift wise. I installed the ar5 to 1310 adapter and the spicer 1310 flange. Itll probably have to come back off when I have a driveshaft made. I think im gonna try to use my old steel driveshaft from the c10 and have it cut down. It had 1310 joints so I dont see an issue using it. I almost scrapped it. Glad I didnt. A good friend gave me a bunch of e30 parts to use. Illpost more of them later but one was an aftermarket steering wheel. I bought an adapter and installed it only to find the steering spindle was bent some how. So I removed it and my friend is gonna send me a replacement from a parts car. I was able to install my new engine harness since the engine was out. A couple of the sensors I got were wrong. This stupid engine has 3 map sensors! And none are the same. The only thing I don't love about using a factory harness to have modified is the ecm connection is very close to the engine. But ill post more of mounting it ,etc once I get there. The harness doesnt have a starter or charging harness so I made those up from some scrap cable I had. The alternator is a 4 wire so I bought an aftermarket connector with a resistor and I'm hoping I can supply it switched 12v and have it charge correctly. We'll see. I had to pull the trans becayse the slave cylinder had an oddbal fitting and I couldnt find anything to adapt it. It also didnt have a bleeder which I read makes them a pain to bleed. I thought ordering a Colorado slave wiuld make things simple. Well it doesnt bolt in the same orientation. I drilled and tapped a couple holes, then ine in the side of the bellhousing for the line to come through. Lets hope it works. Haha Ecotec Miata swap oil pan installed. Prayers it doesnt leak.

My house is about half that size and my gas bill is usually about half that. I add rolled R13 to my ranch attic over the fall and its helped immensely. Comparing rough average temperatures its saving around 10%, but the overall warmth feeling in the house is much better. I think Im saving a similar amount on electric bill as well for whatever reason.

You know its cold when your dogs wont stop to poop and they just keep walking and let the poop fall out wherever it may.

I recommend it to many people but preface it with the fact that NA they suck. With a header and E85 its better but on the street they are dog piss slow. On track it doesn't seem so bad. So take $15k and add ~6-7k for a blower and flex fuel.

My car made 300whp on E with a vortech and was stupid reliable for the 5 plus years it was boosted. Now that didn't add up to a lot of miles but it was driven pretty hard on the street and saw a couple to several track days a year. The engine/clutch/trans/rear end was stock aside from obviously the necessary fueling and a large oil cooler. Lots of Motul fluid changes. I would never have turbo'd one expecting similar results. I think the ethanol is what helped keep my setup "healthy", along with the fact it only made like 230 torque.

Mine had a lot of similar parts to Docs and it was such a great "driving" car. Better than anything else Ive ever owned. It sucks to get bored with something no matter how great it is.

I use a Fidelity Go account and just get it for aggressive because I dont know what Im doing. It did well last year.

One of many cool builds. I really would have liked to swap my BRZ but it just gets retarded expensive if you care about everything working properly. Dash, AC, etc. IIRC, motec has/had the only software that could run the Canbus. And that by itself was $6k. Im hoping maybe one day LOJ makes a complete kit and I would potentially get another one because I really did love that car.

I already have a drivetrain for the E30 if that's what you're implying. Thanks though.

Im sure that's a ton of fun. I originally looked into using an S2000 engine for my E30 build but the prices are wayy to high. Even using a K2X engine its still expensive once you set it up for rear drive.

Im not a fan of Larceny for some reason. Middlewest Spirits Bourbon iirc is a wheated bourbon and I like it and its local.

That's fascinating. Anyone listen to Avi Loeb on JRE or Lex Fridman's podcast? I listened to his new book while on vacation about his research on ʻOumuamua. The first known intersteller object traveling through our solar system. Pretty interesting if you're into that stuff.

Tim, how do you like that area? I spent a few minutes looking around the surrounding areas just for kicks. Seems like the cost of living is pretty low there but also the job market, economy matches it. If you spent most of your life in Ohio and now live there full time Im interested in your opinion/regrets,etc? Feel free to PM if you dont want to post here.

how exciting.

Most of the guys in this thread are smarter than me.. but.. wheated bourbon has a higher percentage of wheat vs rye. Your common wheated variants are makers, weller, pappy, old fitzgerald. Too me they are sweeter and smoother.. Just my $.01 opinion.

I'm enjoying this project so far.... my wife not so much.. lol. She said I spend too much time in the garage. Well its January, what the heck else am I gonna do? Work as been pretty slow so I may have to slow up on buying the necessary parts to continue at the pace Ive been going. we'll see. But yeah, I hope to be driving this thing in the spring.

Oh and I forgot to mention I got two "matching" fenders installed on the car. The drivers was rolled very badly and the passenger side was missing all together. These should hopefully buff out and match the rest of the pink on the car..