Friday, April 8, 2011

Turning Wrenches and Such

It's been a little while since my last post because, well, there hasn't been shit going on really. No one is really going to the drag strip yet and the only weekly cruise-in going on is a bunch of dumb idiots who are likely to kill somebody with their driving habits. The only thing going on for me the last few weeks is some mechanical stuff here and there, so I figured I'd shed a little light on what I've been up to.

First thing's first, I'll start with my bucket. A few months back I realized that the 240 didn't feel like starting anymore. Due to an overwhelming sense of laziness coupled with a fully functioning daily driver to get me around (well, mostly functioning), I really haven't messed with it as much as I should be. Spring is finally here and I'm itching to drive it; the only issue is that I really just don't want to work on it. The little bit that I have worked on it has gotten me nowhere. Compression tests came back a little on the lower side, but still even across all four cylinders. Fuel delivery is working properly. It is not, however, getting spark to any cylinders. Some electronics that I had wired into the ECU were not working properly, so I rewired a lot of things (mainly stuff that I half-assed when I installed it originally). Still nothing. I swapped out the ignitor chip for one from my good friend Brent's car. Still nothing. And that's pretty much where I sit now: lazy, frustrated, and still driving a minivan in 75 degree weather. My next step is to check crank and cam sensors. If it's not one of those, I can only assume it's either the ECU or the harness. I'm really hoping it's not those.

The next "project" I've been messing with... Well, I really only worked on it tonight... Is Tim's EVO. You know, the really fast one:



Well, the video from the track doesn't do it justice, it had a blown motor during that run. Anywho, the car is fast as balls. Well, was fast as balls. Prior to the project, it made just under 700whp on e85, and has gone a best of 10.2 @ 142mph. There was PLENTY left in it, but I guess we'll never know. In his old age, having a really really really really fast car isn't "exciting" enough for Tim anymore. He wants to get back into turning and shit. He decided to scrap the big turbo setup and do something more autocross friendly. Who needs 700whp? 450 will do the trick just fine, right?

So anyways, a bunch of parts and shit came in so I went out to Tim's tonight to help him work on the car. He had already taken everything off, so we basically just started bolting shit on tonight. Instead of the old HTA3586 turbo and Full Race manifold, we put on a brand new FP Green turbo from Forced Performance, along with a stock ported exhaust manifold. All that's left to do as far as the motor is to put on the oil drain line, downpipe, intercooler piping, and a stock ported intake manifold to replace the Buschur Racing one. And he ordered some giant CCW wheels and wants to put on some million dollar coilovers, but that's all boring. Here's a couple pis I snapped from tonight.





So that's that. Pretty much sums up the automotive escapades from the last week or so. Word on the street is that a fuel pump for the three-legged Mustang came in, so maybe I'll go lend a hand putting that in so we can go have fun in a car that is still fast. If you haven't seen the video of the carnage that ensued with that thing, please see below:



Anywho, I'm tired, I'm going to bed. Hopefully some racing and such gets going here soon so I have something to videotape and talk about and whatnot. Until next time...