Sunday, January 22, 2012
New Blog Style
So I haven't done shit with this blog since the first couple posts. I'm too lazy to update it all the time. So I've just decided to post automotive photography stuff here instead. I'll link to my videos too at http://www.youtube.com/user/apocalypse7011?feature=mhee My last post includes some pictures I took of my WRX today while I was bored. Enjoy.
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...
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...
Friday, March 25, 2011
Turbo Mustang Rebuild
Hey everybody. Today I'm going to tell a really long and drawn-out story about a car belonging to a good friend of mine named Brandon. We've spent the last year and a half messing with this thing so I figured I might as well share it here.
The car is a 1995 Ford Mustang GT. This was Brandon's first car, that he bought when he was 16. He's sunk a lot of money into this car over the years. In the beginning of this story, the car looked like this:
Yes, it was flashy and out of style, but this car was put together several years ago when that kind of thing was IN style. Under the hood it has a fully built 331ci v8 engine with a Precision 88mm turbocharger. That all goes through a built 3-speed automatic transmission and a locked 3.08 rear gear. To date, it's gone a best of 10.30's @ 138mph on low boost.
Now to the interesting part of the story. Two summers ago, Brandon had the car at the local drag strip, with the intention of running it balls to the wall. The boost was turned up, the launch control was raised. It was ready to go. On his first pass of the evening, the car had pretty serious wheel hop coming off the line. Brandon let out to get it to stop, then jumped back in it. When he jumped back in it, bad things happened. As I stood in the stands video-taping the run, I forgot about the video camera as I saw the passenger rear wheel come off the car. The back end slid left, then right. WAY right. About 100 feet down the track, the car hit the wall almost head-on, spun completely around, and came to a rest sideways, as the rear wheel continued to roll down the track. No one could believe what just happened, even Brandon, as he climbed out of the car...
Fast forward a few months. Me and Brandon sit in his garage. Two guys, one broken Mustang, a set of tools and a case of beer. It's time to start ripping shit apart. The plan is to take everything out of the car from the firewall up, straighten the frame, repaint the car, and put it all back together. We had come to discover that the wheel studs had sheered off completely, which is why the wheel came off. Word of advice: Don't drive a car with a full spool rear end and slicks on the street all the time. Here are some pictures we took along the way.
Our thoughts on the project:
Once we had everything out and stripped, it was off to the frame shop to get everything straightened out. Upon pushing the car off the trailer and into the shop, the other rear wheel fell off, all the wheel studs broken. Awesome. Once all that was done, it was off to paint. This time around, Brandon decided to go with solid black on the entire car, to keep it simple (and not ugly). Here's a picture of the car when it got back from paint.
This is the engine bay after we spraypainted it ourselves.
At this point, it's a task of buying all the replacement parts for ones that broke, and start piecing it back together. Motor back in the car:
Since a few things were changed and a new intercooler was put in, we had to fabricate up some new intercooler piping. For this, we brought in our good friend Tim and his engineering degree to help out. Cutting a hole in the fender for piping to go through:
New piping cut and mocked up for welding:
And that's pretty much how the car sits as of now. The piping is all welded up, and there's a radiator sitting in there now. We're getting ready to kick it into high gear and just get the shit done, which is why I felt like sharing. It doesn't need a whole lot left. A new fuel pump was ordered today, axles and wheels will have to be drilled out for the new 5/8" wheel studs (them shits better not break), a new 3.27 rear end, and body panels put back on.
I feel very confident that the car would have gone well into the 9's the night it wrecked, so I think a lot of people are excited to see it get back out this year and hopefully it'll get there. Videos will be posted in the weeks to come. Thanks for reading!
The car is a 1995 Ford Mustang GT. This was Brandon's first car, that he bought when he was 16. He's sunk a lot of money into this car over the years. In the beginning of this story, the car looked like this:
Yes, it was flashy and out of style, but this car was put together several years ago when that kind of thing was IN style. Under the hood it has a fully built 331ci v8 engine with a Precision 88mm turbocharger. That all goes through a built 3-speed automatic transmission and a locked 3.08 rear gear. To date, it's gone a best of 10.30's @ 138mph on low boost.
Now to the interesting part of the story. Two summers ago, Brandon had the car at the local drag strip, with the intention of running it balls to the wall. The boost was turned up, the launch control was raised. It was ready to go. On his first pass of the evening, the car had pretty serious wheel hop coming off the line. Brandon let out to get it to stop, then jumped back in it. When he jumped back in it, bad things happened. As I stood in the stands video-taping the run, I forgot about the video camera as I saw the passenger rear wheel come off the car. The back end slid left, then right. WAY right. About 100 feet down the track, the car hit the wall almost head-on, spun completely around, and came to a rest sideways, as the rear wheel continued to roll down the track. No one could believe what just happened, even Brandon, as he climbed out of the car...
Fast forward a few months. Me and Brandon sit in his garage. Two guys, one broken Mustang, a set of tools and a case of beer. It's time to start ripping shit apart. The plan is to take everything out of the car from the firewall up, straighten the frame, repaint the car, and put it all back together. We had come to discover that the wheel studs had sheered off completely, which is why the wheel came off. Word of advice: Don't drive a car with a full spool rear end and slicks on the street all the time. Here are some pictures we took along the way.
Our thoughts on the project:
Once we had everything out and stripped, it was off to the frame shop to get everything straightened out. Upon pushing the car off the trailer and into the shop, the other rear wheel fell off, all the wheel studs broken. Awesome. Once all that was done, it was off to paint. This time around, Brandon decided to go with solid black on the entire car, to keep it simple (and not ugly). Here's a picture of the car when it got back from paint.
This is the engine bay after we spraypainted it ourselves.
At this point, it's a task of buying all the replacement parts for ones that broke, and start piecing it back together. Motor back in the car:
Since a few things were changed and a new intercooler was put in, we had to fabricate up some new intercooler piping. For this, we brought in our good friend Tim and his engineering degree to help out. Cutting a hole in the fender for piping to go through:
New piping cut and mocked up for welding:
And that's pretty much how the car sits as of now. The piping is all welded up, and there's a radiator sitting in there now. We're getting ready to kick it into high gear and just get the shit done, which is why I felt like sharing. It doesn't need a whole lot left. A new fuel pump was ordered today, axles and wheels will have to be drilled out for the new 5/8" wheel studs (them shits better not break), a new 3.27 rear end, and body panels put back on.
I feel very confident that the car would have gone well into the 9's the night it wrecked, so I think a lot of people are excited to see it get back out this year and hopefully it'll get there. Videos will be posted in the weeks to come. Thanks for reading!
Monday, March 21, 2011
My Cars
I thought I'd start this off sharing a bit of info about my own personal vehicles. Word of warning - they're nothing exciting.
First up would be my fun car: a 1991 Nissan 240sx SE, as seen below when I first purchased it in early 2006.
I bought it 100% bone stock. After blowing up the stock motor roughly a year after purchase, I began turning it into what it is today:
As you can't see from this picture, it's had a bit of work done since I first bought it. Modification list is as follows:
Engine:
Redtop SR20DET
Factory bottom end
Cometic metal head gasket
Arp head studs
JWT S4 camshafts
Turbo:
Garrett GT2871R .86a/r
Megan Racing tubular manifold
Megan Racing o2 housing
Off-Brand 3" exhaust
GReddy Intercooler and piping
HKS SSQV blowoff valve
HKS air filter
Fuel:
Walbro 255 fuel pump
Deatschwerks 550cc fuel injectors
Nismo adjustable fuel pressure regulator
z32 fuel filter
Electronics:
Factory ECU with ROM tune
z32 MAF sensor
Apexi SAFC I
AEM UEGO Wideband guage
Autometer boost, water temp, and oil pressure gauges
Drivetrain:
Exedy Stage I organic clutch
Nismo short throw shifter
Infiniti J30 VLSD and axles
Suspension:
Tein S-Tech lowering springs
KYB GR2 shocks
Sportmax 501 wheels 16x8 +20
300zx TT wheels w/ Mickey Thompson ET Street 26x10.5x16 for racing
Well I think that's everything. All that has gotten me a best of 12.3 @ 115mph at the local drag strip. Not too shabby I suppose. It needs a little TLC, but my ultimate goal on this particular setup is to dip into the 11's with it, so we'll see how that goes in the future. But for now, I guess I'll show off the daily driver too.
This bad boy right here:
Is a 1995 Mercury Villager GS. Also known as the ManVan GTR.
This was given to me by my mother a few years ago when she bought a new car. I decided to embrace the minivan. It is now covered in racing stickers, has a stereo system with two $30 subwoofers, neon lights, and a disco ball.
Well those are my cars. Like I said, nothing too incredibly exciting, but whatever. Vehicles to be discussed in future posts include, but are not limited to: 700whp EVO's, turbocharged Mustangs, single turbo RB26 swapped 240sx's, custom fabricated and LSx swapped RX7's, C63 AMG's, etc. Hopefully you'll stop back later on and enjoy stories and such, or mainly just me rambling on about pointless stuff. I've also posted a link to a short video that gives a taste of the things to come as the spring/summer months progress. Thanks for stopping by!
*All activities depicted were performed by trained professionals either on a closed course, in the country of Mexico, or were computer generated*
First up would be my fun car: a 1991 Nissan 240sx SE, as seen below when I first purchased it in early 2006.
I bought it 100% bone stock. After blowing up the stock motor roughly a year after purchase, I began turning it into what it is today:
Engine:
Redtop SR20DET
Factory bottom end
Cometic metal head gasket
Arp head studs
JWT S4 camshafts
Turbo:
Garrett GT2871R .86a/r
Megan Racing tubular manifold
Megan Racing o2 housing
Off-Brand 3" exhaust
GReddy Intercooler and piping
HKS SSQV blowoff valve
HKS air filter
Fuel:
Walbro 255 fuel pump
Deatschwerks 550cc fuel injectors
Nismo adjustable fuel pressure regulator
z32 fuel filter
Electronics:
Factory ECU with ROM tune
z32 MAF sensor
Apexi SAFC I
AEM UEGO Wideband guage
Autometer boost, water temp, and oil pressure gauges
Drivetrain:
Exedy Stage I organic clutch
Nismo short throw shifter
Infiniti J30 VLSD and axles
Suspension:
Tein S-Tech lowering springs
KYB GR2 shocks
Sportmax 501 wheels 16x8 +20
300zx TT wheels w/ Mickey Thompson ET Street 26x10.5x16 for racing
Well I think that's everything. All that has gotten me a best of 12.3 @ 115mph at the local drag strip. Not too shabby I suppose. It needs a little TLC, but my ultimate goal on this particular setup is to dip into the 11's with it, so we'll see how that goes in the future. But for now, I guess I'll show off the daily driver too.
This bad boy right here:
Is a 1995 Mercury Villager GS. Also known as the ManVan GTR.
This was given to me by my mother a few years ago when she bought a new car. I decided to embrace the minivan. It is now covered in racing stickers, has a stereo system with two $30 subwoofers, neon lights, and a disco ball.
Well those are my cars. Like I said, nothing too incredibly exciting, but whatever. Vehicles to be discussed in future posts include, but are not limited to: 700whp EVO's, turbocharged Mustangs, single turbo RB26 swapped 240sx's, custom fabricated and LSx swapped RX7's, C63 AMG's, etc. Hopefully you'll stop back later on and enjoy stories and such, or mainly just me rambling on about pointless stuff. I've also posted a link to a short video that gives a taste of the things to come as the spring/summer months progress. Thanks for stopping by!
*All activities depicted were performed by trained professionals either on a closed course, in the country of Mexico, or were computer generated*
Introduction
Hello to everyone reading this. I'll start off by saying thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoy it and return to it occasionally. My first post is simply an introduction to myself, as well as an introduction to what my blog is about.
My name is Andy, I'm 23 years old residing in Cincinnati, Ohio. Simply put, the majority of my life revolves around the automobile. Aside from having worked in the auto industry for the majority of my adult life, cars are the biggest (and most expensive) of my many hobbies.
The "car scene", for lack of a better term, in Cincinnati has diminished over the past several years, as I'm sure it has just about everywhere. Today's economy has us all cutting unnecessary expenses out of our lives. The first one at the top of many people's list is their toys. This, coupled with a general abundance of complete idiots within this hobby, are slowly killing the community of auto enthusiasts.
My general goal for this blog is simply to document what goes on in the local world of auto enthusiasts. Everything from legal track racing to not-so-legal street racing, various builds and projects going on, social shenanigans within the community, and everything that might have significance to someone who shares the same passion I do for this hobby.
That being said, I'll do my best to update this page at least once weekly with stories, pictures, and video of the shananigans that go on around here. My video camera will be glued to my hand just about all summer, so hopefully I'll get some good quality stuff that will be enjoyable for you to... well... enjoy. So thanks for stopping by, please continue to do so!
My name is Andy, I'm 23 years old residing in Cincinnati, Ohio. Simply put, the majority of my life revolves around the automobile. Aside from having worked in the auto industry for the majority of my adult life, cars are the biggest (and most expensive) of my many hobbies.
The "car scene", for lack of a better term, in Cincinnati has diminished over the past several years, as I'm sure it has just about everywhere. Today's economy has us all cutting unnecessary expenses out of our lives. The first one at the top of many people's list is their toys. This, coupled with a general abundance of complete idiots within this hobby, are slowly killing the community of auto enthusiasts.
My general goal for this blog is simply to document what goes on in the local world of auto enthusiasts. Everything from legal track racing to not-so-legal street racing, various builds and projects going on, social shenanigans within the community, and everything that might have significance to someone who shares the same passion I do for this hobby.
That being said, I'll do my best to update this page at least once weekly with stories, pictures, and video of the shananigans that go on around here. My video camera will be glued to my hand just about all summer, so hopefully I'll get some good quality stuff that will be enjoyable for you to... well... enjoy. So thanks for stopping by, please continue to do so!
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