Progress Thread HeHateMe gets bent

They don't have an excuse...DFW gets 10x more icy/snowy than we do every year. People just are ignorant of how to drive when there's the possibility of black ice....it's not like there's a sign, in 2 miles Black ice.
Nah,..not true at all. This is the first snowfall DFW has had in 5 years. Over the last 3 years we have only had 1-2 mornings each year that we even had a serious chance for ice.

The morning of that bad pileup in Fort Worth I sat stopped in traffic for 1.5 hours until they turned traffic around in the middle of the road and headed everyone who could make the turn to the opposite side of the highway going the other direction. I just went back home vs. spending hours just trying to get to the office and then back home. What a mess!
 
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It is liberating just to go out and throw :poo: away. I did that yesterday. Liberated a ton of space in the garage.

With Pandora cranked up walking around the Swiss Cheese Peanut Butter He Hate Me Falcon, caused some deep thoughts. I'm thinking I need to get a belly button.

The car doesn't phase me in the least. I have the front suspension pretty much licked. Caltracs, split mono leafs and a mini-tub in the rear can be pretty good too.

I just think a belly button will be much faster to sort out and get to the track and be more reliable. I don't know. I still have lots of time before belly button or not has to be decided. But I could fund a lot of other stuff by selling my non-belly button stuff.
 
It is liberating just to go out and throw :poo: away. I did that yesterday. Liberated a ton of space in the garage.

With Pandora cranked up walking around the Swiss Cheese Peanut Butter He Hate Me Falcon, caused some deep thoughts. I'm thinking I need to get a belly button.

The car doesn't phase me in the least. I have the front suspension pretty much licked. Caltracs, split mono leafs and a mini-tub in the rear can be pretty good too.

I just think a belly button will be much faster to sort out and get to the track and be more reliable. I don't know. I still have lots of time before belly button or not has to be decided. But I could fund a lot of other stuff by selling my non-belly button stuff.
Where, and how may times in the past was I trying to tell you that?
 
Where, and how may times in the past was I trying to tell you that?

But where's the fun in that? I was having a weak moment. I'm over it. At least til I make the tip over jig. Today I worked on the piece of the cowl that I cut out that holds the wiper mount.

Wiper mount the revenge. The first wasn't awful, considering it was the first and the first time I even tried to use the bead roller. Now, I am sure if I went full Rocky vs. Mr. T (hey Fool) I could get it even better. But it's under the cowl and out of sight. So even though it may bother me down deep in my soul that it isn't better, I will (HAVE TO) live with it.

So this was pretty difficult, mainly because I believe the bend changes radius from left to right and because the right side (when looking at it upside down) sits up on an offset and the left side is flat. I got around the changing radius by forcing the metal into the bracket and spot welding it together. I plan on taking this piece to work and using our Tecna resistance spot welder to strongly fuse these two together in holy metal matrimony. Then I will work on getting some curvature to this to follow the existing cowl that's left. I rolled it back and forth in my offset dies before welding to get the shape. I used some manila folders to to cut up as templates best I could. I did forget to put a bead in it before putting the bracket on. I think I'll try to make something up to use my hydraulic press and put a bead in, which would be good, since my bead is 3/8" wide and the bead in the car panel is 3/4 or so.


Version 1. Had to beat the offsets out a couple of times and move them around....mainly because the offsets were put in mirror image of the bracket and it's not a symmetrical piece.
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Bending Version 2.

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Last weekend I decided to triangulate the shock towers on the outside instead of on the inside in the engine bay. I'll still put some type of 'Monte Carlo' brace across from top of strut to strut.

So I made sandwich plates out of 12 gauge steel and mounted them at the outer upper corner for max strength. I will probably run a bar from from the front down bars to this point to further brace this. After I made the sandwich plates, I added a small reinforcement plate to the shock tower reinforcement panel. Once I got that done, I started trying to figure out the angles needed to cut my 1.5" .120 wall tube. Turns out I had a 1.5" shop vac pipe I could sacrifice to the cause.

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I need to bring home a chop saw or portaband to cut the 1.5" tube and get it welded up. I welded nuts on the back on the inside sandwich so the entire ordeal can be removed if needed to change or service the struts/coil overs.
 
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Today, I decided to get all the tar/dirt caked on the outer fender wells off. I used a long sharp scraper to get most of it off. It was tedious and hard. After hours of work and a huge pile of crap on the floor to sweep up, I took a grinder with wire wheel to it and got the rest of it. What a mess. I washed my hands and kind of cleaned my face before I saw myself in a mirror. It was MUCH worse when I first came in. Can you tell I had a dust mask and ear muffs on??

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I spent yesterday patching in the a pillar patch I made oh 2 months ago. Tack tack tack grind, tack blow holes in it, fill in holes grind mound down fill in more holes grind more make more holes fill in more holes... It was like being Bill Murray in Ground Hogs Day. Once I got the top and bottom pieces in I started to fill the middle part which is hard AF because it's pie shaped and the interior radius where the weather stripping is, moves outward as it goes down. I finally gave up about 530 and looked like a coal miner from all of the grinding dust.

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Jared on Car Fix made this look so easy. Starting with a less aged car surely helps, but I'm beginning to wonder about how much power I need to run to the new shop. What is a minimum 220 amperage rating for a modest welder? If I am going to learn, I might as well get something better than a booger stick machine.
 
Jared on Car Fix made this look so easy. Starting with a less aged car surely helps, but I'm beginning to wonder about how much power I need to run to the new shop. What is a minimum 220 amperage rating for a modest welder? If I am going to learn, I might as well get something better than a booger stick machine.

Most decent MIG welders, such as the Titanium MIG 170 will run on 110/220. For welding anything under 11/12 gauge metal 110V works fine. Maybe even better because you just plug it into a 110v outlet and go to town. I think they will actually weld a little bit thicker than rated on 110v. But once you get a feel for it, you can always get a 220v outlet installed and go to thicker town.
 
My belly button arrived yesterday. I'm sorry for anyone offended, but here's the main reason why. $$$$$$

To make a 500hp 2.3, I've spent $1,000 on a BoPort head, another $600 on cam, roller followers, and HLA's, $600 on rods, $550 on pistons, $400 on a turbo manifold, and $350 on a ported intake. There's ton's of other :poo: I already bought but it's all going up for sale.

So I've been looking for a 4.8 belly button. Usually people sell them cheap because everyone wants a 6.0, 6.2 or at least a 5.3. Of course, when I was looking for the Falcon or 2.3 stuff, belly buttons would pop up in my Marketplace search daily. People practically giving the 4.8 away. Since I decided a few weeks ago to swap power plants on the build, it's been like a desert. Lot's of high dollar 6.2, 6,0, and even seemingly high dollar 5.3 and 4.8. Last Sunday, I saw one of those too good to be true, it must be a scam listing. 38,000 mile, 2018 L20 4.8 out of a workvan that was totalled. The guy with it owned the workvan and it was maintained very well, bla bla bla. There was only one picture, showing the barcode on the back of the head. So I message him, after a few messages, get his number, call him. He's in Hot Springs, AR and my brother lives in Heber Springs and works in Little Rock. I call him and he can get one day during the week. So I put the two of them together and they work out getting it Friday.

And yesterday morning:

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It's exactly as advertised. And the dude was really cool. My brother (and maybe myself) like to talk to anyone about anything, but my brother said this guy put us to shame. My brother had to gently nudge him to get the transmission unbolted so they could load it and he could make the 2hr commute home.

My brother called once he got it and started scamming me. He said, I thought this was supposed to be complete. I said it is, but if it's missing accessories I don't really care. He starts in, man the valve covers are off, half the rockers are gone, it looks rusty. I was like, #1 if you're not joking, give me my money back because you just bought a rusted 4.8 or #STFU. He says, naw, just kidding except dude did take the belt tensioner and belt because the pulley on his other van locked up and shredded the belt.

So this gem was $550. A VVT delete kit is $135. I'll need new head gaskets and head bolts since I will have to take the heads off and open up the ring gap. I may need a $350 swap oil pan. I'll have to see if this pan is too deep or not. $70 LS motor mounts for the K member. $6-800 on something like a S475 clone. Either swap the manifolds side to side or buy the Holley cast iron turbo manifolds, odds and ends, plus probably a sloppy stage 2 cam. Based on all the vids on the internet, especially from Richard Holdener, this combo for less than $2,000 is 6-700hp all day long.

If I only end up mini-tubbing and putting a 275 tire on it, the small 4.8 and a soft boost curve will cure wheel spin. If we go to Drag Week or something like that, I can turn the boost up. With a conservative tune this thing should live around 600-700hp for a long time. Oh and it was only $550 for all you see in the photos. It is SUPER clean. Obviously had regular oil changes and taken care of. Doing some internet price shopping yesterday, the most expensive thing I need besides the turbo is the EFISOURCE wiring harness for the GoldBox I already bought.

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:fuss::chair:
At least you came to your senses about building a turbo 4cyl. :shrug:
Yeah, it's very evident, being different has a price.

That will be enough engine for the little car, but did you have to crossbreed it? I guess if you blow up the engine, replacements are not that expensive.
I thought about a 351 or a Coyote, but $550 for the 4.8, $150 for a cam, $150 for a VVT delete, some head gaskets and head bolts...I might not even be into the engine for $1000. That's not even a down payment on a Coyote and barely buys a decent set of SBF heads, if you're lucky. And yes, if it blows up on drag week, another one is just $4-500 at a junkyard. I was at the point if it was going to be Ford powered, I was going to do a little off the wall and put an FE in it, but just TOO much money. Belly buttons are cheap, indestructible, and readily available in case I do destruct one.
 
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I think I read about putting 5.3 truck heads on the 4.8 and you have cheap 500+ hp.
I watch too much Engine Masters I guess,
NOT.
I've read and watched so many videos my head spins. I have watched almost everything Richard Holdener has put on YT. Especially vids with 4.8's with a plastic truck intake making over 850hp with nothing special but the cam and turbo. I figured a 4.8 would be cheaper since everyone wants a 6.0 or 6.2 or even the 5.3. Plus with a small tire I didn't really need a lot more low end torque.
As far as heads, these are 799 which are supposed to be pretty good LS cathedral heads.
 
C'mon man. That thing was going to be badass. I'll sell my wife's wedding ring & whatever else she has :oops:, to help fund the 4-banger. As long as it keeps you from dropping that effing LS turd into that car.:fuss:
 
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I think squeezing a 300 six in there (like engine power hopped up)would be a fun driver. It was was still low enough compression to have a turbo without Aussie head fitment issues.
 
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