Progress Thread Father Time: High-$ anti-dent defense system

running plenty of antifreeze. I'm not blowing lines or anything, but I also noticed that the coolant is rising up and down in the radiator. I figured it was due to a slight oscillation in engine idle rpm. It doesn't bubble, though.

Ok, fine. It's definitely a work in progress, but I guess that's the point of these threads. The front of the car looks terrible, I know. I'm planning to replace those lights with either darker lensed lights or those euro looking lights that are similar looking to the ones on the new vettes with like 3 lights in one. The front fascia will eventually be replaced with the saleen one. It'll help to cover the intercooler without that ****ty looking cutting. I'm thinking about replacing the 2" cowl with a cervini heat extractor if it fits. If not, I'll repaint and straighten out the hood on there.

- I adjusted the front-mounted intercooler so that it actually looks straight, and I moved it forward cutting a little more out of the bottom front fascia to give it the room I needed. I replaced the condensor, compressor, hoses, accumulator, and lines. The old condenser was taking up the space the new radiator needed. So I pushed the intercooler forward with the condenser and that gave me enough room for the radiator, shroud, and fans. A mechanic nearby flushed the system and installed the lines. All it needs now is a charge and to hook up the electrical connections and the A/C will be fully functional. The mechanic used and heat-wrapped metal line from the condensor back to the firewall/evaporator since it ran right next to the exhaust tubing.

- The Ron Davis Radiator with this really trick-looking metal shroud, and twin spal electric fans is also installed. I heat-wrapped the exhaust side of the turbo so it wouldn't melt the passenger side fan. Plus it'll keep the A/C line a little cooler.

The attachments show the intercooler from the front. At least it's level and affixed on both ends, now. The other pic shows the stack from right to left: intercooler pipe (best I could get with the camera from above), the condenser, and the radiator from the front.

More to follow...

Quick picture of the radiator with the dual fan shroud setup. That's the best I could do with the overflow tank right now. I'll probably get a custom one and fit it into the battery tray since my battery's in the back, now.

I backed up the earlier results with another dyno yesterday. I needed another tune because I lost the old one, and never really had good drivability.

The car made a best pull of 703rwhp SAE (724 rwhp uncorrected) at 14 psi. The tuner, Jonathan at XXX performance in pensacola, was very good, fun to watch, and was willing to talk me through the changes he made so that I can also play with the BS3 in the future. Jonathan kept the timing very conservative while he played with the AFR and ensured that it stayed in the 11.5 range. I think the car is still running a little fat in places, but I can work on that myself. He also kept the timing conservative. Starting at 16*, once he got the AFR close, he added a degree of timing and didn't see any power gain. That was surprising to me, because on the old tune, the car made best power at 21*. So, maybe he left some power on the table for me to tune out of it when I eventually take it to the track.

As a side note, we also found the problem that led me to almost lose control of the car very early on after receiving it. The first time they accelerated in the car on the dyno, they stopped everything and said, "something is very wrong in the suspension." The got under the car and watched it while driving it on the dyno and found the rear end noticeably moving around under the car. It turns out that the idiots who built my suspension for me (see earlier posts) left 3 bolts loose on the upper control arms. Though I'm not a suspension guy, you can see my earliest posts after receiving the car where I'm talking about almost losing control at very high speed. You know, I was very close to losing the car, and possibly getting injured back then because of this issue. Thank you Dayton Performance. Now that everything is tight, it's a world of difference, and there's still something that doesn't sound right back there. The guys at XXX think that the upper control arm bushing may be on the wrong bolt. It's ok, though. When they put a built rear in it for me, they'll take a look and correct it if necessary.

We recently found and stopped the coolant leak. It was a result of the thermostat housing being loose. The rear main seal still leaks oil like a seive, and there's also oil leaking up front from where the lower intake was installed. After the loose fuel line that left a puddle of gasoline under the engine bay while it was running, two loose coolant lines, billing me for but not actually installing rear shocks, low results in 5&6 after the compression test, the problems with the time it took to get everything done. The way the body was taken care of, and the amount of time it took to get everything done (about a year and a half - exceeded the 14 months I was deployed to Iraq). After adding the loose upper control arms to the laundry list of problems, I regard my decision to take it to Dayton Performance the biggest mistake I've ever made. At least the car is still in one peice, the motor hasn't blown up, and I never got hurt.

Well, I'm planning to have it taken back to them in a week or two to swap the rear end. After that, I'm going to have a TH400 tranny built and installed. Before it goes in, they will finish the tune by taking it up to high boost. I'd like to see if the TKO can make it through a high-boost abuse session. If it can, I might crack off a 1000rwhp run! So maybe a month or so. I'll let you know so you can come for the festivities. I'll be in Afghanistan by then. So it would be cool to hear your comments on the event.

So far, I'm impressed with Brad and Jonathan over there. Pensacola's XXX seems to be a good shop. I was pleasantly surprised that they were proficient tuning the BS3, and with how quickly they diagnosed and fixed the suspension issue. Hopefully, I'll fair better with them. This time, when I come back from Afghanistan, I'll have a car that has a finished drivetrain.

Last night, I played with a civic that had a turbo integra motor. The guy said his car ran 11.8@120 already, which in my opinion is a damned good time for that car, if it's true. The car did good. I lowered the boost to 8psi. It was cold out, last night, and he wanted to go from a 60 roll to try to keep traction. I lowered the boost to 8 psi. On the Dyno a couple of days ago, the car made 575 rwhp at 10psi. So, it seems to make 25rwhp per lb of boost - maybe 525ish at 8 psi. I started in 3rd, and still lost traction. I put a couple of cars on him before shifting into 4th at around 90. Finally hooking up, I really started to pull.

Chris

I'm in Afghanistan, again until December of this year. My bro back home is showing my car some TLC! Here's his work on the headlights... Even though I've done it several times on my mustangs, it still amazes me how much of a difference it makes!

Before (notice that the brackets are broken causing the lights to be misaligned):



After (all better!):



Does anyone know where I can find the replacement rubber to surround the lights with?

Plus, check out how well that hood fits! It has been 7 years since I bought this car and I still couldn't be happier with the Kaenen that came with it! I hope they can smooth it out when I get the car repainted. You can't see it in the pics, but the paint is a bit distorted on the driver's side over the head where one of the old twin-turbos sat. Plus, I left a ratchet on top of the throttle body and warped the hood a bit right above it when I tried to close it. I'm not a body expert, but if they can't fix that hood, I'm going to have a hell of a time finding another one. I love the Cervini hoods, but they're heavier.