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

Just felt like updating this thread. I had my other thread removed. Mods since my last post in this thread:

- Team-Z mini-tub
- Team-Z Outlaw 9" rear with 3.70 gears w/ fully adjustable upper & lower control arms, an anti-roll bar tabbed for wheelie bars and a removable parachute mount
- Strange 35-spine axles
- Double adjustable shocks & coil-overs
- resealed the entire engine and vented both valve covers to a catch can and dumped the PCV to relieve any pressure on the bottom end.
- Promotion Powertrain T56 from a Cobra but converted with the same G-force gearset that goes in the Rockland Standard Gear T56 in gears 1-4 with the 2.98 ratio in 1st. The 5th and 6th gears are stock at .8 and .63.
- McLeod "Original Street Twin" Disk clutch
- magnetic pickup for a driveshaft speed sensor that I haven't hooked up, yet. This will be my new speedometer.
- Weld RT-S S71 black wheels 17x12" with 325/45/17 (28" tall) M&H Racemasters for the street. Hoping to go a 13-14" wheel with a max-sized slick, but still have to figure out exactly what will fit back there. New 17x8" RT-S wheels are on order from summit with 245-45-17 Michelin PSS tires. When I order the wheels and slicks, I'll get skinnies too.
- removed welded ultraflo mufflers and installed Superturbos to quiet it down, while installing an electric cutout. However, it did not make the car quiet enough and I'm looking at putting some stock cobra mufflers on it next.

The car was dyno-tuned and made 880 rwhp before the backpressure overwhelmed the 5-7 lbs wastegate spring and boost controller at 21 psi. There is plenty more left in the car. I'm not in a hurry to max it out, though. There are a lot of little things to work through, and until I have slicks, making more power is an exercise in futility.

Currently, I'm working through the tune and have dramatically improved cold-idle, idle, and around town driveability.

I recently noticed that I'm burning oil that I hope/think is a driver's side lower intake gasket issue. I just started working on it, today. It might take til after the holidays to work through it, though. Too much going on with final exams, visiting family, etc...

1st time at track since engine build. On the lowest boost setting of around 10 psi, and with a bad clutch issue, which required about 1 second between each gear. Now that clutch is fixed, it would no doubt be a huge improvement, even without any additional boost:

Essentially, the clutch couldn't fully release.

The depth from the faceplate of the bellhousing to the input shaft collar was not deep enough, and there was not enough space in the bellhousing. The collar pushed the clutch disks and floater to the point that there was no air gap. So, it was impossible to shift quickly, and I had rollout on the line. So, I had to stay on the brake before the launch. RacEoHolic330 helped me figure it out and gave me the solution. Props to him and to those who put me in touch with him.

The 2-step isn't working, yet. I was peddling.

Yeah, I thought the ET is weak too, especially considering my goodyear 225/55/16s on my 270 hp car went 1.83, lol. Not too worried. There's a lot of suspension tuning to do, plus slicks & skinnies, plus getting the two-step set up.

Got the lower intake off, and I believe I've found my oil consumption problem. Only a couple of the bolts for the lower intake were even hand tight. I also found some oil around the ports on cylinders I expected to find some on. Hopefully, that's an indication that the oil is not coming from a head gasket or any other issue.

At first glace with the angle gauge, I believe the angle is off on the intake, and that might be part of the reason it started leaking oil.

Ok. Done for the night. Gotta get ready to go watch some Star Wars!

Man, I really wish I could figure out what to do with all of these damn snakes in my engine bay. I haven't a clue how to clean this rat's nest up. I just want all of the benefits of a/c, power everything, and sensors to monitor everything. I love the functionality, but embarrassed to open up my hood, lol!



Here's what the angle gauge looks like. The heads still need to be cleaned up before I can accurately check them, but the intake does not appear to have the same angle as the angle gauge. When I hold up a light behind the gauge, it peeks through toward the base of the lower intake in the last picture. I assume the gasket will take care of that to some extent as it compresses, but how much?

Yessir. That's the plan. First, I'll confirm that the heads weren't angle-milled and the intake matched. None of that is in the notes or the invoices from my shops over the years, though. Unfortunately, I'm flying out for a couple weeks to enjoy xmas and new years with family and friends and won't be able to get to that part until January.

I was thinking about renaming this car, "Snake pit." Seems like a fit for this:



Anyways, it's coming along. I've been so distracted by the '93 that I haven't paid this car the attention it deserves. I spent a lot of time doing little things people will never notice. I also got the adapter I needed to run the driveshaft speed sensor so that I'll finally have a speedometer. Now, it just needs the throttle body, connections, vacuum hoses, an oil change, setting base timing, and burping the coolant. I hope to have it out and about by the weekend.

Well, I got it together last night and took it for a spin. I was getting an idle RPM of ~3,200 indicating a massive vacuum leak. I figured the lower gaskets had shifted. When I started to tear it back down, I noticed that I'd left the upper-to-lower intake bolts only hand tight. So, I pulled the hoses, the upper intake and tried to ensure that everything else was on right. After reinstalling everything, it does seem to idle at 900 for periods like it's supposed to. However, sometimes it wants to stay up around 1600-1800 RPM. I'm not really sure what's going on there, but otherwise it does seem to drive just fine.

Should the carb cleaner trick still work with Speed Density? Since speed density is going to fuel it according to manifold pressure and RPM, I don't think it's ever going to starve enough to need more flammible fuel.

On another note, I replaced the M&H 325/45/17s, because I never really got a chance to enjoy the last set while they were fresh. By the time I got the car back from HPP Racing in Dallas, it had sat in their lot for a year and a half while they sun-rotted. So, I wanted to give them another shot. They feel pretty good, but it's hard to tell how much better they are.

I'll continue sorting out the bugs. I cannot for the life of me get the cap on top of the t-stat housing to stop leaking. I installed with teflon tape but that didn't work. Then I tried teflon thread sealant, and that didn't work. I guess now I'll try teflon sealant on the bottom threads and gasket maker on the top threads and where the cap mates to the T-stat housing. If that doesn't work, and there's no better suggestion out there, I'll have to give up my aftermarket T-stat and go back to a stocker. No great loss, really.

Even though it looks like hell and needs a repaint bad, I'll try and shine her up and get a pic or two tomorrow.

I wanted to drive "Snake Pit" out to the car scene tonight, but didn't get around to sealing the T-stat housing until this afternoon, and I want to leave it for 24 hours to cure.

In the mean time, I got under it and started thinking about the rear-end alignment. With all for control arms being completely adjustable, I really had no idea what to do to line it up right. I just started measuring things and tinkering. Then I found this online:



I plan to do it this way, and I'll try and snap a couple of pictures when I figure out what and how I'm doing it. It does not look easy to find the center line. I am not going to trust the crank shaft, because I did not personally install the k-member, and who knows if it's in perfect alignment. So, I'm planning to hang plumb bobs from points along each frame rail, make two lines representing the frame rails on the ground with pencil, then use an angle finder to intersect the lines. Then, measure and mark the center of that line. That should give me the true center of the chassis, and I can use 1/2 the distance from the frame lines mark a few points and create a center line. Then, I'll do everything it specifies above.

I just hopped on amazon and bought this nifty little thing:


I think it might make this and future alignment jobs (axles, pulleys, house stuff etc...) easier.

I've never been taught a thing about this stuff and don't know anyone who does this stuff. If you guys have some good experience, I'm all ears.