Been working on/gathering stuff for about a year and a half. Prather Racing in Topeka, KS swapped the engine. A+ Autobody started (and will be finishing) the bodywork. The car's been at Gotham since June where I've been in a slow race with David Hayes to see who will get to drive there car again first. : ) It had been waiting a few weeks for a backordered wastegate from HKS, which came in Monday. They'll be getting back on it next week after they finish up a couple other projects. But hopefully it won't be too much longer after that. I'm really tired of driving my MDX.

The computer is wired in, the gauges are in, the fuel lines/pumps/system is in. The only custom thing left (hopefully) is the dump tube.

I haven't got to drive an FD above 20 mph in over 3 years, so I'm really ready to get to get this done (bought this one for this project two summers ago. Had it trucked in from California. Drove it half a block from my house, where it ran out of gas. Drove it straight home and started taking it apart. Sold my first one in '04).

Here's some details:

Engine:
Full rebuild done by Adam at Rotary Specialties in Calgary with street port, 3mm apex seals, dowel pinned block, new rotors, balanced to 10K.
microtech ltx-12s
bosch coils
Rotary Specialties subframe
bumpsteer kit
Greddy 3 Row FMIC
Apex Short Shifter

T88H
Gotham's 20B radiator (I think it's Pettit's).
ACT 6-Puck Clutch for as long as it lasts
850cc primaries 1600cc secondaries.
Gotham's dual oil coolers

Exterior:
SBC Enkei RP03 18x10s and 18x9s
Cquence Vented and Cross Drilled Brake Rotors (probably switched out for a BBK in the near future)
D2 Racing RS coilovers
Shineauto's KS-Auto Burnout Style Full body kit

Interior
Sparco Evo seats
Sparco 3" 6-point harneses
sparco steering wheel
Prosport Performance gauges--3 under the stereo opening 4 in a flyrx7 quad pod, if he ever gets around to making them again (right now they're in a hacked-together quad pod)
replacing the tan interior with red and black

This will be a quasi-daily driver/autocrosser/living room focal point. Looking to make at least 500 horsepower so I can have a car more powerful than anything my dad ever owned. Family competition is good, right?

I don't have many pics, but here's the last ones I got from Gotham a month or so ago.

 

Damn you jjshaloam for taking up my valuable Gotham mechanic time! On the serious side, very nice project and I hope you get to drive it soon. 500HP? You're going to make way more than that on a T88H. I made 540WHP at 14.5 PSI on a T51R.

Looks like you have everything done well. If it were me though I would suggest having Gotham do the center oil modification to ensure the engine gets the proper amount of oil. This probably means taking the engine out of the car though. Talk to Alex or George about this.

I'm planning a trip to Gotham in the next few weeks so I'll be sure to check out the competition - err I mean your car

 

Thanks David. haha. Yeah. It's fun competiting for mechanic time.

And yeah. I don't think 500 hp should be a problem. I wasn't going to run a whole lot of boost, but I will run enough to make sure I get over 500 and beat my dad's Gallardo. That's what kind of got this whole thing started, thinking: hmmm. A 20B FD would be lighter and more powerful than my dad's car. for $100,000 cheaper.

I've thought about the center oil mod. But I JUST WANT TO DRIVE IT. The idea of moving backwards at this point isn't that appealing. There's a lot of little things I want to do (and still a garage full of parts that I have for it), but I'm too impatient. Hopefully that's not my car's downfall. At this point I'd be willing to do a rebuild just to drive it around the block.

Any idea how much longer your car will be at Gotham? I was hoping to get to see yours when I went down there.

 

Nevermind. Sorry for asking that. I'm sure you're tired of that question.

 

^No problems on the date question thingy. I've learned "it is what it is". The center oil mod is one of those things you'll regret not having done. Take it from me, been there done that, oops should have done it in the beginning. A lot of things you can get by with but starving the center bearing for oil at the HP levels you're trying to make isn't one of them.

Think about it and talk it over with Gotham. Maybe they can do it with the engine still in place? On second though, probably not. Drilling would be no problem but it certainly would get shavings in the engine. Has to be done with the engine apart I would think.

 

nice project. looks really good.

 

I thought the oil mod was mostly just needed for use above 8,000 rpms. I wasn't planning on running above 8K. Or even to 8K, really. But, who knows? Accidents happen. I'll give Gotham a call on Monday and talk it over with them.

 

Out of curiosity have you done a compression check on the engine? If so, what were the numbers?

 

No compression test--it wasn't even possible until recently. It should be perfect, though, since it's never even been started.

 

It should be but I'm curious as to where it sits. Would you take a look and let us know?

 

nice man...looking sharp

 

I got an e-mail from Alex at Gotham and he said the engine had to be taken apart to do the oil mod. I thought it basically consisted of just tapping the the inlet from the outside--didn't need anything done internally. I guess my mental picture was off. So rather than basically rebuild a "new rebuild" engine, I'll just wait until I do something stupid and HAVE to rebuild it.

Oh. Soloracer. I didn't think rebuilt engines will pass a compression test until they've been broken in, right?

Jon

 

Not really. With new parts you should make close to peak compression right from the start. It's not like seating the rings in a piston engine. You should make at least 85 psi right away. For example, a friends 2 rotor made 95 psi within the first minute of running.

 

It was worth a try. Post results, hopefully after me

 

i like the black intake

 

any updates

 

No major progress. The mechanic that was on it isn't with Gotham anymore, so the two guys left are splitting time on it, David Hayes car and every other project that's in there. They said this month would be devoted to mine and David's car, though with no more cars being accepted until the first of the year.

 

Looks good.

 

^Yep, that's true. Still here working on mine and will be thru Wednesday. For what it's worth, yours is very nice looking They'll also take care of you but of course, time is a premium right now around Gotham.

 

Probably because you, and especially David have spent enough money there that they don't need to accept any other cars until next year.

 

^True dat. Besides my car and John's they still have several others they want to complete and clear out this year.

 

ha. Yeah. David's more than mine. They've only got my deposit so far. I guess that's good motivation to get done, though--to get the rest of the money.

 

Well you guys are both good sports and you will have awesome cars to boot. Best wishes and happy holidays.

 

looking good!!!!

 

Some more progress. And I think with David's car wrapping up things will progress fairly quickly.

Gauges on dash and in bottom of the stereo opening:



An updated pic of my dirty engine bay. Why didn't I have that cleaned and painted when the engine was out? Oops: