Don't over think it

I just slapped the pivot point brackets where the bumper supports went and it worked great. I had no problems rotating it by myself. I did have a scary moment once, when I lost my footing and let go of the car it flipped almost a full rotation to completely roof down, but aside from that no problems. I put the latch pin end on the back. So when I rotated the car I grabbed one of the welded on exhaust hangar brackets and usually put my foot on the bottom of the quarter panel to get things moving. Then I could easily put the pin in when I was rotated to where I wanted. I would have liked to do the slack adjuster setup. A guy on here somewhere put a slack adjuster on one end of his rotisserie and used it to rotate it...not a bad idea at all.

 

Day 80: Today I finished the dash, got the Momo wheel in (took some doing), and mounted the seat. I also got the windshield clean. Tomorrow I'll probably hit the fiberglass again.

 

Day 81: I got my front caliper hard lines in and installed my braided brake lines. I also installed the shifter centering spring, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I also installed some more miscellaneous engine bay parts (wiper motor, coils, etc). Tomorrow I'll take apart my turbo and get it ready to mail off for balancing. I may also mount my doors to get ready for paint. I'm really feeling the pressure to get the paint done, it's starting to cool off quite a bit here.

 

Day 82: Got my donor turbo torn down and I'm not sure it'll be usable. It looks like carbon built up between the heat shields on the exhaust side and caused enough "swelling" to get the heat shield to contact the back of the turbine wheel. I'm not sure if it's enough to be of concern, as long as I clean up the heat shield. If it knocked the wheel out of balance, then hopefully they can correct it when they balance the whole rotating assembly. I'm just hoping that the slight wear on the wheel won't be an integrity issue.

Comparison Pics:





Damage:



Not sure how exaggerated it is by the carbon that's still built up on the wheel.

 

That does look pretty rough, sounds like an opportunity to upgrade to a real turbine wheel ;-)

 

I have 3 other turbos to check out before I even think about sinking more money down that avenue. I'm not running super high boost and I need response more than anything. Definitely not building a big number dyno queen.

 

Lol, no sorrows there. The terms "hybrid" and "dyno queen" don't belong in the same sentence....ever.

 

Day 83: I took another turbo apart last night and it was in much better shape, but the turbine housing had a broken bolt on the wastegate side. So, I'm using the turbine housing from the first turbo, the turbine wheel and CHRA from the second and my new compressor housing and wheel. I packaged up the rotating assembly to ship off to the UK tomorrow.

 

Day 84: Today I mounted a few things...see if you can tell what they are:





For those that didn't figure it out, I mounted the doors and the spoiler. The doors stayed on, I had to take the spoiler off because I didn't want to take the car off the stands yet and it protrudes past the threshold for the garage door. I still need to make the struts that go from the rear of the spoiler to just above the tail lights. I'm very happy with the way it looks. The last picture is the view most people will get, lol.

 

Nice spoiler, what mounts did you use?

 

It's a APR GTC-200 from a S2000. I just used the S2000 mounts and am adapting them using the same mounting method that TurboSmart used to mount their wing.

 

did you replace the bushings on the rear dog bones? (not quite sure what they are called, the things that attach the control arms to the subframe). did you use oem or aftermarket ones?

 

I replaced 2 of the 4 bushings in the rear control arms. The ones that attach to the subframe are energy suspension polyurethane bushings. The top bushing that attaches to the hub assembly is a OEM bushing. And the lower bearing that attaches to the hub assembly was left alone, because they were in perfect shape. I also left the DTSS bushings in because I feel that if you can learn to drive with the "system" in place, you can carry more speed through the turns.

 

Day 85: Today I hogged out the wastegate port and matched the runners. I got the port to 29mm. I just don't trust the 25yr old metal not to crack by taking more material off the wall to go any larger. Took me 2 hours to get the grinding done. Tomorrow I'll weld on the flapper and be done.

 

You probably mean short camber links, which are not adjustable (in stock form). They dont have bushings, its spherical bearings on both sides....

 

Wonder why it was never port matched from the factor. Does it have something to do with the runners internal length/volume?

 

^Because of the twin scroll I'd imagine.

 

It has to do with the twin scroll. It needed to be smaller to allow the flapper that goes over the smaller port, to seal. I don't have the twin scroll any more because my tubular exhaust manifold keeps the two exhaust pulses separate for the most part, so it made more sense for me to match them up. There's always been a debate about removing the twin scroll, my choice of manifolds made it a moot point.

 

Day 86: Today I trimmed up the front bumper a bit, test fit it along with a lot of the rest of the front end. I also mated the engine and trans and test fit the new intercooler. I also did a little house keeping.

 

I'm hoping for a one piece, tilt front clip.

Make it so.

 

LOL, maybe if Higgi hooks me up with his NA hood mold...then I could do a one piece. That would be pretty nice. Damn you clokker! Now I'm going to have something else to add to the list of things to do.

 

One piece flippable on stock hood hinges, or flippable towards front?

Or just quick disconnect and complete removal without flipping?

Flip towards front is problem due bumper's lip being quite low.
Flip on stock hinges might be doable, but you end up with lot of weight in air, huge bumper in your eyesight and dont forget headlight wiring....

 

I would do one piece, quick release for the whole thing to come off, with maybe an option to flip forward for quick fluid checks.

 

Clamshell it like Lotus.
Everything below the body trim line stays fixed, everything above flips forwards.
Solves the issue of the lower lip and reduces the mass of the pivoting section.

 

I have a pretty good idea of how I'll do it. Guess you guys will have to wait to see how i decide to do it, lol.