Nice work so far

nice

The choke knob looks like the one off my 95 Honda Recon quad lol. Excellent work so far sir.

I know, right?! They all add up to one HUGE part of the swap that I never considered. Getting the engine in and mounted only took like 4 days. The wiring and all the peripheral stuff took the other 15 days to get it running. Ah well, getting really close to done though! :egrin:

Just got my Tokico Blues on the car tonight with the control arm polyurethane bushings. I would eventually go full coilovers on the car but I think I'll end up doing a Ford 8.8 or 9 rear end with a full custom system for the rear with coilovers up front.

Yeah, if you look at my first posts I spent a few months waiting on money for parts, parts themselves, and time to finish the engine to be ready for install. Always waiting on something...

Thanks guys! :bigthumb:

Haha I see what you mean! It reminded me of some old Massey snowmobiles we had at one point from the late 70's. Kind of cool though I think - and thanks :biggrin:

Updates of the day:
1. Went and talked to the driveline shop today about getting the custom shaft made. Super cool guy that dealt with me and knew what he was talking about - makes me glad that I picked the right shop to do the work. Should be getting a call tomorrow sometime about getting a new 87 TII front yoke for the transmission in order to measure the shaft length correctly. Would like it to be done by Wednesday but we will have to wait and see.

2. Got the control arms for the rear axle converted to full polyurethane bushings! Was a bit of a chore but I think it'll be worth it in the end. Also got my Tokico Blues installed so it'll be an almost entirely new rear end when it's finished. Have the Watts Linkage out now and ready to have the poly bushings installed but I didn't get around to it tonight. Will install everything 100% then tighten everything while there's no load so that the bushings always want to return to full expansion.

I'll post good pics tomorrow, phone died today before I could take any :blush:

Pics!
 

Some pics I shot over the last two days:

Front shot of car without hood on its own suspension
Attachment 668184

An almost completed engine shot
Attachment 668185

Tokico Blue shocks that'll replace the 30yr old stock ones
Attachment 668186

Old rubber bushings in the control arms
Attachment 668187

Rubber bushings being burned out
Attachment 668188

Watts Links bushings replaced (didn't get a shot of the rear control arms - woops :blush: )
Attachment 668189

Driver's side shot of Blue shock and poly bushings
Attachment 668190

Pass side shot
Attachment 668191

Final shot of new rear end installed
Attachment 668192

Attachment 668193

So I now have a completely new rear end (to me at least)!

Now that all bushings and new shocks are installed I can get a completely accurate measurement on the driveshaft.

Really happy with the progress so far - getting close! :egrin:

Stock wheels and ride height are beautiful. But after my drag racing conversion I need a full wheel well. Any plans to push the rims out a bit with spacers or lowering springs?

I do like the stock height and wheels very much, but plans are different as things progress of course :egrin:

Eventually I really want to stuff 16 or 17in rims under there with the car incredibly stanced on full coilovers with an FC front subframe and all the FC front suspension upgrades it offers. That's a ways out though :icon_tup:

Well here's a setback I wasn't expecting. Can't find someone to cut the shafts and weld them together - shops say it'll break at the spot of the weld and they don't want me coming back complaining about it. So I told that shop that has my shaft to go ahead and order the parts needed to make a fully custom, new, warrantied shaft that should be just shy of $400 when they're done. I really wanted to find someone to chop the shafts up and weld them together but I guess I can't complain about a 12mo warranty and a shaft that can carry up to 400+hp.

Ah well, now in the week or more it takes to get the shaft made I can completely finish the car. New thermostat gasket, UIM to turbo coolant gasket, cleaning up harness and putting interior back together, front shocks, all sorts of things to do while I wait on that. Goal is to have it ready to be driven as soon as I swap the shaft on and I can take it for a spin.

Dang! And I was really betting on the 4th!

Nice work on the swap :), the first gens are really starting to grow on me. Ive seen you driving around the cambridge/isanti area before maybe you've seen me in my red fc. I used to deliver pizzas around that area and i would always try to catch up to you but you always turned off before i needed to.

Enough creeping though lol, get her finished!!

Trust me, I was too! Sucks to not have a running driving Turbo FB for Independence Day but it's whatever. Hopefully it will be done towards the end of next week according to the driveshaft shop.

Yeah man! I almost broke my neck looking at your car thinking, "That sure looks like an FC that I see pictures of on the forum every day...that might just be one...I think it is...IT IS!..and he's gone." You worked at a certain place in Isanti that delivered pizzas that starts with a Ch - it was on your car and I saw your car there once :nod:

Still have the FC? Will be cruising in the FB here shortly!

Updates as of yesterday:
Got new thermostat gasket and UIM to turbo gasket installed and RTVed, curing as we speak
All stock gauges are now working and wired in correctly
Finished the wiring 100% as far as routing, now just have to wrap it all up


Got the interior put together almost completely - first time that's looked like it does in a very long time!

Attachment 667867

Attachment 667868

Yup that was me :lol:. Funny how i just happend to find your build thread, small world i guess. Anyways i still have the fc and currently im doing a rebuild because it blew a coolant seal :(, but im also using the rebuild as a chance to swap it to a 5 speed. Just gotta track down the parts.

You're right. It should be the perfect big thing to finish off all the little stuff. HOW MOTIVATIONAL! I'm enjoying your progress

If you ever want or need any help with the rebuild hit me up! I'm working almost constantly but have like one day off a week that I could help. I'm sure I'll see ya around as well!

It is pretty nice having a little break to get some necessary stuff done on the car to where I completely trust it on the road. Thanks for the kind words, you keep at your car too :biggrin:

I'll be doing a writeup on how I installed this with pics and instructions at a later point to help others out with getting it on.

Back of car before work
Attachment 667206

Attachment 667207

Masking tape to protect paint
Attachment 667208

Some install pics
Attachment 667209

Attachment 667210

Attachment 667211

Attachment 667212

Painting the spoiler
Attachment 667213

Well not too much work done other than these pics.

Got it started again and checked the gaskets - everything's sealed nice and tight. Looking pretty mint for its first drive!

Will be driving the car around on the 17th if everything else goes well. Need to grab the driveshaft and head on down there. Going down to the weekly meet with the other local MN guys in Bloomington at Sonic next Wednesday night :biggrin:

Turbo swaps car. Still uses 2x4 to hold the hatch :P

How did you fit the spoiler to the car. I have a repo of the 3 piece but I'm not the most knowledgeable in body work.

Gotta love the IMSA spoiler. You painting it gloss black or what?

Haha right now it's a 1x6 actually :lol:

I'll be posting up a forum tutorial on how I did it. Will hopefully get others to contribute as well to help everyone else out on installing it. It's pretty daunting but is rewarding when done. I could throw it on the car now with a crappy paint job but I'm still deciding what to do here.

It's currently Rustoleum Gloss Black, yeah. I got a run in the center of the top of the center piece and I can't just leave it like that so I'm sanding down at least that whole part again. The gloss black with the black primer underneath it is definitely deep looking and pretty though.

And because of where they were hanging they bumped into each other and left small marks in the paint so I'm going to be stripping all the gloss paint off every part to do a respray on the whole thing. I definitely dig the look of the wing so far, I'm just being very anal about it since I plan on putting it on with the intention of never taking it back off unless absolutely necessary - so I figure I better do it right.

Goal is to put it on for next Wednesday when I can drive it around and it'll be gloss black. Then I'm going to order at least one can of Tornado Silver Metallic K8 paint from Automotivetouchup.com for like $20+s/h and make it match the body. They just look so much sleeker matched to the paint I think, and black would really stick out on the gray car I think. I do love yours though 82transam - the black on red with black interior does it for me :biggrin:

If I get some more work done with the wing tonight I'll be sure to take some pics.

Also, got promoted today so I get a little better paychecks and more hours so that's always a good thing for the car-part fund :biggrin:

Great work man good to see the progress you made! I'm super jelly of the IMSA spoiler..I want one.

Oh and did you steam clean the gas tank or what did you do to clean it?

Grats on the promotion bro!

Loving that wing - that's probably what I'll end up going with as well - factory IMSA front kit and rear spoiler.

Agreed on paint matching it to body color.

Yeah, that wing was a hunt in the making. But I'm glad I waited for it - makes a nice trophy :nod:

Iii..uhh...washed it out with water. :blush: I was able to get out anything that was of a floating nature in the tank itself after the modifications. It's as clean as I could possibly get in there and it has the splash cup, pump screen, and fuel filter protecting the engine from any debris so I feel pretty safe.

Thanks man!

I would looooove to find an original IMSA front air dam to accompany the wing. Find an 80's date on the piece with someone's initials and throw it on the car. I'm hunting them down right now but won't pull the trigger on the purchase for a while yet. The one on my car is pretty scuffed up from the PO and myself rubbing it on curbs and speed bumps.

For me, matching it to the gray is the only way to go. I just couldn't see it being any other color without seriously bothering me.

As far as an update on the night:
Not much has happened really for a while now. Been busy with work and life stuff so I haven't been getting whole lot done on the car recently. I had a few spots on the wing that were bothering me. So what did I do? I sanded down the entire wing and fixed the troubled spots and re-primed it now. Will put on at least 2-4 more primer coats so everything gets evened out and then I'll just leave it like that until I can get the K8 paint in two spray cans to make it match.

Need to go finalize everything from the TB elbow to UIM gasket before I want to drive it. Latest that I'd want all that done is on Tuesday night so that the RTV that'll hold the UIM to the LIM with the gasket can have time to cure.

Things to get done before Tuesday night:
Make sure turbo doesn't smoke anymore from any leaks or seals
Remove or engage the whole thermowax assembly (If I end up having to DD this thing through the winter I would probably prefer this being installed versus waiting for it to be fully warmed up :dunno:)
Re-check the primary and secondary fuel rails for any leaks or issues
Go over the whole rear end again and make sure that everything is tight and OK for driving after the shock install and poly bushings
Make sure the entire interior is together as it should be
Detail the car so it's all nice and clean and ready to be shown off

Reeeeeaaaaalllllyyyy getting anxious to drive the thing...:egrin:

Car Now Drives!
 

No videos as of yet, sorry :blush: Will post some after the car has been tested working safely and broken in to my satisfaction.

Pictorial story of the day's progression:
Got off of work a little late but wasn't too terrible. Ran to get new bolts, nuts and lock washers from Menard's for the driveshaft rear flange then went and got cash out for the shaft itself.

Ran down to the shop making the shaft and was very pleased to get the new shaft, as well as the other two shafts I gave them for references. I'll try to sell these off to others that can use them more than I.

New driveshaft versus the old FB 12a shaft directly underneath it, and the FC 13bt shaft below that. Shaft has greasable and rebuldable u-joints with a 1 year warranty.
Attachment 666470

Slip yoke side of the new driveshaft
Attachment 666471

Rear flange side of the new driveshaft with new Grade 10 nuts, bolts and lock washers for the whole rear end.
Attachment 666472

Got home and verified that I could drive the car without forgetting anything that would drag on the ground or be a safety concern. Got the IMSA spoiler installed temporarily as well as you can see later.

After installing the shaft and cleaning out the entire car of all tools and hardware I decided to see if she'd go under her own power. I was ecstatic about the car being able to move itself I couldn't stand it! :biggrin:

Then I figured out that the shaft on the clutch slave cylinder of the new FB was too long and pushing the clutch in constantly. My heart dropped in hearing and feeling that I couldn't drive the car the way it was.

Until a thought crossed my mind...

FB slave cylinder push rods side by side
Attachment 666473

Shaved off shaft that I'm using on the left in the car now. Has been shaved down even further by about 1/8" from this picture just with the feel in the car
Attachment 666474

So I put this in the car and wouldn't ya know it, she worked!! :biggrin:

Re-bled the clutch system with some help from my dad and took him for a ride he won't soon forget :egrin:

I drove the car for a total of about 8 miles in 2 mile stints up and down a road that isn't patrolled 364 days in a year. Only boosted it twice and man does it RIP now! Couldn't be happier with its performance and I can't wait to see how it progresses from this point.

Driver's side view of the car after the night's activities
Attachment 666475

Passenger side shot
Attachment 666476

Attachment 666477

There's an end in site where I can reliably drive the car whenever I want.

Low Oil Pressure on Partial Rebuild
 

Well I have low oil pressure in the car upon partial rebuild.

To get the TII engine to fit into the FB using the stock mounts I had to use a GSL-SE front cover and a GSL-SE oil pan. In doing this I removed the old TII front cover and oil pan and had to install a new gasket for the front cover, front cover o-ring, and FB pickup tube for the oil pan.

On March 8 of this year I made my big order for the parts I needed from Atkins Rotary to build the engine up to put it in the FB. The issue I have is:
1. I have an S4 engine (pretty obvious there)
2. But I ordered a big hole front cover gasket from Atkins with a teflon o-ring
3. The teflon o-ring didn't fit right so I just used a generic o-ring that we had in the shed at the time

According to Aaron Cake at this post (pretty good thread about the issue): (2nd Gen Specific) new rebuild has low oil pressure
"To clarify, using the Teflon ring has nothing to do with the front cover, it is dependant on the front iron you have. If there is room in the bore for the Teflon ring, you need to use it. If there is only room for the o-ring, then you don't use the Teflon ring. And you have to make sure to use the proper front cover gasket. The one with the big hole is to be used for the Teflon ring, but the small hole is for the o-ring only."

Got this confirmed by reading about the issue on the Mazdatrix FAQ page found here: Mazdatrix FAQ: 86-92 Front Cover "O"-Ring

So what I need to do is get a small hole front cover gasket or just use silicone (which seems to be the better, cheaper, more proven method on keeping the S4 o-rings in place), o-ring, and re-check everything in the front cover and oil pan again. Oh joy.

While I'm at it I should check the oil pickup tube as well. I used a 12a oil pickup tube in the 13bt engine since the original one wouldn't fit with a GSL-SE oil pan. In doing this I didn't use a gasket since there wasn't one on the 12a FB pickup tube so I thought nothing of it. This can cause air bubbles in the vacuum that the pickup tube creates to the oil pump and air in the system can cause low oil pressure and severe engine issues in the future. So I will be installing a gasket in that part.

So now it's lift the engine and take off the whole front cover again and redo it. Should have paid more attention to the order list, sucks to learn sometimes.

I have this Saturday off and with some severe will power I should be able to get the whole system redone and checked out. Of course I'll have to let the material dry for 24hrs+ to ensure proper adhesion.

The joys of learning..:dunno:

If that's youf only road block your doing good

Yeah man dont worry about it. I had the same issue on my first run of the turbo - my O-ring actually dropped out and i had no pressure.

Its just something you gotta do, you know exactly whats up, exactly how to do it, there's no mystery, so its an easy one. You can do it in a day! keep with it bro!

You're kicking my ass in terms of progress. I'm literally stuck at the paint-scraping phase of my build. 3/4 of the crappy paint flaked right off the engine block, but the last little bit is literally fused to the block.

Once its polished, THEN i'll plug in the EFI.

Post a video! maybe that will make me so jealous I just all go up and finnish it.

BTW it looks GORGEOUS

You've got me convinced I'm going to get a rear wing instead of patch the holes from PO's wing.

Yeah the paint on that car is in real good shape. Keep at it, you'll get that thing fixed in a weekend tops.

It's nice that you got a little taste, it'll fire you to make that baby right and get back on the road. Keep at it!

Jeez! I can't believe that his build is over. It was an impressive accomplishment and I'm really happy for him! I'd love to boost my FB but the cost of the swap is beyond my budget at this point. Right now I'm concentrating on pulling off an FC front sub frame swap so that I can go with the big brake kit from Re Speed!

Hope you post a video soon to show us that beauty in action on the open road.

Too bad you have to pull her apart again already, but the fact that it has already driven once is awesome, you got things done seriously fast and I am horribly jealous. Not to mention how clean that 7 is.:nod:

I finally got my thread going if you care to look, and give me some help when I need it.

Yeah he finished this thing pretty damn quick, guess he was motivated :)

Your car already has an FC subframe on it and you're removing it?

Nono i think he's going to pull a sub-frame OFF an FC, so he can put it on the FB and get big brakes. at least thats what i read...


Yeah Austin - jeez dood ur makin me feel all lame n00b over here. I can't even install a friggin intake in the time it takes you to completely swap powerplant AND half the drivetrain.

Excellent work bro! I expect to see a post of you driving it by sunday night.

I have to agree with this statement. Will be carefully looking for any other issues for the rest of the build time but this is the only really noticeable one so far.

Sucks to have it happen this late but it's fine. Practically a free fix with the RTV I have and some o-rings I have laying around. I may even have the one from Atkins in one of my boxes if I look hard enough..

I'll try to post a video of the car running today in a walkaround :egrin: I'm not driving it around too much though. I took the fiance out for a short drive yesterday though - she wants an exhaust on it :lol:

Do the wing, it's totally worth it!

I do like the paint on my car very much, it is in very good shape from the window drip edge down. The roof is pretty shot though. I try to hide it in most pics but it's a 30yr old paint job this year so it's to be expected. Once I throw on the glass sunroof I'll not be as afraid to hide it :bigthumb:

It was definitely a good taste and made me really want to take it out for a long cruise, I'll be keeping at it hard core until I can finally trust it for a long drive!

Thanks dude, I'll respond to your PM here soon. It got buried under some parts selling and buying PM's.

Like I typed a little earlier, video to come today hopefully!

Thanks man! It's super fun already and I can only drive it in one mile stints. I'll check out your build here soon!

Haha you helped with the motivation! And yeah, I read it twice and I think that it was meant as he's trying to pull off a 5 lug swap, not pull off a FC subframe off his car. Took me two times but then I remembered I got a PM from him about the swap so it took a minute haha.

Well it took me 19 days to go from running 12a to running 13bt in the car, I'm curious to see how long it took me to go from driving 12a to 13bt...I'll post the result up later.

You know me too well! Sunday night or Monday morning I'll be posting up a video of me driving it around. Hopefully I can take it to work Monday to show it off to my co workers and make sure it's ready for the car meets I want to go to starting next Wednesday if everything goes right.

New Development
While taking the fiance for the 1 mile straight cruise then 1 mile back I noticed a pretty solid vibration in the car. The rear end went from worn out rubber bushings to full solid poly bushings and Tokico shocks so I know that I'm supposed to hear more road noise and such. But at about 40mph there's a solid vibration from what I believe is the driveshaft. It's not dependent on RPM's so I'll be getting the driveshaft rebalanced already but there's a 1yr warranty on it so it's no big deal.

If I can hurry up here I'll go take a walkaround video for you guys before work :biggrin:

Take a look at your trans mount for that vibration. I had a similar setup to yours at first (basically just a small isolation rubber between the FC mount and FB trans crossmember and it transmitted way too much vibration. Might be worth the few hours to make up something that uses an actual trans mount.
Can't hurt to have that driveshaft rebalanced though :)

Dang it! I am 100% sure that I threw away both the FC mount and the FB I had. Maybe I have the FB one left on the old transmission but can't use that on the FC transmission. Will have to scope out the black vert FC in the junkyard to see if it's in there but I'm pretty sure it's not.

Well, will be re-engineering that here as well :nod:

Here's the much requested walkaround video - be happy guys :bigthumb:


Will take pics tomorrow of the progress of the fix of the front cover o-ring and gasket on the oil pickup tube.

O-Ring is..Fixed...I Hope
 

Saturday
12:00 pm - Complete engine just before noon on Saturday
Attachment 666219

How I held the clutch in while working on the front cover to keep the torrington bearings in place
Attachment 666220

1:45pm - Everything removed off the front cover, about to be removed
Attachment 666221

3:10pm - Front cover finally removed
Attachment 666222

4:00pm - Found why the oil pressure was an issue: teflon o-ring, o-ring, and large hole front cover gasket doesn't work
Attachment 666223

4:00pm - What it should look like, no gasket except silicone
Attachment 666224

4:05pm - Discovered that the turbo oil drain I drilled and tapped cracked on the inside of the housing
Attachment 666225

6:30pm - Got the whole crack JB Weld-ed to be safe
Attachment 666226

8:00pm - Front cover and oil pan are both installed correctly and where they should be
[No Pic]

Sunday
7:10pm - Front cover and oil pan are both installed, but having an issue with the engine mount
Attachment 666227

7:10pm - 3 huge washers installed just to get the engine to not be resting on the oil pan. And you can notice that the engine mount also broke off the weld that I did originally so I had to redo it.
Attachment 666228

So, now I'm contemplating getting the Racing Beat 12a to 13b engine mount that will put the engine exactly where it should be on the cross member. Then doing the transmission mount accordingly after that.

^It's not crazy expensive, might be the way to go. As for the trans mount, you can use the FB rubber mount on an S4 without too much work. You will need to slot the holes in the FB mount to line up with the bolt holes on the trans, then either notch the FB trans crossmember to lower the whole thing (trans will sit up too high) or make some kind of spacers to move the crossmemeber off of the body.
I notched the crossmember on mine, has been holding up well. Yet another thing I really need to get pics of in my build thread....
Either way, glad you found the oil pressure problem before it went on for too long!

Finally Have a DRIVABLE Turbo FB!
 

Yeah, I figured that since I won't be able to do the FC subframe swap for a while yet I can get the nice 12a to 13b engine mount for myself. Then I know the angle will be correct (I would sure hope)

I'll have to see some pics to make sure I'm right, but I think I get the idea. Will be doing something similar upon getting the engine mount in and setting the trans exactly where it should be :nod:

Me too! She ran like a champion today holding good oil pressure and all :egrin:

Today
I woke up early, before work, to get some more work done on the car to be able to drive it in to work today. Ended up getting coolant and oil in it, priming it, and seeing it had good oil pressure after priming the oil pump without the EGI fuse.

Drove it to the closest gas station, almost ran out of gas near it, and put some in. Not enough to fill it but enough to get me by for a while. Will wait to fill it until I'm sure the gasket on the fuel pump and evap system won't let all the fumes and gas slosh out.

While driving the car I felt that the timing was way off. I stopped to adjust it and it felt better. Then I realized that I'd not paid any attention when stabbing the CAS in the front cover :blush: So at work I took it out and re stabbed it and she's dead on now! Will take a timing light to it to verify it's completely on here soon.

She got driven for about a total of 25mi today and it was well worth it - plenty of people breaking their necks to get a look at it. Makes the whole thing seem worth while...that and the boosting :biggrin:

Tomorrow
I edited and made my own 12a vs 13bt Should I Swap video that will be up and live tomorrow. Since I'm doing it on the highest definition and quality settings in Adobe Premiere it will be another hour and a half until it's ready to be uploaded.

Sit and wait in anticipation :egrin:

12a Vs. 13bt Should I Turbo Swap Comparison
 

Well, here it is. 4 hours of video editing for 4 minutes of video.

There will be more videos in the future, I guarantee that. I really enjoy using the editing software and it has been a blast comparing the two cars (I say two because they are separate now, a 12a FB and a 13bt FB using the same chassis).

Enjoy :egrin:

Splendid!

WOW... The dude I bought my FB from told me the 12A was gutless. and makes me think my N/A 13B isn't so bad compared to the 12A.


I still want to someday drive a 12A powered car.

Cool video Austin :)

Yeah once you drive something other than a 12a powered fb, the poor old 12a just seems so.... bad.... lol

i enjoyed watching the video, thanks! great comparison.

Great video!

Wow man - so thats pretty much it, huh? Slap on some exhaust and you're done! Congrats - that is very impressive and it looks like its pulling like CRAZY!

On my turbo I had the 2.5" downpipe, 2.5" RB resonator, and the PowerPulse/PrimaFlow muffler for the dual-long-primary setup. It was the best car exhaust I've ever heard.

You chop off the dual collector on the over-axle, sell/give to someone who wants to do a custom muff on their long primaries, and the remaining over-axle is 2.5" to the muffler. Or you can get the PR extreme which is 2.75" O.D. and about 2.6" I.D. at max restriction point.

It sounded SOOO sweet. I might have a video around here somewhere....

~Geoff

Thanks!

The 12a is a beautiful engine, don't get me wrong. It's just it feels underpowered for the chassis it is in. It was probably equivalent to a current V6 Camaro in its time, in the mid power range for the price. It' purrs and is very cool but just doesn't give me the goosebumps I wanted :egrin:

So so true! I fell in love with the car as a 12a, but now I know it's a forever thing :nod:

That's why I made it, to help convince others to do the swap! I saw you're selling the widebody dude, that stinks. I hope the sale goes well and you stay in the FB scene!

Thanks man!

Yeah, exhaust and FMIC then it's practically done dude! It pulls harder than anything I've ever driven. I had to take a break from it today and drive the DD so I could avoid the headache and possible ticket for a few hours.

I'm interested in this setup, sounds like an awesome system! I'm thinking of going from 2.5" RB downpipe to 3" straight pipe just so I don't have to do it later. We will see how it goes though :icon_tup:

Current Updates
I went out to a local car meet on Wednesday night and met up with a few local Rotor Heads and had a great time. Can't wait for the next week's meet!

While out we went on a local scale and weighed the car with a half tank of gas and us out of the car:
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1d2bea8d.jpg

In case you couldn't read that (I can't):
2360lbs!
http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2b1aabb7.jpg

That's why it feels so fast! Pulls like a banshee, have had a blast with it so far.

List of next projects, in order of accomplishment and importance:
FMIC and all of its components are being ordered next week so I can put a hood on the car
Sealed Optima Red Top battery to be bought and relocated behind my seat
Cold air intake made custom by me, with some help from the mentor :egrin:
Full exhaust system, whatever I decide by then

Was it a carb'd 12a or fuel injection?

My 12a with the Mikuni 2-barrel pulls like a sonofa compared to the stock Nikki.

Congratulations!!! That is one serious fb. I'm finding out how much work goes into just rebuilding an engine and putting it back in let alone swapping a whole different one lol. Goodwork!

Which FMIC are you going with?

I keep watching the comparison video and it just reminds me how quick my old T2 was... I think I'm sold on doing the swap. Got a long road ahead of me. I'll be looking forward to your wiring write up cause I know I'll need it along with many others lol.

Turned out VERY nice! Great job. Try not to lose your license. :)