The Story of Harley
10-15-13, 02:24 PM
#1
The Story of Harley
Preface:
The beginning is quite a lot of text to get you up to speed. There's no clear time where I name the car so I'll just say it here first. Harley is named after Harley Quinn. I grew up with Batman animated series and still a big fan of the animated movies. She's always been my favorite villainess.
The Story
I was 17 years old and searching for my first car. I was heavy into drifting since I saw Initial D in 8th grade (please don't remind me how fan boy that sounds) so I knew I wanted something RWD, Cheap, and NOT a 240SX. While doing research and looking in local automotive ads I found a 1987 200SX (S12) Coupe, auto, and some rust for $500! I checked it out on my own at a dealer and wasn't much impressed, but it fit my criteria and I almost pulled the trigger on it. I went home to discuss the purchase with my mom. When I pulled the ad out again to show her what car it was I noticed one square to the left and two squares down there was a 1991 Mazda RX-7 GXL Blaze Red, 5 Speed, 137k miles, looking very clean for $1,500. It was only a little more than my initial budget so we went to look at the car, test drive and purchased.
How I bought her, I eventually traded those dual magnaflow mufflers for a C's short shifter lol
The first three weeks were great! I was learning more and more about my car. Joining a few forums (btw whatever happen to teamfc3s.org?), and planning my next moves. I drove it just fine to Homestead Speedway for the Falken Drift Showoff, but after that the motor gave out. I wasn't knowledgable at the time to know exactly what it was, but from the symptoms I believe it was a water seal. I went back to the dealer to pick up my temp tag and just kept my mouth shut hoping to just stop in and leave with out my anger coming out over the car blowing only 3 weeks after owning it. He gave me the tag and then asked:
"How's she running?" with a big grin
"She's not.."
"What do you mean?"
"The motor blew"
"What happen?
*Explained symptoms*
"Oh, that just sounds like a head problem"
"……they don't have heads…"
"Listen, I've owned 5 of these cars, I think I would know"
I was 17 and just learning about these cars and I already knew more than he did. I didn't feel right arguing with this older gentleman so I decided to keep my mouth shut, agree, and leave.
I bought a Vert motor with 36k original miles (Thanks Brandon/TII Rudeboi). I lived in a townhouse community with my mom and it had a HOA so I needed a place to work on it. My buddy said I could take it to his house while his mom was gone for the summer. I transported the car to his house and spent the summer working on it. The actual swap only took about 3 days. Sorting out all of the other details and replacing broken parts and trouble shooting took the rest. It was such a great learning experience.
Motor and tranny out, empty engine bay, being towed back for finishing touches at my house
Now the car was running great and ready for my senior year of high school. I drove it all year with out any hiccups. I entered a local DG Trials drift event at Hialeah Speed Way. Even had my friend Chelsea Denofa, now a driver in Formula Drift (that's right…I'm name dropping), ride along with me and give me a few pointers…..back when he was about 15 and I was 17 and he was giving me pointers! lol
The beginning is quite a lot of text to get you up to speed. There's no clear time where I name the car so I'll just say it here first. Harley is named after Harley Quinn. I grew up with Batman animated series and still a big fan of the animated movies. She's always been my favorite villainess.
The Story
I was 17 years old and searching for my first car. I was heavy into drifting since I saw Initial D in 8th grade (please don't remind me how fan boy that sounds) so I knew I wanted something RWD, Cheap, and NOT a 240SX. While doing research and looking in local automotive ads I found a 1987 200SX (S12) Coupe, auto, and some rust for $500! I checked it out on my own at a dealer and wasn't much impressed, but it fit my criteria and I almost pulled the trigger on it. I went home to discuss the purchase with my mom. When I pulled the ad out again to show her what car it was I noticed one square to the left and two squares down there was a 1991 Mazda RX-7 GXL Blaze Red, 5 Speed, 137k miles, looking very clean for $1,500. It was only a little more than my initial budget so we went to look at the car, test drive and purchased.
How I bought her, I eventually traded those dual magnaflow mufflers for a C's short shifter lol
The first three weeks were great! I was learning more and more about my car. Joining a few forums (btw whatever happen to teamfc3s.org?), and planning my next moves. I drove it just fine to Homestead Speedway for the Falken Drift Showoff, but after that the motor gave out. I wasn't knowledgable at the time to know exactly what it was, but from the symptoms I believe it was a water seal. I went back to the dealer to pick up my temp tag and just kept my mouth shut hoping to just stop in and leave with out my anger coming out over the car blowing only 3 weeks after owning it. He gave me the tag and then asked:
"How's she running?" with a big grin
"She's not.."
"What do you mean?"
"The motor blew"
"What happen?
*Explained symptoms*
"Oh, that just sounds like a head problem"
"……they don't have heads…"
"Listen, I've owned 5 of these cars, I think I would know"
I was 17 and just learning about these cars and I already knew more than he did. I didn't feel right arguing with this older gentleman so I decided to keep my mouth shut, agree, and leave.
I bought a Vert motor with 36k original miles (Thanks Brandon/TII Rudeboi). I lived in a townhouse community with my mom and it had a HOA so I needed a place to work on it. My buddy said I could take it to his house while his mom was gone for the summer. I transported the car to his house and spent the summer working on it. The actual swap only took about 3 days. Sorting out all of the other details and replacing broken parts and trouble shooting took the rest. It was such a great learning experience.
Motor and tranny out, empty engine bay, being towed back for finishing touches at my house
Now the car was running great and ready for my senior year of high school. I drove it all year with out any hiccups. I entered a local DG Trials drift event at Hialeah Speed Way. Even had my friend Chelsea Denofa, now a driver in Formula Drift (that's right…I'm name dropping), ride along with me and give me a few pointers…..back when he was about 15 and I was 17 and he was giving me pointers! lol
10-15-13, 02:24 PM
#2
Senior year goes by. I went from 255lbs to 200lbs (I'm 6'1"), that helped me get a girlfriend, whose dad just happen to own a turbo shop and had a very large garage for me to work on my car. So during the summer I got a job at Tires Plus, a daily driver (2000 Hyundai Tiburon) and started my plans to do a NA-TII swap. The first motor I got was a 13-BRE for a steal, but wasn't sure if I actually wanted to put it in. A friend wanted to trade his "fresh rebuild, first oil change, 3mm apex seal, street ported" motor for the BRE. I agreed.
The girl broke up with me. I got the car running enough to get it out of the garage and to my house. It was running like ****. I ordered a Haltech E6X, Walbro 255 fuel pump, and a few other goodies straight from Australia. I needed it ASAP so I rushed it. The shipping alone was $200 for 2 day air service. The next day the motor blew, the day after that the Haltech came in……I was pissed, but I can only blame myself for running it improperly.
New motor in, new exhaust comparison, on my way to the muffler shop running open downpipe….crazy loud, FLAMES!
I started saving for a full JDM swap. I got a good deal at GR Technologies in Davie, FL for a JapSpec S5 motor, tranny, driveshaft, rear end with axels, $1,250. The motor had cut RE-Amemiya spark plug wires and HKS spark plugs in it. Again, I towed the car to a friends house. We worked on the car through rain storms and hot humid nights. Welcome to Florida. We got everything put together and towed it back to my house. All that was left was to wire and tune the Haltech. I had a friend that knew how to do it so he came to my house to wire it up and have a few pieces custom made. He finished wiring it up and then HOA started getting fed up with this and issued a warning that if I even popped my hood once for any reason that they would fine me $150.
Motor tranny out, JDM motor, being towed back for finishing touches
The car sat needing a tune while I sat jobless needing money. I would turn it on every once in a while and it would start right up and sounds great.
Sitting….rotting, all the panels were different colors and fading, so I decided to flat it with my friend in a parking spot lol, final product with R*Magic front bumper on.
The girl broke up with me. I got the car running enough to get it out of the garage and to my house. It was running like ****. I ordered a Haltech E6X, Walbro 255 fuel pump, and a few other goodies straight from Australia. I needed it ASAP so I rushed it. The shipping alone was $200 for 2 day air service. The next day the motor blew, the day after that the Haltech came in……I was pissed, but I can only blame myself for running it improperly.
New motor in, new exhaust comparison, on my way to the muffler shop running open downpipe….crazy loud, FLAMES!
I started saving for a full JDM swap. I got a good deal at GR Technologies in Davie, FL for a JapSpec S5 motor, tranny, driveshaft, rear end with axels, $1,250. The motor had cut RE-Amemiya spark plug wires and HKS spark plugs in it. Again, I towed the car to a friends house. We worked on the car through rain storms and hot humid nights. Welcome to Florida. We got everything put together and towed it back to my house. All that was left was to wire and tune the Haltech. I had a friend that knew how to do it so he came to my house to wire it up and have a few pieces custom made. He finished wiring it up and then HOA started getting fed up with this and issued a warning that if I even popped my hood once for any reason that they would fine me $150.
Motor tranny out, JDM motor, being towed back for finishing touches
The car sat needing a tune while I sat jobless needing money. I would turn it on every once in a while and it would start right up and sounds great.
Sitting….rotting, all the panels were different colors and fading, so I decided to flat it with my friend in a parking spot lol, final product with R*Magic front bumper on.
10-15-13, 02:25 PM
#3
One day I turned it on and it smelled especially rich this time. I walked out of the car and around the front, popped the hood and saw a stream of fuel flowing over the hot side of the turbo. I ran back in and turned it off. It sat like this for a few more years. Finally the HOA had enough of this eye sore and decided it was time to kick it out. They towed it for not having a registered tag. I had to get insurance on a non running car to get the tag up to date. Then again for being in a guest spot too long. Moved it around to different guest spot by pushing it. They towed it for being in guests spots too long again, because I didn't have time to move it. Moved it to my primary spot. They towed it for being a "storage vehicle". I brought it back after my neighbor, my sections rep for the HOA meetings, promised me he would try and help. They towed it again for not having a barcode for the neighborhood. That was the final straw.
Thank god I took off the bumper before they towed it!
At this time I was finally making good money at a Studio in Miami. I lived in Miami and the car was just towed from my moms community (Broward) and I had enough of it. I was on my way to tow the car to Pettit to get the car finalized. I had always wanted to do the work myself, but it was either this or wait an indefinite amount of time until I could get a space and time to do it myself at my pace. While I was on the way two of my friends talked me into going to a friend of theirs small shop off of 441. This will turn out to be the biggest mistake of my life.
Before it went to the shop
I met the owner. He was very nice. Was happy to accommodate my car and could do everything I wanted done for a great price. They started working on it right away. It honestly hurt to see someone else working on my car besides me, but this is how it had to be. I started paying him here and there towards the full amount of the invoice. I got about halfway when I realized there isn't much work getting done on my car. I believe in paying 50% and 50% when its done. I had the cash ready to go to finish the car, but he kept stalling. He had done about 1/6 of the total work and I paid for 1/2 of the total work…..and it was a hefty amount. It had been a year already, he was very bad with communication and I was getting worried. I wanted to sell a few pieces from my car like my Haltech E6X. It was part of my FS thread and actually was the first thing to sell to a friend. When I called Shop Owner to retrieve the piece he says he hasn't seen it. Apparently it was stolen from his shop along with some other parts. He was good enough to pay for it what I was going to sell it for. I found another one and sold that to my friend (Thanks Holton!). While I was waiting for the car to be finished I had a few months where I was living back at home with my mom and trying to find a new place. Since I was saving oodles of money I decided to buy a **** ton of parts.
Those are two sets of Omori gauges, and I have a third set for sale and another set of white ones…..I'm a little crazy when it comes to Omori gauges…
Haltech PS1000 (Thanks Area7)
The only thing this guy did with my car - shave and paint the bay
I was waiting soo long for this guy to finish my car that I got restless and decided to get something to hold me over while my car was under the knife. A 1987 TII - Built by Roger at PROs/Japtrix - 500 miles on a fresh Street Ported rebuild with ALS seals, FD Corner and Side springs and seals, new rotor bearings, new stat gear bearings and a 12 month warranty. Lots of OEM upgrades and replacements too like S5 turbo, Mazda Competition engine, tranny, and diff mounts, S5 tail lights, new Clutch master and slave, new brake master, new alternator. It also came with a nice arrangement of aftermarket parts: ACT clutch, Racing Beat REV II turbo back exhaust, FCD and spark plug wires, APEXi SAFC, Walbro 255, BC Coilovers, ST sway bar, Brembo Brakes up front with SS braided lines, 17x8.5/9 Enkei RPF1s, CorkSport lip, Sparco Steering wheel, new Pioneer speakers all around and a basic Pioneer head unit. Not only did it come with all of that he also threw in a TON of extra parts in a bin (S4 and S5 Turbo, extra SS braided brake lines, manifolds, and pretty much 90% of the stuff in this thread
He also threw in the original motor and an extra TII tranny! This was the deal of a life time.
Her name is Selena….named after Selena Kyle aka Catwoman following the batman villainess theme (not after Selena Gomez which I get all the time lol)
my friend was pretty excited when I pulled up to his job with it lol
Thank god I took off the bumper before they towed it!
At this time I was finally making good money at a Studio in Miami. I lived in Miami and the car was just towed from my moms community (Broward) and I had enough of it. I was on my way to tow the car to Pettit to get the car finalized. I had always wanted to do the work myself, but it was either this or wait an indefinite amount of time until I could get a space and time to do it myself at my pace. While I was on the way two of my friends talked me into going to a friend of theirs small shop off of 441. This will turn out to be the biggest mistake of my life.
Before it went to the shop
I met the owner. He was very nice. Was happy to accommodate my car and could do everything I wanted done for a great price. They started working on it right away. It honestly hurt to see someone else working on my car besides me, but this is how it had to be. I started paying him here and there towards the full amount of the invoice. I got about halfway when I realized there isn't much work getting done on my car. I believe in paying 50% and 50% when its done. I had the cash ready to go to finish the car, but he kept stalling. He had done about 1/6 of the total work and I paid for 1/2 of the total work…..and it was a hefty amount. It had been a year already, he was very bad with communication and I was getting worried. I wanted to sell a few pieces from my car like my Haltech E6X. It was part of my FS thread and actually was the first thing to sell to a friend. When I called Shop Owner to retrieve the piece he says he hasn't seen it. Apparently it was stolen from his shop along with some other parts. He was good enough to pay for it what I was going to sell it for. I found another one and sold that to my friend (Thanks Holton!). While I was waiting for the car to be finished I had a few months where I was living back at home with my mom and trying to find a new place. Since I was saving oodles of money I decided to buy a **** ton of parts.
Those are two sets of Omori gauges, and I have a third set for sale and another set of white ones…..I'm a little crazy when it comes to Omori gauges…
Haltech PS1000 (Thanks Area7)
The only thing this guy did with my car - shave and paint the bay
I was waiting soo long for this guy to finish my car that I got restless and decided to get something to hold me over while my car was under the knife. A 1987 TII - Built by Roger at PROs/Japtrix - 500 miles on a fresh Street Ported rebuild with ALS seals, FD Corner and Side springs and seals, new rotor bearings, new stat gear bearings and a 12 month warranty. Lots of OEM upgrades and replacements too like S5 turbo, Mazda Competition engine, tranny, and diff mounts, S5 tail lights, new Clutch master and slave, new brake master, new alternator. It also came with a nice arrangement of aftermarket parts: ACT clutch, Racing Beat REV II turbo back exhaust, FCD and spark plug wires, APEXi SAFC, Walbro 255, BC Coilovers, ST sway bar, Brembo Brakes up front with SS braided lines, 17x8.5/9 Enkei RPF1s, CorkSport lip, Sparco Steering wheel, new Pioneer speakers all around and a basic Pioneer head unit. Not only did it come with all of that he also threw in a TON of extra parts in a bin (S4 and S5 Turbo, extra SS braided brake lines, manifolds, and pretty much 90% of the stuff in this thread
He also threw in the original motor and an extra TII tranny! This was the deal of a life time. Her name is Selena….named after Selena Kyle aka Catwoman following the batman villainess theme (not after Selena Gomez which I get all the time lol)
my friend was pretty excited when I pulled up to his job with it lol
10-15-13, 02:25 PM
#4
It just seemed like things were getting worse and worse with this shop and then all of a sudden he was shutting it down. I wanted my car out of there and he offered to tow it to my house. I went to the shop to pick up the parts that were left there.
I finally moved to a real house with a 2 car garage. It was like a dream come true. I live with two girls (
) and we came to the agreement that the garage is ALL MINE. For those that have always had a garage growing up you have no idea how lucky you are, because if I had one my car would have been done soo much faster. In one week I did more work than this guy did at his shop in 1 year. Stripped the interior (that he had ruined), started removing sound deadening, pulled out the motor and tranny, removed the speaker towers, stripped a lot of pieces in the fender well and front bumper.
Selena sleeps inside
parts accumulated. it's been cleaned up since then.
More parts and MazdaSpeed banner also the beer cooler on the left
Harley and my friends Cressida project, Bertha, kissin' bumpers.
Stripped interior
Found out the sunroof rails are rusted out, need to replace those…trying to find the money
Before I removed the motor I cranked it by hand to see how the compression was. Obviously it has been sitting forever and I didn't have high hopes. I heard a huff*huff*huff from the rear, but the front was more like huff*pss*pss*. From what I read that meant bad apex seal. I'm sure everything is still in good condition, but I wouldn't risk a motor like this with out a rebuild. I had a lot of ideas running through my head on what I was going to do. Get it rebuilt, rebuild it my self, go a completely different route with a different motor set up (was thinking BRE again), risk just going with another JDM imported motor.
To be continued…
I finally moved to a real house with a 2 car garage. It was like a dream come true. I live with two girls (
) and we came to the agreement that the garage is ALL MINE. For those that have always had a garage growing up you have no idea how lucky you are, because if I had one my car would have been done soo much faster. In one week I did more work than this guy did at his shop in 1 year. Stripped the interior (that he had ruined), started removing sound deadening, pulled out the motor and tranny, removed the speaker towers, stripped a lot of pieces in the fender well and front bumper. Selena sleeps inside
parts accumulated. it's been cleaned up since then.
More parts and MazdaSpeed banner also the beer cooler on the left
Harley and my friends Cressida project, Bertha, kissin' bumpers.
Stripped interior
Found out the sunroof rails are rusted out, need to replace those…trying to find the money
Before I removed the motor I cranked it by hand to see how the compression was. Obviously it has been sitting forever and I didn't have high hopes. I heard a huff*huff*huff from the rear, but the front was more like huff*pss*pss*. From what I read that meant bad apex seal. I'm sure everything is still in good condition, but I wouldn't risk a motor like this with out a rebuild. I had a lot of ideas running through my head on what I was going to do. Get it rebuilt, rebuild it my self, go a completely different route with a different motor set up (was thinking BRE again), risk just going with another JDM imported motor.
To be continued…
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10-15-13, 06:02 PM
#8
Weston is down the street from me. They have some of the worst HOA I've ever heard of. You can't park a pick up truck in the driveway of your house. I don't mean a work pick up truck. In 2006 my friend bought a brand new X-Runner and he had to park across the street at the gas station along with Lincoln trucks, Avalanche, etc.
10-22-13, 08:36 PM
#10
Update: With my motor in questionable condition I rather hastily decided to just buy a new motor. I was looking local for a core to rebuild or online here and there. Then I remembered someone was selling a motor on the forum that was modified. After a quick search I realized it was from the same person I just purchased some JDM parts from, Circuit Theory. So I messaged him about the motor and after some more information was gathered I decided this is what I wanted. He was able to ship it out only a few days before he left to Japan. I really appreciate it as I'm sure he was very busy planning/packing/etc.
After a few hiccups at the shipping company I was finally able to pick up my motor and bring it home.
First thing I did was check out all of the JDM goodness and modified parts
R*Magic Oil Filter
Unknown oil filler cap
Unknown Dual Sheave Alternator Pulley
GReddy Manifold and Wastegate. The turbo did not have badging of any sort. Not sure if that is normal? Going to polish it anyway.
NGK 10.5 Race Spark Plugs
Then I started taking the motor apart. It will be run off of a Haltech PS1000 and I will be eliminating everything that I don't need so I like to start from scratch.
I was told that it had larger secondary injectors and not 100% sure what size. Pretty sure that is an S4 fuel rail? That's great because I was just about to send my spare S5 rail out to be modified. Now I can just buy the fittings. Also there was a little box attached to the injectors. I'm guessing they are low imp? They will probably be replaced with bigger injectors regardless as I am planning on going E85
Finally got everything taken off
No pictures of this step but I started cleaning. I will post a picture once I've cleaned everything.
Also needed some parts from Mazda. Mainly gaskets. They gave me the water pump gasket instead of water pump to housing gasket. The transmission Y and crossmember I had were in very bad shape. I can't believe it even held my transmission in place it was soo bad lol.
Recently I've been somewhat talked into rebuilding my other motor as a spare or to have a crazy port, cermet coated parts, whatever I can think of. We'll see what happens with that.
Waiting on some more parts to come in. I hope to have the motor in by mid November and tuned by January.
After a few hiccups at the shipping company I was finally able to pick up my motor and bring it home.
First thing I did was check out all of the JDM goodness and modified parts
R*Magic Oil Filter
Unknown oil filler cap
Unknown Dual Sheave Alternator Pulley
GReddy Manifold and Wastegate. The turbo did not have badging of any sort. Not sure if that is normal? Going to polish it anyway.
NGK 10.5 Race Spark Plugs
Then I started taking the motor apart. It will be run off of a Haltech PS1000 and I will be eliminating everything that I don't need so I like to start from scratch.
I was told that it had larger secondary injectors and not 100% sure what size. Pretty sure that is an S4 fuel rail? That's great because I was just about to send my spare S5 rail out to be modified. Now I can just buy the fittings. Also there was a little box attached to the injectors. I'm guessing they are low imp? They will probably be replaced with bigger injectors regardless as I am planning on going E85
Finally got everything taken off
No pictures of this step but I started cleaning. I will post a picture once I've cleaned everything.
Also needed some parts from Mazda. Mainly gaskets. They gave me the water pump gasket instead of water pump to housing gasket. The transmission Y and crossmember I had were in very bad shape. I can't believe it even held my transmission in place it was soo bad lol.
Recently I've been somewhat talked into rebuilding my other motor as a spare or to have a crazy port, cermet coated parts, whatever I can think of. We'll see what happens with that.
Waiting on some more parts to come in. I hope to have the motor in by mid November and tuned by January.
11-05-13, 05:48 PM
#13
This car has been through a lot and I never gave up. It blows peoples minds how I still have the same car from high school
lol
11-06-13, 11:19 PM
#14
damn dude HoA sounds shitty! i grew up with out a garage so I know how it is man but i lived in a trailer park and would get harassed all the time. I wouldnt ever get my car towed though! cool story dude. Finish this thing up so we can see it sideways!
02-07-14, 03:11 PM
#15
A lot has happened since my last post. Here’s what I’ve done in the past few months.
I was waiting on a few motor parts coming from Japan so in the mean time I decided to start messing with suspension and drop the whole rear end and build it up. Clean, paint, and replace old parts with new.
Complete rear end. The original shocks had been changed to KYB Gas-Adjusts….they were seized by now.
Cleaned up the diff.
Picked up a 20ton press for $120 at HFT and split it 4 ways with friends. Made life a lot easier.
Few more goodies I picked up for the Garage from HFT and Walmart:
I under AND over estimated the c clips that hold the rear wheel bearings in. The little set literally fell apart when I tried to use it. The larger set comes with 4 different angle tips and two sizes for each angle, but it was not able to fit in the holes. I used a grinder to make them a little thinner so they would fit and that worked just fine. I have a coupon for free flash lights….so I have a bunch of flash lights
Another visit. The Race and Seal Driver Set was very helpful with the hubs/wheel bearings and also other misc things. You can never have enough flash lights….
Cleaned up the hubs (Before/After)
Cleaned up the hub carriers (After/Before)
The front bushing on the rear subframe was such a pain in the ***. It broke multiple new tools, bent rods and pipes that I used on the press to try to get it out. I finally gave in and used the heat treatment
MAP gas
a large bearing separator helped with a lot of the press duties. Here it is helping get the wheel bearing race off of the hub.
picked up a used Pineapple Racing oil pan for a pretty good deal.
I was waiting on a few motor parts coming from Japan so in the mean time I decided to start messing with suspension and drop the whole rear end and build it up. Clean, paint, and replace old parts with new.
Complete rear end. The original shocks had been changed to KYB Gas-Adjusts….they were seized by now.
Cleaned up the diff.
Picked up a 20ton press for $120 at HFT and split it 4 ways with friends. Made life a lot easier.
Few more goodies I picked up for the Garage from HFT and Walmart:
I under AND over estimated the c clips that hold the rear wheel bearings in. The little set literally fell apart when I tried to use it. The larger set comes with 4 different angle tips and two sizes for each angle, but it was not able to fit in the holes. I used a grinder to make them a little thinner so they would fit and that worked just fine. I have a coupon for free flash lights….so I have a bunch of flash lights
Another visit. The Race and Seal Driver Set was very helpful with the hubs/wheel bearings and also other misc things. You can never have enough flash lights….
Cleaned up the hubs (Before/After)
Cleaned up the hub carriers (After/Before)
The front bushing on the rear subframe was such a pain in the ***. It broke multiple new tools, bent rods and pipes that I used on the press to try to get it out. I finally gave in and used the heat treatment
MAP gas
a large bearing separator helped with a lot of the press duties. Here it is helping get the wheel bearing race off of the hub.
picked up a used Pineapple Racing oil pan for a pretty good deal.
02-07-14, 03:19 PM
#16
I'm a photographer and I usually have all my parts sent to my studio. Just made sense to start taking pictures of all the parts that came in. Most of them are optimized for instagram.
First thing that came in was a brand new with tag MOMO Racing Line steering wheel…couldn't pass it up for less than $50 shipped!
Next up, almost complete rear end package from Powered by MAX. Only thing I did not get was the rear camber links because I have adjustable ones. I put this up on instagram and they were nice enough to "regram" the picture.
ARP Extended studs for the rear. Some of these pictures were not necessary to do in the studio, but why not? lol
StopTech slotted rotors for the rear.
Hawk Performance HPS brake pads for the rear. Going to go HP+ in the front. Any feedback about these would be great. This is pretty much the last piece for the rear end. Next step is taking all of my hardware from the rear to be cleaned and zinc plated.
Some performance parts came in as well:
Couldn't pass up this awesome 13BRE RC Engineering Big Bore Throttle Body.
Trust 90mm (3.5in) Turbo back exhaust. Pictures don't do this thing justice. It is monstrous! The Muffler tip is 125mm (5in)!!!
This seat shaped package contained the final large piece to finishing the motor that I've been waiting for…..
OS Giken Twin Disk Clutch. This was the clutch that was originally mated to the motor so I wanted to keep it as TopFuel built it. Thanks to Tom / Circuit Theory for all of the help!
Now all that's left for the motor are some gaskets and other trivial things I will be getting at the dealership.
That's pretty much where I'm at. Next up is finishing rear end and then tackle front suspension/brakes.
First thing that came in was a brand new with tag MOMO Racing Line steering wheel…couldn't pass it up for less than $50 shipped!
Next up, almost complete rear end package from Powered by MAX. Only thing I did not get was the rear camber links because I have adjustable ones. I put this up on instagram and they were nice enough to "regram" the picture.
ARP Extended studs for the rear. Some of these pictures were not necessary to do in the studio, but why not? lol
StopTech slotted rotors for the rear.
Hawk Performance HPS brake pads for the rear. Going to go HP+ in the front. Any feedback about these would be great. This is pretty much the last piece for the rear end. Next step is taking all of my hardware from the rear to be cleaned and zinc plated.
Some performance parts came in as well:
Couldn't pass up this awesome 13BRE RC Engineering Big Bore Throttle Body.
Trust 90mm (3.5in) Turbo back exhaust. Pictures don't do this thing justice. It is monstrous! The Muffler tip is 125mm (5in)!!!
This seat shaped package contained the final large piece to finishing the motor that I've been waiting for…..
OS Giken Twin Disk Clutch. This was the clutch that was originally mated to the motor so I wanted to keep it as TopFuel built it. Thanks to Tom / Circuit Theory for all of the help!
Now all that's left for the motor are some gaskets and other trivial things I will be getting at the dealership.
That's pretty much where I'm at. Next up is finishing rear end and then tackle front suspension/brakes.
02-09-14, 10:37 AM
#18
I didn't want to mess with the front yet, but a friend of mine needed my blown shocks to junk a shell....so this happened:
Also removed the rear calipers to clean them up. There's red over spray on everything....what a horrible paint job the PO gave this thing.
02-09-14, 11:03 AM
#19
Do not run the HP+ pads on the street. That's a track/auto-x pad for a reason. They will SCREAM 9/10 times you are braking during normal driving.
I would put them on my car only the morning of a track event, and take them off when I got home.
You will cringe if you drive with them on the street. And... you will probably be pulled over.
I would put them on my car only the morning of a track event, and take them off when I got home.
You will cringe if you drive with them on the street. And... you will probably be pulled over.
02-09-14, 11:06 AM
#20
Do not run the HP+ pads on the street. That's a track/auto-x pad for a reason. They will SCREAM 9/10 times you are braking during normal driving.
I would put them on my car only the morning of a track event, and take them off when I got home.
You will cringe if you drive with them on the street. And... you will probably be pulled over.
I would put them on my car only the morning of a track event, and take them off when I got home.
You will cringe if you drive with them on the street. And... you will probably be pulled over.
02-10-14, 06:41 PM
#22
good luck!
02-12-14, 03:55 AM
#23
Not sure if I did this right...
I've never replaced wheel bearings before so I'm not sure if this is normal, but once I pressed the hubs in they feel harder to turn than I thought they should feel. It's been a while since I took them apart so I can't remember how hard it was to spin before, but I'm pretty sure it is harder now. Do they need to be broken in? I've searched around and I didn't see any information on this.
If anyone could shed some light I would appreciate it.
I've never replaced wheel bearings before so I'm not sure if this is normal, but once I pressed the hubs in they feel harder to turn than I thought they should feel. It's been a while since I took them apart so I can't remember how hard it was to spin before, but I'm pretty sure it is harder now. Do they need to be broken in? I've searched around and I didn't see any information on this.
If anyone could shed some light I would appreciate it.
02-12-14, 08:20 AM
#24
MECP Certified Installer
Not sure if I did this right...
I've never replaced wheel bearings before so I'm not sure if this is normal, but once I pressed the hubs in they feel harder to turn than I thought they should feel. It's been a while since I took them apart so I can't remember how hard it was to spin before, but I'm pretty sure it is harder now. Do they need to be broken in? I've searched around and I didn't see any information on this.
If anyone could shed some light I would appreciate it.
I've never replaced wheel bearings before so I'm not sure if this is normal, but once I pressed the hubs in they feel harder to turn than I thought they should feel. It's been a while since I took them apart so I can't remember how hard it was to spin before, but I'm pretty sure it is harder now. Do they need to be broken in? I've searched around and I didn't see any information on this.
If anyone could shed some light I would appreciate it.
