Hi all,
as I said in my new member introduction, I just obtained an 87 FC s4 which I plan to build into a street legal track car. I found this shell on Facebook for cheap with a fully welded cage and decided I needed another project in my life. I am a full time student and work 40 hours a week so expect progress and updates to be sporadic. Anyways, on to the car.

My car after bringing it home yesterday, a bare chassis and blank canvas. Inspection of the vin leads me to believe this is just a base model.

I removed the remaining fender and bumper skin today, it appears that the front crash bar is missing, just another part I'll have to track down.


Prepping the chassis corners to be pained with rust encapsulater, its rare in Ohio to be working on a car with such minimal rust.

Chassis saver! I'll be using this to paint the inner fenders as well as any large areas of surface rust, since I plan on only driving the car in fair weather, I'm doing minimal prep work. Plus cosmetic rust doesn't bother me.


First coats of paint on the chassis corners

Front suspension has been removed so I can clean and paint the inner fender. Inspection of the lower control arms revealed that someone has installed poly bushings on this already, saves me some time and money.

 

You putting a rotary back in it? Or something else?

 

Engine is TBD, I don't like rotaries on any level, I'm also not doing an LS or V8, too overdone. I'm going to do something unconventional, reliable, and ultimately cheap. Will it be a K series honda with 200k and an ebay turbo? Will it be a 5 cyclinder volvo? I haven't thought that far ahead an I think its my favorite part of this build, I'm just rolling with the punches and going with the flow.

 

 

Got a little bit more accomplished, got some new firewall grommets, bought some poly boots for the tie rod end, bought the wrong boots for the ball joints. Put a coat of paint in the drivers wheel well, too mush thinner made it a little runnier than I would have liked. Still looks a lot better than before.

I can smell this picture.

 

No major updates today, but just because I haven't worked on the car doesn't mean i haven't been doing my homework. Current plans/ideas:

Driveline: Leaning towards a stock trans and diff combo due to the ease of fitment, engine might have been found, running to the local Pull-a-Part to check it out this weekend.

Body Mods: 20mm widebody fenders because they're cheap and will fit the tires I want

Wheels and tires: this is where thigs get iffy, I did my research on the forum and I believe this will work- 17x9" wheels, +20mm offset with 5mm spacers up front (makes +15mm offset for the lazy), wrapped in 255/40r17 on all four corners.

 

You can fit 255/40/17s all around with stock fenders and 17X9 +24 wheels all around. This is assuming you are going to run coilovers and -2 degrees of camber. You will just need a fender roll in front. Not sure if your car came with useable stock fenders or not, just throwing it out there that it will work just fine.

If you go with 20MM fenders you can run 17X9.5 +15 on 255/40/17 all around with that same -2 degrees of front camber. You'll need a rear fender pull though. I have about 8mm of spacer on the front of my car, so the front offset is 17X9.5+ 7

Looks like this:

 

Man that looks slick, thanks for the info. I am not currently planning on coil overs for cost reasons, and the 20mm wide body real appeal is that they can't rust and are a matching set.

 

Honestly I’d try to save up the scratch for a set of ok new or used coilovers. If you are going to track the thing it will make your life way easier and your tires will last much longer. You can’t get enough negative camber in front with the stock struts. By the time you get new struts, lowering springs, buy a bunch of crap to try to get more negative camber that won’t get you enough, then realize the suspension is still too soft, you could have saved yourself time and money with a set of coilovers in the first place.

Just letting you know because I’ve been down that road 10 years ago with the car above.

It may or may not save you some money going with stock fenders, just know you can do it.

Same car as above, before I painted it. 255/40/17 NT01s (which are huge) under stock fenders. Wheels are 17x9 +24, no spacers. This is a awesome setup.

 

Well great news! I'm getting coilovers this weekend. I put together a package deal with a seller to scoop up a T2 trans, ISR coilovers 10k/8k, a front sway bar, an instrument cluster, and 4 piston T2 calipers.

This weekend I'm going to pull a part to get my engine and all will be revealed.

 

Nice.

 

Woo hoo! got more parts to add to the stock pile. A new door handle to replace my missing one (which even has the same key pattern oddly enough), used coilovers that maybe in need of some rebuilding, a T2 transmission, cluster and brakes, along with my steering rack arriving. It feels like christmas came early. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get much work done as other things needed done around the house, like figuring out why the tractor burns oil- its properly hooped.

eh, close enough

I can lie to the BMV about my mileage now.


Turbo 2 Transmission, my precious.

more stop=more better

#dickered

 

Great things are a foot for my project. The title has been found, a new name has been chosen, and an engine has been purchased.

I won't reveal the engine just yet, there's still a pesky car wrapped around it, but I will give hit about the car its coming from. Here's your hint: an american made engine, wrapped in a norse shell.

 

Things have gotten quite interesting concerning my project as well as an interesting story that ends with me being the 5th owner of this car in less than a year, some light has been shed on its history, why it has a roll cage, why I got it so cheap, and what year it actually is (86).

I picked up some parts yesterday, got a front clip for $50 with a flat aluminum hood and some fenders that have a shitty lip roll. My $100 facebook flywheel arrived, and the surface condition makes me question whether or not the P/O knew how to drive a manual.

And of course, the big one, I have my engine finally. A 2.0L Ecotec from a 2008 Saab 9-3. Engine code B207R, high pressure turbo, factory rated at 210 hp and 220 lb-ft. The engine has 150k and should be relatively easy to tune around 300+hp for little money.

A proper bogan haul

Saab Power!

The **** picture does the **** friction surface no justice

 

Nice!

 

Brief update, sorry no pictures.

I've spent a lot of time researching my engine swap, and aside from that one FB, I think I am attempting one of the first (documented) Ecotec swaps. The engine is pretty straight forward to build, and I should be able to reliably put somewhere in the mid 200s to wheels with the stock turbo. The end goal is 300-350, so a larger turbo may be in the cars future, but we'll worry about that after the car runs. I've swapped on a red aluminum flat hood so if you're in the ohio area and want a Tii hood, message me. I just got quoted for my engine and transmission adpter plates, which should be done early december. 5/8 tool steel ensures a strong flat connection between the engine and trans, and a spacer hub should get the flywheel in the proper location to engage with the starter.

I've spent some time cleaning the body and doing research and acquiring parts. The floor pan needs flattened and the frame reinforced, so I'll probably add a set of frame rail stiffeners. I've got a full set of Tii brakes now, and plan on doing the mrp brake adapters to fit larger rotors. For fluid management, i'm going to use two Tilton 75 series master cylinders, 0.700 and 0.625 bore for front and rear brakes respectively, with a 600 series balance bar. In terms of manual brakes, this is far better than the chase bay booster delete, and I plan on doing a full write up when i do the install, as it appears to be a lacking subject. Thats it for now, I've been busy helping a friend fix his SN95 cobra. The faster thats fixed, the faster my 7 goes in his garage, then work can really get underway.