I wanna see more work...what the hell is taking so long...

Damn 80 hr/week job, that's what! But.........got the Haltech back and got it working. Ended up being a loose ground bolt on the terminal strip (Yup, I'm a confirmed nutsack). Rear seat is in the upholstry shop. I'd be pulling the engine to send it to Alan this weekend if I wasn't going to be at fucking work!

Hey nova you alright man...breathe jesus christ!!!hahahaha jus wanted to bug you and see what you had going...halla back

Hey with the economy the way it is you're lucky to have an 80hr work week. I'm a tech and am on commission. Lately I've been working from 7:30am to 6:00pm everyday and flagging 4-6 hrs a day! :( Everyone says the economy is getting better but I sure haven't seen it at my work. Hopefully it starts picking up or else I don't know what I'm going to do. :dunno:

True. But, it's just very frustrating working 80 hrs a week, spending 6 months away from your wife and 2 year old kid, losing money because you can't go to your second job...........all while getting paid for 40 hrs. But you're right. I'm very happy to have a job.

Military or merchant Marine...either way labor intensive jobs and much props goes out to ya Nova..

I hear you. Sounds like we are in a very similar boat. Once you get your car finished and running, you will forget all about that..... at least for a little while. :lol:

Stayed really late at work yesterday so I could have today off. Did an I/O check on the Haltech and everything is good to go. Also got the engine pulled. Next thing is to make a list of hardware and gaskets I'll need to reinstall the engine, send the engine to Alan, ceramic coat the turbine housing, and powdercoat a bunch of stuff. Starting to get excited!

Let me know when you are ready!

sweet deal right there...what colour comobo you going with on the engine??

I'm thinking the aluminum parts of the engine painted cast aluminum, and the irons painted dark grey. The intake manifold and turbo compressor housing powdercoated cast aluminum with the throttle body dark grey. The lettering on the manifold will be brushed. The turbo piping will probable be brushed with a clear powdercoat finish to keep it clean. Basically how it looks now, but clean. All fasteners (with the exception of a very few) will be stainless socket head cap screws.

I've been back and forth on this, so I'm open to suggestions.

Paranoia got the best of me again. Saw some videos of a 3 rotor making 1000+ horsepower on the dyno on streetfire.net. The manifold was damn near glowing white! I'm planning on running a lot of boost on this thing so I started worrying about the exhaust manifold cracking. I originally wanted to ceramic coat the exhaust manifold, but then decided against it after having to fix some cracks in a ceramic coated dragster header. It was a pain in the ass to clean and weld. I figured if the manifold wasn't ceramic coated, it would be easier to repair if it did crack.

But damnit, I really want to ceramic coat it. So.......I added some gussets to the engine flange and walked a cap pass around every weld. So now, every tube weld has a root pass and a cap. I am also welding the inside of the wastegate flanges. Just a couple more to go. It is taking a while because I am having to make flange backing plates to keep the manifold flange and turbo flange from warping. Walking the cup puts substantially more heat into the metal than just dabbing.

I need the engine to reattach the manifold brace once I am done welding. All the heat into the pipes moved the turbo flange about 1/8" closer to the engine. After this is done, the engine is headed Alan's way.

Couple more...........

Oh yea. Seat comes back from the upholsters tomorrow.

Welding looks top notch. That should hold up fine.

Ran into a problem. I took the manifold to the machine shop to have them machine the flange to get it perfectly straight. Long story short, They turned the flange into a cheese wedge. No worries though. I didn't really like the look of the gussets anyway. Had to do some manifold surgery, and here are the results...... I got the flange from Sean at A-spec based on a tip from Alan. It is a beautiful piece! Not at all what I expected. Well worth the cost over an ebay or Racing Beat flange.

Got the rear seat in. I think the upholstry shop did a good job of complementing the front seats.

Also got one of the rear quarter windows made.

Every time i look at your welds i can't help but smile!

Put a 20b in that Mother #u ( ka !

That is artwork at its finest.

Nice weave Nick, I'm guessing third pass and scratches are from walking the cup?

You are correct on the scratchs, they are from walking the cup. You can also see them on the top of the weld on the backside of the base flange. The base flange was a double pass. If it's not one continuous walk like I had to do on the base flange to keep it from warping so much, I'll always do a a second pass and overlap my starts and stops just to make it look as perfect as possible. However, the turbo flange was a single pass because I was afraid to add another pass of heat to it. The runner flanges are double pass, once for a root pass (dabs in this case) and once for the cap. One or two of the runner flanges were tripple pass to pretty them up a little because they were so awkward to get to. I should have ran the cap pass before I joined the two tubes together. It would have been much easier and quicker.

nice welding,teach me please:)

Absolutly beautiful! A tru work of art! Keep up the great work!

Are you a pipe welder by trade?

reason I ask, I have a friend who is a pipe welder and he welds like this...

looking good...i love the welds..