Civerus

iTrader: (2)

My N/A Carburetion setup is complete. A few more parts are needed to be gathered but they all are going to be new (personal preference on some of the more important things, IE. fuel pump).

This has been going since early march, I started with a Turbo II engine that had severe electrical harness and sensor problems, but it kind of ran. Then I ended up dropping something into the spark-plug hole on accident (don't ask) and I did not feel like tearing it down. At the time, and since I've owned the car, I wanted an N/A block anyway.

So one day I call up Pedro, Pedro is a Rotary mechanic in Houston, and I ask him if he has any N/A blocks. He said yes, and we agreed an even-up trade, my turbo block, including turbo, intakes, injectors, sensors, for a rebuilt N/A block, with a portjob. After previously seeing some of his work when I went to get my TII transmission some time ago (February?), I agreed. I also discussed a carburetor setup since my EFI was crap, broken/eaten 20 year old harness was taking its toll on my car, and causing sensors to go bad, give false readings, etc. etc.

Knowing he has a few carbureted cars, I discussed it and we decided to use my old Holley 4160 off of my 85' wrecked Trans Am. We modified the secondary's to work, and he offered to sell me a Racing Beat Holley intake manifold, once again, done deal.

So after much effort, swearing, throwing several wrenches in some odd direction (read: neighbors car that has been sitting for 4 1/2 years that they wont sell to me) finally me and a group of 4 people, a 2x6, a strap, and even more applied effort, the engine was lifted out and throw into the back up a pickup truck for transport to Houston.

I arrived, we swapped flywheels, various other components, water pumps, etc etc... and I head back home. The engine now sits for nearly two months before I can do anything with it due to budget, so I start painting... EVERYTHING.

I acquired a pacesetter header from a local police officer around here (IKR?), I chose to go with it, even though I was going to buy a Racing Beat header, because of its excessively (read: 3+ feet) long tubing. I got this header for $30, and it was in good shape.

May 17th rolls around, I finally can finish my long-awaited project. I talk to Scott (7dust) and we agreed a trade of my old S4 TII transmission for a real C's shifter, brand new (which may I add is simply AWESOME, would recommend it to anyone, would also recommend 7dust for parts). I also traded a Mazdatrix N/A to TII driveshaft that I had previously bought from Pedro because I, at the time, did not know my driveline setup, this was traded for two Atkins Rotary exhaust header gaskets and a box of intake gaskets (err?). I also got a ride in the lemon, which was very impressive.

I arrive home at around 1am, and I can't wait till the morning.

Next day, a friend comes by to help, we talk to the guy down the street from me, and he lets me borrow his tow-behind engine hoist because he knows my mom (woot!) and we did things the smart way this time.

After much struggling and noticing one of my motor mounts was broke (I really don't care, I plan on replacing them with solid ones soon enough), we finally got the engine in place (w/o transmission, and I dropped the engine on my fingers underneath the motor mount twice on accident). Next up is the transmission, this beat me in the head probably 4 times, using a jack, seven blocks, 4 jackstands, and 3 people, we finally got this in after 2 hours (dear god this was painful).

Completing all of that, we started wiring, we already tore the 'EM' harness out of the car and I traded the ECU, AFM, and Pressure sensor to 7dust earlier on, in trade for a Crane Cams HI-6 Fireball box he was not using, this proved to be one of the best ignition boxes I've worked with (curb stomping the MSD 6a boxes).

We got the oil cooler lines on no problem, oil level sensor hooked up, coolant level sensor grounded for now (until I GET a sensor), etc.. etc.. As you may have seen I had to post for Hailers help on getting a few of my dash gauges working (but it CAN be done with no ECU). In the meantime my Racing Beat injector plugs and SS clutch line arrive, woohoo now an all SS car (clutch, brake, oil cooler).

I wire in the CC ignition box, it sits in the passenger floorboard for now, soon to be under the dash or carpet, haven't decided yet. I'm using a generic (Mr. gasket ****) fuel transfer pump until my Holley Blue comes in Friday, and it seems to work.

So I goto start it with an open header, it fires up, but pops a bit. I completely, unthinking that I asked Pedro a few days previous what pickup wires on the distributor to use, and he told me what would happen if they we're backwards, wired them up how I thought it should be (red + green -).

So it started and we spent 3 hours trying to figure it out, all of my friends bugged out, and so I go inside and play some Modern Warfare II. I think, you know, maybe with all the tuning we've been doing, I just have the pickups backwards (noticing that my tach didn't work, speaking of, why the **** does the dictionary want tach to be spelled taco?), so 8:30pm, I walk out there, reverse my pickup wires, BAM starts up SO AWESOME, infact, so awesome I decide to ride it around the block with no air cleaner or shift **** (yay short shifter w/o ****).

Even with my previous turbo II exhaust adapted to this header, it is WAY to loud to drive at night.

I would like to thank Pedro, 7dust (Scott) <-- good at guitar hero, Greg (local friend) and Jake (step-brother). For making this work. This was a gamble of over $3000 worth of stuff, to make something I wasn't even to optimistic on working. Yes, its a step backwards in technology, but you know what, I did it, so I don't want to hear any flames. I am very happy with how this turned out and thus I took the time to make this post.

Total list of parts put on car:
SS Brake Lines
SS Clutch Line
SS Oil Cooler Lines
C's Short Shifter
S4 N/A ported block (fresh rebuild)
Pacesetter header
New S5 Throwout Bearing
New S5 Alternator
New Master and Slave Clutch cylinders
New Borg-Warner cap and rotor
Holley 4160 (600cfm)
Holley Blue fuel pump
Racing Beat Holley intake manifold
Racing Beat Injector hole plugs
Crane Cams HI-6
Probably more I'm unaware of.

I will take pictures tomorrow.

7dust

iTrader: (14)

^^^ Congrats for doing it your way!

Bring it along if you come to hang out at Lemons next month.