Sprocket's Competition

[clocker]

I delivered the car to Sigfrid last night.

The drive over to his place (22 miles away) was through rush hour and the Beast performed flawlessly.
After showing off all the work I'd done- and some social lubrication, hereafter known as "B &B" ( beer and bowls)- he drove me home and the full implications of "real car" hit him.

We were on the highway doing 75, windows down and could have a conversation without yelling. He had an elbow on the window sill and was steering with one finger.
Acceleration is instantaneous, braking is drama free.

His grin was priceless.

After over a year and tons of money, he finally sees the car he thought he'd bought.

I stopped at the junkyard before going over to his place and weighed the car on their scales.
A stock 1993 RX7 weighs 2840 lbs. (they don't specify if this is wet or dry).
Our car weighs 2850 with a full tank of fuel.
Even assuming their scales aren't perfect, we're pretty damn close to being exactly the same as stock, with twice the horsepower/torque.
An acceptable trade off, methinks.

We're taking next weekend off (S. needs to spend some "family time" since he's been out of town so much) but the following Saturday we begin again.
The stock springs are going back on, we'll go through and retighten all the suspension pieces (just to be safe) and there's a fairly ferocious oil leak from the front main seal that must be addressed.
Then it's off to the tuner.

Can't wait to feel this thing when it's actually running right.

[clocker]

First meeting with the tuner is Monday.
He is going to advise us on some things we have questions about (specifically, the throttle body) and reflash our Camaro ECU so we can run the car on it (right now we have a Chevy truck ECU installed because the Camaro unit won't let us run without four O2 sensors and VATS).
The weekend following we shall reinstall the stock springs and tie up some more loose ends and then have the car fully tuned.

Progress continues.

[Detale]

We were on the highway doing 75, windows down and could have a conversation without yelling.

Ummmmm dude.

Reported!

[clocker]

Oh noes!

[Detale]

*D thinks to himself "Why hasn't clocker replied in his thread at all"

[clocker]

Sigfrid met with the tuner(s) today.
They took one of our ECUs to reflash and load a base tune without VATS and the second set of O2 sensors.
Also wrote up a list of things to change before the final tuning begins.

The list is not long and we were already aware of most of the changes, so hopefully it won't be a big deal to implement.
The hardest part will be installing the steam vents in the heads...the plugs are extremely difficult to remove and I anticipate breaking some cheap tools in the process.
I don't even know where the vents end up but S. says he has it handled, so he can have at it while I change the springs back.

We work again this Saturday.
I've snagged the adapter fitting to mount the new water temp gauge sending unit and found some preformed aluminum heater hose tubes (from some Chrysler SUV thing) that might work out well for us.

We'll see how it goes.

[clocker]

Spent four hours in the junkyard yesterday, attempting to remove a LT1 intake manifold.
It completely kicked my ass and I was unable to budge it...cannot figure out why.

There are a couple of reasons I want this part.

We are currently running an aftermarket (larger) throttle body and bigger injectors...both (presumably) specced to match the ported, cammed, big valve heads that were on our original built 383 motor.
Since we no longer have that engine, I'm thinking that we may get better performance going back to stock.
The junkyard intake comes complete with throttle body, injectors, fuel rails and all sensors.

At some point- sooner rather than later- the intake must be removed to install the new oil pressure sending unit...there is no other way to gain access.
With the new intake (even if we only use the manifold and retain all the "high performance" parts), I could clean/ paint it ahead of time and just slap it on.
Our current part has a deep and very noticeable groove worn across it, the result of interference between the strut tower brace and the intake in the old engine position.
If nothing else, the new manifold would be a significant cosmetic improvement (assuming of course, that I can get it cleaned up enough to paint nicely).

I'm going back today armed with bigger tools, to try my luck again.

[clocker]

That bitch be MINE!
A three foot long prybar scared that manifold right off the block.

Removing the last two bolts probably helped also.
Yeah, yeah...gimme a break.
Two of the studs were double nutted, I had removed the top ones but the very bottom nuts were still hidden in the muck.

You can see how filthy this part is...




...and that is after an initial cleaning (not to mention time spent yesterday troweling out crap so I could even find the bolts...).

Sigfrid has a pressure washer and his work has a media blasting cabinet, so we can hopefully get this into paintable condition this week.
I'll spray it with wrinkle finish red (think Ferrari valve covers), then sand/polish the ribs running down the top.
Probably polish the fuel rails as well, we'll see how it goes.

This is the look I'm going for...

[clocker]

Yesterday was the longest work day yet...14 hours, non-stop.
No lunch, no beer, no interruptions.

I am beyond sore, approaching immobility.

We had two main objectives for the day, replace the springs and replace the seals in the timing chain cover.
There was a sublist of smaller projects we hoped to get to as well but I was pretty sure that the main jobs would take all our time.
Ever the optimist, Sigfrid was sure we'd get everything done.

I was more right than he.

We started at 8 am by jacking the car up, putting in stands, removing the wheels...and flipping a coin.
In hindsight, it appears I lost since I got to replace the springs, Sigfrid got the timing cover.

Last month we rebuilt the entire suspension and it took but a half day to reinstall all four corners of the car. It was shockingly easy.
This time however, all I wanted was the shock/spring out and without undoing anything else if possible.
Not possible.
The car has double A-arm suspension at all four corners which means that the shock goes through the middle of all the suspension pieces and it ain't comin out till some of the other connections are undone.
Unfortunately, some of those "other connections"- naturally, the easiest to access- are the adjustment points for the alignment and if they were disturbed, we'd need our third alignment in two months...so, can't touch them.
All told, it took me six hours to weasel out the two rear shocks, replace the springs- DO NOT get me started on the joys of consumer level spring compressors- and reinstall.
I also replaced the passenger rear brake caliper...we'd been having issues and it was easier to simply put a new part on.

Meanwhile, Sigfrid had been working on the timing chain cover, a source of oil leaks since we've had the car and mysteriously, never addressed before.
He figured maybe three hours total...it took ten.
To be fair, we also incorporated several side projects into his list because in order to remove the timing chain cover the waterpump must go, so all the coolant was drained.
While the engine was dry it made sense to redo the heater core lines and reposition the radiator, both jobs took more time than expected (although by then we were getting kind of punch drunk and not operating at peak efficiency).

I shan't enumerate the gory details, suffice to say that if something could be difficult, it was.
We got no breaks at all.

She finally dropped back to the pavement around 8:30 and a short test ride was in order.

Going back to stock springs made the ride 100% better, she's stiff, but very compliant.
Our oil leaks appear to be gone.
The new rear caliper seized and locked up the wheel.
By the time we limped home it was too late and too dark to mess with so I have no idea what happened.
Although I am willing to admit the possibility that I screwed up, it seems very unlikely- I've done this hundreds of times and the parts only go back together one way...if it fits, it's right, if it doesn't, something's FUBAR.
It fit, so I've been pondering more esoteric causes...I'm thinking there's something wrong with the geometry of our e-brake cables (which were missing altogether till Dan welded in some brackets and installed cables during our first transmission removal).

Or maybe I just screwed up.

At any rate, it was frustrating after a string of highly productive days to work so hard for so little apparent effect.

You'll have that from time to time.

[clocker]

I went over and worked on the car alone today.
Could not stand the idea of her sitting for three weeks- Sigfrid has obligations the next few weekends- because of something so stupid and trivial as the rear brakes.

The problem turned out to be the slider pins provided with the newly remanufactured caliper...they did not properly fit the receptacles in the caliper carrier and the caliper would not fully retract.
I put the old slider pins in and we had brakes.

I officially hate this style of caliper.

An extended, heavy traffic test run revealed no problems, the car ran fine and no apparent leaks.

This leaves the intake as our last major engine project and Sigfrid and I are having a philosophical debate as to the path we should take.

My preferred approach (backed by the guys at Precision) would be to install the junkyard intake- suitably tarted up- with stock injectors and the stock throttle body.
Have the ECU reflashed with a stock GM fuel map (useless sensors and codes deleted) and we should be running more or less like a stock car.
Granted, we leave some horsepower on the table this way, but really, power is not a big problem with this small, light chassis and our reliability/fuel mileage should be optimized.

Sigfrid- backed by his tuner- wants to keep the large Holley throttle body and big injectors and add a LT4 camshaft, followed by a full dynoed tuning session.

By way of comparison, my approach will cost somewhere between $300-500, Sigfrid's between $3500-4000 (the tuning session(s) alone are over $2500).
His method- assuming all goes well- will result in @150 more horsepower.

My logic:
Sigfrid has now owned this car for two years.
He's spent well north of $25K so far and put fewer than 400 miles on it (and a significant chunk of that was me driving)...he's driven it to work twice.

We still have the stock diff installed and nobody expects it to hold up to even the reduced horsepower of the stock LT1, much less a goosed version.
It's not a question of IF but rather WHEN will it explode.
The fix costs about $3K and should be done before it fails and potentially fucks up something else.

We still have major projects to address before the car is truly streetable.
The entire dash/gauge panel must be redone, the interior is a mess, there is no stereo.
No heat/defrost either.

I am not averse to stupid horsepower but think we should "complete" the car before going after it.
Besides, once you start talking about 400+ HP, it makes more sense to me to just get the aluminum block/head combo offered by the stock LS series engines.
Not only do they make that kind of power out of the box, but we save 150 lbs. in the bargain.

And finally...having not really lived with the car yet- other than as a sad, depressing garage ornament- Sigfrid doesn't even know if he likes the car as a daily driver.
He's been chasing a dream and I think it's time we ground to reality for a bit.

Sigfrid's logic...
I WANT MORE POWER!

It's his wallet, so he'll be calling the shots.

Looking back on everything, I feel that I've more than fulfilled my expectations for the project and should emotionally disconnect from the outcome.
If S. wants to spend more on the motor, well fine...go ahead.
If we ignore what I consider priorities, OK...I won't be paying for it.

Perhaps my contribution was shepherding the project to the point where the car isn't actively trying to kill the driver...and we're now there.

My initial interest was to learn about the conversion and make a few bucks.
I feel confident that I could swap my car in two weeks, now that I've learned how NOT to do it and have indeed made a few bucks.
I also consider Sigfrid a friend and that's worth something too.

Interested to see where we go from here.