Two nice cars, but I daily my missile.

[Jmoore124]

Great thread bro. You do some excellent work.

[lexcrob]

What a f*** boss ..... wish i had that kind of dedication props for shur!

Good luck with the rb. I just hate trying to get parts for those things. Something as easy and cheap as engine bearings turn into......almost 300$ dollar bills from ACL and thats the only place you can get em. Then there is cooling problems oil control problems crank collar crap.

OK im done just beating on dead horses

cheers!

[twisted99s10]

Great thread bro. You do some excellent work.

Thanks man!

What a f*** boss ..... wish i had that kind of dedication props for shur!

Good luck with the rb. I just hate trying to get parts for those things. Something as easy and cheap as engine bearings turn into......almost 300$ dollar bills from ACL and thats the only place you can get em. Then there is cooling problems oil control problems crank collar crap.

OK im done just beating on dead horses

cheers!

I have had more than my fair share of frustrations with these motors, but I figure at this point I have to give it one more solid shot. If it fails me again I'll go v8.

Last night I wired the rear of the car, no pics because it wasn't anything exciting. My long block should be here Friday, and I hope to have it in the engine bay by the end of the weekend so I can have the new turbo manifold mocked up.

[Jmoore124]

You still running the KA in the truck?

[twisted99s10]

I am running a stock ka in the truck, I took the high compression engine out. I don't think I honed the cylinder walls enough to get the rings to seat properly. It had a lot of blow by, but good compression when I tested each cylinder. idk, I'll crack it back open and check it out after I finish all my other projects.

anyways, here are some other videos from this year.

https://vimeo.com/47345763

https://vimeo.com/58154064

https://vimeo.com/54919697

[twisted99s10]

So small update, I finally finished the rust repair. It took forever, but the car needed it.









The new long block finally arrived.



the GF take'n all the parts off the old RB that need to be swapped over.


Rear firewall is finally welded in. Just have to seam seal all the joints to make sure its 100% sealed.


Picked up a scooby hood from the junk yard. I think I am going to take the skin off this and meld it with one of my stock 240 hoods. Depends on how much time I have left before the season starts.



Other things going on in the shop, my buddy is make'n a trailer to haul his 'Busa behind his STI. should be pretty sweet when its all done.

[twisted99s10]

update time:

while waiting on the rest of my roll cage tubing, i took a break from the car and put together my christmas present from my gf.

It's a Tamiya TT-01 chassis with an r32 skyline body. It came with hard drift tires... the thing is a blast. Painted it up like my coupe and slid it around the shop a bunch.







Once my material arrived i got into mounting my temporary race seat. I love this seat, but even tho it is custom built to fit me, and trusted by DIRT and NHRA.... it is illegal by Formula D standards. SO a generic 1 size fits all sparco seat will be ordered eventually.





The next few nights were spent finishing up the cage. My buddy Alex has done most of the cage work. without him i would be measuring and remeasuring the main hoop, just to f*** it up again.

Passenger's side door bars


Rear view of the cage


Driver's side door bar


Door bar tucked snugly into my door


and some rear structural bracing.


all that is left is the anti-intrusion bars in the front and the cage is finished. A night or 2 of prep work and the engine bay/cage/rear tube section will be painted. Then its time to set the engine in.

[breadbox]

thats alot of cage, looks good.

[twisted99s10]

I ordered a Nistune board for my z32 ecu last night, and springs for the waste gates a few days ago. everything is getting so close to being finished, im getting anxious to hear this thing run again. Anyways, here are updates:

I finished welding up the un-needed holes in the fire wall.



Then I threw everything back into the car to make sure the dash was properly fit around the finished cage. After a bit of trimming it all slid together.



I pulled everything out to paint the cage, and ran out of paint 1/2 way through. It was kind of a blessing since I forgot to do a few things in my rush. I welded in A pillar braces, and made the tabs for the fuel tank and battery straps.



I had to wait a few days to use the paint booth again, so I spent a day swapping everything from one rb to the other. The engine is now ready to drop in.



The next day I got the car in the paint booth to finish painting the cage.





Last night I taught my gf how to paint. She wanted her rx8 wheels white so we sprayed a pair to see how it looked. I think they came out pretty damn good, especially for her first attempt and spraying any thing.



Her rx8 between runs at the local drift track.



Weekend plans:
Paint the rest of the interior, and to have the engine in place. It would be nice to finish up the little bit of wiring I have left.

Other stuff that has been going on:
The 'busa trailer has made some progress







Hopefully it will be in paint in a week or 2.

My buddy picked up a zx10r and has decided to park it in my kitchen to vinyl wrap it.

[OM3GA]

This is way more rad a** than i originally expected. NICE!

[danshaz82]

My buddy picked up a zx10r and has decided to park it in my kitchen to vinyl wrap it.

das was sup

This is way more rad a** than i originally expected. NICE!

this!

[twisted99s10]

Thanks dudes. The motor is in the bay now, the Nistune board has become a part of my ecu, and the last of the fuel system parts showed up today. Tonight I'm hoping to have the engine crank over. I can't start it until my exhaust manifold is finished, but it'll be a big check mark on the list of things just to have the electrical system all check out.

[twisted99s10]

The motor is finally sitting in the car, and Ron was able to stop in and get the basic parts of the manifold mocked up and in place.




Got a bunch of an fittings and steel braided line to get the fuel system together.


Finished up the wiring, and loomed it all up. everything works properly, and the starter will turn the car over now.


I skinned the subaru hood to get it ready to mold into a spare flip up hood I have.


Glass is was put back in the car yesterday, so i set a bunch of the body panels back on. It's weird having it look like an actual car again.




The 'busa trailer is almost finished. body work is almost done, and it has red mud flaps to match the sti.

[twisted99s10]

I'm waiting on a few more things to be completed before another real update. In the mean time, I bought a tow vehicle. 1994 2wd Chevy Suburban with the 6.5l diesel engine, 4" turbo back exhaust. It's lowered on spring/spindles in the front and an axle flip kit in the rear with some 20" wheels. has a little surface rust on the rockers but other than that the thing is mint.





So, now I have to get rid of my Miata. Some one buy this so I can put my tow vehicle on the road!
http://binghamton.craigslist.org/cto/3720120503.html

[terd40sx]

that is a towing monster, crazy reliable too. Loving your work dude.

[twisted99s10]

I totally forgot to take pics of stuff last night so I'll have to update tomorrow. Last night the 'busa trailer wiring got all finished up, I primed my gsxr600, and my buddies zx10r, we rolled the fenders on my gf's rx8, and I drove the coupe around in the parking lot a bit. Not too bad for 5 hours of work. Tonight I'm either going to wetsand/paint the bikes, or button up the last bits of the interior in the coupe and swap in the Nistune ecu and 740cc injectors. Maybe all of it if I'm feeling productive enough.

[300ZXttZMAN]

Loving this.... STILL

Keep up the great work!

[twisted99s10]

Loving this.... STILL

Keep up the great work!

thanks man!

Updates:
Engine starts and runs well. I swapped in the nistune ecu, but my laptop battery died before I could really get into things so I started mocking up the front end.


My 600's fairings are all painted. I'll be putting that together tonight so I can get it home and cut the vinyls for it this weekend


I also painted the wheels the same color as the coupe's roll cage.


Uncovered the truck to tinker around with a few things. Gota start getting it ready for the summer.


The 'busa hauler is finished, the wheels just aren't on it in these pics.





Im excited to get to the shop tonight after work, there is so much to do and so many projects are coming together.

[pepesilvia]

you live in binghamton? I almost went to school there at Broome. you guys get a helluva-lotta snow up there aye? Keep up the good work though! all of yur work is incredible!

[twisted99s10]

you live in binghamton? I almost went to school there at Broome. you guys get a helluva-lotta snow up there aye? Keep up the good work though! all of yur work is incredible!

Yeah, I have been here my whole life. The past few winters haven't been that bad really. They still salt like there are blizzards but we haven't really had that much snow. Thanks for the compliments dude, are you local at all?

Small update from this weekend.

Girlfriend got her other set of wheels sanded down, painted, and on her rx8. I'll have to grab pics of them on the car tonight.


My gsxr is almost finished. have to do an oil change and get the chain on and it'll be set to ride.


'busa hauler is done and out of the shop


I painted the zx10 plastics for my buddy.




Its a Chrysler orange with more pearl in the clear than should really be allowed in any paint job.

I am starting to get a handle on the Nistune software. Even on the stock ecu, the coupe wants to barely hold idle at about 500rpm, and if I rev the car up it wont catch itself. It'll just die out. If I manually hold the rpms at about 800 it runs smoothly. I have to figure out what changed from last year that is making it not idle at the proper rpm.

[twisted99s10]

Here is a video that was just released. It's a documentary on grass roots drifting that was done by Brent Combs and NewMotiv Studios. A lot of footage of our local group, and a few interviews from local drivers. A majority of the shop footage is different spots in the coupe build, and when my friend was putting a 5 speed in his Lincoln Mark 8 drift boat.

anyways, check it out! https://vimeo.com/63957838

[mechanicalmoron]

Neat. Saw your car.

You should kick the guy who appeared to be welding, bare eyed, faced, and armed. (unless it was you, in which case.... don't. It's probably hard to drive when you have massive cataracts and can't see anything).

[pepesilvia]

you live in binghamton? I almost went to school there at Broome. you guys get a helluva-lotta snow up there aye? Keep up the good work though! all of yur work is incredible!

Yeah, I have been here my whole life. The past few winters haven't been that bad really. They still salt like there are blizzards but we haven't really had that much snow. Thanks for the compliments dude, are you local at all?

not really local. like 2 hour drive i think from where i am to binghamton. My stepdads family has history there so he was trying to get me into school there. I went to some local museum dedicated to his family and they even have a street named after his family. weird stuff.... just out of curiosity though, being that your in a climate similar to mine, what do you do to avoid rust when they put down an a$$load of salt on the roads?

[twisted99s10]

Neat. Saw your car.

You should kick the guy who appeared to be welding, bare eyed, faced, and armed. (unless it was you, in which case.... don't. It's probably hard to drive when you have massive cataracts and can't see anything).

He has had that mentioned to him a bunch of times since that video came out. It's stupid, but that's just kinda what he does.

not really local. like 2 hour drive i think from where i am to binghamton. My stepdads family has history there so he was trying to get me into school there. I went to some local museum dedicated to his family and they even have a street named after his family. weird stuff.... just out of curiosity though, being that your in a climate similar to mine, what do you do to avoid rust when they put down an a$$load of salt on the roads?

I usually don't drive any of the cars I really care about in the winter time. Best way I know to keep the salt off is to clean them a lot. Jack the car up in the air and really wash underneath it as well as you can. Try to blast any salt out of the little corners it likes to get stuck in.

___________________________________________

We busted a** last week, and got the coupe all buttoned up so we could make an attempt at tuning it. Went up to Shangri-La 2, and did a whole bunch of laps on the outer track. It took a little bit to figure out the Nistune software, but I have a decent handle on it now.

Filler panels my friend Tim made to replac emy heater control opening, and where my old center gauges used to be.



Tow rig and car on the trailer.


Quick video my gf shot. You can hear the wastegate open, but this was early in the tuning process so I wasn't doing full on pulls yet.



After a few hours we got everything running to where I am 90% confident in it. The car is absolutely crazy on 23psi, however I think I have a dud Walbro 255. When you first start the car you can hear it humming, but its not obnoxious. After a pull it would get really loud, even at idle. After another pull it would get even louder and start to not flow enough fuel to feed the top end of the power band. Once the car was restarted, even if it was only off for a second, the pump would quiet down and work properly again.

When we got back to the shop I pulled the foam in the fuel cell out, removed the inline fuel filter, and un-clamped the fuel pump, none of it made a difference. I can change the pitch of the fuel pump whine, and the fuel pressure by simply moving the fuel pump in my hands. I am going to give Jegs a call today and see what they think about it. I would like to get things all set and together for the English town event on the 27th, but it doesn't look like its going to happen.

In other sections of the shop, my gsxr and my buddies zx10 are all back together. I absolutely love the gearing I have on it this year. It is down one in the front, up 3 in the rear. I can pull the front wheel up without even trying now.



Last Sunday we went and picked up a 2007 Ninja 250 for my gf to learn to ride on. She got a steal on this thing. It only has 2400 miles on it, and has just been sitting in the corner of a garage for most of it's life.



It has a little damage on the left side where the previous owner put it down, but nothing too bad. It didn't take her long to start doing body work and pealing the vinyl tribal things off.



I think she is going to spray it a dark cherry color with white wheels, and we have to lower it about an inch and a half for her to be able to flat foot it.

[twisted99s10]

Kinda psyched about how this turned out. In my gf's rx8 the front tires hit the FLCA before the steering hits full lock. This keeps the car real slow and shallow in drift, so I am in the process if making tubular control arms for the front. The uppper is 1" longer with adjustment to bring it out further if needed to correct camber. The bottom is going to be 1.5" longer with a similar adjustability.

Pic of the upper control arm and jig.


I have to make a jig for the lca tonight, then once I am sure one side is test fitted and functioning properly I am going to make the passenger's side.

[pepesilvia]

Kinda psyched about how this turned out. In my gf's rx8 the front tires hit the FLCA before the steering hits full lock. This keeps the car real slow and shallow in drift, so I am in the process if making tubular control arms for the front. The uppper is 1" longer with adjustment to bring it out further if needed to correct camber. The bottom is going to be 1.5" longer with a similar adjustability.

Pic of the upper control arm and jig.


I have to make a jig for the lca tonight, then once I am sure one side is test fitted and functioning properly I am going to make the passenger's side.

you made that? gtfo thats awesome!

[twisted99s10]

Thanks dude! It's my first time ever actually making a suspension piece, like... from scratch. I'm super psyched at how everything turned out.

The last few weeks have been crazy! Trying to get everything done as this is the last full week that I have access to the shop I have been using. My dad retired and closed his business about 6 months ago, and some one is leasing the property starting in June. I have to move all of my stuff to the garage at my apartment and begin cleaning out the shop for the new tenant. I haven't been taking as many pictures because i have just been trying to get things done.

About 2 weeks ago, I started fitting the new headlights into the coupe. 94-97 honda accord lights fit insanely well. I just had to make a patch panel to fill in the gap left where the silvia marker light was.



All fit in to it's new home


Started to mock up a hood, but I haven't finished it yet.


I took it up to the track again to try to work out a few bugs. I played around with it for about 45 mins, and started to hear a knock. My heart dropped, and I damn near set the car on fire. Loaded it up on the trailer and started to plan what to do next. When we got back to the shop we noticed the noise was coming from the water pump, so I ripped the entire front of the engine down, and put in the water pump from my old RB. Problem solved.

Then I dove back into the rx8's suspension. My gf has been having to drive my miata every day, and I just wanted to get her car back to her.

Here is the driver's side mocked up before final installation.


And this is how the car currently sits. all finished and back together.




In between everything else, we finished the body work on the ninja and my dad did an amazing job of spraying it. It seriously looks like glass.







This weekend I am going to Performance and Style in Carlisle, PA to go do some slide'n and destroy some tires with all my friends! I cant wait to see how the rx8 does with its re-worked suspension.

[mechanicalmoron]

That stuff's all awesome, and you're very good at it and all, but...

Why are you building a nissan-subi-honda front end for a track car? When you nudge a corner on something, it's going to be an amazingly huge pain to fix.

[twisted99s10]

That stuff's all awesome, and you're very good at it and all, but...

Why are you building a nissan-subi-honda front end for a track car? When you nudge a corner on something, it's going to be an amazingly huge pain to fix.

Well, I went with these headlights because of the difficulty in sourcing and price involved with a silvia front end. The headlights can be sourced at a junkyard for about $30 a pair, so cost is way down there and they nearly fit right in. There was very little modification. The hood was somewhat of a necessity. On hot track days under longer runs it would start to get hot. I was going to use the scooby vents on the sil hood if it fit with the headlights better. Try'n to keep things on a budget I used a dented up 240 hood I had, and a $30 hood from the junk yard to make some better airflow in the bay. I have an hourish with one of my friends to get it to the hood to that point and I'll do some ~10ft body work and paint it like the other hood was. I doubt there will be more than 3 hours in it total and it'll be unique and functional. The nice thing about this being a track car is, it only has to look good on the track. Small imperfections that take hours to fix don't need to be touched.

So I guess the cliffnotes are yeah, if I completely destroy everything it'll suck a bit. But most anything can be pounded back into its basic shape with a hammer, a dolly, and some time. From more than a couple feet away no one will be any the wiser.

[mechanicalmoron]

Ahh, okay, I was just curious. I suppose now that you mention it I can totally see the logic on the lights.

I know what you mean about ten foot body work, that's all I believe in for any car.