my first weekend boosted

[Import_Ant]

I finished off every last thing (or so I thought) this past Friday and drove my car to work, boosting .5 bar and on my way to what I thought was going to be a fun weekend. I checked my oil level when I got to work. No loss and the engine bay looked fine, nothing burnt. I had remembered to wrap my brake fluid reservoir to protect it from the heat and everything looked fine.

Later that night as I was driving my g/f home I noticed my coolant temperature kept rising. not sharply but steadily enough to catch my attention. As I pulled over to look under the hood a fat cloud of white smoke puffed out from under the hood to great me. Awesome. As I lifted up the hood a stream of coolant came arcing out from the hood and sprayed me right on the inside of my right leg. That's right folks you heard it here. My car actually PISSED on me... Not recognizing this as a sign of things to come I limped the extra quarter of a mile to my g/f's house and stayed the night and replaced both radiator hoses the next morning. At that point I noticed my plug wires were melted. Thank god I picked up a set of NGK's off E-bay for super-cheap and hadn't installed them yet.

I got home and noticed my oil cooler had arrived so I made a quick trip to the part's store to grab a case of oil so I could install it. Sitting in traffic i started hearing this jackhammer like noise coming from under my hood. Now the fan is hitting on the bottom of the radiator (How?? It has been just fine where it was for 6 months but today it decides to attack the radiator) I buy a remount kit and adjust the radiator fan. Problem 2 solved.

Now the oil cooler is installed and everything should be fine. Sunday I take my younger brother over to my grandparent's house to visit them and my grandma wants a ride in my car. I go for a quick run up the road and as I pull a U-turn at the next intersection ANOTHER white puff of smoke shoots out of my hood. WTF!?!? I can't seem to win here. I pop the hood back at my grandparent's house to find the brake fluid reservoir melted and all but one of the bolts that bolt my downpipe to my turbo MIA. Sweeet. All the parts stores are closed for the day and I'm screwed.^the hotness!!11!!1

I got another reservoir from my friend and installed it, put some lock washers on the bolts to my turbo, shimmed my hood, wrapped my plug wires in fiberglass matting, and my brother built a heat shield. I THINK I have it covered once and for all until I get a turbo-blanket.

^there everything is as of 30 mins ago

Even with all the trouble it was worth everything. The car runs strong and the BRM exhaust mated w/ the turbo makes for a nice tone even my friends w/ domestics like. It's a good thing too since they'll be behind me hearing it for as long as it takes the car to break something again.

P.s. Torque specifications are not optional, lock washers > *, and don't throw wrenches when you're mad. Even if you just melted through your work glove into your index finger Not that I'd do that or anything.
Modified by Import_Ant at 8:07 AM 5/31/2005

[Craving4Boost]

geez thats a real ugly engine/bay lol

[cyrus240sx]

sux that ka24e's have the plug wires so close to manifold... no wonder they melted. i think you need that turbo blanket asap

btw wheres the oil cooler from? looks awesome

[Import_Ant]

geez thats a real ugly engine/bay lol

yeah between the exhaust leak, coolant spraying around the engine bay, and all the time spent repairing the car I didnt get the time I intended to detail it this weekend. I replaced my missing mud guards in my wheel wells and hopefully I'll have a chance to clean it this weekend.

err... thanks for the encouragement

[shockload]

i just got my sohc-t together and i am using the bottom mount manifold, seems really good for not heating the plug wires. top mount is overrated unless thats what your already stuck with..... long live the single cam .

[Structure240sx]

theres always bugs to work out in the begining

good job so far

[HolyShiznit]

HAHHAHAHA the melted resevoir looks JUST like what I did the first week I had my car. I feel your pain on that one man. Now I have one from a Skyline clip that dropped right in. JDM MAD TYTE! I actually took a coffee can, painted it blue (my engine dressup color of choice), stuck a sticker from my shop on it and slapped it on. Works like a charm.

Don't sweat it dude and.....all go no show baby, who cares about the engine bay.

[DRIFTEADOR]

what a headache. hopefully that'll be the end of it...... not a chance. btw, lock washers alone didn't work for me, I had to use some of that lock-tite stuff. the handtools one, blue i think, did it.

[Import_Ant]

thanks for the encouragement everyone. I seem to have developed an exhaust leak on the way to work today. I've narrowed it down to the wastegate or the exhaust manifold at the block. Fun times. Also the fan has started attacking the radiator again. I think I'm going to invest in a bicycle.

[supra brit]

I can't see any pics or anything...your post ends at "Awesome. As " for me

[Import_Ant]

I can't see any pics or anything...your post ends at "Awesome. As " for me

try refreshing your page... dunno works for me.

[turbo98_240sx]

yeah its lookin good, but there is allways this and that but hey wasn't it worth it in the end?

[nissanfanatic]

[quote=""Import_Ant""]my grandma wants a ride in my car.[/quote]hahahahahahahahahahhaha. Thats great!

Yea man. The first few months are the hardest. Just keep fixing stuff and you run out of things to break.lol Good luck man.

[veilside180sx]

Sorry to hear about the problems bro. Stick with it and it'll work out. I'm sure I'll have a lot of growing pains with mine as well. I'm going to try to work out all these kinks before hand though, but we'll see.