So, a quick picture of sort of how I got the car 7 years ago. It was stock. Had a manual boost controller set to 1 BAR, an Apexi Neo controller, some sort of exhaust, and egay exhaust manifold and had Tein coilovers. Otherwise, stock, stock stock.
I quickly embarked in a budget build...very. bad. idea. Budget and RB does not go hand in hand. I had some freinds who owned a performance shop and had them do work. I upgraded turbo, cams, head studs, intercooler, wastegate, MAF, Nistune, Walbro trash, used 444 injectors. It ran horrible. Leaned out at 4K under any throttle. Had to feather and pump it to get past, or shift down to a gear that was above that mark. Lasted like this through three tune sessions and 4 years. I tried changing everything I could. MAF, CAS, plugs, coils, wiring, grounds, batteries, fuel pump bypass, new fuel pump, TPS.... Nothing worked so I said f it, I am driving it. Well....bad idea. The ECU finally dies, which I figured had the problem anyways because it showed to command fuel at that rpm range yet no fuel. It finally quit and a Power FC was installed with a MAP sensor. Tuner gets it right. This video is of the car with poor tune/ECU making 367 rwp at 19 psi:
Sounded great, just ran poorly.
This video shows the lean spot at any throttle position, under any load, in all gears:
So, after finally getting the ecu straight, the tune straight, everything good, the car then made 380 rwhp at 19 psi. Video here shows from 1K rpm to redline:
Everything was great. Smooth power band, great A/F ratios...perfection. Until..... 2 weeks after I got the car back (last January-February), I was invited to do a double feature with my car and my friends TRD widebody Supra in Houston. So, on a Friday night, me and the wife packed up the car and drove her from Dallas to Houston. It ran perfectly for 3 1/2 hours and even got 25 mpg. Not bad. We got all the way down there and was 2 miles from the exit when we stopped at the toll booth line to pay. This is at 6:30 rush hour in Houston, and if anyone knows Houston traffic...it sucks. As we are sitting there, we start to hear tires screatching then a collision, then felt our car get pushed violently forward. I just got rear ended in the car. Pissed was an extreme understatement. Basically, a young girl was texting and did not realize traffic was stopped so she hit the first car (Lincoln town car) at 55 mph launching it into a Camry when then sent the Camry into me..twice. Luckily, because I am a badass traffic driver, I left plenty of room between me and the car in front of me, so no front end damage at all...even though we got pushed forward over 10 feet. Here is before and after pictures:
This is a video showing the damage in trunk and the rear.
So, after we trailered it back home the next day, I sent it to a body shop in the area that is a muscle car restorer and does custom metal and body work. I went to church with them, so I knew them and they said they would love to work on it. I got the parts, they fixed the car. The only parts replaced are: rear bumper cover, rear crash bar, rear tail lights, rear license plate lights, rear reverse lights. That is it. The rear deck lid, rear quarter panel, rear truck floor..everything is still original. They did a badass job:
It was at this time, I decided to do a color change to the car. No better time than now, right? So, I changed the wheel color to flat black:
And I changed the entire color to charcoal metallic using the paint code off my 2011 Pro4X Titan:
It was a thing of beauty. The paint was awesome, the car ran great, it finally came together.
Until 6 days later, I was headed to Cars and Coffee with a few friends and noticed the car was not running tip top under full boost up high. Then, it started pouring smoke out the back and ran very rough. I pulled over and oil was spewing out of every orifice of the car.... Crap! Trailer it home, yet again, and took it to the shop. Sure enough, lost cylinders 1 and 6 and the rest were low compression. Time to let it sit. The car has been sitting since July last year and this February, me and a friend yanked the motor out and sent it off to get built. Here are some pics of the garage pull:
I am doing a stroker kit. I am doing Wiseco forged pistons armor coated 9:1 82 mm, Manley forged RB26 rods, N1 RB26 crank, Raw Brokerage intake manifold, custom fuel rail, 740 injectors, port/polished head, Supertech valves/springs, N1 oil pump, bigger intercooler. Hopefully, this makes the car brand new with no more major issues as I will have close to 35K in this car since purchase after the rebuild and it is not worth anything near that. But, it is a member of the family, and I just cannot part with this car. There are so many memories made with this car that I just cannot see it ever leaving. I will keep posted as the rebuild goes, so thank you for viewing my hardship and push through with this car.
Got the motor torn down, and apparently all that leaning out finally took its toll and all 6 pistons were melted. Not only that, but the head gasket was blown at each cylinder. The head has never been off this motor since they were mated in 1989. I think that is pretty ok... Pics of the finds:
I have the car at home and I am cleaning up the engine bay and cleaning up wires and removing things that do not work or not needed like the HICAS pump/lines, MAF wiring, a/c wiring and condensor and what not. Here is a quick pic of progress. I am rerouting the wiring down the frame rail. Still a work in progress:
