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Project MIL-spec
In this case MIL stands for mother in law. She had this car for 12 years and for the last 9 I have been taking care of it for her. I've replaced things like shocks (Koni), springs (Stock Si), steering rack, transmission, axles, shift linkage bushings, headlights, etc.
I purchased the car from her last weekend and so far I've cleaned it up and put in some GSR seats. I have a pile of parts for it, but I'll update the thread once they are actually on the car. Yesterday I painted the hubcaps and inspected the front end. Due to cracked rubber, it needs some new tie rods, axle boots and upper ball joints. So much for having the cash for a rebuilt head.
The car is enjoyable to drive and runs very well for 198k miles.
Near term plans are to treat all of the rust on the bottom of a couple doors, repaint the roof and trunk and then put a roof rack on it for hauling my bikes. I also need to go through the front end and re-glue the front of the headliner.
Future hopes and dreams are a K20 or K24 with the goal of squeaking into the 12s and getting 30mpg highway.
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I purchased the car from her last weekend and so far I've cleaned it up and put in some GSR seats. I have a pile of parts for it, but I'll update the thread once they are actually on the car. Yesterday I painted the hubcaps and inspected the front end. Due to cracked rubber, it needs some new tie rods, axle boots and upper ball joints. So much for having the cash for a rebuilt head.
The car is enjoyable to drive and runs very well for 198k miles.
Near term plans are to treat all of the rust on the bottom of a couple doors, repaint the roof and trunk and then put a roof rack on it for hauling my bikes. I also need to go through the front end and re-glue the front of the headliner.
Future hopes and dreams are a K20 or K24 with the goal of squeaking into the 12s and getting 30mpg highway.
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1 - 20 of 28 Posts
3
Getting more into it.
I tried to put an Ebay header, 99 EX cat and a Magnaflow cat-back on the car without luck. My issues can be read about here. I ended up buying a DC Sports header and the Magnaflow exhaust still ended up a shade over 1" too short. The O2 sensor still hit the shift linkage too, since the shift linkage was different on the '99-00 cars. It turns out that the Ebay header would've worked fine. :redface:
So, last night my buddy helped me fab the following mid-pipe out of a blox adjustable mid-pipe, a Magnaflow catalytic converter and the Magnaflow mid-pipe (in that order, front to back). It ended up being a hair over 18" - stock cats are around 16.75".
As you can see in the background, I found that my caliper seals are leaking. :rant2:
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So today I went and bought some new calipers to add to my pile of parts that are going on.
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My best bud keeping me company.
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I tried to put an Ebay header, 99 EX cat and a Magnaflow cat-back on the car without luck. My issues can be read about here. I ended up buying a DC Sports header and the Magnaflow exhaust still ended up a shade over 1" too short. The O2 sensor still hit the shift linkage too, since the shift linkage was different on the '99-00 cars. It turns out that the Ebay header would've worked fine. :redface:
So, last night my buddy helped me fab the following mid-pipe out of a blox adjustable mid-pipe, a Magnaflow catalytic converter and the Magnaflow mid-pipe (in that order, front to back). It ended up being a hair over 18" - stock cats are around 16.75".
As you can see in the background, I found that my caliper seals are leaking. :rant2:
So today I went and bought some new calipers to add to my pile of parts that are going on.
My best bud keeping me company.
4
Update 12-4-2011
I got all of the parts put on and aligned the car with a tool that my friend made:
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You may notice that I sprayed some 3M undercoating in there as well. That was in preparation for the Rally-X event I attended yesterday.
The race went well. There were a shit ton of Subarus (like 20-25), 1 EVO, 5-6 Hondas, 1 Probe, 1 new Charger, 1 RX7 and 1 old Dodge (ex-Rally Car). They split all of the drivers up into 4 groups and we worked for 1 hour and drove for 3, with an hour for lunch after session 2. You could run as many times as you wanted to and work assignment was like watching a good Subaru commercial involving drifting and throwing dirt.
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The Dodge, ex-Rally car built in 1986
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I'm pretty sure I was the fastest FWD except for the old Dodge and I was beating a few of the Subarus, somehow. One of the co-drivers of the Dodge told my wife that I was pretty good and with some real tires I would be fast - that was good to hear.
It's hard to describe the racing in words. The key for the FWD cars was to stay out of the places where the grass was gone. Once the course was tore up, my car would just understeer if I got out in the plowed areas, so I tried to keep it nice and tight with the cones when possible.
They changed the course, shortened it, a little bit half way through. I accidentally left the GoPro on during lunch, so there weren't many videos of the later runs when the course was really bare and it was very hard to get the car to turn if I wasn't perfect with wheel placement. On my last run before we left, I kept the RPMs up a bit higher (I was in second gear the whole time), controlled entry speed, to limit understeer, and ran a really good time that was on par with what we had seen the Dodge run on the new course. Due to the long drive home, we packed it up and headed out early.
VIDEO
I got all of the parts put on and aligned the car with a tool that my friend made:
You may notice that I sprayed some 3M undercoating in there as well. That was in preparation for the Rally-X event I attended yesterday.
The race went well. There were a shit ton of Subarus (like 20-25), 1 EVO, 5-6 Hondas, 1 Probe, 1 new Charger, 1 RX7 and 1 old Dodge (ex-Rally Car). They split all of the drivers up into 4 groups and we worked for 1 hour and drove for 3, with an hour for lunch after session 2. You could run as many times as you wanted to and work assignment was like watching a good Subaru commercial involving drifting and throwing dirt.
The Dodge, ex-Rally car built in 1986
I'm pretty sure I was the fastest FWD except for the old Dodge and I was beating a few of the Subarus, somehow. One of the co-drivers of the Dodge told my wife that I was pretty good and with some real tires I would be fast - that was good to hear.
It's hard to describe the racing in words. The key for the FWD cars was to stay out of the places where the grass was gone. Once the course was tore up, my car would just understeer if I got out in the plowed areas, so I tried to keep it nice and tight with the cones when possible.
They changed the course, shortened it, a little bit half way through. I accidentally left the GoPro on during lunch, so there weren't many videos of the later runs when the course was really bare and it was very hard to get the car to turn if I wasn't perfect with wheel placement. On my last run before we left, I kept the RPMs up a bit higher (I was in second gear the whole time), controlled entry speed, to limit understeer, and ran a really good time that was on par with what we had seen the Dodge run on the new course. Due to the long drive home, we packed it up and headed out early.
VIDEO
4
Damn all that awesome maintenance and such a clean car taken off road
1 - 20 of 28 Posts
