Shawn's thread: #LegalStatus

[loxxrider]

Meh rebuild kit costs $80 for a holset and I can do it in an hour or so. I'd rather have that! I wish I knew what is going to happen to my engine at high rpm but only time will tell

[vt10vt]

Well this was a 'core' as purchased, bearings seem tight enough to run for now but will be rebuilding as soon as I get rid of some VW parts. Thankfully my RPM goals aren't as demanding as yours' Chris, nor my power levels close to those you're playing at Hank!

Did get this video from machinest today, apparently it was just barely hitting and just needed a little cleaning up but was too minor to be able to see with just the sharpie method I tried, needed some dye and he was able to see it and clean it up
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVDIJHcG8Jk[/youtube]


And I went up to Springfield, MA for my brother's 21st and then home to VT to grab a ton of stuff last weekend and ended up doing like 24hrs of driving in 3 days Anyways, between MA and VT I gave Tim a shout and stopped by him and Toph's place to dig through some piles of T44 parts, one thing led to another and a trip to Jim's place later...


I can sleep a little better at night

[my2000apb]

im glad the parts will live on

[vt10vt]

im glad the parts will live on

Always good to see something go to use as opposed to scrap, and you guys made that transmission irresistible was great meeting you and Toph, you guys have one sweet setup and collection of cars up there

[vt10vt]

So a little progress. As they say, life has been getting in the way lately, but still getting as much time in as possible on this. I've been plugging away at the little stuff that needs to go back together, cleaning up old parts and putting stuff back together. I thought I was going to be able to get away with the stock oil return on the holset but didn't end up working. Luckily the Holset drain flange is an EXACT match for the block side of the OEM drain line, so two hacked stock lines and a little bit of extra pipe and we have this:


I'm actually a lot happier with it than the stock one for the Holset as they are known to like big drains and this keeps more of a downward angle while maintaining the Holset's drain size. I've got most of the stock sensors back in and looking pretty, starter is wired and alternator is half in. I wasn't planning to run any of the A/C stuff or bracket for the time being, but then realized I need to for the alt tensioner so more powdercoating tonight.

As I was leaving for lunch today, I saw the crank cog I've had sitting around for a couple weeks and thought 'I'd better check and make sure it isn't the supertorque type... turns out it is, but by a stroke of luck I just sold an 8v VW camshaft and kept the cam gear off it, which just so happens to be the MC2 style belt! I also have a brand spankin' new H20 pump and timing belt I ordered for the wrong engine, so all that will go on together to convert to the later style belt and then I can stop dealing with getting the wrong parts when I do timing jobs. Anyways, I'm hoping to get the car back together for the most part this weekend, was suppossed to be doing a super ghetto 2.5" straight back exhaust without a muffler/cat/resonator with a super cheap band clamp... but now it's getting 3" downpipe back with a glasspack, SS flex section, and a V-Band between the DP and exhaust. It's just money anyway, right? So hopefully a lot more progress over the weekend, I need to wait for my 60-2 gear to get in so I can get that mounted before I put the front of the engine back together, but pretty much that is the only thing holding me back from having this beast running again

[vt10vt]

Okay, so progress and setbacks at the same time. I didn't realize the tensioner is different between the MC1/MC2 belt setup, so I guess I need to pony up for the bigger one... Ugh this project is breaking me financially, but as someone has said 'if I had all the money I'd ever spent on cars, I'd spend it on cars.' On the positive side, I got most of the wiring done, the turbo and downpipe V-banded and installed, and a lot of other little stuff finished up. I've been having boost problems, turns out my WG diaphram was torn so I replaced it with another unit out of a spare wastegate. The studs that hold the 'gate to the manifold pulled out with the nuts, otherwise I would have just changed units entirely. Anyways, that went smoothly, got it in and all. I realized I needed to powdercoat a couple more parts so did that friday. The Holset is 100%! Bolted to the manifold and downpipe, oil drain fabbed painted and installed. Intake manifold bolted back in and started doing some of the final stuff like vacuum lines and such. If I had the right tensioner I think I would have been there all night tonight getting it started again so probably better I need to wait on it cause I needed a few hour break before my work week starts. Anyways, on to the pics, main MS harness got spiralwrapped and then heat shrunk and the main pwr/switched/ground for MS got spiralwrapped and tucked away as did a lot of other misc. wiring and such. Anyways, too tired for more words so onto the pics













New crank cog, new hardware

[vt10vt]

Before and after because I'm bored.





Only thing that's gotten worse is the camera I'm using hahaha

[rallyfreak202]

Nice work Shawn! Keep it up.

[vt10vt]

Nice work Shawn! Keep it up.

Thanks Nick! Delayed again waiting on parts 'Supertorque' tensioner should be here Tuesday, going to try and have everything set so I can just throw it on and fire her up, getting really close now! Wait, Carlisle is in 3 weeks...

[rallyfreak202]

Nice work Shawn! Keep it up.

Thanks Nick! Delayed again waiting on parts 'Supertorque' tensioner should be here Tuesday, going to try and have everything set so I can just throw it on and fire her up, getting really close now! Wait, Carlisle is in 3 weeks...

3 weeks!

[vt10vt]

It would be plenty of time if I could stop ordering wrong parts

Boxes are piling up, car is wired and ready to crank though, I'm not too worried about running issues because I'm pretty sure I identified/fixed the few issues I had and the car was running/idling/starting great and better than on CIS. Real problems were oiling in the exhaust and weird boost control. Turns out wastegate diaphram was toast so a new/old one and the oiling I believe/hope to mythological creatures was a combination of a turbo loosing seals and a clogged crank case vent hose maybe pressurizing the crank (which hopefully couldn't have done any serious damage?). Only problem I think I have now is possibly a leaky bomb hose from the PS pump pulling on it throughout this process, but I think I can/will have a hydraulic shop replace that if it comes to it.

At this point the only wildcard is the Holset, hopefully the seals/bearings are alright at least for now and hopefully the exhaust housing is right because it's AWFUL tight in there...Anyways, gonna be a busy weekend, got a little ambitious with all this talk of Carlisle and I, of course, want to come correct, so I'm stretching myself but I think by the end of the weekend it will be worth it

[vt10vt]

So one thing has been awful the whole time I've owned the 200 and that was the paint. In it's past life someone took, and no shit, a wire wheel to the paint. Looks like it might have been a knotted one by the looks of how bad it was I was extremely lucky that the car was pearl because that meant there was an extra coat of paint for them to get through as the Pearl gets shot over a base white if I understand how this works... Anyways, beyond that I have blue 20v front fenders and grafted in the rears, so there was primer there, the car was covered in dents and dings. I wish I had planned this whole project better, I would have done the bay at the same time but unfortunately that is still pearl due to time/patience limitations.

So I started body work last Wednesday, got the doors (closer to) straight, did a bunch of welding/pulling/filler/sanding, then Saturday morning my boss came in and helped me put up a booth in the shop. When he left I went on a manic 6 1/2hr sanding bender which involved going all the way through the pearl/clear on the entire hood and roof. Sunday I got some reinforcements and we blocked the car at 220 and then 320 and pushed her into the booth. I don't really know anything about body work but I knew we were going to need a thick base. So I spray bombed a coat of primer followed by a coat of high build without sanding, then blocked again at 800, chem cleaned it again and started shooting paint. I have more, higher quality pics on a camera I borrowed but no way to get them onto a comp but I'll post 'em when I get around to that.

There were a few things I will do next time but I am extremely happy with the results. I think after a good wet sand it's going to look pretty damn good. Through all that primer and paint I had zero runs on the body, and only one small run on a fender I think will sand right out and a small curtain on the other front (they were off the car and laying down, next time will hang). The paint is Summit Racing Bright white low VOC single stage and makes spray paint look child safe. I had a pro respirator I borrowed but nothing for my eyes and damn that was bad. I'm into the whole job for <$250 and I absolutely have a 5-10ft acceptable paint job, maybe better if you take the job and the car for what they are, which is a fun learning experience that doesn't need to be 100% perfect.

Enough rambling, onto the pics!






BAM!!!






So I shot Sunday night and tonight I VERY carefully put the doors back together (no interior panels) hung the fenders (barely, clearly not aligned) and put the tail lights in for self-gratification







Got the rest of the necessary parts together today at lunch, got the motor timed tonight but didn't feel fresh/aware enough to really once over everything to try and get it cranking. Hopefully tomorrow, if not Friday I'm going to try and make some noise.

Let's go Carlisle!

[vt10vt]

And the panels that look different colors are just like that because they have different levels of finish. They actually look the same color, just a difference in sheen and also poor lighting because the rear quarter is is as bright/shiny as the front in person

[loxxrider]

That is awesome! But please... do something about the god awful stock tails while you are at it

[vt10vt]

Jeez... tough crowd

I am going to paint them all red I think, I like how that scheme looks. Also, I gotta say, personally I really like the color, couldn't be happier for an $87 gallon of paint!

[vt10vt]

Happy now?




Oh....

AND SHE RUNS!!!! CARLISLE HERE WE COME!!!! Video proof soon!

[loxxrider]

Yes!

I seriously went from thinking it looked awful to thinking "Damn! That is sexy!"

[vt10vt]

Thanks, credit for the taillights goes to themagellan, directions can be found second page of his project thread, I just did as he said and I couldn't be happier with the results Anyways, been finishing up a lot of little problems and/or things I've forgotten, the Holset had some more problems, it began contacting the turbine housing which necessitated pulling it out which I did last night. This morning I pulled it apart, and thankfully from running pig rich the housing showed me exactly where it needed some loving, took a dremel in very small amounts removed a little more material and put it back together and back in.

Questioni, what does the dual pin coolant sensor on the cylinder head neck do? I can't find mine, and with one single post being ECU, the other being dash, the bottom sensor is Multi function and the fan switch is on the rad so what the heck did that one read out to?! Besides that I just need to throw the thermostat in and the rad hoses on and I should be making some pulls around the block tonight under holset powaaaa! My buddy friend Zach who's helped on this build more than anyone has a 300whp Mustang GT that is just asking for a whoopin!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsje_JOfCtk[/youtube]

[pilihp2]

the two prong coolant sensor on the mc1/2 is for the after run pump system.
I couldn't sleep the other night and read your whole thread on my phone. needless to say it was nice to read. I love how well it's came along. Keep up the awesome work.

[vt10vt]

the two prong coolant sensor on the mc1/2 is for the after run pump system.
I couldn't sleep the other night and read your whole thread on my phone. needless to say it was nice to read. I love how well it's came along. Keep up the awesome work.

Ok... so in other words... plugged! hahaha

Thanks, I'm glad you've enjoyed the progress It feels great now that everything is finally falling into place and going together quickly, especially after months of cleaning, sandblasting, scrubbing, and the like, it's nice to finally be on reassembly with my ducks in a row.

Now I just need to get spark/launch control so I can start breaking some 016's and be cool like you

[pilihp2]

Hahaha. Dammit. Sure wish I was cool like Nick. Doing launches daily with even more power and not blowing stuff up.

[themagellan]

Dude thank you for the mention Nice to know I was of some help to someone!

Also you can always rest easy knowing we are all going to always be jealous you have an avant and we have sedans. Hope to see some high res pictures and video!!

[vt10vt]

Dude thank you for the mention Nice to know I was of some help to someone!

Also you can always rest easy knowing we are all going to always be jealous you have an avant and we have sedans. Hope to see some high res pictures and video!!

Credit where credit is due, they look awesome so I'm just appreciative for the directions! Everyone's gonna be jealous of the Avant when I don't even need to set up a tent at Carlisle hahaha I laid down in the car to test fit last night, it's crazy how long it is as I actually fit laying down in the hatch area

Hahaha. Dammit. Sure wish I was cool like Nick. Doing launches daily with even more power and not blowing stuff up.

Eh, I think breaking stuff is pretty cool haha I have no idea how Nick's trans was still alive, I'm guessing it's because he has that sweet spot of power where it's enough to spin so nothing can grab enough to break but not enough brute force to tear stuff apart.


No pics this time but I got the car wetsanded last night, needs a little more work but I ran out of daylight I was comfortable. I'll probably finish that up Wednesday night and try to buff Thursday. My girlfriend and a friend came by and helped me untape the bumpers and put the front doors back together, was nice to have some company! I was getting weird 02 signals in Tuner Studio so I moved some grounds around, the LC-1 didn't seem to like being on the same ground lug as the coil ground from the MS so I moved that ground to the MAC-11 coil ground, re calibrated the 02 and I have a beautiful signal now! The car idles GREAT considering it doesn't have any type of idle valve and fires right up. Plan is to fix the two small H20 leaks I have right after work and throw the intercooler/bumpers on so I can drive it out to my bosses house, throw it on his lift and build the exhaust tonight. If I can get that done I'll come back to the shop and try to finish getting the interior back together and start tidying things up. I'd like to take it on an hour test drive tomorrow evening so I'm not under the gun with problems Thursday but fingers crossed it seems like it's going to be a pretty damn smooth departure on Friday morning

Ok... I lied, one picture

[vt10vt]

Welp, not looking as good.... I'm behind schedule, exhausted, disorganized and frazzled. And now, of all things, my laptop has completely crashed. It was acting a little funny a few days ago so I updated Norton and Microsoft, it began running worse, tried uninstalling a couple programs, seemed better, and today it just shut down and totally dumped everything. I can get windows to boot up but apparently the computer dumped it's hard drive drivers or something, I'm getting Error code: 0x80070003 upon trying to open the windows files. I know nothing about computers and am beyond what I know.

I've wasted 3hrs I really needed to be working on the car at this at this point and, honestly, it just isn't looking like the show isn't going to be in the cards because I refuse to show up to ANOTHER event without my own car :(

[vt10vt]

And I should add LIVID to the list of emotions, this computer is literally less than 2 weeks old, was bought on credit specifically for the SINGLE TASK OF TUNING and the one thing I counted on not being an issue Going to borrow a laptop for the night, see what I can get done. If anyone has any words of encouragement, now would be a great time.