gravelRX

Were you running racing tires? Was Pleiades? Jay

Calebz, Going to have another go at the intake flange and see if I can rebuild another to flow a bit better. PITA is what it is. Yeah I could buy it, but I want to try to make it. Sidewayz, I'm thinking hard on the hoodpins, If I can't find an alternative fairly quickly, I'm going to mount them up. I have an extra hood to try it out on first. Still trying not to draw any attention to the car visually. No immature, gaudy, ricey stickers, nothing like that for me. If it was a full time, no street, race cars of some kind I could see it. TEHO though. will, Look at these engines closely when they are gagged hard with the throttle. Not much movement there. Some, but not much. I'm not running a full-on, short life, race engine either. I replaced the motor mounts with new OEM when I rebuilt the engine. All components are mounted in 1/4" rubber isolators on both sides of the mounting brackets. That's 1/2" of play for everything hooked to the engine. Going to trim the piping away from the intercooler another 3/8"s to allow for movement in those junctions with 3" of silicone hose spanning the gap. Good thought. And your suggestions for accounting for engine travel under load would be what? Hump hoses? As the previous posts states, I welcome input, good or bad from anyone who wishes to give it. Thanks for the responses all. Regards, Jay

I can't load another picture into my Gallery until tomorrow. So attached. Turbo side is fleshed in. Still have to make it pretty as far as the welds and tabs for the piping. This was the relatively easy side. Jay

Will, your being vague. J

Thanks for the compliment. I'd like to get some constructive feedback or even negative feedback from the board on how this is turning out. I'm not too proud to take someone elses ideas.(Grill..cough..cough..) I looked at a Jeep Grand Cherokee and the way the hood latch system works. Latches on the sides, not the center. I'm still trying to get away from the hood pins. Easy but too obvious. Jay

Nothing to see here, move along. I will be modifying the grill. Someone cut and fiberglassed a grill here recently. can't recall who it was, but I thought it looked good. Jay

I was going to make these complicated flat stock/pencil steel mounts. Decided the KISS method was better. Just used pencil steel and rubber isolators in the I/C itself. One row of cooling fins are behind the bumper. Jay

I had mine attached to the outside factory mounts and it was very noisy when I hit bumps. Ended up mounting it in the gutter rails just to cut down on the noise. Driven around with it up there yet? Hope yours doesn't produce the noise mine did. I took the two middle rails off the roof, that might have been my problem, exposing such a big expanse of roof without structure to inhibit the boom. Looks good. Quick, paint it before the rust gets to working. Jay

I suspect the seller is upright enough not to try to screw you with incorrect wheels. I ran 195/60's on an older hatch and never had any problems. When I first got my RX I put Pug wheels on it and didn't like the clearance with the 195/60's/. I agree with Poor, 205/50 15's would do the trick. If your worried about clearance issues, buy one 205/50 at a used tire place for 10.00 and have it mounted as a test fit before you pop for new tires all around. www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html for ratios comparisons. PM me if you like and we can discuss. Jay

One of the fans runs only when the air con is on. Verify what fan is running all the time. Go from there. Jay

You first. J

Thanks for sharing the great pictures. Don't usually get to see the more unusual cars getting dirty. The first one was either a Sonnett or a Opel. Couldn't tell. Turn up your pop-up blockers to kill for Webshots. Jay

12.00 for the good tool to remove a windshield from a parts car. Say 40.00 for the windshield, and another 20.00 for the windshield caulk and the gun to apply. Time is the killer. Takes awhile to get one out unbroken and longer to prep the old frame so it won't leak. I'm sure there is a story behind this, but like every Jerry Springer episode ever made, It's none of my business. Jay

I have a nice sey of Factory 14" Legacy aluminum wheels with centercaps for a 91. Kid not included, but I'll throw in the older guy. 200.00 shipped UPS. Let me know if your interested. jaykili(at)cox(dot)net Regards, Jay

I've looked for the 1 3/4" to 2 3/8" 90* ebow transition in a few places and most everything starts at two inches. More research is required. I'm looking forward to seeing how this will turn out too. A bit worried about connecting the intercooler piping to the engine without the hump hoses to account for engine deflection. I'm going to mount the piping to the frame farther away from the engine connections to hopefully alllow for small movement. Haven't seen alot of engine movement, but I know it's there. WJM, your thinking of mounting an intercooler UNDER the bumper? Narrower intercooler? Almost all of the face of the Starion intercooler is in the grill/airflow. Just a small percentage is actually blocked by the bumper. I don't want to hack on the bumper this early in the build. I am thinking I can build a small scoop under the bumper to get air into the bottom 1" of the intercooler. Don't want to block too much airflow to the radiator. If cooling is an issue, I'll put two high flow fans on the radiator. regards, Jay

Are you talking about motor mounts? You never specified what kind of mounts in the whole post. Jay

That's the cheapest I've seen the specific angles. I'm going to try the plenum adapter I fabricated, but I may use a 90*on the turbo side. Thanks for the link. Subyrally, I have in the past gone to HD for parts to make things work, but on this one I'd like to either fabricate parts myself or use the parts made for the application. I am usually the KING of making things work with what I've got or can scrounge from parts. Look at pictures of my wagon. Jay

I'm being a cheap bastard and trying not to buy the 90* angles. you can buy 1 foot of silicone hose for 18.00 but an elbow cost triple that. Just can't see spending that on hose when I can get around it. If it doesn't work out like this, I'll pop for the 90*s. Grassroots, Jay

The intake pipe is 2 3/8". The intercooler piping is 1 3/4". Jay

Worked on the intake plenum for the piping. Going to cut the smaller pipe off when I decide definately where the piping is coming up from the drivers side to meet the plenum pipe. This is the first try at the intake plenum. Still need to clean it up a bit. Would like to make a smoother transition in the 90 degree bend but want to keep the profile low. Thoughts? Jay

The Rabbit driver was smart not to let out of the throttle. Sloppy but smart. Jay

When you have the heads out, go ahead and have them pressure checked at a machine shop. They can be welded and it's not that expensive. All but one cylinder on my car had small cracks but turned out OK. Had the deck trued and three angle valve job. Less than 100.00. No cracks at the exhaust runners though. I wouldn't sweat them until you see them. If it makes you feel any better, I had a parts engine that got hot enough to make the timing belt cover sag over the bolts and the heads were OK. Hope your heads turn out healthy as well. regards, Jay Jay

Sounds like the AIC is doing its job because you get high idle when the car is cold. The engine is trying to compensate for unmetered air from somewhere. My Guess. Jay

Boost gauge goes here. Shows vacuum and boost. Jay

Edrach beat me to it. jay