Howdy all. Weather is starting to break way to fair weather in MI so I can actually work on the car. I honestly don't have it in me to work on the car if it is not nice out. Well... it had to be nice for my last task.
I dropped the kmember so that I could scuff and repaint the entire engine bay with steel-it. There were a lot of scuffs that went into the metal of the car from all the work on the car previously, the paint I used last time was too soft. The engine bay was scuffed and wiped down with acetone. It takes 4-6 cans depending on how many coats you want to do on your car. I'm doing 6 because I have a few areas I want to go back over. It's really nice to have a pristine engine bay again. All the swamp bits were cleaned and blown out. It really put some wind back in my sails.
While the kmember is out I'm going to put in the steering rack and SPL tie rod ends. If anyone has pointers for the SPL outer tie rods, I'm all ears.
I've decided to change my accessory drive to a single mid mount alt and remove my power steering pump out of the equation and switch to an MA motor sports packaged electric pump. I'm not sure where I'm mounting that just yet, but the engine is out and I know where everything fit previously so I'm sure the mounting task will be much easier. A decision was also made to run electric AC at some point.
Everything is running off the electrical system so I had to find a billy bad azz alt, which I did. The previous alternator location locked me into a small frame alt which could only produce 150amps. Part of the decision to change the location of the alt was so I could in fact run a large alt. I decided to go with a 400amp Mechman. This should take care of all the demand. A consideration was taken into account for high rpm of the engine so the diameter of the alt wheel was increased to pair with my -10% underdrive balancer. That's a big deal, because I can't have the alt burn out from over spinning. Last reason I wanted the alt moved was to get it away from the turbo up pipes. That's a pretty simple reason. Heat kills everything.
Other misc parts news.... hmmm.... I ordered a new W brace from GK Tech because my OE was bent from trying to grind a curb like a skate board. My transmission has been fully serviced and is ready for action.
In true F-Up fashion, I attempted to drill the plenum holes on my machined heads from M6 to M8. It went like sh!t. The machined heads were swapped with a non machined set of 243 heads (same casting) and are off to get machined again. You might ask, why didn't you have the machine shop tap for M8? well, I tried but they were drilled previously and didn't want to attempt the correction. They had already started on my heads so I was committed to that job.
That being said, I am getting a new set machined, transferred spring components, valves. BUT... BTR is coming out with a thick deck big block like heads (valves canted to a different degree) that are meant for boost and flows a lot. I'm on the call back list when they come out in 4th quarter 2024 or maybe even early 2025.
In-between all that, I've still been making a few carbon inserts for the Nismo v2 Front Fascia. I'm about done with the small run. I feel confident in telling you that the inserts were just carbon fiber practice and I am going to make a front end air box for my car and then duct the air out through the center of the Varis Kamikaze.... which means I am going to cut a 3,500 hood. I'll be sure to get that on video. lol
Links to all the things I mentioned that I purchased:
https://ma-motorsports.com/products/...ering-pump-kit
https://us.gktech.com/products/z34x-wbrc-placeholder
https://www.mechman.com/alternators/...4-18-gm-truck/
https://mkcustomz.com/ols/products/l...lancer-spacing
