The Money Pit!

[spdracr]

Very nice. I'm considering the 2g manifold instead of the evo manifold cuz I really don't like the look of a manifold spacer and if I would to change the Turbo down the road it would be less hassle

Where can I find that manifold??

[spdracr]

The rear mount inserts will only work on the 3g rear mount. Trust me I know and as roman he'll tell u too.

Did u eliminate the AC or did u manage to keep it??

[xd_01]

lol ac? who needs that its a track day car, it doesnt even have interior just 2 seats and door panels.

so i wanted to share some pics of my "new to me" garage that im renting. theres an awesome build thread on Evom by this dude his s/n is Jid2 (you should check it out sometime) where he shares his evo build and it kinda evolves into his garage setup along with other projects. hes some sort of engineer by trade so his thought process on some of his projects is really interesting so i would like to model this thread after his even though it couldnt really compare but its fun to try and share pics at the same time which i tend to take alot of anyway.

so heres the bare garage, small but its about the same size as the driveway that my build started out in so it will work.



i have all the lumber cut and ready to get started building a work bench cause every good garage needs one





laying out the sides making sure there square so i can start screwing it together





clamped it to the shelf so i can start screwing the frame together





got it stood up with the bench top on



almost finished



and done





im saving up for a a piece of S.S. for the bench top and vise and im good to go



got my tool box in, its a lil cramp but still workable but it beats working on the street and using the Tahoe as a tool box/work bench lol





monday im gonna bring in the 330i so i can get it ready for the track next weekend (VIR), brake pads, wheel stud swap, and wheels/tires are on the agenda so stay tuned
PEACE!

[4g63lover]

Awesome set-up bro. I hope to one day have my OWN space I'm driving the in-laws crazy with all the spare parts and toold everywhere. lol

[spdracr]

How much is this garage running u??

[xd_01]

not much.

so im pretty excited i just got my brand spanking new star specs mounted on the new track wheels, i cant wait to get em on.

[xd_01]

well on with another update, the galant is back on the road but still needs a ton of tweeking but the first order of business is a car wash this friday night at the flagship (locals know what im talking about) after probaly 4 years of neglect im gonna finally give it the love it deserves lol, a simple car wash at the pressure washer.

i got the bimmer setup for the track last week with hawk pads, square wheels and star specs.
got the brakes bedded-in the same day of leaving for the track and loaded the car on the trailer and headed to VIR for are the 5.5hr trip to the VA/N.C. border. wouldve been shorter been traffic is weird in VA on the 95 south for some reason.

we got to the hotel about 1:30am and had to wait till about 2:30am to fall asleep because the baby didnt fall asleep rightway. got up at 5:45am to jump in the shower and guess what,,,,no hot fvcking water i was vexd, is this how my day is gonna start lol.

after all the bullsh!t i got to the track, unloaded the car, attended the all hands meeting and classroom session with no time to spare, torqued my lugs and checked the air pressure in the tires and i was on grid nervous as fvck cuz ive never been here before and its a real intimidating track.

First lap put me at ease though and my instructor was cool and encouraging
so that helped alot, overall i did pretty good for my first time there although i did have my moments and did get passed alot but did some passing myself and left some of the higher hp cars in the dust at the corners which was fun but they would catch up in the straights anyway.

by the end of the weekend i was doing well for my first time there but have lots of corners to work on amongst other things which is making me want to find more events at different tracks with different organizations so i can go more frequent and build more skill.


lol its addicting to say the least!

some pics from the garage and track.

on track pics coming soon hopefully

changed brake pads and installed studs, Bimmers come with bolts for the wheel studs.



i put paint marker indicator lines the rotors to check for any movement of the studs



front wheels on



Bimmers are weird,, theres no real good place to jack up the car to put it on all four floor stands because

#1 the whole underside of the car is covered with flat plastic so you cant just place the jack just anywhere with out removing underside panels

#2 the car has 4 jack points near the edge of the rockers which is good but lets say you want to put the front of the car on stands, you then have to jack up the car by using the rear jack points of the car high enough to ge the jack stand under the front jack points/ or pads cause thats what they actually are.

and if you have a narrow garage space like i do the you have to place the jack on a hard angle to clear the wall while jacking up which actually moved my car about a foot while it was on the floor jack,, scarey sh!t.



flat bottom



comparsion of the stock Michelins 255 v.s. the Dunlop Star specs 245 width, the dunlops almost look wider



rears





at the track ready to pack it up and head for home



lots of brake dust on new wheels, but there track wheels so oh well.





couldnt resist adding a pic of me and the baby

[jubeiaire]

WHAT no icecream on his face after a daddy son ICECREAM CELEBRATION for a sucessful run............................. BOOOOOOOOOO i wanna se icecream on that baby...

Congrats on a good run with no mechanical issues.

Also you should get a low profile high rise jack with a 360 swivel handle or


helped me get my car up this high and im dropped lowww


$99 bucks at pepboys.

[jubeiaire]

if your in ny to get it tues - thurs i can get you %10 off, its not a lot but it covers taxes

[xd_01]

lol haha na no icecream him yet, soon though!

That jack is crazy i gotta get one, im not in NY now but thanks for the offer

[xd_01]

finally gave the galant a good wash after almost 3 years, luckily it wasnt that bad because i always kept it covered and my pops gave it a quick wash once, maybe twice during the build. felt good though to cover the car with suds and even better to take it for a cruise right after on a friday night even though i was back home by like 10:30 lol

[wetamup2k3g]

I want that MMC badge lol. Looking good bro.

[8thLS6]

Nice..always feela better when you get the car clean, even if its a quick spray down

[xd_01]

tru that!,,,,,,,,

that mmc badge i got off of ebay a long time ago, i dont know if there still available.

[4g63lover]

Looks good! I am glad she is up and running again man!

[xd_01]

i havent done much with Galant since i washed it, actually i havent even driven it since, ive just been lazy.

what ive done though is got rid of the pusher fan, my tuner says the puller should be enough and the pusher might be an obstruction to the radiator during high speeds since its mounted right in front of the radiator. i figure i would i try it and keep an eye on the water temp gauge. also got rid of the airhorns since the compressor went bad, im gonna miss those but im not gonna spend the money to replace them. eventually im gonna replace the steering wheel with a sparco.

passenger side of the radaitor is where the fan use to be



next i re-loomed the engine harness since i pulled it apart before when was trouble shooting the mechanical failure at the track a while ago. i wasnt happy with it to begin with and ive been meaning to re-wrap it anyway.

pretty messy here



got it pretty neat here but the problem is its long to really have the "clean" look im going for.



same pic as above but here i highlighted the area that should be shortened, it about 20"s.
im not about to cut it now but one day when i pull all the HVAC out ill pull the harness too and go to work it, that wont be for another couple of winters.



next is the ecu conversion harness from boomslang, it served its purpose but now it has to go. the galant side connector has pins that are just too weak, every time i move the harness around to work on something i have to be careful not snap one off. ive already done it twice and luckily i realized it happened at that exact moment so i knew the location it broke off from. you can see how easy it is for a broken off wire to get lost. i dont need that to happen again.



gotta bounce though, ill continue later

[Galantman03]

If you want to clean that harness up, move the fuse box to the trunk :) it will remove A TON of non engine wires.... Cuz that's a ears nest

[xd_01]

you know i really only saw three wires on one female plug that connect to the fuse box. are the rest routed behind the fire wall following the harness that routes behind the driver side fender? i havent really studied the FSM yet, wiring diagrams make me dizzy.

[Galantman03]

Yeah those are for the starter wires you short when you do the manual swap and the alternator. But there is more. All I'm going to say is it is totally worth it

[xd_01]

here's a pic of the harness where i started to label the wires with the pin numbers they correspond to on the AEM/evo ecu plug. im using 3g manual plugs (same plugs) that i got from a doner car from at the junkyard. basically the idea is to triple check forwards and backwards the pin numbers and label the wire, im also gonna go a step further and label them with the pin number they use to go to on the old galant plugs to avoid any confusion down the line.

ive never done this before so im a lil nervous about the whole project thats the reason for all the triple checking lol.



here are the 3g plugs i got from the junkyard. the idea is once everything is labeled im gonna start removing the wires from the galant plug and placing them in the 3g plugs. ill start with one plug at a time so once its finish i can plug it in and start the car, if anything is wrong the problem will be narrowed to 20 or less wires per plug (it varies) rather then 100 on all four.



sounds easy enough right? theres a potential problem though the terminals i started to pull from the 3g plug are two different sizes. you cant really tell from the pic above (the shiny ends of the wire) but ill take some better ones tommorow. the problem is the galant terminal might all be one size because just by looking at the face of that plug they seem to be the same size on all the plugs. now if you look at the 3g plugs you can tell just by looking at the face that some are small and some are a bigger size, so will the galant terminals mate with the 3g plugs? well theres only one way to find out, maybe somebody knows already and could help me out.

well the solution if it turns out that they dont fit is to buy a plug and terminal kit from AEM for like $70 bucks, but then i have to buy a special crimper for like $100 and REAL wire stripper for around $50 to do the job right. ive been meaning to buy some pro crimpers and wire strippers but this is just bad timing lol.

heres a sneak peak of what came into today

future rear tow hook, just gotta shape it out lol.