Racecar Rebuild: its been awhile!

[foxbrand]

if you get a triangulated strut tower brace made out of titanium, could I get one made out of carbon or stainless steel? or at the least, a sketchup document of it?


rather than welding it in, you can have it going from the strut studs, to the windshield wiper motor attaches and also to the brake master cylinder (ok, so it would be trapazoidal then with two beams crossing each other within it), welding it in could cause issues later if you run a taller intake manifold or if you need to reach for something by the rear exhaust manifold, just my two cents

I won't think a motorcyle battery would be powerful enough, especially when it would get cold (well, your galant is your track/fun car, so that might not be that much of an issue), I'm toying around the idea of using the same battery that is in my Civic (which is light enough that I can pick it up and carry it with one hand), worse comes to worse, a 15 pound Braille battery would do

[6G72gearhead]

I ran a regular 16L from O'Reillys for years and it would start in the dead of winter, just fine. Really your engine should not pull over 200 amps while cranking. I think the highest I saw was 120 @ maybe 4*f, so damned cold. The reason you see such big lead acid batteries is because in 2 years they have lost almost half of their capacity, so if they are over twice what the car needs you get 4 years or more before you start seeing the diminished capacity effect your ability to start.

Not sure the strut tower brace will be out of titanium at the moment, part of it might be. Titanium won't weld to sheet steel. I keep thinking about using the pinch rail that spans the firewall for part of the mounting. I'm not going to use a 6G74 or a GTS manifold, so space isn't so much of a concern. Nothing is final right now. Plus I gotta get the car together before I can move it to where we'd be fabricating things for it.

[greddy]

interesting, I have a tubular front crash bar on my car now that weighs about half of what the stock one does for intercooler clearance purposes. can't wait to see progress

[6G72gearhead]

I won't be using an intercooler which reduces my design restrictions. When I get back to my house I'll get Sam over and we'll get some solid measurements to start working with.

[keith6110]

Nice to see some interest coming back! Sorry to hear about your story =/

[kolio]

Welcome back man. It's good to see people pushing their G's! I can't wait to see what you do now

[6G72gearhead]

Thanks guys, its good to be building this car again. Its been a long time coming but I think I'll be able to do some things now that really haven't ever been tried with the platform before. Looks like you guys have done a good job keeping it alive without me though!

[M-Rod]

The more the merrier! Every bit of contribution adds to our knowledge base :)

[6G72gearhead]

Did some work on the car today, I can't really tear into it yet since I still need to move it, but my lord is the engine bay a mess!



I need to start into the header so I pulled it out since its in the way to get the car on the trailer. There is more damage then I thought, both flex joints are busted and the dent is pretty bad, but I think with some heat it will come out.

[foxbrand]

I have a set of M2 (Megan knock off's) headers sitting in my basement I bought off SPD_FRK last year, if that isn't repairable, I can sell you them for $100

[Silvertune]

Why would he go from quality headers to outright garbage?

[foxbrand]

slice them apart and make a set of long tubes, I was planning on that until I figured out they were coated mild steel

[Silvertune]

This is real life not Legos, it's not that easy. Seriously.

If the OP doesn't want to fix them I'll buy them and fix them myself. The short tubes are hard to come by and I can fix them.

[6G72gearhead]

They are getting new joints from vibrant and then getting ceramic coated. We just measured them up after running them through the media blaster and should have the joints by the end of the week.

I've had really good luck with that header set, so I'm gonna fix it.

Saturday can't come soon enough, I'm so ready to tear the motor down and really clean up the car.

[6G72gearhead]

I don't know why people call them short tubes vs. long tubes, except that's what rpw calls them. Everything I've seen they are the same collector, the difference is the "short" tubes come with the lower section that attaches the two collectors.

Well I got the car moved yesterday, and we started the teardown, so here is it so far!









Had to use a shovel to pry the exhaust up enough to clear the trailer








Moving it off the trailer at the new location!


Starting the teardown!

[wetamup2k3g]

Coilovers + Stock wheels = Sleeeeper! You move quick, I love it!
Nice 8G pizza delivery car in the second pic.

[kolio]

what are you going to do about the brakes?

[6G72gearhead]

That's my neighbors car, I think he's pretty happy at the fact that I can fix anything on his car cheaper and faster then any shop in town, it helps my bank account too!

As for brakes, I'm looking for a set of brembo's, but I don't really have the money yet, so I'll probably just keep them stock and cheap to get the car moving again, and then do the brembo swap when I can.

Did a bunch of work today

Started here


In about 30 minutes




Not too long after










Thats all for now, gotta get my engine stand over and start taking apart the engine.

[6G72gearhead]

Some pictures I didn't get around to posting last night. I got the valve covers off, as well as the timing cover. Today is gonna be all about getting the rest of the engine apart and increasing the exhaust port size slightly.

[keith6110]

You move quick! Reminds me of myself haha. Can't wait to see some more progress!