Update!!!

Yeah, not much of an update. Im still alive. I still have the 02. Im in the process of moving all my stuff 3 thousand miles, so I havent had much time to keep the updates coming. Expect some activity in August. Thank you, come again.

Half step forward

Block is back from the machine shop with a clean bill of health. Unfortunately, we had to put the head down. Since getting the block back its been painted and crank installed with ARP hardware. Used plastigage with standard size bearings to check clearances. Amazingly the crank has seen zero wear in the past thirty years. Clearance for all journals right around the min. spec.

Block treatment: thermal clean, magnaflux, decked, bore/hone.

Crank treatment: cleaned, magnaflux, measure, polish.

Cylinder head installed just for mockup.

MegaSquirt

No, its not Ron Jeremy's latest film. Its the DIY engine management from B&G.

Hit a couple glitches with assembly and testing, but all is up and running now. I feel very edumacated. Engine should be assembled in the next couple weeks. Then i need to do some wiring and set up the (aheemmmmmm) ford ignition system, and hopefully fire it up. Month maybe?

Blank MII V3.0 main board:

Partially assembled:

Completed board:

Completed board, relay board, and stimulator:

Megasquirt Megatune software, still not porn:

The engine is out getting all the machine work done. Lots of good stuff to come.

Roll center

In an attempt to regain proper control arm travel and angle, Ive installed Massive Lee's 32mm roll center spacers. If you ever have the chance to order something from Massive I guarantee you wont be disappointed. Everything Ive gotten from him has been a perfect fit and finish.

Its pretty pathetic when you look at a picture of your suspension and think, "I need to dust that, wait, is that a fingerprint?".

Redneck engineering.

As of now, the plan is to make my own turbo manifold flange. Im using 3/8" steel.

Normally you would use the exhaust manifold gasket as a template for the flange. Since the gaskets for this head are not one piece, I had to come up with something else.

After a lot of daydreaming about other stuff, I figured out a solution. Take some painters tape, apply to ports, rub tape with greasy gloves. This left a perfect stamp of the ports on the tape. Then remove the tape and apply to steel. Cut away.

Picked up a 1" hole saw to start the ports.
Its times like this I wish I had a bandsaw.

I got head

Picked up an E21 head. Just got it disassembled for now. Will be sending it to the machine shop to have the surface checked.

This car might have had some intake restrictions:

Lumens

Sort of finished one taillight. One of the circuits in the brake light is inop due to me running out of the proper resistor. I plan on setting up the other light in stock form for a side by side comparison. I will also be getting new lenses that will be less faded letting more light through.

Accident avoidance

In an effort to avoiding becoming a statistic of another 02 being rearended, Ive decided to upgrade the rear light assemblies. The stock brake lights are very dim, and dont do an excellent job of alerting tailgaters (high school girls trying to text message a fellow chearleader about a crush she has on the quarterback) that I am coming to a stop. My old roommate John from Jersey would be proud of the lumens my new taillights will be throwing out.

Ingredients for taillights: Lots of LEDs, resistors of a specific value, pc board, steady hands.

For this board it is four parallel circuits, each with 5 LEDs in series. A 1/4watt, 39 ohm resistor keeps each circuit within spec. I used a simple LED calculator to determine the proper schematic based on the factory LED specs.

Obviously not completely done, but you get the idea:
The luminous intensity of the white LEDs is 13000mcd, versus 8000 for the red ones. I will be using white ones for the brake lights, red for running lights, white for reverse, and orange(5000mcd) for turn signals. Im no electronics expert, so if you see something sketchy speak up!

After getting an estimate for dropping off a dirty assembled motor for rebuilding, Ive decided to do all the work myself i can. Hopefully Ill be dropping the block off this week at the machine shop.

Rollaaaa

Finally, its an official roller. Rear suspension is "done".

Coilover sleeves arent against their perch cause its jacked in the air again.

Hopefully next update will be of this engine fully rebuilt.

Once the engine is rebuilt:

-install engine with transmission, modify tunnel to accept transmission.

-mockup steering rack, design steering column.

-measure driveshaft length and send out to get shortened/balanced.

-install pedals according to final steering wheel position, bend brake lines.

-install seats according to ^^^

-get engine running.

-burnout.

Support out back

Finally made it to the metal place where they sell, uh, metal. This rear suspension cage(?) is going to be completely assembled out of car in order to get full welds. Still need to weld on the upper coilover mounts and one of the sideplates. It will then be welded into the car at both ends and the bottom. I was going to triangulate the hell out of it. Then I decided to keep it simple, as i think this will be plenty strong. It looks really heavy, but its actually under 15 pounds(arm scale method).

As of right now, it looks like my plans of running the coilovers inverted is going to happen.

Obviously i chopped off the old upper mount area. I also moved the upper mounting point forward a couple of inches to help maintain the original geometry as I moved the lower mount forward as well. Coolest part is that the ride height should be able to be adjusted from the trunk!

On Deck.

With the suspension coming to a close, the engine is on deck. Basically a full rebuild with stock components. Forged pistons will be added to handle the boost. Stroke will stay stock, bore will be determined once cylinders have been checked.