building a 2002

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.

Could have finished up the manifold but ran out of welding gas and pipe. Almost all tacked up.

The inspiration:

Wicked heada guy

Vacuum hose makes great headers. Well, for mockup.

I first started with an equal length design, then abandoned ship when i saw how many bends there would be. Apparently equal length isnt that big of a gain in turbo applications. Dont try to convince me otherwise because ive decided to take the easy way out.

Equal length:

Not so equal length:

If I were to start over, i would make the collector first. I made a cardboard mockup collector which i later abandoned(after starting the header) because it was ugly, even in cardboard. Now my collector design has completely changed due to an almighty vision, and i may have to modify the current pipe configuration to make it work. Oops. I know the outlets look like theyre never going to join, but its in the eye of the fabricator(me).

Much prettier collector design(notice im not even showing the cardboard design). For this, i cut two sections of 3ish inch pipe, then cut them lengthwise. Then welded a halfinchish piece to the top of each. Its gonna take a lot of work to get them to blend together, but the ladies will just love it. Or not.

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.