Spyder Build Thread

[J-Groove]

Is that a max jax in the background?

-John

[mjannusch]

[quote=""J-Groove""]Is that a max jax in the background?[/quote]
Sure is... Works good.

[J-Groove]

[quote=""mjannusch""]Sure is... Works good.[/quote]

I was looking at those a lot! But now I'm more looking at one so I can car stack.

I just like the room you get with the Max Jax.

-John

[mjannusch]

My friend Oskar set his garage up with a 4-post lift to stack his two Stealths. Works great... He had to get a conversion kit for his garage door to put the tracks up closer to the ceiling to get clearance for the car on top with the door up, but it turned out really nice.

The ability to take down the MaxJax in a few minutes or put it back up in about 10 or so is really nice. Though I have a big enough garage where I haven't taken it down since the day I first installed it, so I probably should've gotten a conventional 2-post lift instead.

MaxJax is also great for garages that don't have the ceiling clearance required for a regular two-post lift.

[J-Groove]

[quote=""mjannusch""]My friend Oskar set his garage up with a 4-post lift to stack his two Stealths. Works great... He had to get a conversion kit for his garage door to put the tracks up closer to the ceiling to get clearance for the car on top with the door up, but it turned out really nice.
[/quote]


That is pretty much to a T what I am looking at doing, including raising my the garage door.

It would just be so nice to have that kind of access to the underside of the car. I'm starting my tans work in two weekends, so nice lift is definitely on my mind.

Your new engine build is looking great! I love your car.

-John

[Hans_GZP]

[quote=""mjannusch""]Made a rookie mistake and didn't install the coolant crossover tube before putting the heads on, so had to finagle a way to get the knock sensor and its bracket unhooked to slide it under there. Normally you can get it in there, but the way I have my block mounted to the engine stand has the stand's plate in the way a bit. Rather than unmounting, I managed to get the knock sensor bracket unbolted and slid far enough forward to get the tube in there.

Ugh... Pretty sure I made the same mistake last time I did this. Rear header is on... Need to locate my solid lifter so I can do the cam timing.[/quote]

You can just put the cross over tube on after you pull the engine off of the stand. You usually can't get the thermostat housing on with the engine on the stand anyway, so it leaves you with plenty of room to slide it in.

[mjannusch]

Yeah, I thought about that later, but I'm glad I got it in there. One less thing to worry about. Now I just have to figure out how to properly degree the cams.

[mjannusch]

Had a spare hour to mess around in the garage today, but determined that I need an extension for my dial gauge so it'll reach down to the valve spring retainer. So I guess I can't do the cam timing this weekend. I'll have to find other things to work on, though there is plenty.

Go over the engine bay paint with some Meguiars Ultra Cut to really clean it up
Mount up the new FMIC, if I decide to use it
Align '99 bumper cover, trim to fit FMIC, then get it painted
Make a merged FMIC inlet pipe, polish
Clean up some of the underhood wiring
Disassemble trans
Install bellhousing brace
Install front LSD
Swap quadco OS from my 5-speed to 6-speed trans
....

Yeah, that should be enough to keep me busy if I have any time this weekend.

[mjannusch]

I finally got some more garage time in... Swapped in a set of BC 264 cams, and degreed them all. Ended up at:

Code: Select all

Rear Exhaust:  +0.5
Rear Intake:   +6.0
Front Intake:  +2.5
Front Exhaust: +6.25

More assembly stuff... Injectors, fuel rails, timing belt covers, balancer, etc. Should be getting my headers over to the coater this week before I go on vacation.

[Jeff V.]

Those clear timing covers look cool when they're clean. But between heat and dirt, I can't imagine how they'll hold up over time.

[mjannusch]

Yeah, and the fit is terrible.

[stealthee]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]Those clear timing covers look cool when they're clean. But between heat and dirt, I can't imagine how they'll hold up over time.[/quote]

There is a review on 3sgto and its not favorable.

[mjannusch]

Yeah, I added on to the review thread on 3Si.

http://www.3si.org/forum/f56/product-re ... rs-742785/

[mjannusch]

More fun tonight... Cleaning polished parts with Nevr-Dull, etc. Coils, wires, plugs, plug cover... Headers off for coating.

[mjannusch]

I was able to spend some time out in the garage again today. I started fitting up the '99 bumper to see what would need to be done for the FMIC. It doesn't look good... I for sure won't be using my CustomCoach intercooler as it is so tall that the outlet is basically down in the lower lip of the bumper and would probably distort the bumper cover. It also has dual-inlet on the driver's side, and the height there isn't real great either. I'd have one inlet pipe exposed and nothing else showing on the passenger side. That's not going to work.

So I looked at my Treadstone core that I had for the drag car. It is 3" shorter top to bottom and would put the inlet and outlet right about at the height of the openings for the foglights. That core is 4.5" thick compared to 3" thick on my old core, and would require a fair amount of trimming on the '99 bumper.

I now see why people don't put in the side accent pieces - the plastic part that holds them in place in the middle makes it difficult to route IC piping through there. I think I can get it though. I've got a rad set of tools, if you know what I mean.

Headers are ceramic coated, and I pick them up tomorrow morning so I can finish motor assembly and get the turbos on and all set up (clocked, oil feeds/drains, coolant feeds/returns, IC piping, etc.).

[mjannusch]

Here's the CustomCoach core. Yes, it is a monster. About as big as you can go with a 3" thick core.

[J-Groove]

That thing is huge!

Looking great! Thanks for the updates!


-John

[mjannusch]

Greg, what's the best way to clean the wrinkle red powder coating? There's a small spot on the corner of the front valve cover that looks like it got a little oil dripped on it somehow. I don't want to use something that'll screw up the new powder coat...

[Monochrome]

WD-40 with a toothbrush. Any mild auto body soap will work too.

It's really no different than cleaning a stock valve cover.

[mjannusch]

Waiting on various parts to arrive... Convert the banjo bolt at the oil block to the front turbo to AN4, convert coolant feeds/returns for turbos to AN6, various fuel system plumbing parts, etc.

I did get the IPS oil feed/return kit from them, but the way they did it is kind of fucked up. There's quite a bit too much hose on the returns (guessing they want the return to loop around the O2 housing instead of behind for some reason). With my front motor mount setup there's plenty of clearance to just go direct to the pan from the turbo without getting close to the exhaust, so that's what I'm going to do.

Probably will look at options for how/where I want to fit the intercooler and pipes. Whether I'll try to go "behind" the side pieces of the bumper cover at the bottom, or snake through where the spots are for the foglights (which are just about the right radius cutout in the cover for 3" pipes). Hoping I can go low and keep the splitters in the two side ducts for appearance.

I hate my hoses, so I ordered up a bunch of stuff from Hose Candy. Should be cool... I'll be using the Gates PowerGrip hose clamps, too. Not sure about the intercooler piping if I'll try a Gates clamp or stick with the T-bolt clamps. Probably T-bolt, but the Gates ones look pretty sweet - just not convinced they'll hold 35+ psi on a 3" coupler, though I hear they use those on turbo diesel big rig stuff without a problem.