1 month $2013 1988 Lancer Shelby build

In reply to Vigo:

We're really sorry to hear that. I can't speak for anyone else, but I certainly saw you thrashing trying to get it all done in the month. Just keep this thread up, keep plugging away and get it all sorted A+ for 2014.

or else!

Vigo wrote: At this point i'm not interested in making hay about it and just hope that no lies are being told about me at the challenge.

Too bad. We're talking SO MUCH E36 M3 right now about you and how you're a liar, a horrible wrench, and ugly to boot. I mean, if you were here you could defend yourself, but...you're not.

Bryce

Hahahah, i knew it!

I'm really pretty happy about this whole thing, considering... I feel more psyched about 2014 than i am any kind of let down about 2013.

So i have a tentative date with the dragstrip Dec. 11. Hopefully Matt and i will be able to get it tuned 'well enough' by then.

It was 89 degress yesterday so hopefully it will be better turbo weather in December.

I took a weekend COMPLETELY away from 'car stuff' but drove the car a couple miles before going to bed last night to psych myself up a little.

Now that i have time on my side again i want to fix the wheel offset. I dont like running these shelby lancer wheels but if i'm going to, i have to fix the offset. I can easily make some brake spacers for the rear, and i will probably press in some longer Ford Taurus studs i have on the front and see if i can run 10mm of wheel spacer. 15x6.5 +40 Yuck! I put the rear interior back together. It's still very dusty from storage. Need to install those front speakers sometime.

Supposed to go to Matt's later and try to get some fuel tuning done.

Also, the rear main leak fixed itself. Hah!! I win!

Virginia plates? Aren't you in TX?

sethmeister4 wrote: Virginia plates? Aren't you in TX?

It and my Lancer came from up north.

Yes, and i only drove it with a temp tag for the ~2 months it was street driven so far.

So i went to Matts place last Weds to do some tuning. I heard a light noise from the engine on the way there. We checked the oil and compared it to the noise that his motor has made for years and i decided it was probably not critical.

Well, by the time i drove the 40 miles back from there, it was beyond critical. There's now bearing material everywhere in the motor. Since the gauge never lost pressure and it made it ~100 miles before starting to fail, im assuming that there is a restricted oil passage somewhere in the block after the point the pressure reading comes off of. I won't know until i take it apart.

But, long story short, it needs another bottom end. Sigh. Gotta love "rebuilt" motors. I've NEVER had a factory bottom end do this on any of the ~20 of these motors i've owned. My $2009 car had a ~256k miles motor in it. This car may get it. And if it does, it will probably continue to work fine forever because nobody's been in there to berkeley it up yet. If anyone ever asks me why i always throw high-miles used motors into things rather than spending money to have one "rebuilt", well.. i'm sure glad i didn't pay full price for this motor.

Just think of the engine in your $2009 car as "seasoned"

Will the 2.5 bottom end in my garage work? Its been sitting open since you took all of the good bits off of it, but it still looked OK yesterday.

Now that you mention it... yes!

Can you spray some wd40 or some such on the cylinder walls and take over the deck with masking tape or duct tape or something? Gotta think when i can come get it.

Funny, i hadnt even made the connection between turning down a free 2.5 bottom end and needing one a month later. Derp!

sethmeister4 wrote: Virginia plates? Aren't you in TX?

Vigo wrote: Yes, and i only drove it with a temp tag for the ~2 months it was street driven so far.

Was looking forward to seeing the car at the Challenge. I thought you guys were in Richmond? It's good to know there are other Challenger's so close by, well, 4 hours close by.

Im in San Antonio! 4 hours hauling ass with no traffic from you, i believe. 5-6 if you run into traffic in any of the 3 major cities on I-35.

In reply to Vigo:

I'll see what it looks like when I get home tomorrow. If it looks good I can bring it to Brianne's on Saturday if you can meet me out there to get it. I think I can lift it in the truck.

What time are you going out there? Dragging your new race car? I have a family event sometime in the afternoon but i cant figure it'll be early enough i couldnt go up there.

As for picking up the block by yourself, DONT do that!! Especially not for me! Im not the smallest guy and a bare block is no fun for me to pick up from ground level. I have a hard time moving shortblocks around by myself over here (i have a couple 2.2s with 'piston issues'). I've never picked one up to truck-bed level without help. So, if there is noone to help you i would just make me drive to your house!

Saturday is rallycross day so I'll be there all day, probably from dark to dark. I'll let you know how things look when I get home. I know I can get it loaded, somehow.

Supposed to pick up the motor from Mazdeuce tomorrow.

How soon it will find its way into the car.. I won't speculate. I know it needs a lot of cleaning.

If Vigo can make a good running motor out of that bottom end he's a hero. It has something like 196k miles on it and one of the cylinders was full of water yesterday. It should have negative challenge value.

Not sure if bumping this thread with no big news is even a good thing to do, but..

I still have this car. It's been sitting for 1 year! I've started it and driven it a few times just to keep my damn fuel pumps from dying (my k-car pumps ALWAYS die from sitting and this car has double the fuel pumps to die on me).

Why haven't i touched it? Eh.. Life. Starting in January i worked 55 hours a week til August (at one point switching from 55 at one job to 55 between two jobs) and was very lazy on weeknights and didnt get anything done. I spent most of the year saving and prepping for home ownership, and part of that was getting as much of my junk as possible to be self-propelled so it could be moved when the time came. Since the Lancer always ran, i never took it apart to fix it and focused on the stuff that wouldnt start. In august i bought my house. Since then i've also bought an SRT4-swapped caravan and traded my old Dakota for some f2t mazdas, one of which is about to get tags and become a DD after i put a fuel pump in it and replaced the clutch hydraulics. So it just never made it to the top of the list all year.

I DID pull down the old motor from the $2009 Aries (i did this because i actually took the whole original drivetrain from the Lancer and put it in there) and was thinking of using this to do a quick shortblock swap on the Lancer, but it turned out i let the block crack during that one crazy year where we had an actual winter and i just never found the damage until now. Whoops! I do still have the shortblock that Mazdeuce gave me and i feel like i'm starting a motor-building binge right now (im building a 2.2 for my Spirit currently) so maybe i will mix and match a motor together in the next few months.

So those are my excuses! I did buy a house and get an awesome job (two actually, but i only kept one) and lose 35 lbs this year so it's not ALL bad.