Man dropping your tranny in the driveway sucks! Been there, done that. I can appreciate the fact your whole car is being done with basic tools and you have used some know-how to get it all done! Very nice (Borat)!

 

yeah it's a pain dropping that thing, my main concern was getting the flywheel bolts off. everyone kept saying what a pain it was to keep the flywheel from spinning. fortunately i have an air gun for that and a compressor that i set to 120psi.

i wish i had a garage though, if i did this car would have been done a long time ago. but because i don't i have to plan my upgrades for weekends and in between the maintenance of this car as well as 4 others.

 

I've worked on my families cars since I was like 12 lol. Until about a year ago (Im now almost 18), all of which was done in the gravel. It certainly is nice to work in a garage!

As for those bolts, you got lucky. I put a new clutch in my sohc before it starting running rough and one flywheel bolt was a pain and my impact wasn't working.

 

good to hear you got an early start. i didn't get started working on cars until i was about 19 or 20. i've been taking
things apart all my life so it really wasn't much different.


anyways i finally got around to driving my car and wow! throttle response has greatly increased and the tire spine like crazy. stepping on the gas will take some getting use to. i might have to remove the hi throttle pulley so i can step on the gas somewhat without the car lunging like it currently dose.

i spoke with don at pdm and he told me that my cam should be ready by about mid week. i'll probably get to installing it on thanksgiving though because i still haven't finished taking apart my lifters to clean them out.

as of now these are the upgrade and what nots that i've installed,


custom intake with k&n filter
msd blaster ss ignition coil
walbro 255lph fuel pump
dual 12" electric fans
cusco engine mounts
tb coolant bypass
obx 4-2-1 header
fidanza flywheel
ground wires
high flow cat

i might have forgot something but i think that's all so far.

 

beautiful build man, car looks great....whats next

 

for now all i plan to do it install the new cam from colt cams. then maybe a safc/safc 2. i already had a safc but i sold it because i couldn't find any info for operating it. i felt really stupid afterwards because the info was on the apex site. i was on that site so often and never found it until it was too late.

i'm not looking for huge gains so the safc and cam will probably be it for now. then hopefully when it gets warm (i'm thinking april) i'll paint my car and maybe get some decent wheels.

some things i'd like to get but not sure if i will are an ignition system like msd or one by summit and a 1pc aluminum drive shaft. also i don't plan on completely gutting my car but i'll look for more weight to get rid of. i want it to look as intact as possible.

 

the cam arrived today and i have a chance tomorrow to install it since i took the day off. but i also promised to do a write up on the electric fans so i'll hopefully do that tomorrow and install the cam in the near future.
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**** the writeup, people can wait. Its cam install Friday! woot

 

yea bro, i see your posts all over this site and their all awesome! I'd say take the day and do what you would rather do, which i would think is install the cam.
nice build up so far too!

 

thanks guys but i have yet to finish cleaning my lifters. i don't plan on installing the cam until they are all clean. i have a slight tick right now so i figure i should take care of both things at once.



most likely i'll do the write up,polish some parts, and relax for the rest of the day.

 

as promised here's the write up on the electric fans.
http://www.club240.com/forums/showth...874#post341874

 

-how much power do you think you gained from all the free/custom/cheap/easy mods you did, Jr.? I'm just wondering because i did most of these things to my car, but i didn't really notice a difference for each one individually. (egr/emissions/flywheel/maf/catback/aiv/short-left-side-intake/300zxFF/)

-Also, won't the MAF read differently now that you bored out the center section?

 

i wouldn't say i gained much hp but rather allowed the engine to run with less stress. the only single free mod that i would say did give me some noticeable gains was the egr block off. i later hooked it back up because the car ran really rich all the time.

the aiv just cleaned things up.

the tb and short intake - help reduce the lag caused but a restriction in are flow which improve acceleration.

the flywheel, i have mixed emotions about only because of the price. the engine revs faster which makes the car quicker but is cost nearly $300.

all in all the car is defiantly quicker but still lacks power at higher speeds. this is not a problem for me though because most of my driving is done in the city. looking back the only mod that i would probably reconsider it the flywheel. i read about a guy having his stock flywheel shaved to withing a few pounds of that of an aluminum one for about 25% of the cost.

now the maf, yes it should read different but not much more than normal. that lip that got ground off was probably designed there for torque but that's not a major setback considering the ka has plenty torque. it is only 3mm wider than stock so the ecu should still be able to measure the amount of air and adjust accordingly.

the idea is to allow more measured air in so the ecu can still maintain the proper a/f ratio but with more of both and in turn produce more hp. that's what i hope anyways.

like i said at the beginning, i'm not looking to build a track car or even get to 200hp. so considering that i've done all my own work and have (until recently) kept the cost down am very happy with the results. now you say you didn't notice a difference individually, neither did i. in fact the header at first seemed like that was a great addition because of the very noticeable gains, however with time i became accustomed to it and it seems normal now.

also i bet you did like me and modified your car over an extended period of time and not all at once. i'm sure had you done them all at once you would be very happy with the difference in performance with the free/cheap mods compared to that of the stock engine.

 

also i should add that truly noticeable hp gains can only be archived by the introduction of more air,fuel, and spark. reducing rotational mass will only free up hp that your engine is currently capable of producing.

 

yea man. im stayin with my sohc but it needs tuning and fix. it shakes at idle for some reason... still have to rigur it out. im goin all suspension