Quick breakdown of the last 10 years of mayhem to start things off.
In 2013 we got some advanced notice about Final Bout. At the time I was driving an NB miata that had been rolled, kissed a few walls, and had an engine on it's last leg. I had a new shell and a 13b-rew as well as a Q45 mid-manual swap and motor rebuild waiting in the wings, but neither were anywhere near completion. I had always wanted a two tone so when the perfect candidate popped up I knew it was time to part ways with the other projects and return to my s13 roots.
I had originally intended to do a slight restoration, lower it, and stick with little wheels, but things quickly spiraled out of control. By the time Final Bout rolled around I had put a dual cam in, slammed it on some combo of Weds, Gramlights, or Advans, and put Sexy Style-style aero on with a fresh coat of paint.
After driving nearly 3 events a month leading up to and following Final Bout, I decided it was time for more power and I had fallen in love with Car Modify Wonder, which I thought would look funny two tone. I didn't do the first start up with the SR until the day before we loaded the cars up to head to Final Bout 2.
I ended up breaking 2 transmissions at FB2, which sent me down a rabit hole for the next 1.5 years. Finally I managed to get my shit together just before the first Super D Party at Grange (now AVS) and got a bunch of events in over the following couple years.
And then it was time for another change to promote Auto-Collect Storm (RIP), which I was involved with for a short period of time. Green turned out to be a bad luck color and I only was able to successfly drive a couple events until the motor showed signs of problems.
I had picked up a hatch that I was planning to daily and grip during the green car phase and after the SR in the green car seemed to take a turn for the worse, my focus shifted to the hatch, which quickly got out of hand...
I got a good deal on a Tomei exhaust manifold, which inspired me to go down the KA-T path. When I pulled the turbo off the SR to use on the KA, I realized the oil drain tube had a bubble on the inside, causing the oil to back up, which was the source of the smoke, not valve seals or any other issue with the SR ๐
I was too far down the KA-T route to turn back and fully comitted to the hatch and picked up some 326 aero and SP1's. It was a good car and I got it working/driving really nice.
Unfortunately, the KA wasn't a fan of the boost and let go at Super D NYE. After looking at KA longblock prices, I decided to part the car out and shift my focus back to the coupe. I put the turbo back on the SR and put it back in the coupe hoping everything would work just like it had before I removed it. But of course for whatever reason the SR wouldn't start without a push start, but once it did, it'd run perfectly. After trying to diagnose the main coupe for nearly a year, I again got a bit carried away on another side project...
I picked up another two tone in 2016 that I, again, had intended to restore. After sitting for 6 years, I finally gave it some attention, putting in a single cam, doing a manual swap, and adding come bits and pieces from the other coupe.
And then uhhhh I couldn't get it to run right. I kept thinking I had the problem solved when I'd do shakedowns around town, but the second I took it to the track it'd fall on it's face. At this point, I realized I was doing the same thing over and over again when I should just finish my original plan. So I put the car up for sale and used the money to buy the rest of what I needed to complete the k swap that I had started piecing together 6 years earlier.
But first, I had to go on a quick side quest putting an engine in an NC that I got for free. This time it really didn't delay the k swap at all, which was nice. If anyting it actually helped because it made commuting to and from my shop while working on the coupe wayyyyy cheaper.
Winter '22-'23 I busted my ass getting the car ready with the goal of driving Final Bout SSNW. I spent a hair too much time doing body work and ended up only having the week before the event to button up the k swap and get the car tuned. Given my history I decided to not push my luck.
I took my time finishing up the swap and finally got to take it out for it's first event in August. To my surprise the car ran perfectly. The only issue I found was the k likes to rattle everything loose and the gearing was a bit short. Some blue Loctite and a 3.5 final drive did the trick and it's been ripping without skipping a beat since!
New idler pulley and tensioner came in just in time to get the car back together for our first ever Gold Star cruise and bbq, which was nice. Zero hiccups on the 100+ mile loop of mostly highway cruising and 25 miles of mountain road.
I did lose a chunk of straight body filler from the corner of my fender on the adventure though ๐
Shop hangs and BBQ is always a good time!
After the cruise I did a nut and bolt check in preparation for an event and found a cracked weld on the passenger rear drop knuckle, likely from the off-track excursions the previous track day. Probably a very low likelihood, but still glad it didn't have a catastrophic failure on the cruise haha
Rather than get it welded up, I decided to switch to PBM's newer cast versions to hopefully avoid any future cracking issues. And I figured while I was at it I might as well upgrade to the newer RUCA's, which provide more axle boot clearance.
But of course 5 minutes in I had to prank myself. My trusty little ratchet-that-could called it quits after a decade of similarly abusive antics. What the hell is a breaker bar?!
A couple days, beers, and a new 1/2" breaker bar later I arrived at self-prank number 2. Pretty sure this was the original cotter pin from 1989... Bent back and forth more times than a used car lot's wacky wavy inflatable arm guy.
20 minutes with a Dremel and a pick later I found self-prank numero tres. I actually recall noticing this issue when the arms and subframe were on my hatch, but totally forgot to flip it around when I transferred it to the coupe fully assembled. I have the front of the subframe shimmed so getting it to even drop just enough to pull the bolt out took a good amount of effort. Good thing I had a brand new breaker bar to use for leverage because what the hell is a pry bar?!
I also replaced both axles. The outer boot on the driver side recently exploded, which I think (hopefully) may have been the cause of my e-brake feeling like it was barely working at the last event.
With everything reassembled, it looks like I have about twice as much axle boot clearance at full droop (pictured). At ride height there's about 2cm now vs 1-2mm previously ๐
Finished the Final Bout 7 video! What an adventure!
Some pics form the last event
Still working on the full Final Bout video, but I did make a quick little raw driving clip edit
I picked up some type-c's that were in need of a refresh. I did a quick rattle can job to see if gold is the way to go. A bit more GOLD gold than I'd like, but ya, a nice change from the grey scale scheme of the car haha
I've always driven with the steering wheel pretty far from myself because I'm not a huge fan of the prospect of eating it in the event of an accident, but I decided to suck it up and try out the whole "90ยบ elbow" thing, which meant throwing a 50mm spacer on. Looks absolutely ridiculous, but I've gotta admit it does feel like I have a bit more control.
Cleaned the car and took it for a little pre-event rip. Had to take a gas station pic as dictated by the law.
OnGrid's inaugural Motorsport Meetup was PACKED. Drift entry was free (aside from the cost of a windshield banner), which was rad. Somehow only getting 5 20 minute sessions throughout the day felt like plenty.
On the first couple flying laps I noticed the car was running a bit rich. I think switching over the TPS may have thrown things off a bit, but it wasn't noticeable until I was on track at WOT. Regardless of being a bit down on power I was still able to have plenty of fun. I went off roading a couple of times and lost my rear bumper twice.
After the 4th session, I noticed my belt was getting a bit frayed in a couple spots. I checked the kpower pulley bolt and it was loose and wouldn't tighten at all. I pulled the belt and sure enough the bolt came out with threads on it. Yay, aluminum blocks! Also, the timing cover started leaking ๐ I had been considering going back to the stock belt tensioner anyways, so NBD. I had planned to drive both days, but free event so whatever! haha
All I really wanted to do at the event was nail the entry into turn 7 (left hairpin) and I think I accomplished that goal, so I'm pleased with myself and the car.
Final Bout prep kicked off with finally finishing up the hood. I went back and forth trying to decide whether I should fully remove the vent and start over, but salvaging what I already had done seemed to be the most time-efficient route though some day I would like to start from scratch again. The two main issues I wanted to fix were 1 - the transition from the area in front of the vent to where it had been grafted and 2 - connect and smoothen the backside of the vent to the underside of the hood.
I forgot to take a picture of it and I forget where I saw this technique, but I put some tape on the upper portion of the hood, where there's a good original section of the hood rising contour, and caked body filler to form a perfectly shaped sanding block. This worked MUCH better than the guess and check cardboard-cutout contour technique I had used previously.
After sanding and shaping a few pounds of fiberglass and filler, I brought the hood home for the finishing touches - painting and wrap. I hate to fake the funk, but I'm a ricer at heart. Jimmy did an amazing job wrapping the hood, unfortunately though, the heat from the header caused some of the adhesive to melt, which created a bubble, but it halfway looks intentional, so whatever!
One small project I had been putting off for a while was re-mounting the splitter. I'm not sure why, but the splitter was way off from where it had been previously, so it required a bit more tweaking than I had anticipated - as is it seems to be anything when you're working towards a Final Bout departure deadline...
And another small project that turned out to be easier than I anticipated - I have always loved the Nismo "dildo" shift knob and have run it in numerous cars over the years, but the m20x1.5 shift rod for the ZF transmission made it impossible until I saw Tomas (@milliardoxpeacecraft) was making his own 3D printed knobs. He recreated the Nismo knob and increased the diameter 10mm for me just to make sure it wouldn't snap in half during some violent shifting. It came out beautiful and feels even better than the original imo.
Final Bout is smart and now requires everyone to have a fire extinguisher mounted in their car. I had previously had mine self-tapped to the floor board, but when I replaced the carped I filled the holes in order to force myself to make a legit bracket. After a little super inaccurate CAD I started welding some pieces of scrap metal together.
I ended up having to add an extra 1.5" of width. No idea how I was so far off, but it ended up fitting perfectly after the extension. Not bad for a guy with very limited fabrication skills I think?
Between coats of paint drying and welds cooling I managed to spray-dye my crusty old headliner. It looks like ass in this photo, but I swear you'd never know in real life.
The very last project on my prep list was this rear seat delete. I had intended on having Jimmy wrap it in carbon as well, but I vastly under estimated how much vinyl I'd need. Then I underestimated how much spray paint it'd need. It looks like ass in photos and in real life. I'll redo it one of these days... At least I was able to get it to fit nicely.
So, Final Bout itself - we, Bryan (of Run Up) and I rented a 1 ton from Enterprise and a trailer from Secret Factory. My buddy Ryan also tagged along and did a huge chunk of the driving for us.
Things got off to a rocky start as the truck had a screw in one of the front tires, but fortunately we found a tire shop that was still open and was able to patch it for us. The very next stop the rear strap on my car snapped while we were doing our checks and luckily the truck stop had ratchet straps on sale. Still not sure what the issue was, but the rest of the trip was smooth sailing.
After driving 35 hours straight, with just stops to refuel we made it to Shawano
I'm not sure exactly what happened, but after doing some drifting in the morning and then the parade lap before the team competition, my TPS took a shit. When we took it apart, a bunch of metallic shavings came out, which I can only assume came from the spring, but I'm not sure... Cleaning it did nothing so I had to wait until Sunday afternoon for one of my friends to deliver a replacement TPS (which required a wild goose chase around Greenbay Autozones itself), which turned out not to be an exact fit. Luckily with some very technical zip tie science we were able to get the car running well enough for me to drive the last 3 hours of the day.
PSA: FUCK Petlas tires. I killed all 4 pairs in the 3 hours of driving that I was able to do. They barely produced any smoke at all and basically just turned to dust then delaminated with 80% tread left. Absolute garbage.
I feel like such a dumb ass. I had this Skunk2 B-Series throttle body sitting on my shelf and could have saved myself the trouble if I had just put it on and switched the TPS before Final Bout. It even looks better. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
More Final Bout content in next post...
When I took the car out for the first time the strobes weren't hooked up and the wires were all coiled together in the corner of the engine bay, but not secured, so they ended up flying over and melting to the header ๐ Fortunately only two of the six wires were damaged beyond repair, so I just removed them. I honestly can't remember how/if I was actually running all six strobes up front... Four seems more than adequate. I never marked which wire went where, so after an hour of trial and error, I finally got them all placed. Damn near had a seizure when I turned the lights off and filmed this video ๐
One of my wheels had been slowly leaking since I built it, so, having finally killed the tires, I decided it was time to reseal it.
Hit the seam with a wire wheel, cleaned it up, wiped it down with alcohol, and applied the good stuff.
My diff had a small leak as well so I decided to just have a full on re-seal party.
I hadn't noticed this damage along the inside edge of the pumpkin before. May have been contributing to the poor seal.
I hit the damaged area of the diff with a file and sealed it up. Yay no more leaks!
I also made a somewhat more legit dipstick holder bracket thingie. Just slightly less janky than wrapping the wire around the exhaust runner. I have an idea for a more elegant solution, but this works...
Kinda funny, kinda sad, but now that this car is working 10/10 for the first time in its existence I'm the weak link. I've had to cancel back to back events due to illness and injury. I'm not sure who's cereal I pissed in, but I hope they get over it soon. At least I've been able to have some fun driving the car around town though!
Also, I ended up buying the trailer I've rented a few times. Too good of a deal to pass up. Easy af to load and sturdy as hell. Also, It's been a while since I've driven an event outside of Northern California, hopefully this will make it more feasible.
Photos from NorCal Allstars
When I got home, I did a thorough nut and bolt check and noticed the shoulder of my tire had been sliced all the way around. Turned the wheel and realized the bumpstop on the LCA had loosened up and was allowing the wheel to over-center and hit the brake line tab, brake line, and inner tie rod - a trifecta of fuckery if you will. It also explained why I was having so many issues with left-hand turns at NorCal Allstars.
While under the car, I glanced at the flywheel and noticed it was caked with mud. I didn't really go off track much at the previous event, so I figure it's been in there since the NYE event. There is noticeably less vibration now that it's been removed. I should probably buy the Kpower dust shield...
If you notice in the photo above, there are a couple drops of oil on the oil pan, but fortunately it was from a leaky front main seal, not the oil pan flange THANK GOD. Thankfully the front main seal is super easy to replace in a FR platform and only took about 20 minutes!
At the NYE event, I hadn't had any bulbs in my corner light and it got filled with a bunch of dirt, water, and debris, so I gave it a quick lil wash with a pipe cleaner. Didn't come out super perfect, but is definitely a hell of a lot better now.
With the oil leaks fixed and feeling pretty confident I had adequately solved any possible reliability issues, I finally decided to give street driving the car to and from an event and hit up Recollection Auto Fashion.
It made the drive there no problem! A couple runs in though, I kept seeing little puffs of smoke from under the hood on left-hand turns. The valve cover bolts had come loose, so I torqued them down and went out for another run and it did the same thing. This time the dipstick was partially sticking out. The motor isn't showing signs of blow-by anywhere else so I'm not sure what's going on, but I ended up using some wire to keep the dipstick in it's hole the rest of the day and had no more issues.
I finally felt comfortable enough in the car to start doing some tandem, which was fun. Ian's car has no business being as fast as it is!
And then I drove home on cords. It was a most excellent day. Such a feeling of accomplishment being able to drive your car to an event and home without issue. It can't be beat!
I made a short little video. I miss making videos. Maybe I'll make more of these lazy-edits haha
I didnโt know this was K swapped these days! Must feel absolutely hectic revving the hell out of an NA K.
January 2024 - my passenger seat finally arrived after a little 15 month delay. Still hoping to score a blue stadia or gias one of these days
I ordered a full set of coil pack plugs just in case I ran into another issue down the road and fixed the one that got fucked up at NYE.
Also, I bought back this carbon Origin trunk spoiler since I felt like a nerd driving around town with the GT wing, but going fully wingless looks weird with GT aero haha
February 2024 - And I finally got some tires mounted on these XD9's... Not sure how I feel about them with this paint and aero combo...
March 2024 - So the front end has felt funky at every event I've driven since doing the swap. I'm sure my eyeballed alignment was a major contributing factor, but things like the Volvo PS setup and old rack bushings had me questioning what the true cause was. I also wanted to dial out some camber so I could do some grip driving. So I bought some "stock" GK Tech LCA's to replace my 45mm extended LCA's, Ikeya Formula inner tie rods to replace the obscenely long Maxima tie rods, and some new rack bushings. Also I got some "high flow" PTFE 90ยฐ fittings since it looked like my lines may have been kinked due to the extreme angle they were routed at. Also, while I was down there I figured I might as well reseal the oil pan. Yay!
I always wanted one of these engine hoist things, but always did some janky shit in the past instead. So much less scary crawling around an engine knowing it isn't only being held up by a jack handle and a ratchet strap. Highly recommend lol
Pan, rack, and crossmember all ready for a nice cleaning!
The name's Bond, Hondabond. Double O 69. If you recall, way back when I originally did the oil pump and pan, I had forgotten to put the crank trigger wheel back on before sealing the pan and front cover. I alway figured I did a shitty job cleaning where the pan and front cover met, so this time I cleaned the shit out of it before sealing it up and even waited 48 hours before pouring any oil in the motor. Turns out my suspicion was correct, but it looks like the crank pulley seal was also leaking, so that's next on the list.
Anywho, I put the pan, cross member, and rack back in. I randomly discovered that this enormous wrench Corbin gave me is exactly the right size for the inner tie rod (I had been using it as a pry bar to get the engine and crossmember lined up lol)
And then I ran into a weird issue. The Voodoo13 tension rods didn't want to play nice with the GK LCA's so I had to introduce them to a grinder. After a bit of trial and error I got them trimmed down just enough to allow space for adjustment without there being a huge gap.
Took the car to the alignment shop and realized he was the last one who aligned it 7 years and 2 paint jobs ago haha
Going from 45mm to roughly 25mm extended LCA's decreased the camber by 2.5ยฐ. I should decrease it a bit more, but right now the wheel well clearance is way too perfect.
I kept the rear pretty conservative for good tire wear and streetability
Recently I noticed my clutch fluid levels randomly dropping, but hadn't seen any drips on the ground so I was baffled by where it had been going. While at the alignment shop, I noticed the fluid level was low again, after having topped it off the night before. Finally it dawned on me that it may be leaking inside the car, so I took a look under the dash and sure enough there was a stream of brake fluid running down the firewall. So once I got home from the alignment shop I ran to the part store and the dudes helped me swap it out real quick with the car still on the trailer before we drove up to Redding for NorCal Allstars. When we got to the track I unloaded real quick and Corbin got on the wet ground, in the rain, and helped me bleed the clutch. What a guy!
Hopefully someone grabbed a few decent pics/vids cuz I forgot my GoPro and all the homies were too busy drinking beer and trying to stay dry in the pits on day 1, and day 2 I was only able to get one run in thanks to waking up late and chronic throttle sticking issues (more on this later). Over all though 7/10 event. Some disorganization is to be expected from inaugural events, especially at a new venue. The track layout is fun and technical, I just wish the entry had a longer run up. You can get more speed up on the Thunder Hill small skidpad haha
this car cool, k series gotta feel great. must get ride-a-long ๐ค
Some photos from GorillaTornado
So, NYE happened.
I need to get my own trailer so I can paint it to match the white/grey combo lol
Corbin came out of retirement!
So last time on the skidpad, I thought I had gotten the alignment pretty dialed, but when I got home and took the car for a street drive, it was all over the place. I was going to get an actual alignment, but the holidays were a bit more hectic than expected, so I didn't get a chance. On track, the car was just as unpredictable as it had been on the street and for some reason the wheels no longer wanted self-steer. As you can see in this video (the only video I ended up with because I accidentally switched to photo mode ๐) my hands were all over the place trying to feed the wheel lol
I went in and out of the pits a few times adjusting toe, caster, and tire psi and hit the skidpad for a couple runs with Corbin and all was feeling pretty good.
and then I went back out on full track, confident that I had solved the issue, chucked it in and the car started misfiring ๐ Checked spark and fuel and it seemed to be the cyl 2 injector, which turned out to have a tottally fucked o-ring.
Thought I had fixed it after replacing the injector, went out for a rip and made it all the way to turn 14, gave 'er a yeet and the car fell on its face when I went to get back on throttle.
I pulled back into the pits and Corbin and Nick started doing some poking and proding and zeroed in on the wiring for the cyl 2 coilpack. After depinning the plug and trying to undo the pin clasps ever so delicately so it could be reused, the wires pulled right out of the insulation. The wire had broken right where the wires had been bent to suit the way I routed the harness, which apprently was less than ideal. The harness is designed to work with the stock valve cover, which has a valley in it for the coilpack and sensor harness to run thourgh, but the Skunk2 valve cover doesn't and instead has the oil filler cap right where the harness should run. Almost tempted to see if a stock valve cover would clear the hood, but FUCK is that annoying. Anyway, here's me sitting in my bay trying not to look pissed off.
At least the fix is easy enough. I feel like I might as well redo the other coilpack plugs while I'm at it just in case.
this is the type of thread that makes a mf want to wrench
Carbon door panels ๐ฎ
So good ๐ค
9/9/23 I FINALLY DROVE AN EVENT WITH THE K24!!! (Excuse the u-haul-friendly ride height)
The car ran flawlessly. I only had a handful of small issues, mostly caused by the car rattling shit loose (throttle body pulley, fuel rail bolt, starter signal wire). Aside from desperately needing an alignment, it was a blast to drive. The k24 is such a ROWDY motor. The best comparison I can make is it's like a stock SR with a 4.6, but can rev to the moon.
October 2023 - The factory carpet has always been pretty nasty, so I got some new black carpet to replace it with.
After removing the original carpet I realized the seat mount point was pretty fucked up, which explained why I couldn't get a bolt to thread in.
The stock 4.08 is super short with a ZF transmission, so I swapped it out for a 3.5 from a Laurel.
I took the car off PNO.
And I took the car for its first legal drive in 5 years. It felt pretty damn good.
I ran out of time to wrap up the seat mount repair and carpet install and went drifting. The 3.5 made the car soooo much more drivable and I started getting pretty comfortable after dialing in the alignment all morning.
The event was a comp and I was pretty sure I nailed a couple perfect runs, but I guess it was too little too late and I didn't end up qualifying. Oh well!
November 2023 - I got around to fixing the seat mounting point.
Corbin came to the rescue and plugged up the holes I made while drilling out the spot welds and then tacked it into place for me. It ended up lining up perfectly!
Then I got to reassemble the interior. I hope I never have to replace my carpet again. I got the driver side to fit perfectly, but the passenger side is another story. Another thing I don't have the patience for I guess... Thankfully you can't really tell with the Dmax floor mats in.
And then I drove Dlux and continued to get comfortable with the car. I pretty much only focused on two turns the entire day, trying to get the feel for throwing backwards entries and aggressive transitions. I think it got me nice and prepared for turn 14 on Thunderhill East, which I'll be driving this coming weekend ๐
April 2023 - All of the aero bits and whatnot came out perfectly
But the car came out a bit too glossy. Satin proved to be a bit more tricky than I had anticipated. Poor Rus had to sand the entire car and spray the satin clear coat again.
I got my wheels back from powder coating and bolted them back together. I think I got it down to 40min per wheel by the time I finished the last of the 6.
I ran into a couple of issues with the Skunk2 intake manifold so I swapped it out for a Kpower one, which made the already crowded intake side of the motor just a tad more crowded.
The final piece needed to get the car driving was the throttle cable. Fortunately I got lucky and was able to reuse the factory cable bracket and the new one slipped right in.
The one shitty part is that you have to adjust the cable length from under the dash, which is a fucking nightmare to do. Getting a tiny allen key and a wrench in there requires Cirque du Soleil-level contortions.
I was hoping to have the same good luck as when I had done the SR swap and that it'd start right up and run with no issues, but this time I wasn't so lucky. I was hoping to make it to FB SSNW and had fab, tune, and transport all lined up for the week prior, but being unable to diagnose what the issue with the motor triggered a domino effect and everything fell apart at the last minute. It was probably for the best though as I was finally able to take a break after thrashing, trying to get the car done for the previous 6 months.
May 2023 - I finally fully assembled the car, put it on the ground, and got to see my vision come to life. It felt really good to see it all together, but the last 10% of shit I needed to do to get it driving seemed daunting.
June 2023 - Interior tune started coming together.
August 2023 - Corbin brought his computer and we dove in to try to figure out what was wrong. After doing a Zoolander "files are inside the computer" reenactment, we made some progress. It turned out that the software needed to be updated. I never saw a prompt or notification when I had "loaded" the base tune onto the ECU, so I assumed it had been successfully loaded, but apparently it hadn't been loaded at all. DERP
With the car running now, I took it to Secret Factory to have the exhaust done, electric ps pump mounted, and my janky hood/headlight bracket reinforced.
September 2023 - I brought the car home and finished up little things like wiring the gauges and ps pump
And added a bracket to make the dummy headlights fit better
And found I had a bad injector causing a misfire after my first drive around the block
Then it was tune time
The car died on the dyno and I had to run out and grab a new alternator
But after that it was all good and made 199hp 152 ft/lbs (228hp 174 ft/lbs when adjusted for the dyno)
VERSION 4
August 2022 - I never got the paint match right in the bay when I did the tube front and then the fire happened, so it was in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint.
The tubs were also a bit oversized, so I decided to trim them back with the intentions of molding an air box on one side and a place to hide fuses/relays on the other. (I still need to finish this project)
November 2022 - Rus laid a fresh coat of Nissan 463 as an homage to the car's two tone origins.
Over the years I had accumulated a few K24's, two A2's and one A4 (for turbo things eventually maybe?). I decided to start with the one that appeared to be in the worst condition just in case I fucked anything up trying to get it running lol
The K24 crank pulley legit requires more torque to remove than the motor puts out.
Always remember to double check that you've drained the oil before you flip it over.
ZF transmissions are real small. This is in a Miata trunk for reference.
I rushed myself trying to get the motor in the car and running for our annual BBQ and in my haste I forgot to put the trigger wheel on, which sits behind the timing chain cover. Knowing what I know now, there was no chance in hell I was going to have the motor in the car and running in time for the BBQ anyway and I should have just taken my time.
December 2022 - I got the motor in the car and thought I'd be able to drive Super D NYE, but a seemingly endless list of fittings, sensors, plugs, hoses, and BMW shit didn't allow that to happen.
February 2023 - After spending at least 2 days a week at the shop I had:
โข Reshaped the fuel hard lines so they'll hopefully be far enough from the header
โข Plumbed fuel system and FPR
โข Plumbed heater
โข Plumbed and mounted swirl pot and coolant overflow
โข Wired e-fans
โข Plumbed radiator
โข Cleaned, painted, and installed brake booster
โข Cleaned and installed BMC
โข Cleaned and installed CMC
โข Plumbed clutch line (GK Tech rhd braided clutch line worked perfect)
โข Partially plumbed catch can (Waiting on the can itself)
โข Air intake set up
โข Shifter mounted
โข Wiring harness mocked up
But then I was stuck with the wrong injector clips and Wiring Specialties didn't even have the correct ones so I had to figure it out myself. Thankfully, everything else was done as far as I was concerned.
March 2023 - Nothing like cutting into some brand new (having sat on the car for 3 years) fiberglass!
It was time to disassemble the SP1's and drop them off for powder coating.
After mixing and matching some faces and ordering a new pair of lips and barrels I ended up with a pair of 17x9.5 +0 HP disk, 17x10 +11 MD disk, and 17x10 +5 SL disk.
After 32-ish hours of shaping I was satisfied with the shape.
And then Rus started doing paint prep.
Finished drop vent
Bonded to the hood
And started prepping for paint. If I were to do this again, I would have made a negative mold from the foam drop vent and then made the fiberglass drop vent from that. Trying to make the transition smooth with the way I did it is impossible without caking the entire hood with filler.
While I was dicking around with the hood and trying to get the motor started, Rus managed to tackle a few fiberglass repairs and prepped the entire car.
You got crazy perseverance I fucking love it. This car has a wild story. I kept up to date with the K(hold the A)24 build thread and don't remember all the shit this car has seen. Awesome story Max, and impeccable style.