1JZ E30 Vert Build Thread with Pastry filled wheels

[Jdesign]

Finally started cranking away at this again. I preregistered For Euro District so I would have a hard deadline to  push myself. As of the last two nights, I have made brackets to relocate and install my new power steering reservoir, and relocated my fuel pressure regulator under the intake manifold. My goal is to remove everything I can from the chassis in the engine bay, so that when I shave the bay, I will have a lot less work.

Although I fabricated a new bracket and moved the PS reservoir, I decided that at the end of the season when I do respray the bay, I am going to run a Z4 manual steering rack to help reduce some of the clutter in my engine bay. They are cheap and from what I have read, they have great feel and response.  I started looking into running a electric pump system or an electric rack as well, but cost, and clutter changed my mind there.

Besides all of that, I also modified the radiator brackets and made new intercooler brackets so that I could add 3mm between them providing more room for the Spal fan that I bought from @Snap 

I failed to take pictures of pretty much everything besides the PS reservoir as I was "IN THE ZONE" crannking on shit in the weeee hours of the morning. I will provide some more pictures later on when I button everything up.

[Jdesign]

I finished relocating both the PS reservoir and the FPR and I am quite happy with the result. I no longer have anything besides the fuse box mounted to the engine bay of the car. I am a little worried about the new location of my fuel line as it is a few mm away from the main power wire going to my starter. I think I am going to build some type of plastic cover to keep the two divided "just in case." But other that that I was able to clean everything up and hopefully this winder I can shave and paint the engine bay.

I also installed this nice Turbo blanket I got from @Bassboy3313 and it will really help keep the heat down and it looks much better than the rusty hot side.

[Jdesign]

I realized I didn't post any pictures of the complete engine bay in awhile. I accidentally spilled some chrome polish on the ground last night cleaning some wheels I have so I used it to clean some of the metal parts in the engine bay and snapped some pics quick.

Also, I am on the look out for some 17" staggered German Eclair wheels. If you have any leads, please let me know.

[KaiserRolls]

What wheels are on it in those most recent pics?

[Jdesign]

KaiserRolls said:

What wheels are on it in those most recent pics?

Dont Judge me, but they are reps from my civic. 16X9 varrstoen Es series wheels. Thats all I have at the moment that fits. I have like 4 sets of 5x120 wheels and all of them require spacers or tires.

[KaiserRolls]

Jdesign said:

KaiserRolls said:

What wheels are on it in those most recent pics?

Dont Judge me, but they are reps from my civic. 16X9 varrstoen Es series wheels. Thats all I have at the moment that fits. I have like 4 sets of 5x120 wheels and all of them require spacers or tires.

I don't judge man, just curious!

[Jdesign]

KaiserRolls said:

I don't judge man, just curious!

I am judging me. LOL

[patsbimmer1]

I never realized Varrstoen had a reputation of being a "rep wheel".  I was under the impression they built a decent wheel, is that not true?

[Jdesign]

patsbimmer1 said:

I never realized Varrstoen had a reputation of being a "rep wheel".  I was under the impression they built a decent wheel, is that not true?

They build "quality" rep wheels. They are certainly not at the bottom of the food chain like rotas or xxr, as they do make nice 3pc wheels too. The wheels I have are CCW Classic reps for sure, but they are a decent (1pc) cast wheel. Although they are not 3pc like they look like they are, the wheel hardware is threaded into the casting. I have seen and owned rep wheels where the hardware is part of the casting OR glued!!!! into the face of the wheel.

[Jdesign]

So I have been working on this quite a bit lately but havent really posted much. So here is what has happened:

New wheels on the way from Poland. I have spent a fair amount of time to find a really nice set of there rare German Eclairs for the right price and ended up making a post looking for a set and these appeared.

Besides that, I also started digging deep into my engine harness double checking everything and making sure all the wires had sheathing and were completely free of cracks and splitting. I found that one of the grounds was back-feeding to my TPS which was explains some of the issues I was having at more than 50% throttle. I fixed this and went for a drive only to realize my coil packs are toast. I will be ordering new OEM coils and should be ready to go.

But that didnt stop me from messing with the one last eye sore in my engine bay. THE FUSE BOX.  I started by unscrewing the box and labeling all of the connections. Once I got the box out I had to feed the entire head light harness back through the fender/ frame rail and carefully fed it into the firewall into the car.

Here I continued labeling and removing extra wires and labeling the extras that I wont need just in case I ever decide I want to reinstall them in the future.

I plan on mounting the fuse box under the dash in the large void where the ABS ECU use to be. I also will be making a mold of the big rubber plug that was in the fire wall and mounting the round harness plug into it for now. I hope to run standalone next year, and all of this will change again.

[B C]

Stunning wheels!

[jc43089]

Wow those wheels looks great.  Fun stuff tucking the fuse box.  I will be doing the same thing on my e36 when it goes back together someday.  I think Earl did that on his compact as well.

[Earl]

Relocate all of the fuse boxes!

[Jdesign]

Snap said:

Stunning wheels!

Thank you!! So many people hate them but I love the simplicity of them. The chiseled spokes and round center really matches the boxy yet smooth lines of an E30 IMO.

jc43089 said:

Wow those wheels looks great.  Fun stuff tucking the fuse box.  I will be doing the same thing on my e36 when it goes back together someday.  I think Earl did that on his compact as well.

Thanks!! The fuse box was a last minute, "welllll I really need to do this, I might as well" type of moment.  Its way more work than I intended to do since that car was so close to being road worthy. Its nice having less components in the car and being able to remove half of the wires though. Insane that the ABS and A/C required so much additional wiring. 

I have added and removed components in the fuse box of my E36, and I must say, it looks way easier than an E30, so consider yourself lucky.

Earl said:

Relocate all of the fuse boxes!

YASS!! in preparation for a perfectly spotless bay.

 

[Earl]

Wobbies old car=P

[Jdesign]

Does he still have that thing? Last I saw it was sprayed rootbeer and had an LS swap.

[straight6pwr]

wow those wheels are sexy! never seen them before.

also, i love a shaved engine bay as much as the next guy, but pulling the kick panel and contorting yourself to check fuses = f* that.

[Jdesign]

straight6pwr said:

wow those wheels are sexy! never seen them before.

also, i love a shaved engine bay as much as the next guy, but pulling the kick panel and contorting yourself to check fuses = f* that.

Ughhh. I know. I will be using twist screws instead of Phillips down there to help ease the pain.

[Earl]

Jdesign said:

Does he still have that thing? Last I saw it was sprayed rootbeer and had an LS swap.

I'm not sure. I think it may be gone. He built that wicked 2002 and I believe sold that as well.

[m42b32]

I gotta say, when you said eclairs I was sad because those white ones that have been on the chicago(?) craigslist for a while dont look all that great. But those, maybe its the color or a better angle, they look awesome!

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