Shop Life 2.0

[HipMF]

Question of the day: Is my car over-heating, or is my temp guage being an a-hole?

The temp guage in the car occasionally bounces around for no reason, but seeing it way above middle is still disconcerting.

Top radiator hose is plenty hot. Have spent much time bleeding with no change in results...

[HipMF]

Nevermind. Finally got the courage to just let 'er bake. Head temp went from ~200 to ~210. Temp near thermostat shot up to ~190 and the entire radiator got hot, as opposed to just the area around the top hose.

So, apparently the T-stat opened. Guage still displayed ~3/4, so apparently that's my new normal.

My brake lights were also on constantly, and I had to adjust the switch to get them to turn off, so, apparently somewhere between 33 and 35 years old is when e21 electrical systems start to shit the bed...?

[Jdesign]

LOL.

Oh man that gauge would worry the shit out of me. Maybe the sensor for it is bad, or the SI batteries? Does it even have those?

[GunMetalGrey]

[HipMF]

sooo... updates...

Battery is in the box and tied down, but I still need to get the cover that I made for it installed.

Was having some tire rub in the rear, so I rolled the fenders a bit. Also man-handled the front fenders around enough that it mostly doesn't rub.

Spent 12 or 15 hours clay-barring the paint. Aside from a ridiculous amount of overspray that I didn't even realize was on the car, there was 2 1/2 years worth of shop dust that had done bad, bad things to the paint. I'm actually pretty surprised that it cleaned up as well as it did. My method was more like you'd use a pencil eraser than the "glide the clay across the surface" technique that's normally recommended. I think a light buff would make it look pretty nice, but that's pretty low on my priority list right now.

Made it to the picnic!

The car is stiff and loud. That combined with the constant fear of smashing an oil pan of something falling apart made for a pretty exhausting drive.

Speaking of things falling apart...

When I put the subframe back in I had to loosen the bolts that hold the subframe bushings to the subframe to get everything to line up. Apparently I forgot to tighten them... None of them fell out, but none of them were tight either...

Also the LSD that I put in blew the input seal. It lost a good pint-and-a-half of fluid on the ~240 mile round-trip. Most of it appears to be all over the bottom of the car. It's back on jackstands again. Equilibrium has been restored.

[B C]

Your cross country road trip in that car still inspires me. Youve done cool things on that car. We were talking about how decent the exhaust sounded as you pulled into the picnic as well.

[YoungCR]

Forgot to ask for a proper demo of the exhaust but it did sound good coming in! Was glad to see you driving this car.

[suspenceful]

Happy to see this. White paint cleans up really well with a clay bar. You should really polish/wax/seal it in some way now though.

[Jdesign]

I also can confirm of the glorious sounds.

[HipMF]

Part number has changed a couple times since 1982. Was searching 3 different vendors to find someone who had all of the parts I needed in stock and could get them shipped in time for a reasonable price. Somehow ended up with an output seal instead of an input seal...

Another week on jackstands...

[HipMF]

Got the diff seal replaced over the weekend, so I've enlisted the car for daily-driver duties this week. So far it seems to be holding all it's fluids. I hosed engine-bright all over the bottom of the car and blasted it at the pay-n-spray, but the interior of the car still smells like gear lube now that I'm keeping the windows up. So far it's been a hoot though. It's hard not to drive like a juvenile delinquent in this thing, so that's fun.

[HipMF]

Didn't mention it earlier because I didn't really believe it, but I put the car on a second truck scale and it seems to agree with the first. First scale said 2320 with me in the car and half a tank of fuel. 2nd scale said 2380 with me, almost a full tank, a bag of tools and a couple other miscellaneous items. So roughly 2150 without me and half a tank. Still need to add some metal to the trunk, but that's a couple hundred pounds lighter than I was expecting...

[jc43089]

HipMF said:

Didn't mention it earlier because I didn't really believe it, but I put the car on a second truck scale and it seems to agree with the first. First scale said 2320 with me in the car and half a tank of fuel. 2nd scale said 2380 with me, almost a full tank, a bag of tools and a couple other miscellaneous items. So roughly 2150 without me and half a tank. Still need to add some metal to the trunk, but that's a couple hundred pounds lighter than I was expecting...

Fantastic!  Wow that is light.

[B C]

This is also a couple hundred less than I would have guessed!

What was the first aluminum block 4 cylinder from BMW? N20? Hah

as sac religious as it always is, a honda F20 would be a magical swap in that chassis

[HipMF]

snap said:

This is also a couple hundred less than I would have guessed!

What was the first aluminum block 4 cylinder from BMW? N20? Hah

as sac religious as it always is, a honda F20 would be a magical swap in that chassis 

S14 would be the ideal swap. F20 is the affordable equivalent and has definitely been on my radar from the start.

[Jdesign]

F20 is a pain, get a K20 with an adapter plate, have endless loads of joy.

[HipMF]

Jdesign said:

F20 is a pain, get a K20 with an adapter plate, have endless loads of joy. 

Care to elaborate? Glancing at numbers they seem to be lower redline, and predictably less horsepowers, but otherwise pretty similar. I haven't really researched it much, so have no idea of the benefits of either engine, or what it would take to make either of them fit in the chassis...

Since I already have a decent stockpile of parts, the current plan is to just throw a small turbo at the M42 with 8-10 psi and see what happens. I'd love to have a high-reving temperamental 4-cylinder though. I think the sounds and driving experience would really fit the car as it is now, but in the long-term I can see myself turning the dial on this project back down from 11 and trying to put some driveability and refinement back into the car. In terms of around-town driveability and autocross performance (pretty much all 2nd gear at a variety of rpm) the torque of a small turbo makes more sense than a high-reving NA. Not that you couldn't boost a Honda, but keeping the M42 just feels like the right think to do.

[Jdesign]

It really all depends on what you are building the car for, and how you feel about the power plant. I like Japanese engines because of the reliability so I tend to favor them. I also love odd swaps and out of the norm modifications. I suggest the K20 over the F20 because of aftermarket support, lower price point, readily available parts, and the early F20's had oiling problems. You will see that even a lot of Honda guys favor the K over the F. As far as reving goes, keep in mind that you can swap blocks and heads around to make power differences as well (similar to M20 strokers). Just spend some time online looking at comparisons and you can help build a good decision Im not sure which is lighter, but I bet its not the M42.  

http://www.superstreetonline.com/features/htup-1010-2003-honda-s2000/

[straight6pwr]

Car looked and sounded great out at the autox, Mike. Also, nice driving! You're a faster driver than me, thats for sure. Thwarted by another m42 car!

Hope you dont mind if i post these here:

[YoungCR]

Great shots Dan!