Well, now that the monsoons have started in the Pacific Northwest and the cold temperatures have arrived, its time to make some major changes to my car. I just got it back from Racetech in Portland where they fabricated and welded in a roll bar. Russ did an excellent job designing and installing it. Other modifications in store for the next few month will include the following:

1. Replace the current engine with a Laskey racing built 9:1 compression, Benson sleeved block with stage 3 headwork. This is one of the last blocks Benson sleeved before moving his shop to Idaho. I don't think he is up and running yet at his new location.

2. Install Full Race's Hypertune intake manifold. That is if they ever return it.

3. Replace my Sparco Rev seats with Kirkey Delux Road Race seats. I finally found some bucket seats that I fit in and not on. Anyone need some custom Sparco Revs?

4. Reactivate my water/methanol injection and add the new Aquamist flow controller.

5. Replace my Apexi AVCR boost controller with an eBoost controller/gauge. The Apexi will be up for sale.

6. Soundproof the floor pan with Quiet Car coating.

7 Install my Defi oil pressure, oil temperature and water temperature gauges in the dash.

Thats not the full list, but it covers most of the big jobs. Here are some pictures of whats going in.

 

Full Race shipped out my intake and it's going on the car next week. I hope for your sake yours gets shipped out asap.

And that engine is rediculous...

 

I'll call Full Race tomorrow and see whats up with mine.

 

what is the target weight with the car like this (gutted w/o top?)

how much does the entire top assembly weigh anyways?

 

Softtop with motors and frame is ~66 lbs.
This post should be corssed linked to R&C.
I am guessing the car is ~2550-2600 lbs.

Nice upgrades Fred, are you planning on road racing or drag racing next season?

 

Best luck with your new set-up, the engine and head look really nice.

 

Great engine/head combo!

 

Do you already have a sleved block?

 

There seems to be some confustion here so let me clear it up. The interior is out of the car so I can run some wires and apply the sound deadening material. After that the carpet and convertible top will go back in. The roll bar does not interfere with the functioning of the top. I will have to build some custom interior pieces since the stock parts won't fit with the roll bar in place. The stock seatbelts are gone, replaced with Schroth 2" SM Rallye Cross Harnesses.

Asura: I doubt if I will do any "serious" track racing but I will be autocrossing. I also plan to take it to the 1/4 mine track, but I'm expecting track officials to kick me out as soon as I run lower than 12 seconds.

JDM2000: Yes, my current engine is sleeved and still running great. It has Ross pistons in it and I want to rebuild it with CP pistons. I'm not crazy about the Ross as they have to be fit in the engine rather loose to accommodate their high expansion. Also, I had some Denso spark plugs lose their ceramic insulation in the engine and I'm curious to see what it looks like with the head off. What's interesting is that after this happened I had the car dyno'd a number of times and never showed any loss of power.

 

It should be an absolute hoot to auto-x.
I had a similar experience on the dyno after a Cometic headgasket blew. The car was only down 20HP, and there were three slightly bent exhaust valves when I checked the head.