'Honu' #2588935

[stevebo77]

It's been covered ad nauseum here in the forums, so I won't bother with a 'is it possible?' or 'has anyone tried...' topic.

Basically I've been mulling over the Weber downdraft and how much I love it,

but keep thinking to myself "If carbs were supposed to breath enginebay air, then car manufacturers would never ever bother making snorkels or otherwise longreaching air boxes with remote filters..."

With that thought bouncing around up in the noggin, I've been lusting after the Weber plenums from K&N and from JAM Engineering. The K&Ns are retarded expensive for what they are.. simply not enough bang for the buck. I simply can't stop being baffled by the price.. JAM Engineering has much better prices and even has a really bitchin Offy remote filter adapter for Weber carbs with a supercool price of 44 bucks... but no online shopping with JAM, that depresses me as a web designer/developer (but I won't go there right now). I won't deal with phone orders or mail orders in the year 2009. So {drumroll} diy time {/drumroll}!

I was rummaging around in the parts box tonight and quite triumphantly pulled out a vintage Weber to stock filter housing adapter! Sweet. But I don't want to use the big BMW housing (and can't because of the strut brace). I'm thinking that I'll take this aluminum wonder piece down to a local fab shop to have them open the piece up a little bit and weld in an aluminum pipe at the biggest possible diam with a downward angle to allow for a through-the-front wall filter housing.. perhaps terminating in a conical filter behind the grille or maybe where the battery would usually sit and under a metal heat shroud.

In either case, it shouldn't be terribly expensive to do.

For illustrative purposes, I have a before shot and after-photoshopped shot. Forgive the poor perspective and quick photoshop job; also imagine the battery in the trunk instead of in its tray; also imagine that the housing adapter is actually mounted to the carb instead of sitting on the rectangle filter tray.

I'll start calling around to local fab shops.. if this posting should magically lose its content, you'll know that the price for fab was too stupid and ruined the project for me

[stevebo77]

Of course.. now that I think thrice about it, hacking up a perfectly good adapter may not be the answer- but instead have a fab shop actually make a box (similar in dimensions to a weber rectangle filter) with a straight in tube, still pointing toward the grille..

Your ideas are welcomed.

An quick PS of that idea..

[ought2]

This has become my favorite blog to follow. High budget cars with blank checks for anything and everything are hard to relate to for me. I admire your ingenuity. Great work, Steve!

[Nepa2002]

Hes a normal guy with a normal wallet. ( well maybe not so normal typing in his thoughts as hes trying to explain something "love it ") but yeah i think more then a few can relate to this blog.

anyways now my comment on the hover set up. does this come with your own vacuum attachments

sorry just busting but in theory it makes sense, i say we cut the hood and buy a hood scoop lol

i think i might send mine out thou to get louvers in mine. yano the old school slices i think would be a great touch for how old the car is

[stevebo77]

This has become my favorite blog to follow. High budget cars with blank checks for anything and everything are hard to relate to for me. I admire your ingenuity. Great work, Steve!

Thanks much I hope to someday have a harem of 02s and hope that at least one of them will be a blank-check-wonder car. Until then, this will be a swell couch change funded driver.

Hes a normal guy with a normal wallet. ( well maybe not so normal typing in his thoughts as hes trying to explain something "love it ") but yeah i think more then a few can relate to this blog.

anyways now my comment on the hover set up. does this come with your own vacuum attachments

sorry just busting but in theory it makes sense, i say we cut the hood and buy a hood scoop lol

i think i might send mine out thou to get louvers in mine. yano the old school slices i think would be a great touch for how old the car is

Hehe yes, I do tend to think on my keyboard don't I?

Vacuum attachments haha- well I thought about the scoop idea early on, but the hood is just so pretty and I don't want to cut into it.. also haven't seen any really good implementations of a hood scoop.. one guy here did a really sexy set of large vents just over the radiator part toward the nose. That looks great, but isn't for me. Also saw the orange 02 with a typical JCWhitney type scoop; it was well implemented but also not for me. Louvers would be pretty rad but it would most certainly incur the wrath of our fellow 02 lovers- in fact I bet someone would fly out here just to slap me for punching holes in the hood I don't like being slapped, so that's out.

I was hoping to hear from the tire shop today so I could go get the new rubber mounted, do the safety-check and registration and then do some shopping around for the intake project materials.. but alas, no call. Guess I better do some paying work today instead hehe.

[stevebo77]

It was a good day, then a bad day, now an unknown night.

I got the call from the tire shop to come on down.. and that I did. Tires look and feel AMAZING. I purchased a full set of Sumitomo HTR 200 in 205/60 R13 size. Just awesome.

While I was there I got the safety check done, ran to the dmv (in and out in 8 minutes), ran back to tireshop to get my safety stickers affixed.

Leave the tireshop parking lot a happy and legal driver!

Then the temp needle sits at 3/4 and makes me nervous.. it was only 75 out today, so that wasn't great- but I also don't know what 3/4 of a non-numbered meter means in real degrees hehe.

I go to a nice scenic ocean view parking spot and hang out for a bit to cool down before making the 2000 ft climb back home. About 30 minutes later I start the trek and spy that the fuel meter is reading just under a quarter full (and about .25 inch from the 'R'). I pass the gas station and am sure that I'll be fine. But in that last major uphill stretch the car starts to bog down and I just manage to catch it from stalling.. then try to rev up and do it again only to get a stall.

Coast to a stop uphill (steep), jack the wheel hard left while I start to roll backwards and then hard right to point back downhill.. start the car right up. Try the hill again and get the same result. Fuck it- I'll just get back down to the gas station.. it's only about 2 miles and all of it down hill and curvy.

Fill her up and head home again. Made it past the dead stop hill this time with no problem and I note to myself that the fuel guage is a big fat fucking liar because when I put only 5 gallons into it at the station, the meter read damned near full! Whatever, I'll keep it in mind and always plan on having the tank full.

Blast up the last 3 miles of my uphill curvy trek home and get to the second to last street--- BOGGGGGGGG (super uphill for this last bit) STALLLLLL.. restart after having coasted to a flat spot, revs just amazing again. Start another small uphill quartermile and fail! Turn around and get to the flat spot = runs amazing.

Turn around again to go uphill and make it to the top where it levels off to a right hand turn onto my street.. it bogs and stalls again. Start her up again while rolling down the street to my driveway and now its loping really badly. Get it into the garage and it just continues to lope! eff my life..

Idle is now going from 1k to 200 and repeating every couple of seconds.

It has to be something in the fuel system, perhaps getting it that low in fuel level has plucked up some really nasty shit into the carb.

I pull the top plate off of the Weber 32/36 and look in the bowl to find more mud (red crud) than Mississippi's river bottom. Fine, I'll clean it out and check the jets while in there. Bolt it all back up after soaking the various bits and pieces in some seafoam.

Idle is *slightly* better but after I've finally gotten good and familiar with the Weber, I decide that it looks like total shit on a stick. Pull the whole thing back off, separate into pieces, yank the rubber, and it is now sitting in a nice distilled water + light detergent boiling bath. *sigh*

I'll be glad to have that done, but am not certain that this will be the ultimate fix to today's problems.

As far as cooling goes, my wiring and relay kits should be arriving tomorrow, that will allow me to get the electric fan in.. I'm considering installing a coolant filter inline (have you seen these? pretty cool) for a little bit as even after I flushed the system a few times, every look in the radiator shows more gross floaties.

Ah well. It was great to get this car on the road, great to get balanced and aggressive tires, and great to get stared at by the locals

Hoping this weekend will solve Honu's ailments!

[Nepa2002]

ughh man headaches i was thinking to my self ( living in a mountian area myself god im glad im not him) dude that just sucks i feel your pain nuttin sucks worse then figuring out cars past problems that people dont tell you when u buy it.

im going throu that now i had bad syncrows in my trans so i got a decent trans from a tii and then a whole list of new parts

throw out bearing

clutch

pressure plate

resurfaced flywheel

clutch slave

clutch master

new gubie or w/e the fuck rubber piece in between trans and drive shaft

redline gear lube 75w-90

ughhh huge package arriving today but man i feel your pain hang in there.... there awesome to drive and ive been dieing to get back out myself.... just remember its all worth it after the bugs are out its your car you know whats wrong then its easy street

good luck

[stevebo77]

After the recent hell that went down on her first big day out last week, I moved over into General Discussion to get some help. Thanks to all (as always) for all the helpful tips!

I'm still not 100% sure what happened to take it from aces to slow paces, but after yanking the 32/36 and boiling it out for a couple of hours and 2 more days of idle mix and timing adjustments I took it out today for a run to the ocean and back (20 miles round trip, 2000 ft down and 2000 ft up).

Glad to report that I'm here inside and typing this rather than out in the carport, scratching my head!

The temps held up better this time than last, I'll chalk that up to the new mixture settings.. The performance wasn't AS good as I've gotten used to, but I was also being very cautious on this drive and was just cruising in 3 and 4 wherever possible. Temps on the ocean run were at 3/8ths, and ~5/8ths on the home run. I could be happier about that high temp, but still haven't installed my electric fan.

However, got all my parts this week finally! Recieved a new auxiliary 6 fuse panel, 3 or 4 relays, HID H4 bulbs and kit, and the new lamp housings for the bulbs.

Also on order from Amazon this week is a new set of radiator hoses (I currently have those ribbed universal ones) and a kit of fuel pressure regulator, gauge, and connections. (not too expensive)

Sad to report that the $1000 budget has long since been busted haha.. After tires, lights, and cooling accessories I'll put the current build total (not including car) at $1800 or so. With that in mind, I think I'm going to yank out the lovely loud exhaust and replace with a nice loudish proper exhaust from a namebrand company. Will figure that out in a couple of weeks tho.

I'll put pics up this week of how the headlight and e-fan install progress.

[stevebo77]

Just a quick update on the lights. Not exactly plug and play with my choice of lamp housings, but we're looking good now.

Had to shave out the lamp housing mounting hole of its stock tabs and whatnot, then build up the mounting surface just a bit because the bulbs are slightly deeper than the inner lens would allow for. I used my favorite sound deadening material (home depot roofing peel and stick) to build up the hole.. it also acts as a much better sealer too, as there were a couple gaps around the bulb base that could have allowed for moisture. All good now. Then drilled three holes for 3 new large headed screws to retain the bulb since the stock retaining clip won't suffice around this huge bulb base where the electro-magnet lives.

Will follow up with wiring install pics later.

Pics of the lamp housings.. (if these don't show up, they're located here)

[Nepa2002]

8k bulbs o boy get ready to start flashing back at people when they think your high beaming them

[jgerock]

Steve - keep at it - your doing good.

Besides the "mud" in your carb, I wonder what the bottom of your gas tank looks like. All that swerving may have loosened crap in the tank, clogging your "screen".

Your sending unit may also need pulling to fix the indicating issue.

[stevebo77]

8k bulbs o boy get ready to start flashing back at people when they think your high beaming them

I'm so totally worried about that too :\

If it ends up getting too much glare, even with the extra work I've put into it plus the nice glare shield on the bulb, I'll pull them out and start working on a frankensteined OEM projector mounted to a 7" housing. We shall see!

Steve - keep at it - your doing good.

Besides the "mud" in your carb, I wonder what the bottom of your gas tank looks like. All that swerving may have loosened crap in the tank, clogging your "screen".

Your sending unit may also need pulling to fix the indicating issue.

The gas tank is, no doubt, terrifying right now But since it's full of premium right now, I'm not going to drop it to find out. Will save that for later this summer. Excellent suggestion on the screen, I'll pull out the sender and have a peek at the screen.

Today I had to make a quick unexpected run down to the doctors office for a quick appointment.. I wasn't planning on leaving today so I hadn't put the e-fan in yet. I powered through the installation right before I left, and BOY am I impressed with the effect on cooling! See photo below for the pusher new electric fan. Stock fan behind rad is still there too.. no time for pulling her out today hehe.

Blasting up the hill home today at 40 to 80mph put the temp needle at just over half. Never higher- Excellent. I didn't run a thermostat for it yet, this just comes on with ignition. The fan sound is funny tho... kinda like my car is some crazy hybrid of monster and shopvac.. crazy.

Now.. this is something I didn't notice until last night. We were outside admiring the car and then I suddenly noticed that my driver side rear wheel has major negative camber! Fixing this just made it to the top of my priority list.. tho I don't know what's involved just yet..

See pic.. the -4 is just a guess from photoshop's measurment tool.

If none of these photos showed up, they're located here

[Nepa2002]

okay im laughing but maybe im wrong but isnt the faint suppose to be on the other side and you take the clutch fan out and free up "rotating mass"

( ugghhhh rotating mass now i sound like the dipshit honda guys that say running the AC holds back my 2 hp and i could of beat you in that race yesterday)

keep it up , wanna see pictures of the burning retinas

[stevebo77]

hehe yeah it's a reversible fan, push/pull type of thing. Before mounting to rad I just reversed the blades so that they work in the correct direction.

As for the removal of the stock fan, I didn't spend a lot of money on the e-fan, so the mech fan is there (for now) as a just-in-case type of thing. It will go away someday, but not in the 15 minutes before my doctor appointment haha.

[Hammer03]

Now.. this is something I didn't notice until last night. We were outside admiring the car and then I suddenly noticed that my driver side rear wheel has major negative camber! Fixing this just made it to the top of my priority list.. tho I don't know what's involved just yet..

See pic.. the -4 is just a guess from photoshop's measurment tool.

It may just be me, but it looks like it has some pretty wicked toe in as well? Probably worth getting the alginment checked before you eat up those tires, maybe that's why it is so easy to kick the back end loose? Haha.

Great thread, keep up the good work!