Here is a little recap of what my car has been through this year. First in early February I removed the clear tails and decided to nightshade my stock ones. I am very happy with how they turned out. They are hard to get pics of because of how they reflect the light and the flash makes them appear much lighter than they really are.
In late February I was on my way to the bank to make the down payment for the house I bought. I just had to snap a picture of this. That is $10,551 in cash in my passenger seat.
Right after I dropped the money of at the bank a truck beside and just in front of me dropped a giant ice chunk hanging from the wheelwell. It fell into my lane. I did not even have time to react and I hit it. It destroyed the front lip.
In early march my engine started knocking. I have heard the noise before so I knew what it was right away. I decided I would park it before it got bad in hopes of being able to salvage the crank and keep from having a rod through the block. After a lot of deep thought on if I should keep it or buy another car I decided to keep it and fix it. A few days later while I was at work the car next to mine was impounded. With the police still at my apartment the tow truck driver scraped up against my car while towing the other car. This is what I came home to.
The police department left a note on my door explaining what happened with the bussiness card of the tow company which paid for my bumper to be painted. That actually turned out for the better since the friend I let paint it who was in school for auto body did not do a good job. Lesson learned you get what you pay for on body work so that what I got for letting an amatuer paint it.
After I got all settled into my house I started the engine build. I bought .040 over Wiseco 9.5:1 forged pistons, Eagle H-beam connecting rods, ARP head and main studs, and stock size stainless steel valves from carcustoms.
I bought the secret cams-the intake cam from Paul Tjepkes and the exhaust new from Auto Zone. I also bought all new gaskets , 2.4 lifters, and 2.4 valve springs.
About this time was when I sent my supercharger off to Stiegemeier Performance. I had them internally port and polish it, rebuild it and also had the exterior show polished. The cost was right at a $1,000 after shipping both ways and the work that was done. And by the way it is now for sale. I also bought a polished quick change pulley set from Nathan Herbst. I do not have any pics of just it but trust me it looks every bit as good as the other polished parts. That was another $100 so I have blown $1,100 on the blower alone this year.
Then came time to yank the engine and install it all.
The hardest part of removing the engine was getting the stock exhaust manifold off. I wound up rounding the bolts at the collector. We don’t take crap from exhaust manifolds around here so I cut the bish out. Sawzall FTW
I also decided to do the 2.3 oil pump swap since aperently the weakest link on my engine was the oiling system.
I actually wound up doing the machine work to the block for 2.3 oil pump swap twice. Reason was I bought an extra block to save time that I was told was already bored .040 over so when I ordered pistons I bought .040 pistons. When the time came to install them we found out that the block had been bored more than .040. So then I was back to where I started before.
I had always wanted to have my timing chain cover polished so I had that done while it was apart.
I also polished my fuel lines and fuel rail.
After getting the head ported and polished I finally started to get it assemabled.
While I was doing all that I had the lines and numbers on my ID.I. cover polished. Then I stripped the factory powder coat off using some Aircraft brand paint stripper. And then on to the body shop that painted it.
The transmission was not left out either. I installed the Team Green lsd insert. Mine was a very tight fit and kind of a PITA to get in. I beveled the leading edge and put a litle grease on in to help ease it in. The hammer in the last pic shows the best way I found to remove the tone ring that blocks the hole you slip the insert in. Just gently work it around until the ring pops off.
New transmission mounts
New Clutchmasters FX300 clutch kit.
I got a B&M short shifter. I could not stand the alluminum knob so I bought this derlin one.
I installed this header RK Sport 4-2-1 on it and did not like. It looked kind of cool though. So anyway after having had the car running a only a month with it I bought this Pacesetter 4-1 armour coated header from Turbo Tech Racing.
RK Sport 4-2-1
Pacesetter 4-1
Not quite a current pic of the engine bay but stil fairly recent.
At the beginning of October the car was running. Around Halloween I installed Eibach Pro-Kit springs with KYB AGX shocks.
Before
After
Somewhere around this time I bought a gauge pod from Joe Shulte with a autometer gauge in it. The pics of the gauge pod show what a great job Joe did on this piece. Even the texture is almost identical to stock. Joe is a great seller and it was my pleasure doing biz with him The autometer gauge did not really match my instrument cluster and I am not a big fan of autometer boost gauges so I bought this Stewart Warner boost gauge from summit racing.
But I was not happy with that because it did not match. So I went to superbrightleds.com and bought a 194 led bulb. Here is the end result.
I will be adding new pics here soon as I have made many changes to the engine bay that are not shown in these pics. Also still awaiting install is a black TTR subframe brace. Also I have bought a stock front lip and it will be on as soon as I get it.
FORGET GIRLS GONE WILD WE HAVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING GONE WILD!
Skunk It has been running good so far. I just barely have 3000 miles on it. I still have an oil leak somewhere by the cam housing on the timing chain side to fix but other than that it has been running good.
FORGET GIRLS GONE WILD WE HAVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING GONE WILD!
came a long way since i saw it this summer too. can't wait to hear it run again. what are your plans after selling the charger, or are you still going to do that? I hope that you make it to williamsburg this spring.
lol... thank god you finally got around to making this post man, its been a long timing coming now
you know how i feel about your car, its bonerific and has a special place in my heart bahahahaahah anyways... sure wish you woulda taken more pics and used the digi, but i can definately understand, when your wanting to get your car done your not really worried about documenting the process.
its really amazing the kind of detail that went into the car guys, it really its a beautiful car. the engine bay is well organized and EXTREMELY clean, when i first saw it my jaw dropped. the pics of the blower, idi cover and timing chain housing do not do them justice whatsoever. they are all so nice looking under there
wade, you did one hell of a job, you should be proud bud.
I have been nothing but an observer on this site since 1999 and havent said much at all, but I must say that is an incredibly clean car. And I gotta give Wade respect because I spent four years of my life in IOWA going to college (GO HAWKS!). So i have love for the Iowans. I live in Chicago and go to Iowa City when I can, let me know if your ever in those parts, would really like to see the car then who knows, maybe I can show you why I dig the town so much.
Just a quick question, where did you get that shift knob from? Been looking for one that will screw onto the B&M shifter because I as well hate the aluminum. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter!
Joe Yeah I totally suck at this progress thread thing. I will try and post some of my mods seperatly from now on. So much changed so fast last year for my car.
cheezwiz I got it from aplusperformance. The knob alone was almost 50 bucks. Jason said he really did not have much leeway on the price so I can thank B&M for that poke in the ribs.
LD9Stunner I can't wait to make my own vids here soon!
Thanks again to everyone for the compliments. I will try and get some updated engine bay pics soon and post them in this thread. Plans for this year include new tires, alky injection, m62 manifold and charger, and get rid of my stock exhaust for a 2.5 mandrel bent system with a quiet performance muffler. I don't want to drown out the sound of the supercharger. Also MD-LD9 pulleys and lots of dyno runs.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edited Thursday, February 07, 2008 9:19 AM
FORGET GIRLS GONE WILD WE HAVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING GONE WILD!
bahahahaahah anyways... sure wish you woulda taken more pics and used the digi, but i can definately understand, when your wanting to get your car done your not really worried about documenting the process. 
