A little Update on life.

Hey all! I lost my serving job while finishing school this spring. I could not get anywhere with finding a feasible job, so after months of no income, I entered into low wage,testosterone overdosing, factory slavery in Hamilton. I was working far to hard for not enough money, but it was a great challenge and growing and maturing opportunity. I managed to put a ridiculous amount of work into my car while not letting it distract me from my future, and with a budget of basically nothing. I learned to enjoy the simplicity of life and how to be resourceful. Realizing that I had a roof over my head and usually enough to eat, I realized how to make the best of the worst, as that was more than many have and is something to take pride in. I took up mountain biking alot more to fulfill my need for speed, and got my life on track keeping a positive health oriented focus.I have gained so much knowledge and energy from all the hard work and healthy choices I have made.

I ve recently relocated to Owen Sound, and that is because all my hard work unexpectedly presented me the opportunity to enter my field as a paid employee finally. I had my first day of orientation as a Cardiovascular Technologist (Heart scanning)today here at a hospital up north. Seems like a great place to work and homes with large garages are cheap and plentiful around here! Still cant believe I got paid for going in to work today. Nice to work with women and the public again in a new setting :), and come home with the energy to keep on truckin.

I ll be living in both owen sound, and hamilton during my free time. It s my first time making a big move or change, and I consider having a home in two towns a pretty sweet deal. I m looking foreward to starting a fresh new second life, while maintaining the best of my old one. Im only casual part time, but if hours and a second job come my way, hopefully my build gets a kickstart later on into 2014 They sure do pay me well so we ll see how it goes. I ve finally walked through the right door of the next chapter.

Here is to all who worked hard to earn an enjoyable and respectable life thus far. Keep positive and eat your vegetables, lots of them! I know I will, a matter of time before I m back home for some true wrenching therapy!

Good to hear Mike. I'm sure lots of people have at least one struggle in their life financially, but when you keep positive, and the mindset of "it can only get better from here" things tend to pan out.

I find that trying to budget your income/expenses... even if it's just on a pad and paper (though Excel is ideal) it helps you learn how to spend your money. Buying my Evo and having monthly car payments + more gas $ + higher repair bills if something happens wasn't something I thought I could manage with a mortgage on my own... but I'm doing it and it feels great.

Forsure I getcha! plus one to the pen and paper method! my memory is kinda sh!t for how much knowledge I have. Having been a server a pen and paper is like a tool of its own.
BTW guys. Think of healthy eating and exercise as this: inexpensive personal performance mods! And I m sure they translate to better over all racing capabilities.

Haha Mike are you big into healthy eating and exercise, if so how come I don't see you on the fitness thread?
I personally started with putting everything on my credit card and managing it like that, I now use mint.com though.

Oh, I hear ya. I'm pulling extra jobs on the side now just to keep myself in the black at the end of the month. Sorry car, you'll have to wait for those fancy new toys

Moving story Mike. And I believe a CONGRATULATIONS is in order for your new job and new life chapter!

^ Agreed...CONGRATS!!

Congrats Mike, those side skirts you wanted are still waiting for ya

LOl! Im not sure why. I cant follow everything on the interwebs!

I am already fit so I suppose it d be ok if I used my knowledge to help others, and at the same time learn a few new tricks...

Haha! I thought I wrote too much but if only one person gets at least a little entertainment from my ramblings, I have accomplished my goal.

Thanks!

Thanks! I do alot of shopping around. But hopefully You ll be hearing from me more over the next year

Ive had my eyes on a the complete fuel system upgrade kit on your site for some time now and the other odds and ends as part of phase 1. Braided AN Tank to aftermarket FPR to aftermarket rail and injectors, as well as the filter, and braided returns. EVERYTHING aha. Lots of chassis work to do. But when I reassemble all of that, bushings, and wiring/guages are the first on the to do list. after rust repair and roll bar/cage +seats,racing wheel, harness

Thanks, Yeah now you can hopefully understand why I havent!
Where are they waiting!? I have the understanding you have left the country. I will still take em this winter. ASAP.

Haha, well to save you some time here is the link.
http://www.ca.dsm.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=365525&page=7
Most of it is lifting stuff but we are all over the place so all conversation is welcome!

Terry Sikora is your man now

+1...I love that guy!

+1

Cheers man congrats!

It's tough out there these days finding a job in many fields.

Glad to hear it worked out!

OK I guess I ll have to give you a holler when I have some money Terry? Sounds good!

Its going ok so far, will be better if I get more hours.

Yes sir

Wow congrats!! I finished CVT a year ago as well..did you graduate from Mohawk??

Ya man I was MoMac. Sounds like your a year ahead of me.

..i was the student TA for that hand-wash/scrub class (forgot what it's called..hildrop's class) earlier this year..you probably saw me unless you were in group 2

Haha nice man. I may have seen you lol!

Inspirational story. There are many ways you could have reacted to the circumstances you found yourself surrounded by, and you chose the right path.

Canada is an unbelievable nation, a great land of opportunity and also very much blessed land. When we are going through "tough" times economically its still as you said 100 times better than many ppl around the world.. So instead of sulking or cursing your circumstances or country, you got on a bike, got a healthy outlook and faced your giant!! Kudos bro.

Enjoy your new found wealth, and by saying so I mean the freedom you enjoy now. Bless others with it, and thank the good Lord for all.

Happy wrenching and remember to always keep your chin up bro!!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for such a great uplifting reply. I ll start sharing operation organic man here shortly. I have almost completed my transition. Just need to trust in higher power that hours will keep coming my way.This is affordable, and once understood quite attainable. Im starting to stock up incase I have some more hard weeks. Food (my health) and rent are priority one.Hopefully clearing debt will follow.

I have put in many long hours working and researching food as well as documenting my past week. I ve not slept enough, but today I got paid and change alot of things. Im pulling through a rough dietary patch of almost strictly veggies, and getting some real food back. I ve almost cleared all of my sh!t food out of the house by eating it or throwing it out to make space for the pure stuff. Next week I should be feeling some great gains. I lost weight, and have had headaches and crash hard daily. I think this is all part of my conversion and cleansing phase, I spent my money mostly on what was in my opinion the most valuable as a tool to get me through my weeks, both present and future. I hope to now eat more freely, and as much as necessary. Luckily I have only lost a few pounds of muscle, I ll gain em back and then some.
I do eat alot most days but key things such as meat and fish, eggs I have been lacking. My main protein sources have been, high quality cerial, cold processed and microfiltered whey protien isolate,inorganic eggs and chicken. I ve used these resources with strict limits while I ve been getting ready to spend more to convert them as well.

Sounds good Mike!
I have been cleaning out most of the junk and honestly don't enjoy eating a lot of it but it seems that this is the season to bake cookies and other sweets so lately we have had a lot of junk coming into the house, and it's not me bringing it in.
I am bulking right now and I tend to stick with IIFYM but try to stay on the healthy side. I also do my best to get in my veggies which lately has been going well.
As soon as January hits I will probably go through all the cupboards and throw out all the junk, if there is any left, so that there are no more excuses.

Mike one more question how come you chose to go with isolate?

I actually want to try and find concentrate this was bought before my research. Isolate seems to be for lactose intolorant (isolated form of milk protein). I dont think I have that problem so I will go ahead and try the better stuff next time as long as it is cold processed and cross flow micro-filtered.

I caused a big stir on facebook lmao. People seem to think I want attention just because I was told a few times I was inspiring people here I decided to go more public. LMAO as if I have time to hunt for attention. I barely have time to write any of this.
I hope others are not perceiving my ideas as negative attention grabbers. I am not whining, but rather enjoy telling my story, weather or not others are actually suffering is not at all my point.

LOL you have some winey ass facebook friends.
The only thing your going to get from these boys is compliments and criticism. That's all we have for you here!

Yeah Isolate is for people who are pick with flavour or lactose intolerant, plus I just find it over priced.
If you are using it to extend the time between meal periods than find something that has slow digesting protein.

Here are the digestion rates for the major protein sources.
Whey protein: 40 minutes to 1 hour
Soy protein: 1 to 3 hours
Egg protein: 1.5 to 3 hours
Casein protein: 4 to 7 hours

Congrats man!

Ive been in that situation almost 2 years ago and it was stressful.

Nonetheless, i persevered, keep pushing, made my voice heard and eventually got heard. Granted i lost my job in a very different situation, but the struggles were the same.

Now, im back to where i was - although with a watchful eye (im sure they're closely checking my online presence. They can kiss my ___).

Again, good on you for chugging along.

And i agree with you, nothing's better than working with a bunch of eye candy everyday .

So now that I ve moved away and learned so much about diet, healthcare, life, and becoming an adult I am so happy to announce
I ll be coming home! I ll attempt to anyways next week. I miss my family, I miss my dog, I miss my friends, I miss my home,I miss my bike trails, very importantly I am torn being far from my DSM, and i miss my LIFE.

I cannot simply make that up elsewhere. My hours are cut, so I ll find another job again back home and work here my handful of shifts monthly.

Stoked!!

I got this! and let the race car projects resume!!!

Great news man!

It's tough being away from home.

Hope you get what you're looking for man!

If I find a steady job to fuel my wallet and continue living and eating I ve got all I need back there already
Give or take a few women! bahaha

Lol good to hear you're in good spirits. Keep at 'er and you'll find what you're looking for.

I ve been home a week, already cleaned and organized the house, applied to 19 restaurants and a few hostpital postings. If I get a serving job tomorrow I might be back in business! I ve been going to town a few days now with the wire wheel at the front half of the car! I m going to be ready to stitch weld before I know how I am going to get it done. I may buy a welder and do it myself. You know what they say if you want something done right....
Once that is done my new found skills could possibly be ready to replace some rust wounds.

Glad to hear it Mike! Make sure you take tons of picture and post them up!

Something like stitch welding is really quite easy, as long as you have the settings on the machine set well...bodywork is definitely more tricky but stitch welding your entire chassis will give you good practice controlling the welder and getting a smooth bead.

Salomon that is what I am thinking exactly! Most of my body work is hidden away in corners of the bay,behind interior panels or the underside of the car.

Any good reasonably priced options I can look into that will work off standard household sockets? I have welder friends to talk to, but haven't done that yet.

Mig pak 140. CTC throws them onsale all the time. A 20amp circuit would be best for thicker metal but a 15 amp will be fine for minor welding. you can get a cheaper fluxcore but if want something pretty much ready for gas the 140 is a great deal.

Yeah I am with Stephen on that one, I would also make sure you grab the gas before starting, you will be much happier with the outcome and less frustrated during the process.

I Feel like I will then need an arc welder to do a proper cage? Mig seems weak for anything other than sheet metal, unless maybe someone else is professionally welding it after I m done stitch welding, cage design, and bending/notching.

Be nice to only buy one welder, but I ll have to start researching this topic like I did nutrition lol! I ll keep my eyes open for one of them things to go on sale too!

Shame I only everdicked around in welding class ! I only ever liked the arc welders, but at my skill level that sounds like lots of burn through.

You're going to want TIG to do a cage. They CAN be MIG'ed, but TIG is definitely the preferred method. Don't think you'll ever get a stick-welded cage certified these days. Besides...stick welding in tight places is a bitch and a half. I've done all position stick welding (overhead, vertical, horizontal, etc.) and while fun, I'd take TIG for cagebuilding any day.

I guess that sounds about right then.I ve researched the sh!t out of cages,but not welding so I may miss a few points there. Sounds pricey. Gotta pay to play !

Depends on the material your using on the weld process. MIG welded DOM cage is perfectly fine and isn't in any way inferior to a TIG.

Since you'll be fitting the cage I suggest DOM tubing and MIG welding so if your joints aren't 100% the weld can still fill in the minor gaps.

TIG and chromoly go together though.

Is the TIG/Chomoly combo lighted than DOM?

Chromoly isn't light than DOM but its stronger so you can you smaller diameter tubing for the same strength. Thats where the weigh reduction comes from.

Chromoly vs DOM definitely makes a difference. I am actually having a hard time deciding. Chromoly seems the better method at first but that becomes very debatable quickly! Chromoly will not be a do it yourself material whatsoever. I would hire a welder to do cage joints anyways, not messing with those.

The next problem comes from needing a racing seat to build the cage around! I ll keep at the other stuff for now. One thing at a time

Fck it give my buddies in automotive engineering another few years and maybe carbon will be ready haha!

Cool, good to know!

Lets turn this into my build thread. I came home to more tools that I just bought and didn't have time to use much of before I left Now I have time to use them, but need a job again to purchase a few more. Currently possess most necessary hand, power, and air tools, a few jacks, one engine stand and engine hoist, 6 saftey stands, small air compressor, ect. Also,Just bought a factory service manual for hard-copy and easy reference detailed wiring diagrams. I didn't like PDF versions.

Current needs list:

1) Shop Vac with Hepa filter
(gotta keep sh!t clean down to the fine dust particles)
2)osculating multi-tool
(remove last of sound deadening and undercoating)
3)Probably a MIG welder, welder of some sort
4)Proper gauge and type of sheet metal.
6)Front Rad support replacement/Redesign

Phase 1: Tear down. Started, Incomplete.
1)Still need to remove rear sub-frame and associated suspension/diff. Still need to remove fuel tank.
2)A few wires remain up the A pillars to the roof.
3)Rear Quarter windows need to be extracted in one or many pieces

Reason not done:
1) I need another way to hold the frame up due to uncertain previous rocker repair rigidity. Safety stands are still on the sub-frame. Not sure where to move these, may need a large amount more height with patio stones/large timber to reach rear-most frame rails.

2)Wires are not currently in my way.

3)These windows are a bitch to get at. I do not have replacement window trim yet either and fear further damaging my only pair.

Phase 2: Remove all paint,seam seal,sound deadening,undercoating. Stitch weld entire chassis. Start with engine bay, move into interior/exterior, fenderwells, finish with the underside.

Phase 2 is well underway, and progress can be made without any other aforementioned tools or tasks. Progress continues. More pics to take,lots of mess to clean, make more mess, repeat.

Phase 3: Pre-Paint Mock-up. Some steps may be skipped and revisited if money does not allow, in order to enjoy the car sooner and make future winter projects. Openly considering sponsorships, not sure though because I hate stickers! I ll try and make a deadline on this step as days go by and I have a better income and timeframe Idea. I am working out of a year-year september-september term rental house after all! I plan to be here at least until september 2015. I d like the car on the road before then. Some steps can be skipped and revisited in order to speed up the paint process, so long as they don't ruin a new paint job. Dont want to be redoing alot of brackets and shaving extra holes with paint done.

1)Use spare 6 bolt to do a mock-up swap, rewire and shaving/tucks.
2)Relocate battery to trunk, add additional switches/safety features
3)Make car run and fully function at idle with all necessary electronics and comforts for street use. Remove all wimp wiring present for non necessities. Purely all for mock-up purposes. No Driveline or suspension required.
4)Mount at least one racing seat in a desired relocated position
5)Rebuild light weight Steering column and mount a racing wheel. Look into depowering/redesigning the steering rack to acommodate full powersteering delete.
6)Build a Roll cage around my desired driving position
7)Make HVAC function properly with a full A/C Delete, full wiper fluid and defrost delete.
8)Depower locks,windows, possibly mirrors.
9)Possibly make a lightweight quick release sunroof plug.
10)Decide how to run/mount lines/ducting for a big brake kit

Parts still needed for mock-up:
1) New Fuel system,possibly a fuelcell (Ziggy/Frontline)
2) New massive and custom gauge setup (Speedhut)
3) New ignition firing System (Dynatek)
4) Evo 8 MAF
5) Metal for new brackets
6) Racing seat/Harness (Status custom seat/DOT approved)
7) Racing steering wheel (Sparco)
8) DOM/Chromoly Piping
9) Possibly a Race Rad,meth injection,and an oil cooler
10)CF sunroof, doors would be nice.

Phase 4 Disassemble again (should be quick with half the car still unassembled). Rigorously, systematically and meticulously Clean, Prime, Undercoat,Seam Seal,Paint.

Phase 5 Reassemble with care and utilize the best of what I have available at this time. Replace old bushings/mounts. If driveline will remain stock, check it over. New Windshield. New Trim. Clean/polish/paint OEM brakets/parts. Setup DG coilovers and suspension.

Phase 6 Fire the beast. Drive with spare 6 bolt and act 2600, enjoy, tune with link V3 (already in possession and running with a 96 ECU). Be careful with power the drive-train can handle. Otherwise beat the sh!t out of the spare motor. Tires,rims,Big brakes if not yet complete.

Phase 7 Built 6 Bolt. In progress. Finish and Swap whenever. If not yet completed, build transmission, working outward and backward to shafts, transfercase, and rear diff. Twin Disc clutch. If first paint job didn't cut it try again.

-Head complete: Stock valves and cams, Manley valvesprings+titanium retainers, Ferrea High temp valve seals and guides, 3g style lifters. Felpro permatorque hhead gasket.
-Block in progress. Needs bore and hone. Currently a stock crank, ACL Race bearings. ARP head and main studs. Eagle H Beams, Weisco 9:1 pistons. Balance shaft delete.






Phase 1 and 2 pics to follow in a few days along with a prologue to bring us up to present mods list. That should bring everything up to speed in order to proceed with a more semi regular bunch of updates on the progress. Until then its just all talk! Need a plan though, and I dream big, or whats the point

[s][/s]Im kicking myself in the ass every time I take more pictures and dont upload them. I ve now got 350 plus if I dont narrow them down. Im working on my Flckr account now.
Good news is I am getting about 9 hours a week in the garage. And that is only because I have no money to spend. More money= More garage :)Currently struggling to make a mess without proper cleaning gear and protection. I have to replace my respirator filters, and the vaccuum I aquired is not cutting it anymore. Wirewheeling and grinding in a one car garage closed up is messy business!!
I think I m going to revise and repost this separately to declutter things a bit.

Just to clear things up POR15 sticks well to textured surfaces not necessarily rusted surfaces, this is the purpose of the 'METAL READY'step you would do before applying POR15 to smooth unrusted metal, media blasting also helps due to the texture, if people don't remove ALL rust before applying POR15 then all your doing is protecting the RUST..POINTLESS IMO. If you have questions on POR just go to their forum or Google it.


It just so happens that Eastwood has a similar product already in a pressurized can for $19US.

Eastwood Frame Rail Spray



*EDIT...I indiscreetly moved the shell stripping conversation from the 'Post you car Pic Thread' back to where it belongs

Great thanks Terry! I didnt want to open that thread up to this.

GREAT link by the way!! After seeing that acid dipping seems less worthhwile. And lots of other good stuff. Rotisseries arent a bad price, shipping would concern me though!

We did POR15 on the sub frames... Two starter packs were good... And used the Eastwood frame rail spray on he frame rails. Compressed air and a shop vac to get as much crud out first...

D.

Mint... Derek, you will never have to worry about those parts again

So I still refuse defeat. I have not given up I assure everyone. I had 500 aside for the rotisserie, and my mounts designed, but then I put myself back in school, and lost my job in the first week lol. So the 500 went to life and I am living off student loans once again until I finish the end of my journey in school next november. Hopefully that makes me a cardiac sonographer next year. That might mean another big move within or outside of ontario, but the money will sort out the lack of supplies situation I have run into. I have a welder (with no cart or gas) that I have never used, no sheet metal or associated cutting supplies, and no means of paying to sandblast the chassis or have it sprayed when that is done. I m going to try and find something productive to do with planning out the wiring harness or something after exams. I suppose some forms of mock up at this point are better than nothing for another year. Christmas break begins friday afternoon
God I am going so DSM withdrawl crazy. Im starting to stare at them again during study breaks :s
I mean what else can I do? I cant just slap the damn thing together again with all the windows removed and rust holes in the chassis right? lol. Sometimes I realize I may have started this project over ambitious and a bit too early, but in the end I hope not to regret it one bit.

Mike if i could give some advice. If you have any parts that can easily just be re-bought in the future. This would be all the bolt on type stuff. Turbo, BOV, wastegates, FMIC. I would sell all that stuff off and buy it closer to when you need even if its a bit more than you currently paid for it. It still makes sense. Better than paying interest on loans that could be paid off from parts sales. No point in having thousands tied up in those parts you do not need or use in the short term.

The hard to get parts I would hoard but by the time you get the thing together some of those bolt on might be obsolete and not worth much or you don't even want to use them yourself anymore.

Yeah I am with Mr DA on this, I would also add that you need to shift more work to yourself, generally the tools are far cheaper than what you will pay in labour and you can borrow stuff too. Plenty of guys here willing to help, just need to ask.

You can always sand blast the chassis yourself if you have a big enough compressor, just keep the garage door closed till you are done and make sure you wear a respirator and some good eye protection. You also don't need sheet metal, you can do what I did and use fenders that you are going to scrap and cut out the size you need from that. Tin snips and a dremel would be all you need here.

Man, I honestly can't believe what your doing. You really need to focus on school and work. This car is not worth the amount of time and energy your putting into it. Its not a 67 mustang that a mint body cant be found and you HAVE to do this much work.

The dsms that were rustproofed don't need this type of attention. Those are the ones you need to find and buy in the future. Get out while you can and move on from this car.

That's just my advice and I'm sure most people would agree.

+1. Thats a monster of a project that would take huge amounts of time and money to finish.

+2 It seems there is a growing number of members on this board who just can't pull the plug when its obvious that they should.

Just like Deep and Mike said, ditch the shell and all but the rare (or soon to be rare) items and start up again when you have a steady job without school to worry about.

Don't want to come off as a dick (although I often do) just want to give my honest opinion

There's some good advice on here for you dude. It's been about 7 year's since I've owned a DSM... Let me tell you its not easy... And its not like my wife and I don't have the financial means.. With kids and life I know I can't just sit in the garage working on my car. One day I will get my DSM... When I don't know and there isn't one day that goes by that I don't miss it. Hopefully things will work out for you.
Cheers

Isaque do you need a hug?

I promised my self I wouldn't cry! LOL...
I'm good, Do miss my DSM though.

Its sentimental to me. My first car I ve been back at work again doing the free stuff. The bare metal started worrying me so I rattle canned it over last night. Got my gas tank drained and cleared all old bottled fluids out, took the gas tank and lines out of the garage.
My buddy gave me his welding gas, so the welder is now set up (hence the clearing of explosives lol). Next plan is to reattach the subframes and wheels, sit it on the ground again, lay the harness back in it. Going to go back to work with mocking up the rewire and 6 bolt swap for now. Lots of welding can now be done. That should keep me busy till school ends. I can make some new brackets and shave some old holes.
I honestly don't have alot worth selling. Supposed to be finishing the 6 bolt build over the holiday at Gord Bush performance with my buddy who worked there a while. The head has been finished for a few years, just need to see if we can assemble the block or not. Im not paying for labor, and it has to come home regardless, this friend is my tie to Gord Bush and he's moving to Vermont to work for Subaru world rally team USA.
All in all this is a huge learning experience, and something I have interest in. I look foreward to learning how to use my MIG and aquire skills in chassis fabrication and restoration. This frame isnt perfect, but its a long ways off from crumbling scrap metal. I ve been inspired by too many restos far worse, why waste another rare DSM. Also, school hasn't suffered one bit, still achieving high averages. Im trying to make the best of 3 weeks off, and then when I go back I should have more to tinker with for a while rather than large scale work.

Wonderful to hear. I was going to mention that some of us are here to learn stuff and not to have a perfect car as soon as possible but was just curious to see what your motivations were before I posted.

Glad to hear it!!

Been setting some smaller scale goals for life and the car in general and writing to do lists. Been a major help so far. I got the harness laid out for the most part on my holidays, and mounted the first stock 6 bolt on a stand. Got my welder running. Still need to pick up the Gord Bush Built 6 Bolt on tuesday, missed him over the holidays. Got my engine hoist back from a friend and nabbed his engine stand too so I can throw one of the other 2 engines on there.
Plan to start piecing a working electrical system and 6 bolt together and play with the welder until I am confident to use it on the car. Here's a few pics with the bay and other bare areas painted to keep it better protected for the time being. Big work ahead with reorganizing wires to ready the harness for tucking, relocations, deletions, and to see if it all works how its supposed to First week of school started fast, and I may need part time work, hoping to keep some momentum at least. Trip to vermont over the holidays was epic, love the state and roads, got me pumped to plug away to road trip there in the eclipse one day.

PICS
Tore into some engines over the summer and made some templates
Stock 7:

Mostly stock 6:

Both Footwells in 1


Front subframe mounts:


And the wiring harness that I didnt want to look at too much lol:

Over winter break:
Before and after of the bay with its temporary brutal rattle can surface treatment. More prep effort there than meets the eye.









Wiring working its way back where its got to go






Engine hoists are usefull for loading engine stands lol

Looks good so far!

Have you decided if you are going to lap weld or but weld your panels in?

I suppose you could say both. Most of it will probably end up as butt welds. I m going to try and eliminate the worst seams for moisture by forming certain things differently. Also may try and recreate other areas with more strength. If anything overlaps I ll probably do a few plug welds, then stitch weld it with the rest of the seams at the end.

Last night I cleaned up, organized, and moved my 7 bolt out of the garage into the basement beside the 6 bolt. Started picking away at transferring components. I want to run the higher flow 1g intake manifold but I also want to run emissions legal 2g solenoids and maybe the EGR.

So unfortunately my dog was not able to help me move this:


To here:

So I had to clear the way for good old big boy toys:

To yank it through here:


But the leg wouldnt fit and I didnt want to take the door off:


Some see saw surgical extraction:

Just a bit more room Couldnt have done this without an unfinished basement lol! And there is no back way in. The 6 bolt engine came through the front doorstep much the same way.

So your plan is to run the 6 bolt with a few of the 2g stuff for emmissions?

You need to get some help!! Lifting the short block with 2 people isn't too bad, one people is alright but it's definitely killer!

I find the lap weld don't look as bad as I expected they would. As long as you keep things nice and cool your but welds will definitely look much better though.

1G head and block, 2g exhaust mani and fuel rail, hopefully 1g intake mani, Following a 6 bolt swap list now, but some links are dead. I have to swap the drivers side motor mount where it bolts to the block with tensioner pulley and idler.
Anyone know the deal with that?
The 2g mount I have to put on the 6 bolt block has 4 bolt holes instead of 3. Looks like I have to cut the one off on the top left to clear the water pump, and I assume also switch the idler and tensioner pulley and tensioner arm back to a 1g set?
Once I make that fit I ll turn attention to setting up an intake mani/ignition system.

Go watch some Jafro videos, he runs through all the stuff you need for a 6 bolt in a 2g. Just as a heads up, you don't have a choice on the intake manifold the ports are totally different from 1g to 2g.

1g Mount Left, 2g Mount right Do I swap the pulleys and arm from the 1g to 2g mount? Circled extra bolt hole.



Going to have to cut that:

OK thanks!

Yes you will have to trim the mount to clear the water pump. I strongly suggest using the 6 bolt timing components (I have heard you can use 2G components but you have to tension the belt a slightly different way, and I don't like it).

Bryan is correct: match your intake manifold to your head.

Edit: If you'd like me to take a picture of my driver's side mount, PM me an email address to send it to.

Im not too concerned with cutting the mount anymore, just realizing it needs to be done. Should be able to pull off a nice clean job on that. Sounds like Im swapping for 1g components then and I ll see what is to be done with the manifold when I get there. But thanks for usefull information!

I ve got some awesome news I ll post an update tonight

So some of you may recall this bunch of goodies! Yesterday I finally got to put em to use!



Went to gord bush performace where a shiny new head and block awaited assembly. Head has a 3 angle valve job and ferrea high temp valve guides. Also decked and oil port mod for more flow. Block has had the cylinders honed to fit the new wiseco forged 9:1 pistons.

Putting in ferrea high temp valve stem seals


Some higher tension Manley Valve Springs with titanium retainers, stock valves ad rockers, and new 3g revised lifters.

On to the block. Time to put in some ACL race bearings, forged eagle rods with ARP headstuds, mains, and rod bolts. Stock crank for now. Felpro permatorque headgasket.

Assembling pistons



Torquing the ARP mains

As it sits at home.


Still need to assemble the outside bits, powder coat/paint.

I am very greatful to gord bush for allowing my friend to leave my engine sprawled out across shelving for 2 years, and for all the help him and his team gave us with assembly information. He did an amazing job on the machining.
I am also very thankful for my friend Myles, who made this all possible by co-oping at gord bush performance, helping me pay for the block work, and tearing my engine apart and cleaning it up for me.

Rough Engine tally:
Engine: 200
Parts: 1600
Head machining: 200
Block machining: 350 (paid courtesy of myles!)
Total: 2350 (2000 out of pocket a few years ago)
Yesterdays memories of assembling my own engine at a performance machine shop: EPIC!!

It's a 6 bolt; you can't outgrow the factory crank

Awesome pics, nice to see you heading in the direction of an assembled car again

Mike I don't think I can express how jealous I am. I would love to do exactly what you did and be a part of it. This is what an engine build should look like. When I do mine I will definitely be cleaning up the casting like you did here. Look beautiful.

Also what Jeremy said, and a lot of high horsepower guys on here have said multiple times. Stick to the stock crank, to get one that's worth it you are looking at about what you paid already.

Thanks guys. I hear you I am pretty happy with it the way it is.I put a fair amount of research into that parts list back in the day! Cams will probably happen after I try it out the way it is. They are easy enough to do now that I know my way around most of the car.
Gord thought it was fine the way it is for a 500HP reliable build. We all know it will do plenty more than that with a good tune/meth. I need a better balance shaft delete, he told me why I shouldn't use the stub shaft at the oil pump.

Wish I knew if I was welcome around there, really calm quiet place. No one is in a hurry, and Gord is a pretty quiet but friendly guy. Barely shows any emotion lol! I loved the place, so well equipped obviously. My favourite was the solvent tank with a scrub brush that flows varsol, and then the parts washer you can transfer it to after. Sandblasters are awesome too, but my buddy already did most of that.

Now to get the other 6bolt and car together. This engine is way ahead of the game, I still have a stock one to swap, learn to tune, and possibly blow up!! Lol!

Last night I worked on the old mock up 6 bolt. Got the intake nearly roughly plumbed for 2g emissions and sensors, swapped in all necessary sensors, cut the 2g motor mount and bolted it on. Still need to finalize vac lines, hook up the MDP sensor, wire in the Blacktop CAS, hook up water lines, get a timing belt, cover, and misc gaskets. Swap alternators.

Some more cherry picking the other day. This time to put the built engine to rest on its stand for a while.






Been maintaining a better sense of organization in life as this is going to be a tough last semester at school before clinical placements! Trying to keep from wasting any time, with excitement for a future career to support my build ahead. Hope to keep at the car at least once a week if possible.

Some more Entire car harness work its starting to get somewhere!
Feels good to have a harness half laid out! ALOTTTT of hours removing then re-installing this thing for a mock up of many mods. My time has become limited and this will be a rushed post. I am moving the battery to the trunk, fuse box in the cabin, deleting a load of unused accessories, tucking, extending, shortening/moving alot of stuff! Hoping to stick emissions sensors/solenoids back behind the passenger tower where the battery used to be.

Last month, got the harness mostly untangled and laid everything out in relation to factory to remind myself how this crazy thing laid out. Engine bay Fuse box and harness are under the car on the floor along the rad support, and then along the drivers fender plugged into the cabin fuse box. Engine sensors still
tangled in some organized chaos.



Here the engine harness has been better organized and laid out in the organized branches of clusters of sensors. The branch on the passenger strut tower is sensors for the intake mani, ignition, and timing, as well as emissions. They all get hidden behind the engine. Fuel injectors on the drivers tower, MAS, thermostat, 02 sensors on the nearside of the pass tower.


Getting ready to move the fuse box to the cabin. Such a mess !




This is my initial idea to move the fuse box behind the passenger seat and run the harness back there or under the seats. Then rewire it to a trunk battery, and to a killswitch and fuel pump require with toggle switch.



I have since bolted the drivers footwell box back in temporarily, and connected everything back up. However not sure how many wires I want to lengthen. Started trying to extend the front light connectors and realized I need a supply of wire and more time and patience. Maybe a better soldering iron or tip too lol! Might be easier on myself to try and reduce the distance to the front of the car to run 2 half harnesses up right and left fenders.

Looks mad!! Make sure you know which sensors are resistance based so you don't extend those wires and screw up your readings.

I dont think I need to extend any sensors Bryan I ll just replace the stuff at the filter housing with aftermarket, the rest is accessory or should reach. Trying not to eff with them crazy sensors, except for my CAS/6bolt rewire

Just figured I would put that out there, there have been people that have shortened their sensor wires and then screwed up the signal.

I definately have sensors that are too long! I figured loop em up gently inside the loom to shorten

So currently I have learned that I ll be taking off to windsor for school placement in May/June/July. Hope to learn alot, but project will be slowing down until august. I ll do what I can in the meantime
If I m lucky my previous schooling could land me some spare change while I am not learning (unpaid) on the 40 hr week. Not where I see living in the end, but life takes crazy turns doesn't it.
Really hoping my last placement in Sept/oct/nov brings me back home (After a month off in august). Then I m done for good. Maybe someone will employ me and pay me longer than 3 months this time. Big money. Racecar funding, life altering, house buying with bigger garage kind of money.

Let me know when you're in town - I live 10 minutes from the Windsor border in Detroit.

Hope everything works out!

Sounds cool Salomon! Did I meet you at one of the invasions or anywhere ? Maybe you can help me into the car scene. I find it hard to blend in while im in my acura though haha.

We might have met at an invasion? Can't recall.

I only just moved here a few months ago so I'm pretty fresh to area too. Though, by the time you're here I should have a good handle on things.

Cool! I know Dave Barlow is out there too. Be good to get a dsm fix with you guys from time to time if your wrenching on something or whatever

Been working so hard at school with exams coming up in april, then I am done studying until national certification exams. Waiting on my order of a new solder gun, shrink tube, wire holder clamps (for soldering) and solder. Also ran to visit Henry yesterday and got a spare couple harnesses to hack up for some hopeful good matching wire. And some other misc spare bits, most of which I needed missing side skirt end cap led to another spare set of skirts and fenders lol! excited to dig into some wires again later today.

Salomon's the one with a limp, or should I call it a pimp walk.

Hehe ! nice but that didnt help.
My engine bay harness is roughed out how I think I want it now. Want to get a little further in the cabin before I tease with more pics of webs of wires. The bay is in good organized, taped, strands now
Makes me wana toss my engine in ! Going to have to put some gaskets and timing bits in my spring budget

Started working one day a week. Building bicycles outside of school time. 1st day back went well! 36 assemblies in 6 hours but they were mostly easier builds. Hope to keep that pace up, with peace work that is about 20 bucks an hr good gig if I can make a bit more time for it and keep up the pace.

Sorta in the limbo phase broke awaiting next OSAP spring/summer installment :S and that isnt enough to live off of working a placement May, june, july, full time in another city with no pay.

Finally done exams, I ll be at it this week. I guess the engine bay isnt looking alot different, but it is much closer to finalized.

Been working at the mock-ups for the rewire. Some free red fenders sitting on there looking puurrty (thanks Henri )


Realized my work was not yet done here. more untangling had to be done to move the fuse box connector, ignition transistor, wiper connector, and some other such things out of the bay and hidden on the other side of the fire wall. Moved the factory alarm horn up under the air filter. 6 bolt swap/organization of other sensors. Still have to rewire the crank signal to the 6bolt CAS. Decided to do away with the brake fluid warning light.






All the engine harness connectors lying on the cowl, worked on untangling them, and making sure every connector for this harness was at one end, and in close proximity to eachother.


And Voila. With every connector accessible in the passenger's footwell you have a modified OEM harness for a quick removal of the engine without disconnecting any of this harness. When I plop an engine in there and secure things and loop up the heaps of extra wire laying there it shall be neatly tucked

I have arrived
Bah project delays I ll have to make some trips home on weekends

I hit a snag in my rewire. Im not sure I care to try and figure it out. In other news I m moving back to windsor to start full time work in my chosen career of cardiac ultrasound. Hopefully this goes well for a while. Need to pay for my exams and take a chunk out of my debt. Might look to snag some spare harnesses in a few months after I get settled if I can't sort my dash and accessories and take a second crack at it with a better method. Then I should be able to tackle my rust repair, and start acquiring some of the missing pieces to my puzzle.

Project update: today I found good reason to enjoy full time work in windsor!



Just have one bedroom all inclusive. Oh and the garage. Claimed it Dirt cheap too haha! Should be back in business in a few months!

Congrats! Looks like it should be a good sized place. If I ever have any issues on my drive back to Michigan I know where to stop in

Good stuff, looking forward to some updates!

Salomon I m right near the ambassador bridge too haha. Bryan you and me both buddy, guna take some work to setup shop yet! lol

Well, I pass your place multiple times every week then. I'll have to stop by one of these days.

I think I m a fully qualified parts whore now. Funny sh!t coming up. After all buying peices = progress!!
Thanks Miller import parts.

-I need a piece of the rear rockers:



here ya go:


Guess I ll just take the whole thing then

-need the little bit of the bottom of the firewall where the subframe mount bolts come through:


OK hows this:



Ummm no sir the rockers I can fit in an acura 4 door, that I cannot. -Do you want to take the strut towers ... what a salesman ahah why not at this point. So I m not sure what I m getting but this is whats left of that in north carolina:

A whole cars worth of 98 AWD Manual harnessess. Just incase.






And some factory hood and hatch latches. Those things get a bit molested when adjusting for CF so might as well have a clean pair and do a nice job slotting them with something better than a file....
Just need some strut towers on here and its headed north carolina to detroit.


Next up. Rotisserie. Front windsheild. New Rad support. Move the car 3 hrs from hamilton to windsor. Go me Met a guy who owns a resto shop here when I did an ultrasound on his heart, might pay him to do some welding and proper coating of things for me to expedite the process a bit. Realistically my welding might not be ready to tackle this soon enough properly and its nice I have so much extra clean metal to work with on my patches! Having an income is such a usefull tool lmao. No more student problems

Looks awesome - can't believe they just send you pretty much a whole damn car.

How much was the harness?

Maybe I'll have to swing by after work some time and check out the goods!

Nice find Mike!! Look forward to seeing some crazy fab skills, I suggest you get some gas and do this yourself! I did some patches on the old car with flux and it works but was a bitch cause of how hot it is but with gas you should be good to go!

I suppose I should really give welding a fair shot! I m a meticulous guy anyways and already have a welder...

I ll let you know when my shipment arrives Salomon!

I paid 825 US shipped for the harness, rockers, and firewall. added towers for 150, and hatch and hood latches for 35. Not too bad for my baby!