tgraham
09-27-2011, 03:41 PM
I finally drove #6344 for real (defined as: beyond a reasonable walking distance from the garage) for the first time in about nine months. I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to drive these cars. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about getting it back on the road, so I had to share!
Way back in January, I decided to put my project car on hold, pull the heads off of this one and finally address my quickly-deteriorating coolant-in-oil situation... long story short, the task took a fast and sharp turn down a long and slippery slope.
Since then I have completely rebuilt the engine (with DMC EU cams and ported/polished heads), brakes, and transmission, added a Stage 1 exhaust and Eibach/SPAX suspension, performed some major cleaning, plating, and powder coating, and added a few other miscellaneous "while you're in there" odds and ends.
Anyway, the car is mostly back together now and, with some tweaking, I passed emissions. Once I resolve a few final items, find someone competent enough to do a four wheel alignment, and wash nine months of dust and grime off, I'll be ready to tear up the road! Either until I discover that something has gone catastrophically wrong (always a possibility) or until I feel confident about everything.
So far, it's a notably different driving experience over a stock setup (especially a tired motor with 88k miles on it). This thing just wants to keep on revving up (haven't let it get too high yet - I only have ~40 miles on the rebuild). The torque is great!
I was slightly fearing the exhaust noise after reading comments about the Stage 1 being so loud, especially at cruising speeds. I don't have any other firsthand experience with this exhaust and I did add Dynamat + acoustical foam, so this is by no means a scientific assessment, but I think it sounds great! It's a little more aggressive (louder) on the outside, but not really much louder at all on the inside and certainly nowhere close to annoying - it makes a nice purr at 2000-3000 RPM even with the windows down and radio off.
Assuming I can get the alignment sorted, I'm going to try to drive it all weekend and put a few miles on it. Fingers crossed...
Travis
Way back in January, I decided to put my project car on hold, pull the heads off of this one and finally address my quickly-deteriorating coolant-in-oil situation... long story short, the task took a fast and sharp turn down a long and slippery slope.
Since then I have completely rebuilt the engine (with DMC EU cams and ported/polished heads), brakes, and transmission, added a Stage 1 exhaust and Eibach/SPAX suspension, performed some major cleaning, plating, and powder coating, and added a few other miscellaneous "while you're in there" odds and ends.
Anyway, the car is mostly back together now and, with some tweaking, I passed emissions. Once I resolve a few final items, find someone competent enough to do a four wheel alignment, and wash nine months of dust and grime off, I'll be ready to tear up the road! Either until I discover that something has gone catastrophically wrong (always a possibility) or until I feel confident about everything.
So far, it's a notably different driving experience over a stock setup (especially a tired motor with 88k miles on it). This thing just wants to keep on revving up (haven't let it get too high yet - I only have ~40 miles on the rebuild). The torque is great!
I was slightly fearing the exhaust noise after reading comments about the Stage 1 being so loud, especially at cruising speeds. I don't have any other firsthand experience with this exhaust and I did add Dynamat + acoustical foam, so this is by no means a scientific assessment, but I think it sounds great! It's a little more aggressive (louder) on the outside, but not really much louder at all on the inside and certainly nowhere close to annoying - it makes a nice purr at 2000-3000 RPM even with the windows down and radio off.
Assuming I can get the alignment sorted, I'm going to try to drive it all weekend and put a few miles on it. Fingers crossed...
Travis