SINISTER build (update 2/8/13)
#30
i cleaned up the garage and wrapped up my setup to keep it clean.
snapped a picture of the suspension mocked up.
then measured and cut my fuel line to the rail, and took some additional measurements for where my wiring needs to go and then proceeded to pull the motor back out. Alex41 may be over in the next week to weld up the engine bay and such, so i can start on the body work for the bay.
more pictures to come.
snapped a picture of the suspension mocked up.
then measured and cut my fuel line to the rail, and took some additional measurements for where my wiring needs to go and then proceeded to pull the motor back out. Alex41 may be over in the next week to weld up the engine bay and such, so i can start on the body work for the bay.
more pictures to come.
#31
TECH Senior Member
Beautiful car... You said you're going to autox/road race the car right? Have you research suspension at all? Because those QA1s are terrible for what you want to do.
#32
on another note, yesterday alex41 came over, and we started the fabrication on the engine bay. we finished up all the welding today, and for the most part it's all ground down to the point where it's ready for filler.
Big props to alex41, he knocked out a ton of welding and grinding in a very short time, super nice guy, and i'm proud to say he's the only other person to touch this build. Thanks man, it's gonna turn out sweet thanks to you!
welded all the "billion" holes GM decided to put in the engine bay up, boxed in the radiator support and frame rails, filled all large holes in bay from random accessories that will no longer be on the car, washer fluid, fuel line hole and all wire harness holes in the firewall and bay area., etc. Also cut and welded in a hvac delete plate which will be completely smooth on the firewall. we also completely stitched the towers all together.. There literally are NO holes in the bay what so ever, and everything will get filler, and body work to be completely smoothed.
extremely rough, but it's going to come out looking awesome!
on to the pictures!
#37
TECH Senior Member
Thanks man! yeah, i'll be auto crossing, and road racing the car, so the Qa1's are not particularly what i need as far as shock valving goes, but in terms of adjust-ability they're what i want. I've done some research on suspension, but can't seem to find any true "road racing" type coil overs. Of course i could run koni's or bilsteins, but they're not an adjustable coil over setup, so that's not what i'm looking for. i may end up selling the qa1's if i can find a better setup for what i'm looking for in the right combo. from my personal experience, the qa1's don't handle "terrible" though. A lot better than stock, lol.
The QA1's are non-gas charged drag shocks, because they are not gas charged they will fade and loose dampening quickly, on top of that they have pretty **** valving to begin with, leaving you with a loose/floaty and disconnected ride but at the same time overly jarring stiff. My buddy had QA1s on his car and it was liking riding in a dump truck, Id argue you'd be better off stock, and a good shock is lightyears ahead of these.
As far as "road race" coilovers you didn't search hard enough, you can get Penskies or race bilstiens from unbalancedengineering.com, or KW coilovers from stranoparts.com, or run a ground control adjustable spring perch on a stock style (koni for example) shock (stranoparts again). Sam won his multiple national auto-x champions on konis with a ground control sleeve (with a 1.2" drop).
Also on a side note, I know you are going for a great stance (and it does look damn good) but you will likely want to raise the car up some for better cornering believe it or not.
#40
Sorry Im not trying to hijack your thread or anything but Im keeping this public so anyone else looking to do the same thing can read it.
The QA1's are non-gas charged drag shocks, because they are not gas charged they will fade and loose dampening quickly, on top of that they have pretty **** valving to begin with, leaving you with a loose/floaty and disconnected ride but at the same time overly jarring stiff. My buddy had QA1s on his car and it was liking riding in a dump truck, Id argue you'd be better off stock, and a good shock is lightyears ahead of these.
As far as "road race" coilovers you didn't search hard enough, you can get Penskies or race bilstiens from unbalancedengineering.com, or KW coilovers from stranoparts.com, or run a ground control adjustable spring perch on a stock style (koni for example) shock (stranoparts again). Sam won his multiple national auto-x champions on konis with a ground control sleeve (with a 1.2" drop).
Also on a side note, I know you are going for a great stance (and it does look damn good) but you will likely want to raise the car up some for better cornering believe it or not.
The QA1's are non-gas charged drag shocks, because they are not gas charged they will fade and loose dampening quickly, on top of that they have pretty **** valving to begin with, leaving you with a loose/floaty and disconnected ride but at the same time overly jarring stiff. My buddy had QA1s on his car and it was liking riding in a dump truck, Id argue you'd be better off stock, and a good shock is lightyears ahead of these.
As far as "road race" coilovers you didn't search hard enough, you can get Penskies or race bilstiens from unbalancedengineering.com, or KW coilovers from stranoparts.com, or run a ground control adjustable spring perch on a stock style (koni for example) shock (stranoparts again). Sam won his multiple national auto-x champions on konis with a ground control sleeve (with a 1.2" drop).
Also on a side note, I know you are going for a great stance (and it does look damn good) but you will likely want to raise the car up some for better cornering believe it or not.
i'll be giving sam strano a call very soon for a complete sway/shock/spring package for this car. I know he can do it right!
as far as stance goes the car will see it's fair share of "GO" and "show" so for the show aspect of it's life it'll be pretty stanced out and low, but with a coil over setup i can adjust this up, and run it at the track with ease. I can't be dragging y/x pipe all down the track!
yes sir! it's gotta be looking good if it's it's gonnna be drapped over this thing.
I'm not quite sure if this is your cup of tea but i've got a little question regarding some wiring/relocating. From the factory the coolant tempature sensor is mounted on the drivers side front of the head, but since the heads are the same just flipped around there is also a location for screwing in a coolant tempature sensor on the rear of the passenger side head. My question is could this easily be moved in the wiring harness to function correctly, and if it is moved to that location, will the readings be acurate?
i'd like to get as much wiring out of the way as possible, so this going all the way to the front of the motor is a big eye sore imo..
the holes were all welded so they can be filled, and smoothed with filler and automotive paint. there will practically be nothing mounted on anything in the bay. it will just be a motor, everything else will be hidden.
on another note... i was in a "backyard" engineering type of mood the last couple of days, and after talking and discussing some things with alex41 i came up with a couple of ideas for various little issues i had with my setup so far.
I couldn't stand the front mounted map sensor, and with the rear mounted setup causing firewall clearance issues, i made this little bracket, and mounted it under/ behind the intake.
another issue was the ugly location for the map sensor on the front of the intake, so after a little looking in home depot, i found the perfect solution. a 1 3/8" chrome plated cap/plug in the hardware section. it fit perfect, and cleand up this area cleanly. i did have to grind a little on the mounting boss though.
I then went on to figuring out how to mount my radiator. since it had to slide up into the radiator support i had to make something that kept it in it's foward/back location as well as keeping it tight to the top of the radiator support in vertically. so i came up with this little bracket and bolt/lock to hold it into place. using existing bolt holes! I can now shake the whole car by grabbing the sides of the radiator and trying to pull it out. it's sturdy, simple, and effecitve. The best part is it cant really be seen.