Update: “ A Sigh of Relief”
You know……I’ve never pushed myself this hard in my life. I’d consider myself a very patient person and hard to discourage. In most cases, when things don’t go in my favor….I get down to an extent…but I know I won’t be giving up. Things could go horrendously wrong….and trust me when I say that I’m in the gutter….. because I probably am at that point..but deep down.. the fire burns, and I know I’ll simply have to do what it takes to overcome the odds. This time around was the ultimate test of my life. My largest obstacle was time…and to make up the deficit. I simply pulled those hours from my sleep schedule. My favorite saying lately… “Sleep when you’re dead.” -and this statement wrung true. SOO let’s get started.
The days are all blended together so bare with me if I’m off a day or so but from memory. There was no engine in my car on Wednesday. By Thursday the engine was in But I still needed to relocate an oil feed to my turbo as well as a very important mod that Abel highly recommended which involved me relocating a -8AN to feed Oil straight to my Front Eccentric Shaft bearing. The machining was finished the day I dropped the Engine and New iron off a week and a half before this. What was causing the issue was finding the correct fitting and getting the Oil filter Pedestal to seal completely. This is all High pressure…and for those of you guys unfamiliar. These motors see 90-105PSI of oil pressure normally….I’ve seen as high as 120PSI. So it’s really important to get a seal on all oil lines/fittings….as it is with every car. On Thursday All I needed to do was fasten the -8 AN fitting and extend my Oil feed to the turbo to reach the new source at the filter pedestal. Well, I was starting to feel good about the progress I had made and that I had planned accordingly when I realized I didn’t have a long enough piece of -4 Stainless braided line that would reach from the new oil filter pedestal to my turbo oil feed. So I pulled out my spare AN box to see if I could create a sort of bridge…so there would be 2 lines kind of daisy chaining them along. This would work just fine….And I did. Except it was on another Line I had started with over a year ago. So I grabbed the line and my adjustable wrenches and the second turn snapped the fitting clear off while backing it out to swap lines. I took a deep breath and looked through my garage for 45 min… I couldn’t find a damn thing. So I ran to Pep boys and they had nothing. Drove across town to a Local race shop called R and E racing and THEY HAD IT! Not only that…but they had a full -4AN High Pressure Crimped line in exactly 14”….which was perfect for me. Only 24 bucks. Swooped it up and went home. Hooked it up and all I needed to do was fill up my coolant system, screw on the new -8 line from the Oil filter Pedestal to the front Iron and Start the car. And so I did…..except in the process of the rebuild and tear down of the engine mixed with lack of sleep…I realized I forgot my coolant filler neck cap. I thought to myself “no problem, I’ve got like 6 OEM ones that will be fine.” 45Min later I was literally at about a level 8 because this was one of the bags I kept handy along with other spare bags. SO I ran to Autozone and picked one up, went and got some food because I hadn’t slept in a while and headed back to the garage. It was finally time to start the car up. Made sure my oil level was good/coolant level was good…. And cranked it over,…BAM fired right up and sounded great. Instantly checked all fuel line connections, followed by water connections…and then my heart jumped because I forgot I needed to check all the NEW Oil Lines… looked under the car and sure enough had a pretty bad oil leak….right under my oil filter pedestal. BUT everything was good! I was really exhausted so I cleaned up the oil mess, and started double checking everything else. Went to sleep around 3am on Thursday night. Woke up at 6 on Friday morning and went to work in a slight haze. ..you know that feeling when even a good breakfast and some nice strong espresso do you no good? Yea …that was me. But there was some light….because I guess our company was doing a Team building thingie at the mall… So we all went, they took us to Bj’s after….pretty sweet because I was starving and they let us off at 1 in the afternoon. I was stoked….. Got out of there with the quickness…
So I pulled the Upper Intake manifold off and tightened the fitting that was leaking. Put everything back and started the car…. Still leaking. But it was leaking less now. ….which was annoying…but progress non the less. So I pulled the Upper Intake Manfold off..and tightened it down more. Put everything Back, started the car and STILL had a leak. But this time I was a little More than it was before… I was getting pretty frustrated at this point because it takes me about 10 min to put the UIM on and connect all the connectors. But the -8 for the new Oil mod is alllll the way up against the fire wall and I didn’t have a size 21 wrench so I was micky mousing with an adjustable one which would allow about ¼ Inch of turn every time…and that every time was very tight and hard to get to. This sounds really stupid. But It was a catastrophy from there on out. I had my friends calling me asking me why I wasn’t at the track yet, and other buddies asking me where I was, and my GF calling me, and I was hungry, and this bloody leak was impossible to fix. I pulled the UIM off and on over the next 4 or 5 hours Countless times… Until I finally spent the time to re-seal the actual pedestal to the IRON,.. after cleaning it thoroughly with Brake cleaner, tightened down all my fittings securely and was overly tired. Jumped in the car and started the car… Instantly I jumped down onto my stomach to see if I had a leak. To my surprise…and utter devestation.. there was OIL EVERYWHERE. Jumped up….turned the car off an Silently Cursed myself. It was 1:30Am at this point and I walked out into the middle of the street andclosed my eyes. There was no way I was going to make it to the Drivers meeting the next morning at 8 AM. I Cursed myself over and over for Lack of discipline in rushing the Job instead of taking my time on it and being meticulous. I felt Like quitting. But I had done soo much and Worked so hard,…..pushed myself to my breaking point mentally and physically as I was Beat tired. I was on hour 10 of making sure this car was ready... So I walked inside and quit. Started Washing my hands and kinda just let it all soak in for a second. Realized I was being a little B went back out into the garage and cleaned up 4 qts Of oil….which I’m sure you guys know isn’t the funnest job when you discouraged and pissed. 15 min later I had it all cleaned up and taken care of. Luckily I had 5 qts of 10W30 Full Synth for some reason? So I started filling it up and NO JOKE…halfway dozed off filling oil into my filler neck… caught myself and shook it out. Looked at how much oil I had poured in and knew I over filled it. Got under my car and drained a full qt out and fumbled the drain bolt and oil went all over the ground. I got the Bolt in to stop the dump….. Took a deep breath..looked up at my car lying on my back underneath it and started to laugh. I was so tired I actually dozed off like when your overly tired and have to drive home on a desolate road. So I cleaned up the mess. Checked my oil level and it was good.. And called it a night. I was making mistakes because I wasn’t thinking straight. I took a shower, set 4 Alarms at 2 Min intervals at 7 AM to make sure I wouldn’t over sleep and passed out. Now I don’t know If I was dreaming or if this was before I had fallen asleep…. But I remember telling myself the whole time that I was soo close…. And to just do it once… and do it right.
I woke up, had 3 shots of espresso, skipped breakfast…. And went to work. Pulled the Upper Intake Manifold Off, Took a look at the Oil Filter Pedestal…and knew If I wanted to do this… I couldn’t Micky Mouse it any more. Jumped in my car and went to Autozone. I had used the rest of the brake cleaner on the garage floor (a good clean garage is good for the spirit). Picked up 3 cans of Brake Cleaner and went straight to Harbor Freight to get a larger wrench set. Picked it up… went home and by this time it was 9:30 and I knew ASB had officially begun. I sent my buddy Brandon a text and he called me back and said he would be back to pick me up around lunch time with the trailer. No problem. I got back to the garage. Cleaned everything nice and spick and reinstalled it. Made sure that ALL of the threaded AN fittings were Cleaned out as steril as possible. Threaded them back in with Teflon tape, used my New wrench set specifically size 21 to get the problematic fitting all the way to the base, reinstalled my Oil filter, put the UIM back on. And started the car. Zero Leaks. I about screamed in joy. It took me about 45 min to do it correctly. So I backed out of the garage to clean the under carriage of the car and let her warm up so I could properly bleed the coolant system. Cleaned it up, pulled out my Lap top to see what was going on and checked the levels. AFR’s were good, All injectors were good, Vacuum had actually Risen on the new build, Fuel Pressure was good, Oil pressure was good… Time to Log a couple pulls. Took her up the street… Which I know people had to be thinking all sorts of thigns… But Stopped on the side of the road… water temp was good, oil temp was good… Things were better and better. Closed my lap top, jumped out of the car….got under it to look for leaks… NADA… jumped back in, put my harness on, closed my lap top,…Rev up dropped the clutch and plumed up the street, shifted into second with my stomach tightening up and it felt sooo good… came back around the corner parked my car on the driveway… opened my lap top… logged it. Turned the car off and got my car wash stuff out. Washed the car and dried it. Got all my gear ready as Brandon was pulling up. Loaded the car up, changed my shirt and shorts, washed my face and piled everything into my Prius and followed Brandon out to willow.
From here on out… All I can say is good times. It gave me chills to see the Wolf on the trailer in front of me heading out to ASB2014…and even as I type it’s eye welling. All the hard work, all the trouble to not just show up to ASB but show up with a car that was 100% solid enough to Beat on and not worry about dumb little things… Good times. I was so….and still am soo thankful the hard work paid off.
On the Pics:
The Oil Filter Pedestal that was giving me so much trouble. Must've tried to seal it some 8-10 times Friday.
After Brandon Picked me up on our way to ASB2014!!!
Our Pits...My cousin let me Use his Mint Easy Up from his company. "Melin Brand Hats'
You gym much brah? (had to post because I've never seen my arm look that ripped....)
Excellent Times... Diego had some troubles with his car but I'm sure he'll get it sorted out.
I Swear the car was telepathic....I kept hearing her call... "Drive me"
HTM behind Tyler Wolfson, Ryan Carroll, Micki Frial
Coming down the bottom Hill (Photo Credit Ian Pierce Photography)
Photo Credit (Ian Pierce Photography)
ASB 2014
