supersayianjim, we made subframe bushings. My roommate made the furnace, and has a lathe in his bedroom. I really don't know the specifics. This is one of those times I just let someone that knows better than I do, do their thing.
MistyBlueS13, thanks for the compliments. I wasn't 100% sold on the color until it was on the car. It was a last minute gamble and I'm glad I went with it.
It has been a while since I have updated this. I finally finished up the power steering cooler and vent.
As Lamar mentioned, in March I went to Florida to hit up an OSW drift event. I had an absolute blast, but it was an experience of a trip. We left Wilmington at 5pm on Friday after work. The entire trip down went amazing. I towed my car, and my friend Ian drove his sr swapped hatch down. We got to Lamar's house in Jacksonville at about 1 am and passed out. The next morning we got up and spend some time checking out his new 1j swapped fc.
Around 3 we left for OSW, and this is where things went down hill. About 20 miles from the track the right rear wheel bearing on the trailer locked up. We were 7 miles from a tractor supply so I unloaded my car and we drove to tractor supply for parts. We got to OSW at about 7pm. Ian and I prepped to do some sliding, and my roommate tackled trying to repair the trailer. After ripping all the threads out of a slam hammer trying to get the hub/bushing assembly off, we decided fixing the trailer was a lost cause. I would just have to drive my car back to NC from Orlando.
The event they put on was awesome, but I found some issues in the current setup. The junction in the high pressure power steering line blew out and caused a bunch of issues. I also found that the strut to knuckle mount on the right front shifted and let the wheel hit the coil spring (didn't notice this until the next morning). This threw the front end alignment off and made it impossible to drive. Apparently hand tools had enough clamping force to handle street driving, but not being tossed into a corner at the track. Being 8 hours from home I decided to just park the car before anything bad happened. I had an 8 hour drive back home the next day and a broken trailer. Ian let me take his car out on the oval a few times. It was his first drift event and he was more than happy to see his car link the track.
Sunday morning we left Jacksonville. Stopped for some breakfast on the way out and snapped a pic of mine and Ian's cars together.
Before we left I thought to myself that I should probably be smart and raise my car some, but I decided it looked too good as it sat and left it slammed. The entire trip went well until we got into South Carolina. About 15 mins over the boarder they had done some road work. There were three trenches across the road, all about 3 feet wide. The first was an inch deep, the second about two and the third a solid five. My head bounced off the roof, and a cloud of smoke billowed from the car. The oil pan had finally had enough.
While I waited for some of my friends to get some jb stick and oil I lifter the front of the car. The jb stick held for the remaining 4 hours home.
When I got home I dropped the oil pan. I saw two flakes of brass in the bottom of the pan, but attributed it to the old RB the pan was on, and dismissed it. The car made it 4 hours home, so it had to be fine right?
I got right to work on modifying the oil pan to be a bit more durable.
I also took some time to redo the lower control arms. Once I got it all back together, the car made it 6 miles and the bottom end locked up. I pulled the RB out the next day. Cylinder two had spun the connecting rod bearing, and cylinder five had locked up on the crank.
After 8 years of messing with rbs, I was done. It was time for something new. I took the opportunity to visit my family in NY, and pick up a vh45 I have had sitting in my garage for about two years.
Someday these two will make it south.
I had a local machine shop take 1/2" off my spare z32 bellhousing, and I started making an adapter plate to mate the trans and engine together.
Around here I sold the complete RB swap. It was sad to see it go, but the money halped me progress with the vh swap.
I kept the ACT clutch and pressure plate from my RB for the vh45 swap. I have had this clutch in a car for over 8 years and it still looks new.
With the trans mated up, I set the engine in the car and made motor/trans mounts. I brought my silvia hood down from NY so I could have a hood on the car while I worked on it. Before everything is done I'll be ordering in a fiberglass flip up hood to modify to clear the intake manifold on the vh.
I modified the cross member so I could set the engine down low.
With everything sitting happy in the car, I started working on the exhaust. I have a lot of pie cuts, and a lot of welding ahead of me. I am going to do my best to make equal length headers in the limited space I have available.
The vh45 starter doesn't fully engage on the z32 flywheel, so I had my roommate take a bit of meat off the mounting face of the starter. This should help the issue some.
I am really hoping to get a good chunk of the manifolds finished this weekend. I just started a new job that doesn't leave me a lot of time to work on things during the week. Anyways, that brings everything up to date. I'm really anxious to get this back on the road. I have never driven anything with v8 torque, so I'm really looking forward to it.