I can't believe 5 months have passed since I last updated this but unfortunately I simply lost motivation to update anything, but especially due to the fact that the unit I work in is not heated during the winter and it becomes unbearably freezing to work in. So like clockwork every year things get put on standstill from December until March.
I also realized I never gave a quick run down of the purple coupe I acquired just before the season ended so to summarize:
-M52 w/ M3 cams and M50 intake
-Solid engine+trans mounts
-SRS Concept angle kit
-Bucket seat
...oh and 4 hood pins as one does lol
I plan to drive the shit out of this car and get as much practice as I can. Also this was an exciting purchase because it will eventually become V.2 of the LS sedan I've been building mainly as the shell is in overall better condition (sedan has monster driver side patch as a previous update shows)
To get you up to speed these updates are going to start around late February up until the first week on April.
With the temperature getting more bearable I was finally able to get started on routing my fuel lines from the cell in the trunk to my rails. For those wondering why I stick with the entire factory truck setup, the answer truly is because I really want to. Not in the asshole way, I just want to attempt to make it all work as it came from the pickup haha. Okay fine also because I want to save some money and not dive into a whole other intake setup, rail, relocate my accessories etc.. etc... for now. Those upgrades will certainly come in the future.
Anyways I'll start this update at the fuel rail where I used 2 push-on style fittings on the factory truck rail with my return line dipping down the driver side and the feed cutting across the back of the intake and diving down the passenger side tunnel. Clearance is snug to say the least but keeping heat management in mind im happy with the proximity to the headers. If issues arise I'll simply add a heat sleeve of blanket of sorts. Don't mind the harness, it's flipped and flopped round for now.
For mock up purposes and simplicity I used self-tap screws for the P clamps to get a general idea of where I wanted everything to fall. When the routing is finalized everything will be secured with rivnuts.
Added my small post-pump filter before the feed goes around the bend and mounted the pump safely under the rear seat area. This whole area will get cleaned up and painted eventually.
A little tough to tell with the angle but the line goes up and over the passenger upper arm where I then made use of the remaining factory fill neck to help guide the line, cut a little access hole and made use of a bulkhead fitting to meet with the cell in the trunk.
Return side is essentially a mirror image. Once in the trunk I sort of lost control of things and the routing got a little sloppy. In the future I can shave off a couple of feet of line, specifically at my pre-pump filter were I have it routing up to the left but the line then cuts back down across to meet the bulkhead fitting. If anyone through experience has suggestions or tips for future (or immediate) changes I'm always open! For now I'm extremely excited to getting everything bolted down permanently and have a big task off the checklist done.
I then moved on to hooking up my oil filter relocation kit, something I wish I did with the engine out because clearance was a b*tch. Luckily the Sikky pan is designed to bail out dummies like me and found out the IN/OUT fittings are on a removable plate held by 3 small hex bolts. Unfortunately forgot to take a picture of this but oh well.
Next is getting a simple bracket made up in a suitable location likely around the shock tower.
That's all for the sedan up to date but with essentially just hooking up my harness and a switch to the starter left, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the first start up isn't too far away!!
Next to start thinking about was the purple coupe since snow was no longer built up to within 1 foot of my roof line I was able to start thinking about a rescue mission from hibernation.
A week after that shot was taken the snow was toatlly melted and I was able to go get it. She started right up but was misfiring like a pig, nothing holding a high idle didn't eventually clear up! I love it when they snap out of it and fix themselves. Threw on my fronts for the summer and took it for a small drive and it felt great
The fun was short lived and got to work tackling some small issues including brake lights+turn signals and replace my leaky rack+add a cooler. In an attempt to save money I'm using a cooler from a scrap yard I've had sitting around in the parts bin forever and decided to try and put it to use. Going into it I didn't like the size of it so I might order another cheap aftermarket one that tucks more nicely in the front grill area.
The perspective of this shot is slightly deceiving for the final cooler height but even with that said I'm not even 50% sold on this placement and will absolutely be looking for a better solution. Ideally I'd relocate behind the grills instead of cutting a slit in my bumper so that the upper 1/3 of the cooler gets flow. With the bumper on, the lower section of the cooler gets exposed nicely for air flow but like I said I'm not in love with this look. The bash bar is riddled with holes anyway so I didn't mind experimenting this location and cutting into it a little more. The new rack should be in today so I'll tackle the hole system again when that arrives.
To end last weekend I took on the satisfying job of looming the bare harness that was just left there, slowly making my way around the interior finding nice and neat solutions for the exposed wires.
MUCH better
Finally I ended up with a great local parts pickup this week and managed to scored a pair of free spare sedan taillights as well as a BNIB brake boost delete kit half off!
That's pretty much what's been going on recently! With the season starting and weather warming up I'm excited to get the coupe fully ready for summer and hopefully get loads of seat time.
Also if anyone knows how to change the main thread thumbnail please let me know! I'm getting tired of it being a hideous front view of that behemoth truck rad fan haha
