11Mar2012
Audi 4000…leaving for home.
If you have been following this Audi’s progress I am proud to announce she is up and running. Kris has a lot of loose ends to tie up but she starts, steers, and stops. He already has new wheels/tires on and a trip to the alignment shop knocked out. Can’t wait to run with it at HPT! btw- Nice new trailer Kris.
11Mar2012
944 Turbo PPI
Guy from Houston found us online and wanted a PPI on this 180K 1986 944 Turbo. His plan was to fly in and drive home. Car just had a local P-car shop help with an engine “rebuild” and minor service. Car drove out very nice, made boost quickly, great sound from a Lindsey exhaust. Pretty clean little car but not a ride to take off cross-country in as she sat. First thing noted on compression test was that “rebuilt engine” …
28Feb2012
New Jersey PPI
Friday morning I loaded up the tools and got on a plane to head to New Jersey to do a PPI with a good friend (993C2S). Fly in Friday afternoon, do the PPI, fly back Saturday morning. I was flying out of KC, Mark was flying out of MN after business and we planned to meet up at Newark. We would arrive around 3pm, drive to the shop the current owner used, where they were going to let us rent …
15Feb2012
The F-75
We figured this old beast doesn’t measure up to a full F-150 with the 200k miles on it, so we nicknamed it the F-75, lol. Got to keep our webmeistro happy so he could pass inspection with the old beast. It came in with an exhaust leak and cracked windshield that failed it’s Missouri inspection (read scam inspections), so we had to get it sealed up before it could pass. A couple of new headers, studs, and a windshield and …
14Feb2012
Miata Exhaust CEL P0420
This is a common issue we see these days with OBDII cars and aftermarket exhaust systems. Some systems are very finicky about properly sensing the airflow going through the exhaust system, that if they sense too much air at the downstream oxygen sensor, it will trigger a check engine light. This can be caused with a larger diameter exhaust, high flow catalytic converter, or a catalytic converter delete exhaust. This miata came in due to this issue after the owner …
We are currently tackling suspension on the Mustang. Once we sorted all the running issues we were able to drive it at speed. And then quickly back to the shop to replace the worn suspension. The car was all over the place on the road, so we knew all the bushings and shocks would need to be done. Old radius rod bushings. And new ones. I also replaced the front sway bar bushings while in there. Then we decided to …
22Jan2012
Miata head done
If you have been following this build we showed the sorry state this head was in before. Now decked with new seals and all of the valves seated the head is ready to go back together. Cam seals in the front, new O-ring for the cam angle sensor on the back of the left bank (right as seen from front.) Seals in, cams now torqued, water neck sealed, ready to go! One tip: While the cam sensor can be re-installed …
18Jan2012
Big Props to Dutch Boy Garage Door Co.
We ran into a little snag late Monday night when trying to close up for the night. As we were closing the big bay door, the right side cable snapped and jammed the door opener. After some antics, we were able to climb up and cut the left side cable which allowed us to get the door closed. Unfortunately, with a 600+lb door, the door opener needs the sprung cable tension to over come the weight and open. Some of …
17Jan2012
New shop equipment
This thing is soo cool. Got a new parts washer in, look at this bad boy go… Dirty parts in: Some steam cleaning: Hot enough for ya’? Clean and shiny parts!!!
11Jan2012
The spec miata continues….
So a big issue with Miatas is the rear suspension. The throughbolt in the rear carrier is exposed and becomes siezed. Also the rear axle splines sieze into the hub. After destroying the axle, chopping the bolts into pieces, leaving it under 24,000lbs pressure overnight, and finally putting a cheater bar (allegedly) on the press, the carrier was finally free. This had to be done since the frozen lower carrier to control arm bolts would have caused some crazy handling …