Leaderboard

IMG_0876 by jdouks, on Flickr IMG_0866 by jdouks, on Flickr

​gratuitous use of my own pic

Function > form on a race car Kev. #stancebro #vapeculture #hashtag #tealstickers

Some shots with my D60 and Sigma 70-300 f4-5.6 DG Macro. Moon Moon 2014/10/10 by lm.media, on Flickr Butterfly Butterfly Feeding by lm.media, on Flickr Flower Sigma 70-300mm DG Macro Test by lm.media, on Flickr

2 months ago I was made aware of a very clean Silver '98 V70R that had been totaled due to a bent rim and subframe. The owner wanted to sell the car for the buy back price from the insurance company, as long as the car would go to a loving owner. I checked out the car out and knew I had to have it. $850 later and it was mine! I’ve had my white 850 for 8 years. I’ve learned the majority of what I know today directly and indirectly due to that car. In the process of learning I made a lot of questionable and irreversible modifications. I want this V70R to be modified with attention to detail and quality. My aim for this car is a reliable, high horsepower car that retains all of its comforts, and feels confident at speed/handling/braking. The end goal is to swap the engine from the 850 into the V70R with a target of 500AWHP. I haven’t decided on the final turbo setup, but I will be upgrading from the 20G. First thing up was the fuel system. I never want to worry about fuel delivery problems but the stock AWD fuel system is very hindered from the factory. Directly proceeding the stock fuel pump is a nozzle orifice with a 4mm outlet! After this orifice the fuel has to make 2 90º bends in under an inch at which point the line size is 8mm ID to the fuel rail. I decided to replace the in tank fuel line with a 10mm ID hard steel line with smooth bends. Then 6AN stainless steel line from the sender to an Aeromotive FPR. To facilitate the fuel modifications I decided to remove the entire rear subframe. I wanted to take the time to inspect all of the bushings and replace any rotted fuel lines. Luckily, being a Colorado car its entire life there was no rust and all the bushings and fuel lines looked to be in excellent condition. I brass brazed a 6AN fitting to the end of the 10mm steel line. Then brazed the entire assembly to the new sender top. I know it isn’t pretty, but this is the first time I’ve ever brazed; the fittings are solid and leak free. The stock plastic fuel pump housing is held in alignment with a spring, this spring is retained with a slip washer and I wasn’t confident that this slip washer would remain put and removal and installation, so I decided to thread the end of the fuel return and use a nut. Interstingly, I had two senders and they had different diameter fuel returns. The one on the left is from my V70R the one on the right is from a 2000 XC. I elected to use the larger diameter return. I used an Aeromotive stealth pump and fabricated and extension piece to center the pump inlet in the housing. All finished. Coming directly off the sender I have a right angle 6AN fitting. The fitting is very tight, but clears the body with enough room to allow for movement of the fuel tank. Luckily the 6AN fits in the stock undercarriage fuel line carrier. I used a Holley 100GPH billet fuel filter which fits neatly under the car. Purely for cosmetics, I converted the stock return line to braided line right at the transition to the engine bay. I installed an Aeromotive 13129 right above the A/C lines. For the time being I’m using a 5AN to 6AN straight adapter for the fuel rail. This is a temporary solution until I weld a 6AN bung to the fuel rail. Next up was the suspension. I know that there is a very limited amount of options for the rear of a P80 AWD and I wasn’t very excited at the prospect of paying upwards of $1,300 for half of my suspension setup so I decided to cobble together my own. I started with Kaplhenke’s rear coilover spring and bumpstop retainer setup. I went with 350# 8” springs. For the shocks I used QA1 adjustable shocks originally intended for the front of a C5/C6 Corvette. The Corvette front corner weight is approximately 875 lbs, which should be around the same weight as the rear of a P80 AWD. The compressed and extended height also happens to be almost identical at 16.19”/11.2”. The lower mounting point is a ‘T-bar’ mount, and although the Corvette mounting bolts are much too close together to bolt up to a P80, QA1 makes a 5” T-bar mount which can modified to bolt up directly, the mounting ears must be widened by 1/8". The shocks have a single knob for adjustment, but the knob adjusts both rebound and compression simultaneously. For those who want more adjustability they also offer a double adjustable variant. With the car on a lift adjustment is extremely easy. I haven’t tried adjusting with the car on the ground, but I don’t think it would be very hard at all. The Kaplhenke perch and spring setup was $345 and the shocks were $319, so the whole setup was less then $670! I also installed IPD sway bars front and rear. I decided to run a coilover setup for the front as well. I was given a pair of TA Technix coilovers for free and decided to use them as a base. In their stock form they gave the worst ride I had ever experienced in any vehicle I had been in. They use terrible 6” springs that bind with anything over 1” of travel. The springs are ridiculously stiff and the shocks horribly underdamped. I stroked the shaft by hand and could move the shaft in and out with just my index finger… Anyways, I decided to try out the struts with the stock inserts just to see how they would do. I plan on placing Koni adjustable inserts in the bodies in a short time. I used a set of high travel (low stack height) 9” 350# springs with Kaplhenke upper mounts and Luxesteer™. It almost felt sacrilegious pairing these beautiful mounts with Technixs, but it’s only temporary. To get decent ride height I had to use the helper spring from the Technix. I will be going to a dual spring setup in the future, so the helper is only temporary. That’s it for this installment, check in next week for brakes!

I don't fake enthusiasm either but I still get paid...

Too each his own - hinging the cover is sound enough. After cutting the holes in the hood, cutting tub access holes was a no-brainer The odds of the rear seat cushion submarining in a collision are slim to none, IMO.

Dangit, I had a feeling someone would say it... it was just a matter of when!

When did Michael Become a Heavy Equipment operator

Some pics of the munchkin with the new "vintage" nikkor 50mm f/1.8 Ai-s The complete manual thing is taking some getting used to but I am really liking the results then a dusty dry rose I found in the attic

Blood moon lunar eclipse this morning. Street lights made it very difficult to get anything good, best I got was this.