m42b32 Posted May 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2014 A few of us on here know the painfully long nights of senior design and that would NOT be fun at all to have a snafu like that. What part of FSAE did you get to work on? I wanted to do FSAE but I knew I wouldn't fit in the car/wouldnt get to drive it, and working with non-car enthusiasts would really irk me for some reason. At my school it is actually a club so you can do it for all four years (I will be a senior next year) but we don't receive any credit or anything, I have been a part of the team since freshman year. We have to do all our own fundraising and everything is on our own time so the team is fairly small but the majority is car enthusiasts which is cool. This past year I designed and made the entire brake system and helped build a majority of the car which was a lot of fun. Brake test for tech inspection (your car must lock up all four wheels to a stop and not stall) was a heart stopper, proud to say we passed on the very first try which many teams fail to do. Next year I am redesigning part of our powertrain (getting the power from the transmission to the wheels), doing some optimizing on the suspension we completely redesigned this past year, and a few other odds and ends Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted June 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2014 Well, I was going to dive into a bunch of mechanical things but I got distracted. I've been sanding wheel lips and stripping wheel faces here and there. Making progress but boy is it slow, one face is almost completely stripped (sooo many layers of paint) and one lip is about halfway sanded since there are many small imperfections I want out, it should be worth it though! With the car, I got sick and tired of looking at the dull, completely flat paint. I spent a ton of time with a claybar and some nice car wax. The results speak for themselves: Didn't take a before picture because I forgot again, In progress:(I rather like this picture) And the result! Before I started, the roof didn't even reflect any light, but boy is it a mirror now! mkoepp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoungCR Posted June 11, 2014 Report Share Posted June 11, 2014 Nothing like a good 'ol clay and wax, looks awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc43089 Posted June 11, 2014 Report Share Posted June 11, 2014 Very nice, what clay do you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted June 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 Very nice, what clay do you use? I used the mothers clay bar system, so its a clay bar plus their own spray which seems to work well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc43089 Posted June 13, 2014 Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 Ok, I have used the Griot's Garage clay with their speedshine spray, it cleans the paint so well. It always surprises me how smooth the paint feels afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted June 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2014 I thoroughly washed the car before I did they clay and I was shocked at how much crap still came out, its amazing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted June 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2014 Updates! So was going to completely tear into the car and do a ton of work but I got hit with a bunch of bills and haven't been paid by my work in quite a while so that didn't happen. I did, however, start doing some of the smaller things that needed to be done: Brake fluid was leaking from the grommets between the reservoir and master cylinder. They do not sell the Girling master cylinder grommets anymore (hex shape on top) and list the ATE grommets as the replacement part. I was skeptical as the ATE master cylinder is completely different but they do in fact fit properly on the Girling master cylinder. My brakes are total crap so last summer I ordered a set of rotors and pads but never got around to installing them until this morning The rotors are blank/coated Balo-Motrex (OE supplier to Audi/VW and much cheaper than brembo's) and I bought OE Bosch pads, I will most likely replace these with a better pad down the road but for my budget they will work perfectly fine. All but one rotor retaining screw came out so I had to drill that one out, I have a replacement on the way. I have a set of braided stainless soft lines waiting to go in, I just need to figure out a good way to do the lines running over the subframe in the rear as I've heard it is a huge pain in the ass. While I had the brakes apart I noticed that my front sway bar drop links were totally junk, the bushings were ripped and the dust boots were all torn up. I happened to have a set I got for my E36 laying around so I threw those in as well Old vs. New Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc43089 Posted June 29, 2014 Report Share Posted June 29, 2014 Nice work! The good brakes should improve the driving experience. How did you get the master cylinder bushings installed? I have done it before and it was very difficult so I am wondering if there is a trick to it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted June 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2014 Nice work! The good brakes should improve the driving experience. How did you get the master cylinder bushings installed? I have done it before and it was very difficult so I am wondering if there is a trick to it? All I did was drain the master cylinder reservoir (a huge pain because there is no good way to do it, I just put a ton of rags underneath and popped it off, brake fluid is water soluble so you can just wash any spills away with water) and then move it to the side so you don't have to disconnect the clutch master feed line. The old ones popped right out and the new ones popped right in, doesn't leak a drop now. Didn't have to bleed anything because I didn't get any air into the master cylinder itself thankfully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted September 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2014 Instead of getting my work done I decided to post a little update:got this from andyhundley a month or two ago! Deep cleaned and conditioned the leather to restore it to its former glory:It came out really nicely! Looks almost brand new Made the necessary spacer by cutting a steel sleeve from the hardware store to the exact same dimensions as the one from the car. Installed it and everything works perfectly, unplugged the SRS module as well so the SRS light is disabled and stays off without the airbag Going to order the colored strip at the bottom at some point too mkoepp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B C Posted September 18, 2014 Report Share Posted September 18, 2014 Ive touched that wheel, but you probably already knew that hence the deep cleaning andyhundley and m42b32 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkoepp Posted September 18, 2014 Report Share Posted September 18, 2014 Looks great and if remember asking price was a deal. Nice find! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted October 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2014 Well I was home about a week ago and I popped the radiator, fortunately I was only backing out of the driveway and the car wasn't even warm yet so no overheating or anything. It is leaking from the middle of the core so I would guess that it was just old and gave out. It is the original radiator so it was really just a ticking time bomb. I will be ordering a new radiator and will be replacing a number of the coolant hoses as well when I return at the end of November Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc43089 Posted October 21, 2014 Report Share Posted October 21, 2014 Will you be doing all of the hoses? I have a brand new overflow for a 6 cyl, I wonder if you can swap to a 6cyl radiator and expansion tank I am not familiar with the 4cyl though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted December 1, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 Will you be doing all of the hoses? I have a brand new overflow for a 6 cyl, I wonder if you can swap to a 6cyl radiator and expansion tank I am not familiar with the 4cyl though. Sorry! Totally didn't see this, The 4cyl cars have an integral one with the radiator so I doubt they are interchangeable. Also, due to UPS's pure genius, the car is stuck for another few weeks. My parts from FCP Euro went from Connecticut to Illinois....to Nevada. Their customer service is top notch though, I emailed them (as I had paid for faster shipping) and I got a refund for the shipping within an hour! I will certainly continue to order from there, they are great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted December 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2014 So I am home for about a month so I will be tackling a bunch of jobs on the car all at once: - Replace the radiator, all coolant lines, and the plastic tube down under the intake manifold- Replace all the vacuum lines while I am in there- Clean the throttle body, and upper/lower intake manifold- Clean the ICV- Rebuild the injectors- Replace all the rubber fuel line and fuel filter- Generally clean everything I can reach while it is apart and make everything pretty- Potentially replace the valve cover gasket (significant oil in two of the plug wells, it has a new valve cover gakset from the PO but it may have been installed incorrectly) I have been working on it for a few hours over the last few days and here is where the car is at the moment: Everything came apart fairly smoothly with the exception of a broken injector tip when I removed the fuel rail, I ordered injector rebuild kits that include the pintle caps so that problem will be taken care of. Upon removing the lower intake manifold I found some pretty significant deposits on the intake ports in the head:^ This is probably the worst one but they are all fairly messy. I would assume it doesn't affect the car too much but I would like to clean it out. Is there a good way to go about doing this without dumping a bunch of crap down into the valves? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc43089 Posted December 24, 2014 Report Share Posted December 24, 2014 Looks like a good winter break project. When I rebuilt my m50 all of the pintle caps were gone, the place I called said that is common for them to get sucked into the engine and burned up. I did not find that comforting lol. Sent from my potato phone m42b32 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted December 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 ^ That's a scary thought about that big of a chunk of plastic falling into the engine haha, fortunately the valves were closed where I broke the cap and I was able to vacuum the pieces out. As far as the car goes I have made a ton of progress, basically waiting on some parts now (Injector rebuild kits, a few odds and ends for the cooling system) All rubber fuel lines have been replaced and a new fuel filter is installed. The hose that connects to the feed line above the gas tank was a massive PITA All the remaining coolant lines, etc. have been removed, old radiator is out and the new one is in with a few of the new hoses installed. I spent quite a while thinking about how to clean out those intake ports and I ended up making a tool out of some flexible tubing and a shop vac and was able to clean them out quite nicely! I have decided not to do the "mess under the intake" delete as I do not want to lose the throttle body heater for cold weather. My car also has the secondary thermostat recall and I will be keeping that as I would rather not have the heater core blow up and cook my legs for some clean looking hose routing. I also notices that two of the spark plug wells are full of oil, I have cleaned them out and I have ordered a valve cover gasket set to fix that as well. The gasket on there was new about four years ago so it was odd to see it leaking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HipMF Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 It's hard to tell from the pics, but the crud in the intake looks similar to what I had (in other words, a lot).I intend to drive my car in sub-freezing temperatures, and the previous owner had already bought all the hoses, so I kept the throttle body heaters. What a PITA! I put everyting together and took it apart again 3 times before I managed to get everything hooked up properly.The P.O. also said not to fill the gas above half way because it will leak. Not looking forward to dealing with that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris3 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 M42b18, not sure where interior is on your to do list but I keep on seeing this down in the Chicago CL in case you might be interested for the rear seatshttp://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/pts/4818968671.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted December 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 M42b18, not sure where interior is on your to do list but I keep on seeing this down in the Chicago CL in case you might be interested for the rear seatshttp://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/pts/4818968671.html Interesting, I had not seen this yet, looks like a pretty nice interior. I wish I had the money for interior stuff but it probably wont be a possibility till the summer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted January 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Made more progress, while I am waiting on parts to finish the work on the car I have been working on my wheels that have been sitting half done for months. I finally got the first wheel center down to bare metal and half pf the second one is now stripped: My original plan was to polish the lips to a shine but there is some decent curb rash and a number of dings in the lip that just aren't coming out right with sanding. My new plan is to sand them to a reasonable surface finish and then paint them the same silver as the centers with the backs of the barrels being black. This should allow me to hide the various imperfections a bit better than a mirror polished lip. They will also be a bit easier to maintain. I have also wire wheeled all of the bolts and will be painting them a gloss black which should look nice against the silver centers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42b32 Posted January 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2015 Car is back together and done! Cooling system is bled and once the car warms up it sits right below the center line of the temp gauge. With the cleaned and rebuilt injectors, cleaned intake ports, and new fuel filter it starts immediately on the turn of the key and revs much quicker than before. With the cleaned ICV it idles much smoother as well. With everything cleaned up it looks much nicer under the hood as well, pretty happy with how all this work turned out HipMF 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoungCR Posted January 13, 2015 Report Share Posted January 13, 2015 Cool projects! Can't wait to see the wheels finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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