199x Mialvo LeMons/Challenge/something

That'll look good on there. Nice layout/graphic design.

New snag today. Found out my B18 has been bored out from 3.307 to 3.500 making it a B20. Sounds awesome right? Well my head is still a B18. This was a running engine before, but in a low compression non-raced car. Time for some research on a B20 I guess.

Pretty happy with the feeling of this MiataCage quick disconnect. Between it and the 3" dish wheel the wheel is 3.5" closer to me making for a really nice feeling arm position. Also, now I'll be able to get in and out of the car which will be nice.

Fixed Seat, or is it gonna have sliders for other sized drivers?

I'm being a bit selfish. The seat is bolted down.

The miata face has dimples

The brake coolers will probably touch at full lock, but I won't know until wheels and tires go on. If anything I'll just move the hose

Finished up the radiator fan wiring today so I think I've got the wiring finished up for now. I need to get a helper so I can get my mock-up block in place and start making engine mounts which lead to trans mounts which lead to PPF relocation mounts.

I asked for help from some of the guys in my car club. About 5 people said they'd come help bleed brakes and move my mock-up block. One person came and said hi and then left. As I suspected.

I realized that I can't maneuver the 100lbs block in the car by myself without an engine hoist. I took my oil pan and welded little bits of metal where the engine mounts go. This allowed me to move around a 2lbs oil pan instead of the engine. I think I've got it where I like it. The main issue with engine mounting is that the Miata's mounts are further rearward along the block. If I put the Volvo mounts into the Miata holes the back cylinder and a half would be inside the car with me. So I started CADing up some plates to move the engine 5.625" forward. The way I wanted to do this was with 2x4 box tubing, but there happens to be a steering rack in the way.

As the sun began to set I helped my roommate wire up a new electric fan in his 190D 2.2 5spd. I'm always happy to work on this thing, and he bought me a beer for it!

With the threat of rain I didn't want to pull my tools out today. I decided to clean the basketweaves on my BMW.... groan. What a fun job.

I'm kinda stuck right now without my engine to work on, or a mock up, so I started working on my transmission so I can set up the mock drivetrain. I'm not looking forward to doing this without an engine hoist.

Took the whole weekend off from working on the Mialvo.

When I graduated from college a few years ago my graduation gift was the NASCAR driving experience. This weekend managed to line up just right so we headed out to Charlotte Motor Speedway. What a rush that was. They're limited to ~150mph but still way quicker than I've ever been. I was absolutely blown away by the level of grip and terrified that I'd understeer(I do drive a 3500lbs Mercedes) right into the wall.

While I was out in Charlotte I detoured to Spartanburg and picked up a little something else. She hasn't been driven in a while and won't be racing until the fall so I wanted to keep the battery and oil topped up as well as keep her clean and do some fixes I've been meaning to do.

Starting to run out of things to do without my engine. Hopefully I can get the right pistons soon so I can reassemble everything.

I tried bleeding the brakes but nothing was coming out of the front. See anything missing on the old bleeder? No bleed hole. The new one works so much better.

My friend/teammate/fellowb18er has just had a brilliant idea. Instead of me fabricating a remote shifter I can use the 1800 style volvo m40 shifter. This is going to be a HUGE time saver. And, he has one.

The previous owner was backed into by an F250 who "didn't see him" and then insurance wanted to total the car. Crappy body work was done and now I'm doing more.

Spots the bondo was cracking or rust was visible

Bondo-sand-bondo

Sand-bondo-sand

Because this car will get painted in the future I primed it and sealed the primer with a few coats of clear

On a side note, I got IDed buying Bondo today at Harbor Freight. That's never happened before.

I must give you props for knowing enough to cover the primer with clear.

I learned the hard way that primer wasn't waterproof. I was young and foolish. A neighbor remarked that my car "had leprosy."

I wish I knew then what I know now.

Damn you city ordinance.

The homeowner got a note from the city that you are not allowed to have a vehicle on jackstands visible from the road. Well poo. These old tires kinda hold air. Let's push her to a new home.

The city will never know it's there

I'm still amazed you're doing your entire build in the yard. You guys must not get much rain there huh? It's a soggy, muddy mess here this time of year.

The car build in the yard, the engine build in my bedroom. Who could ask for better!?

I feel bad taking this long away from my project. At least I made up for the slump helping win a few boxes of nickles

A huge element of the build has arrived. Now I have pistons to send my machinist so he can bore my block. Hooray! The crank is ground and the head is decked 0.050 with new valve springs, valves, guides and seats. As soon as I get my bore it's time to assemble!

So close I can taste it. Need to buy some bearings and I can finally begin this build!

Nice!

What car, track etc on the lemons win?

Our last race was Southern Discomfort at Carolina Motorsports Park. My team drove our Toyocedes 300SR5D to a class C win.

I took a little monetary break from this project. Bearings are in, rods are out getting bushings pressed in and I finally sold the trans/diff/ppf/ds to officially make the initial cost $free.95

My bearings arrived so I can finally put the crank in. When I put everything together the crank won't spin. Doing diagnosis the thrust bearing is tight. What do I do?

And I even wore my Tunachuckers Volvo Amazon shirt for good luck

I took another monetary break from this project. I assembled the longblock and found something funny

Also when I was removing the timing gears to get correctly marked ones installed today I tried spinning the crank and it wouldn't move. This worries me that there's something in the wrong place or too tight. What confuses me is that everything felt fine earlier. I put the crank in, tightened the mains and the crank spun freely. The pistons slipped into the bores with only the standard amount of tapping with a hammer handle. The only thing I never checked were the big ends against the crank. I don't see why they wouldn't spin freely, but I guess the whole thing's got to come back apart to check. Unless somebody has a better idea of what I may have screwed up.