bmw88rider said:
Well, It was a good news bad news kinda day.
Good news is I got all of the registration taken care of and we are all good there. The bad news is there was a puddle of oil under the front of the car when I went out there today. not just a few drops but Exxon valdez level of leakage. So something went south. I'll put it on the ramps after work and see what I can find. That has me a bit concerned.
Looking at the garage, I have the teenage dream car garage from different eras, the Fox Body mustang for the later 80's early 90's. The Integra GSR for the late 90's early half of the 2000's and the Golf R for the current generation.
Super cool. I love your collection and would drive the absolute piss out of all of those cars.
So started the dig into the cooling rebuild today. I will say that the term rust free is only referring to the body and not the cooling system. I cracked open the radiator petcock and it flowed out pure rust water. I was already planning a complete rebuild of the cooling system and I'm glad I did.
I was wondering why it was a little low in coolant and nothing in the overflow when I got it and once I got a bunch of the stuff out of the way, It was obvious the intake was not sealed well and there were leaks. So that will come off as well just to reseal that. I'll get a good view of the internals of the motor and then have the debate since I'm in there of going and sticking on a set of AFR as cast 185CC heads. Oh the debate is real.
I'm betting on leaking oil pressure sending unit
I already replaced and resealed that AngryCorvair. That was the first thing I did because it was original and I know they leak.
Not seeing anything else outside a bit of normal gasket seepage. Hard to tell really since the intake coolant leak was so bad. I think I blew open one of the already weak seals on one of my drives. So I'll pull all of that off and reseal everything on the intake. And in the mean time, I have a stereo to install this week while I wait for a few more parts to arrive and a 4 day weekend of wrenching next weekend which I hope to have it all sealed and back together.
I forgot how easy it is to wrench on these things. Just need to clean up some of the emissions stuff since it'll never see an emissions test again.
So got through the tear down and found 2 big things that I believe are causing some of the drivability issues. The car was falling flat on the mid range in the first drives. As I was cleaning up the vacuum lines, I found that the distributor vacuum advance was linked to the thermostatic port that is used for cold start drivability and not carburetor ported vacuum. I have a feeling that once it is warm and the port closed, it was not feeding vacuum to the distributor for advance. I will know for sure once I get it all back together but that seems like a very likely cause.
It was also really obvious that the silicone sealant was not applied well and the source of the coolant leak. The top of the transmission and bell housing was wet.
FatMongo said:
OP,
I like the idea of keeping it pretty much OEM. One thing I do recommend very highly is to get a pair of Maximum Motorsports weld - in subframe connectors:
These are pretty low price but they ABSOLUTELY transform the feel of the car. The Fox platform is a pepsi-can and the rigidity and stability these provide is a big, big improvement. Your car will still look OEM but have a major upgrade from OEM stiffness and stability.
I added these after my first track day at Grattan, had I added them first it wouldn't have cracked the A pillar. It was a seriously noticeable upgrade as soon and I went out the driveway, the suspension cycled instead of the body flexing.
