The Car Thread ... !

[Matz]

Pictures? How was the performance? Notably improved?

Yes, it's fair to say that the performance is most definitely improved. It was fun to drive before the supercharger was installed; now it is truly a beast.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to drive it after bringing it home yesterday; and realistically, I won't be able to drive it very far until this weekend.

Looking forward to getting comfortable with what in some ways, is now a different car.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Yes, it's fair to say that the performance is most definitely improved. It was fun to drive before the supercharger was installed; now it is truly a beast.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to drive it after bringing it home yesterday; and realistically, I won't be able to drive it very far until this weekend.

Looking forward to getting comfortable with what in some ways, is now a different car.

Enjoy. Hopefully there are some nice quiet roads for you to enjoy!

 

[Matz]

Enjoy. Hopefully there are some nice quiet roads for you to enjoy!

Thanks!

I was just informed that I have to go pick up a prescription for my SO's father.

The pharmacy is a 25 mile drive; about half of which is on two-lane rural roads, and the other half on interstate.
Hmmmm.

 

[D.T.]

I was just informed that I have to go pick up a prescription for my SO's father.

Oh no!


Oh yes!! ** snicker **

 

[CooperBox]

My Mum tells me a story of driving to the South of France in an MG for a holiday. Had to drive all the way with the roof up despite it being incredibly warm as the boot was full of luggage for the trip. I took the liberty of correcting the photo a bit. Hope you don't mind. View attachment 914199

Thanks for the photo improvement, glad you could do it. Was that with Photoshop?
Regarding the drive you referred to, down to South of France in an MG with the roof up. I once made a similar drive (totally enclosed) from UK down through France, and way into Spain as far down as Madrid with the roof up all the way in a series 2 Alfa Romeo Spider 2000 Veloce. Very claustrophobic as I had the wife, personal family possessions and very young kid in the rear seat. It snowed heavily for half the journey and also encountered freezing rain going across the Pyrenees, an unpleasant trip I'm not ready to forget.
I've had a number of great European sports cars, but the Alfa Spider was definitely the vehicle I regret selling the most!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Thanks for the photo improvement, glad you could do it. Was that with Photoshop?
Regarding the drive you referred to, down to South of France in an MG with the roof up. I once made a similar drive (totally enclosed) from UK down through France, and way into Spain as far down as Madrid with the roof up all the way in a series 2 Alfa Romeo Spider 2000 Veloce. Very claustrophobic as I had the wife, personal family possessions and very young kid in the rear seat. It snowed heavily for half the journey and also encountered freezing rain going across the Pyrenees, an unpleasant trip I'm not ready to forget.
I've had a number of great European sports cars, but the Alfa Spider was definitely the vehicle I regret selling the most!

Just Lightroom. My Dad has a couple of Alfa sods. Great engine. Lousy bodywork and electrics.

 

[D.T.]

The pharmacy is a 25 mile drive; about half of which is on two-lane rural roads, and the other half on interstate.
Hmmmm.

Here's how I got to CVS the other day ...

 

[Matz]

Here's how I got to CVS the other day ...


View attachment 914546

Makes perfect sense!

 

[0388631]

Pointe Vedra... big golfing place right?

 

[44267547]

Purchased a 2013 Prius 3 at a private auction. Total impulse buy, not planned, I didn’t need it, but I’ve always wanted a Prius for some odd reason😁, and the price was ridiculously low. Whoever owned it before me, ceramic coated it, and exquisitely maintained it. It’s actually a great little car, very basic, but very industrial-ish with materials/metal finishes, but I definitely will have my use for this for travels for training/seminars and just for whatever else.

More so, I think owning a hybrid, is obviously leading me into a full EV purchase probably in the next three years. (Likely the Mustang Mach-E).

There’s only one problem, I’m running out of room in my garage with four cars. 😁

 

[0388631]

We all make weird purchases.

 

[Simon89]

Hey everyone,

I've owned this now for around 20 months. A 2013 BMW 330D, has a few options but in hindsight should have held out for the perfect spec but previous car was falling to bits.


F30 M Performance Kit by Simon Blades, on Flickr

Also my favourite hire car from America which I had whilst on my honeymoon in 2018, picked up in San Francisco and went to LA and back in it.


Dodge Challenger by Simon Blades, on Flickr

Would definitely have one if they were available in the UK! Although I'd likely go for a Hemi version

 

[D.T.]

Pointe Vedra... big golfing place right?

Yes, in fact, it's the location of The Players Championship, one of, if not the, biggest pro golf tournaments in the world.

 

[0388631]

Yes, in fact, it's the location of The Players Championship, one of, if not the, biggest pro golf tournaments in the world.

Heard the name in passing once. Don't watch golf or follow the PBA or whatever the golf association is called. I'll play, though. I'd be 5 beers in by the first 9 holes if I watched.

 

[D.T.]

Heard the name in passing once. Don't watch golf or follow the PBA or whatever the golf association is called. I'll play, though. I'd be 5 beers in by the first 9 holes if I watched.

Neither do I, but it's a pretty massive event, that's televised, on the news, in online news feeds, headlines, and it's not like some of the major players are unknown (Tiger Woods).

This reminds me of Pulp Fiction ...

 

[0388631]

Neither do I, but it's a pretty massive event, that's televised, on the news, in online news feeds, headlines, and it's not like some of the major players are unknown (Tiger Woods).

This reminds me of Pulp Fiction ...

Need to rewatch that as part of my SLJ binge. Watched a few of his older flicks a couple weeks back including Formula 51.

 

[D.T.]

Need to rewatch that as part of my SLJ binge. Watched a few of his older flicks a couple weeks back including Formula 51.

Unbreakable
Die Hard with a Vengeance

I mean, not sure how you are on QT movies, but there's so many good SLJ performances. He's fantastic in both Incredibles movies too (those might also be fun for your kids, assuming they've probably already seen one or both).

 

[Matz]

When I picked up my Charger at National Speed, the manager mentioned that he had taken it for a spin, and was impressed with the power, and with how well it hooked up with AWD.

He said if there was one further change he would suggest, it would be to upgrade the brakes.

Long story short, yesterday I placed the order for Stop Tech slotted rotors, pads, and stainless steel brake lines on all four corners. Plus a boost and air/fuel ratio combo gauge. I elected not to go for calipers, as Stop Tech doesn’t make them for the AWD, and Brembos are ridiculously expensive. Based on my past experience, the rotor/pad/line combo will work just fine. NS will do the install sometime in the next 30 days. Apparently they’re pretty busy.

 

[bunnspecial]

Well, potentially bad news.

I stopped by the shop that's doing the transmission swap on the MG yesterday, and in doing a compression test they'd found one cylinder at 75psi(they should be in the 140-160 range, and have always been low but not that low).

I may end up with a full engine rebuild before all is said and done, but I'm hoping it's something relatively simple. I've had oil consumption issues for a while, but one low cylinder makes me wonder if I have a broken ring in that cylinder-that could certainly cause bad oil consumption.


I'm also sort of embarrassed that I hadn't caught that and investigated before taking it in. My compression gauge was in my tools that were stolen in ~2018. I'd bought a replacement, but never had even taken it out of the package. I normally check the compression when I change the oil just to keep an eye on the state of the engine.

 

[Matz]

Well, potentially bad news.

I stopped by the shop that's doing the transmission swap on the MG yesterday, and in doing a compression test they'd found one cylinder at 75psi(they should be in the 140-160 range, and have always been low but not that low).

I may end up with a full engine rebuild before all is said and done, but I'm hoping it's something relatively simple. I've had oil consumption issues for a while, but one low cylinder makes me wonder if I have a broken ring in that cylinder-that could certainly cause bad oil consumption.


I'm also sort of embarrassed that I hadn't caught that and investigated before taking it in. My compression gauge was in my tools that were stolen in ~2018. I'd bought a replacement, but never had even taken it out of the package. I normally check the compression when I change the oil just to keep an eye on the state of the engine.

Depending on the mileage, as long as they have it apart to fix the cylinder, I’d think you might be money ahead to do the complete rebuild. Nothing like a set of new bearings and honed cylinders with new rings, and lapped valves.
[automerge]1589637133[/automerge]
I suppose valve guides too. That could be part of the oil consumption.

 

[bunnspecial]

Depending on the mileage, as long as they have it apart to fix the cylinder, I’d think you might be money ahead to do the complete rebuild. Nothing like a set of new bearings and honed cylinders with new rings, and lapped valves.
[automerge]1589637133[/automerge]
I suppose valve guides too. That could be part of the oil consumption.

The head was done a few years ago with new exhaust valves riding on hardened seats, lapped intake valves, new guides, and improved/upgraded "umbrella" style oil seals.

I had planned to do a quick ring/hone/bearing job myself, but I'll leave it to them to figure out if the bores are out of round enough to need to be bored or if a touch up with a ball hone will work. These blocks have a lot of nickel in them, and at least one machine shop I talked to when I was working through a rebuild myself advised me that they'd charge me more to bore it than they charge for a small block Chevy V8 since most British 4 cylinder blocks will wear out cutters faster than doing 8 cylinders on an American engine.

This is a really, really dangerous rabbit hole to go down though. One of the biggest enemies in these engines is there's a lot of reciprocating mass. The rods+pistons in my engine are around 950g each. There are now CNC rods out of China that several engine builders I know have used that end up a bit over 600g fully dressed with the piston. They are ~$250 for a set of four, complete with ARP bolts.

This engine is probably around 100K miles, which of course is a normal rebuild interval on an engine of this age. The compression is low, but the oil pressure is actually good...

So yeah, I can easily end up getting deep on this project, which is why I've been slowly working on doing one at my own pace with the intent swapping when it was done.

 

[Matz]

Well, best of luck with that. Hope the cylinders aren't out of round; as you say, perhaps the ball hone will do the trick.
The CNC rods sound promising. $250 seems reasonable for dropping ⅓ of the weight.

 

[bunnspecial]

Yeah, to me the rods are kind of a no-brainer if I go that deep. The cost does get run up a bit because the small end is undersized and needs a machine shop to finish it, but that's not too crazy. The alternative for dropping weight is to grab rods out of a later engine(73-80), and I actually think I have a trashed short block I can pull a set out of. That gets down into the 700g range, and even though I wouldn't need to buy rods it ends up costing about the same because I'd probably want to have the big ends sized and the pistons have to be press fit onto them also by a shop(the earlier rods and the aftermarket ones I mentioned use snap rings to hold the wrist pins in place).

I have an angle cut rod and piston in my office, and people who know a bit about engines will often pick it up and be shocked at how much it weighs . A 2lb piston and rod out of a dinky little 1.8L 4 cylinder is a bit shocking.

 

[Matz]

I have an angle cut rod and piston in my office, and people who know a bit about engines will often pick it up and be shocked at how much it weighs . A 2lb piston and rod out of a dinky little 1.8L 4 cylinder is a bit shocking.

Indeed. Hefty, even.

 

[44267547]

Smart choice with the brake upgrades, especially with assisting in managing all the additional power, I think it’s almost a necessary upgrade when you’re boosting out of stock, (Plus, I don’t know what the condition of your original brakes were prior to boosting). There are a lot of competitive breaking solutions to Brembo, as they are very expensive As you mentioned . Just to service the four piston Brembos on the Scat is $1100 with Parts/labor. (That was a direct quote from my local Dodge when were discussing Maintenance intervals.)

I usually upgrade all the brakes on my cars, (unless of course they don’t include some type of performance option when I purchase it.) Speaking of, The SHO Bridgestone tires/brakes/rotors are being installed on Monday to replace the stock units!