Thursday, July 30, 2009

Lighting Done

Now that I have spent about $60 on light bulbs, I think I have all of the interior lights working. It has not been an easy process to get them all found and changed out. Now that I know what bulbs I need and how to replace them, I can order them cheaper than buying locally.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Stage Zero Tune-Up

The case of Mobile ATF 3309 arrived today. I think the people at my apartment office think I am a little weird getting a case of oil shipped to me. My new IPD plug wires also came in today. I am waiting on my new vacuum tubes to arrive which should be on Thursday. I bought the new Denso spark plugs locally as they were cheaper than getting them from IPD. The new distributer cap and rotor got here last week. FCP Grodon gets orders out quickly. I filled up today and added a bottle of Red Line SI-1 to give the fuel injectors a cleaning. I hope to get everything installed and flushed this weekend. I will keep you updated on my progress.

Exterior Work Started

I have started on the exterior styling work that needs to be done. I replaced the headlight wiper blades more for looks than functionality. At this point they don't work and are not high on my list of fixes. She has had two baths now and it is about time to take some TLC to the paint. The first order of business will be to try and pop out some of the door dings and hail dings on the roof. I am going to try one of the DIY dent removers on them. I will only be out $20 or so if it does not work. After that the car is going to have a date with the clay bar. I need to find a good place to work on her. I don't have a garage and it needs to be out of the sun when I do it.

Engine Cleanup - Part 1


I spent some time on Sunday cleaning up the engine bay. In being careful to not spray the electronics I was not able to get a totally clean engine. I think some of the areas are going to take some work by hand to get it clean.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Wish List

Here is my wish list of upgrades that I want to make. They are not in any particular order.




Eurosport Tuning: Reverse Intercooler Piping Kit




GlowShift: Universal Triple Radio Gauge Panel





Prosport: Digital Boost Gauge



KW: Variant 2 Coil Over Kit


Cherry Turbos: Strut Brace

iPd: Anti-Sway Bars




More Lighting Issues

The problem with not test driving a car at night you don't know what bulbs are burnt out. When I took the car out last night to verify the turbo was now working correctly I noticed that the HVAC controls were not visible. I took the controls out and found that all three bulbs were burned out. Luckily these are standard sized bulbs. I then went to AutoZone and they had two packages, but someone had helped themselves to one of the bulbs. I then tried WalMart, but they didn't have the correct bulbs. I ended up at Advanced Auto Parts to get another set of bulbs. At this point I think I have all of the lights working.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Turbo is Fixed

I fixed the blown elbow, but I was still having idle problems and no turbo boost. I could hear the turbo trying to spin, but it wasn't making any boost. I was chasing the issue as electrical as the MAF sensor kept throwing error codes. I pulled the ECU apart to make sure it was not an issue in there with a broken wire. I got out the volt meter and found that using a different ground point everything tested fine. I got in the car and started it up. I was still having idle problems. I revved the engine and I could hear very loud air movement. I found that the intercooler pipe going into the throttle body was disconnected. Once I got it back on it was like I had a new car.