Modifications, Upgrades, and Repair...part three
**UPDATES (10FEB09)**
I've been gone for a while so I haven't been able to stay on top of the updates to Vader as I would have liked to. The good news is that everything is just about done. I went out to Charlotte today to visit the fellas of Zeus Performance. I really enjoy hanging out with them because they're some really good guys and treat my car as if it was their own. I appreciate that.
Before getting any further into that, let me step back a few steps...
Prior to me leaving I bought a set of billet valve covers to help add some "bling" under the hood to help draw attention to the motor and away from the custom CAI. Not that I don't want folks checking out Jay and Erik's custom work, but I want folks to also see the rest of the motor. This is where the sweet new covers come in. {BLING, BLING}. I picked them up off eBay for a really good price thru Hotzone Performance. These are ths pictures my wife took since the cover came only days after I left for my trip.
The fellas at Zeus have been giving me a hard time about my dingy bottles after they had re-done the motor and cleaned up the engine bay. I have to agree that it did detract from the good work they had done under the hood. Not anymore. Got these to replace the old ones.
While I was gone, I was able to pick up a set of used WS6 sway bars off of another 1988 GTA that someone was parting out. I got a hell of a deal on them so I couldn't pass them up. Since my car is also a 1988 GTA it came with these massive sway bars on it from the factory. Why did I get another set of factory ones and not new aftermarket ones? The plan is to clean them up and powder coat them to take the place of the ones that have been on the car for twenty-years. Also, the largest ones I can find aftermarket are 35mm front and twenty-something mm rear. These stock bars are larger than any aftermarket brand I've found. Bigger the sway bar, the better the car handles in the turns. :D
When the rear-end was rebuilt the fellas forgot to send my aluminum differential cover so it could be put on. When they got it back to the shop they remembered it so while the car was up in the air getting new shocks and springs done they swapped out the stock cover for the sweet looking aluminum TA differential cover. It's on and it looks good.
That should help to strengthen up the already strong Aussie Borg-Warner 9-bolt rear-end that came with my car stock. Sitting inside the pumpkin are a set of Motive Gear 3.70:1 gears replacing the stock 3.27:1 ratio gears. The gears were upgraded in favor of better performance for the stroker and the addition of the Borg-Warner six-speed built by Tick Performance out of Mooresville, NC. You can also see the bottom of the new Tokico HP series shocks that my car now rides on. In addition to those the twenty-year old stock WS6 coil springs were replaced with a set of Eibach Sportline Springs. Jay and Erik are waiting for one strut to come in so they can slap them on along with the new springs upfront. Then my car will be sitting nice and level in addition to sitting a tad bit lower than it was before.
Specs on the Borg-Warner T-56 (from the Tick Performance page):
Our Level Two package is our most popular! For cars making up to 700ft/lbs of torque and especially cars that are taken to the dragstrip fairly often, this is a great upgrade that is easily affordable. This package consists of:
**UPDATE** (3-25-09):
Got a call from the fellas at Zeus and there was a problem with my car. When Alvin got it on the dyno, it started throwing a electronic spark timing code. The car was driving fine, but wouldn't pull past 3K because of the code. So, when it stops raining they'll go pick it up from PCMforLess and get it back to the shop so they can run the diagnositics and figure out what is causing the Code 42.
**UPDATE**(3-31-09):
The car is back in the care of Jay and Erik at Zeus. They ran the diagnostics to determine the cause of the Code 42. They found the ingition and distributor coil were failing. Both along with the distributor were all OEM replacement parts and the distributor coil has been on the car for a good long while. So, not really a big deal. The new MSD distributor and coils are ordered and on the way. Once they get them in and installed the car will go back to Alvin for the tune. Keep your fingers crossed that this time I'll get the increase in horsepower I'm looking for.
**UPDATE** (4-7-09)
Got the call I've been waiting for from the fellas at Zeus. My car is just about done. They got the new distributor in and Vader has been in the care of Alvin from PCMforLess for the past few days. He's worked his magic on the car and was able to pick up some more power. Not as much as we had hoped for, but an improvement. Once I go pick up the car I'll get the dyno sheet so I can scan it and post it up here on my CarDomain page. Just a few small things and it'll be ready to be picked up. It's been just under a year since I've driven my car. It's going to be a great feeling with the new transmission, gears, and suspension components on there. Almost like driving a new car...a new 20-year old car. :)
**UPDATE** (4-10-09)
Went out to Charlotte today to check out my car and to finally get to drive it since it went down last May. Let me tell you. It's pretty impressive considering its age and the new life the motor, transmission, and rear-end have given it. The car is strong and is a real street fighter with some equally impressive low end torque and exceptionally high torque numbers that are put straight to the ground. Still needs some work to really open it up, but that will come as money becomes available. First though is a new paint job once I get it back so that'll be the next big project. Below I've posted up the dyno sheets. The one on the left shows the standard numbers and the one on the right are the SAE corrected numbers.
I'm really looking forward to getting the car back home so I can crawl behind the wheel and be able to rip thru the gears anytime I want. Just the little bit of driving I got to do in it yesterday made me miss the car even more. When the car comes home I've got a couple little projects to do to it as well. I've got a new tail filler panel (the part between the tail lights) that I've painted to match the body color. Before that gets installed though I have to do some serious cleaning behind the lights because since I've owned the car the tail lights have never been off the car. While they're out I'll polish them up as well before re-installing them. I'm also going to do some work under the hood to further enhance the appearance of the new motor work and the recently added bling. The engine bay deserves to be cleaned up nicely. :) It'll be some simple stuff to hold it over until I'm able to get the engine bay repainted in the future.
**UPDATE** (4-23-09)
Picked up Vader from Charlotte today. It was a nice uneventful two and half hour cruise home. It's good to have my car back after a year. The tranny is solid and the car handles like it's on rails with the new shocks, struts, and springs. There is almost zero body roll through the turns and the car hugs the corners well. I'm looking forward to getting some miles on it so I can take it to the track and try to get some new numbers. :)
**UPDATE** (4-29-09)
Monday I ordered an upper and lower GenIV six-speed console. :) Eventhough the manual looks at home in my stock GenIII console the six-speed makes it difficult to bolt down the bezel. So, to solve that problem enter the GenIV console. It's pretty much a drop in mod and the best thing...I'll now have cupholders. The only thing that needs modfying is the area to mount the power window switches. I'm pretty stoked and I'm looking forward to getting this into my car.
