I've owned my car for over a year now, but until now I've never really bothered to do an intro post, so here goes.
I bought the car in March of 2015 for $1,000 after two of my best friends convinced me that swapping a new motor into the car wouldn't be that bad. The previous owner had completely blown the head gasket and destroyed cylinder 1. At that time, I knew nothing about cars. Or tools. Or working on anything mechanical. So I was pretty useless, but I figured what the hell, why not.
Here’s a link to all the pictures I’ve taken of it: https://drive.google.com/folderview?...ms&usp=sharing
They’re in no particular order within each folder.
For those of you with nothing to do, here's the short story long.
Like I said before, I bought the car in March of 2015 for $1,000. By the end of the month, my two friends who helped talk me into this purchase had helped me swap in a motor I bought from the salvage yard. Then, right after we started the motor up, the original automatic transmission decided it no longer wished to live and wouldn't go into any gear. So, I figured may as well get a manual transmission because reasons and I had always wanted to learn. So April 7 my friend and I went a picked up a transmission. Only problem was, the guy had confirmed via text that it was in fact a Getrag 260. It was not a Getrag 260. It was actually a ZF S-15, which is not compatible with an M20 motor. Two weeks later I made another trek to get the correct transmission, complete with everything save a clutch stop and shifter boot for a complete swap.
After I finally got it all together and running, I had a problem with the motor misfiring about 300 miles in. One week and $1,100 in parts and labor costs and I was able to drive it back home from San Luis Obispo, California up to Renton, Washington. During the summer, I replaced the suspension with Bilstein Sport shocks and springs, the brakes (the rotors were absolutely terrible) with Stoptech drilled and slotted rotors and carbon-ceramic pads, new König Tweak’d 15x8 et22 wheels with 205/50r15 Dunlop Direzza DZ102s, installed new control arms, sway bar end-links, offset CABs, tie rod ends, etc.
Over the last 12 months, I’ve sent my cluster in to Bavarian Restoration for a custom cluster setup, had the intake manifold and valve cover powder coated, installed DEPO smoked headlights and side markers, new fog lights, euro grilles and a shorty antenna.
I also have plans in the near future to install a 2.8L stroker. I just acquired a 2.7 motor with m52 crankshaft, eta rods and pistons, freshly rebuilt 885 head with a 272 reground camshaft, HD rocker arms, etc. So I plan to take that head and crank and combine it with a 2.5 motor I have laying around after I hone the cylinders and deck the block ~0.5mm, then put green top injectors with a sssquid tune with that motor and drop it in, hopefully by the end of September. I’ll probably start a build thread once I get underway with all that.
Thanks for checking it out!
I bought the car in March of 2015 for $1,000 after two of my best friends convinced me that swapping a new motor into the car wouldn't be that bad. The previous owner had completely blown the head gasket and destroyed cylinder 1. At that time, I knew nothing about cars. Or tools. Or working on anything mechanical. So I was pretty useless, but I figured what the hell, why not.
Here’s a link to all the pictures I’ve taken of it: https://drive.google.com/folderview?...ms&usp=sharing
They’re in no particular order within each folder.
For those of you with nothing to do, here's the short story long.
Like I said before, I bought the car in March of 2015 for $1,000. By the end of the month, my two friends who helped talk me into this purchase had helped me swap in a motor I bought from the salvage yard. Then, right after we started the motor up, the original automatic transmission decided it no longer wished to live and wouldn't go into any gear. So, I figured may as well get a manual transmission because reasons and I had always wanted to learn. So April 7 my friend and I went a picked up a transmission. Only problem was, the guy had confirmed via text that it was in fact a Getrag 260. It was not a Getrag 260. It was actually a ZF S-15, which is not compatible with an M20 motor. Two weeks later I made another trek to get the correct transmission, complete with everything save a clutch stop and shifter boot for a complete swap.
After I finally got it all together and running, I had a problem with the motor misfiring about 300 miles in. One week and $1,100 in parts and labor costs and I was able to drive it back home from San Luis Obispo, California up to Renton, Washington. During the summer, I replaced the suspension with Bilstein Sport shocks and springs, the brakes (the rotors were absolutely terrible) with Stoptech drilled and slotted rotors and carbon-ceramic pads, new König Tweak’d 15x8 et22 wheels with 205/50r15 Dunlop Direzza DZ102s, installed new control arms, sway bar end-links, offset CABs, tie rod ends, etc.
Over the last 12 months, I’ve sent my cluster in to Bavarian Restoration for a custom cluster setup, had the intake manifold and valve cover powder coated, installed DEPO smoked headlights and side markers, new fog lights, euro grilles and a shorty antenna.
I also have plans in the near future to install a 2.8L stroker. I just acquired a 2.7 motor with m52 crankshaft, eta rods and pistons, freshly rebuilt 885 head with a 272 reground camshaft, HD rocker arms, etc. So I plan to take that head and crank and combine it with a 2.5 motor I have laying around after I hone the cylinders and deck the block ~0.5mm, then put green top injectors with a sssquid tune with that motor and drop it in, hopefully by the end of September. I’ll probably start a build thread once I get underway with all that.
Thanks for checking it out!