Project Lela: a 4wd, Turbo, Porn-star in the making.

[imwhyteyo]

Got down and dirty today.. serious wrenching to the finer detail... started by putting her on the lift and whipped out the little red toolbox...



Then moved this here


Put in a new braided fluid hose for the clutch..


Finally mounted the alternator and power steering back in with new belts. Going to mount the PS resivor and route the hosing alittle bit different... but going to need to weld up a new bracket.




Thats it for tonight. Tomorrow I will have more detail on the power steering hoses amd simplified cooling routing.. going to be very excited to make the hoses perfect fit and easily servicable. Also going to run a slim fan. Wiill flood pics tomorrow. Going to wire the fan to a manual fused switch from the cruise control stalk so I can control it from there. Should be great!

[imwhyteyo]

More hose simplifying and wire tucking













More to come.

[downforce22]

Very nice! I can't wait to see more of this. What diffs are you planning to use with the 5 speed?

[imwhyteyo]

Very nice! I can't wait to see more of this. What diffs are you planning to use with the 5 speed?

i actually rebuilt the automatics 4.10s and added 2 additional spider gears to the front diff. dont have pics of that but a machinist across from my shop helped me with that. as well replaced the internals and all new seals, so hopefully it will stand a bit more of a beating. as well i started drawing up a print to adapt a gearbox oil cooler, as it seems the failure of these tiny little differentials are very prone to heat failure. my goal is to run a small, electric pump, inline to a little oil cooler core, somewhere around the front factory oil cooler. it couldnt hurt, and it might be one solution to the longevity these things.

i do have the manual (3.63?..i forget) set of diffs sitting on a shelf for backup, or in the event i do not like the 4.10 gearing.

i opted for the 4.10 for acceleration purpose. im not looking for a top speed monster. i wanted this car to rip you into your seat, and handle high speed cornering and such, and actually do very well during autocross time, and definitely put the beating on alot of cars during road races etc. 4.10 has great accell, but not so great top speed as we know.

between the gearing, the camshaft, the turbo setup(designed for midrange power and quicker spooling), adjustable cam gear, the LW flywheel, 6 puck, reinforced driveshaft/diff, and the factory compression ratio i believe i can expect the car to rip thru the gears and outrun a few 911's out there on the course my power expectancy is somewhere around 330awhp @16psi.. this wasnt by any means meant to be a car for drag racing, but instead to be right in the lines of the old saying "ultimate driving machine". i want to see how well it does for this summer/fall and while i drive it, ive been building an "alpina" replica engine platform.

the spare IX engine i have will be getting a new rebuilt and upgraded head, dual pattern cam, honed intake, better headgasket w/ welded channels, o-ringed, SETA or ETA pistons/rods/crank (need a professional opinion on this), full ARP hardware and will see the same turbo setup. hoping i can acheive a 22-25psi range and a goal of about 400 - 470 awhp. the problem with the ix drivetrain is alot of power is lost in these things, so building a torquey motor, fine tuned and dialed into perfection, without going NUTS for BoOoOst like most people do. ive obtained just about everything i need, its just got to get machined and get the current setup going first! anyways. end rant.. enjoy the new pictures.

[imwhyteyo]

went a bit wire crazy over the weekend. had to get some major PITA stuff out of the way. heres what ive got done in the last week or so.

my girlfriend got me this as a stocking stuffer, so i figured "what the heck, why not!" luckily she bought RED, and not blue or something goofy. lol. its wired in as a 4th brake light, only illuminated once the brakes are engaged.


heres a shot a few steps back to take it all in, and dont worry i AM going to debadge the trunk. hah.


then i got to thinking about putting a distribution block closer to the interior of the car so i didnt have a million wires running thru the firewall, so i adapted a 4awg wire with a 60amp inline fuse thru the firewall, to a mounted distribution block that will be concealed under the center console. i found this most appropriate for wiring things like my manual fan switch, my main (3) amplifier on/off switch, stronger power for my head unit- instead of tapping the tiny 18awg factory wire, power for the guages, laptop constant etc. etc.


here you can see the 20amp fused wire for my AUX SPAL slim fan. i still retained that red upgraded belt driven engine fan, but in case i get stuck in traffic or something with the small radiator, i felt the extra fan was completely necessary and didnt want to rely on a temp. switch to turn it on and off for me. its a sleek little 3 button switch set that fits perfectly with the center console installed. dont mind the wire mess, its all tidy now.



added a volt meter, courtesy of one of the members on here! it monitors the voltage AT the added distribution block (in case i overload it or something?lol)


hardwired my Innovate LC-1 Wideband controller, hardwired to the factory o2 sensor wiring, and jumped the o2 heater relay. (soldered internal connections.)
also made a fancy LED bar for the calibration button (all in one solution) also soldered some resistors to the LED so it doesnt pop LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO!... cant get over the fact they dont include these for people, sheesh.



guage installed, reading nothing cuz its not running. duh.


tucked the LC1 here, the 02 wire is pretty short, and didnt want to mount it close to the heat of the downpipe, or worry about mounting it low near the subframe or something. also wasnt going to hack up my firewall grommet to fit this in place, so here it went, as well the grounding point(the hood latch) was also very convenient.
works awesome, if i could ever configure the damn thing!! stupid windows 7 drivers, i dont have a serial port on my laptop. :(

intercooler piping FINALLY finished and installed 100%.



this allowed me to finally install the red silicone hoses, the upgraded red high volume engine fan, and of course my awesome little radiator with built in resevoir, so no need for an expansion tank! cleeeean... cooool.... too bad its a bit smaller than the OE rad. but hopefully that better fan PLus the spal, and lower temp thermostat will take care of that. :)








And here we are at last, nothing else to install in the engine bay. a finished look at what will be powering this old girl.. months have gone, and shes done! (i lied, i may be putting in a diff cooler, and oil catch can, but that doesnt count :P )


and a last lights on photo of the evening to say nighty night~!



goodnight folks, next up:
head unit prewiring
boost guage
Oil PSI guage
speaker + overhead tweeter installs (rear)
overhead rear lighting install
front power/heater seat wiring
rear heated seat pad installation + wiring
rear e36 seats custom fitting and install
interior reinstallation w/ steering wheel (woodgrain or custom sport?? you guys vote!!)
hidden kill switch installation (im not showing you guys!)

[The Dark Side of Will]

Where do you get your silicone hoses?

i do have the manual (3.63?..i forget) set of diffs sitting on a shelf for backup, or in the event i do not like the 4.10 gearing.

The US manual trans cars have 3.91's. There are Euro-market 3.64 sets on ebay from time to time, which you'd have if you were really ballin' ;)

[imwhyteyo]

i have a few questions i want to get your guys opinion on.
1: for the downpipe.. Red exhaust wrap, or Tan?
2: Royal grip woodgrain wheel, or black leather red stitched?
3: 1 10'' JL w6 woofer, or 10w6'' w/ 2 additional 8'' w6 (seat OR trunk mounted)?
4: no spoiler, stock IS spoiler, Mtech 2 spoiler?

heres a kicker..
5: going back to the exhaust.. 3'', 2.75'', or 2.5''? also stainless or non? besides the corrosion factor, i know theres a slight audible difference between the materials used.. does anybody know if the heavier guage the exhaust the lower the tone gets? im really trying to steer away from a higher note/ raspyness.. i have a remus straight thru and really want to get the best/cleanest sound from it as possible. id like a deep, throaty, mellow tone.

also i know most people opt for the largest diameter possible, but isnt there some benefit to a minor backpressure, for instance, if i had a 3'' downpipe, and reduced it into 2.75'' straight back, and had a 2.5'' straight thru muffler? anybody have any insight to this?

[imwhyteyo]

Where do you get your silicone hoses?



The US manual trans cars have 3.91's. There are Euro-market 3.64 sets on ebay from time to time, which you'd have if you were really ballin' ;)

ahh thats right, so they arent that far off from the 4.10s then anyway. thats good. we will see how long this setup lasts! of course ill be checking in and letting everyone know with videos and such.

[imwhyteyo]

Few quickies here..

Power steering pump rebuild:


Yuck!


Tossed my wheels on quick to finally get her off jackstands.. love the meat on the tire, love the way it sits. Cant wait to be rolling around!
Also mocked my is lip up with some tape and my splitter as well. Hoinh to look wonderful. I think I want an alpina lip.



Will have more tonight!.

[Q5Quint]

You are a wizard of inspiration sir!

Nice work and thanks for all the epic pics!

-Q

[F34R]

Nice clean pictures and nice clean build, great read :D

[Mistawall]

man so clean! i have to say im hating on all your sandblasted freshly painted stuff.:crazy: that trunk emblem is pretty sweet along with that clock. teach me your ways jedi

[MPLFoster]

Very nice.

[imwhyteyo]

Thanks everybody.. im closing in on getting her running very soon so keep checking in on all the action!

[downforce22]

Nice. I've got an 86 iX with the 3.64s so I am really interested in your front diff reinforcement. I picked up a spare 3.64 front incase I ever blew the one in it. Right now the car is under the knife getting some stroker parts and I have 90% of the parts I need for the turbo install. I see you have a recirc valve to atmosphere instead of a bov. I was wondering why.

Also as for the exhaust, you want as little back pressure downstream of the turbine wheel as possible. (with less back pressure after the turbine wheel, it will flow easier out the tail pipe). I'm planning on a 3" SS exhaust for mine.

Do you have any details on making another set of the front diff reinforcing gears? Pictures?

I really like how clean the engine bay is. Where did you drain your turbo line to?