Pursuing 10's

Other Changes for the Duece

2011-04-11T03:39:00.000-04:00

A few small upgrades.

-10an catch can and new coolant overflow

Installed, I love it.

New intake set-up, still finishing. Cold air air-box with a big AEM dry filter.

Turbo Upgrades

2011-04-11T03:35:00.000-04:00

Performed some flow modifications to the turbo as well:
Kinugawa 20g wheel, Old vs New

Old Compressor Inlet

Manually lathed velocity stack:

Velocity stacks can increase flow up to and over 15%, I hope it does so here.

Exhaust Upgrades for the 2

2011-04-11T03:30:00.000-04:00

Pictures are worth a thousand words...

Slug Pressed in to promote laminar flow post turbine

Porting Exhaust manifold

Adapter to Turbo

New vs Old

Hoping to produce more horsepower as a result of all these flow modifications.

FSAE Project

2011-04-11T03:26:00.002-04:00

Well I've been the primary welder for the FSAE car at IUPUI. Here are some pictures:

Front Bulk-head, Initialed

Equal length exhaust manifold, 4-2-1.

Aluminum Fuel Cell, Initialed

Aluminum Oil Pan

Beginning of long runner intake manifold

The beginning of a car

NHRA 2010

2010-09-04T14:58:00.000-04:00

Went to a NHRA event at O'Reilly Raceway. Here are some cool pics from it.

Videos from the event can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/buderic6.

Small Updates

2010-07-22T15:08:00.000-04:00

Not much going on. Been busy getting ready to move. I finished installed my rebuilt transmission.... shifts like butter! I also completed my hot-pipe and cold-pipe set up.

Also cleaned up the trunk. I will eventually re-do it as I'm not satisfied with the 5 A.M. job I did.

Small Updates

2010-07-06T01:04:00.000-04:00

Haven't gotten THAT much done... pulled an all nighter last week. I ended up pulling the tranny, completely disassembling it to get to the diff, and re-assembling everything new in the cleaned tranny case by 7 the next morning. Heres a picture of the garage mid-way through.

Its now installed, and I am making some small modifications. I will now have a single pieced 2.5" hot-pipe and a 3" coldpipe. I'm also installing a new a/c compressor in hopes that I will have running a/c once again.

Sadly, that is about it for now. I have plans on injecting more water/meth pre-turbo as my intake temps were over 200 at the end of the 1/4mile last time out. Then a tune!

MR2 Problems :(

2010-06-12T21:15:00.000-04:00

I bought and installed a junk transmission. It HATES going into 4th. So I am now rebuilding my other transmission. Here are some pictures:

Got a lot of work to do.

Finished Project/Track Time

2010-06-12T21:04:00.001-04:00

Finished The RX-7. Roll Cages SUCK! Never will do one again in a rush. Heres some pictures:

And we went to the track. The RX-7 is having issues currently, and so am I. More about that later.

Here is my best run. I'm into the 11's!!!!!!!

11 Second Pass

New Stuff... Crunch Time

2010-05-25T13:12:00.001-04:00

Just finished the exhaust on the RX-7, got a lot more to do still (hot-pipe setup and a roll bar by Sunday... WOW!)

Downpipe

Reduces to a 4" exhaust with 3 mufflers

So we have a lot more to do before Sunday, a lot of late nights and little sleep. As for my car, here is a small update picture: Recirculating BOV fitting and valve cover painted

Sunday = Norwalk for some drag racing. Can't wait!

More Updates

2010-05-18T04:25:00.000-04:00

My car is running, its awesome to be back in a fast car for a change. Here are some up to date pictures, added to the engine bay are my very own made 3" intake and catch can, both polished by myself.

I also started on another valve cover, -10AN Weld on Fitting and then I welded all unused holes/cut all unused bolt holes. It will look very clean I think, I plan on painting it myself instead of powder coating it.

As for my friend's project, the manifold is finished! Waste gate is fitted, dumptube is on, and everything fits!

Down-pipe is being fabricated tomorrow.

Everything is starting to come together

2010-05-04T04:07:00.000-04:00

First things first, tranny is back in my car, just another few things to bolt on, finish the catch can, and possibly the 3" cold pipe. Got 1 of my slicks mounted, looks HOT! The catch can is coming along nicely as well!

Slick and skinny

Ugly welds on the inside =/

Pimping welds on the outside, minus one spot, which I named fugly! Its FUGLY!

Hotness!

Manifold is coming along nicely. Finished welding it up tonight. Next up is fitting the wastegate on, than downpipe and full exhaust. Pics are cell phone, sorry for not the normal quality, and are in sequential order.

Better pictures and more progress will be made soon!

More Welding

2010-04-30T04:12:00.000-04:00

Just a few pictures. Finished welding the one runner, should begin constructing the second soon. I'm getting better at welding, but warped the T6 flange :( . Need to make some heat sinks.

Impovements! Minus the warpage :(. Finals week is next week, but I'm sure updates with continue to stream in ;).

Updates!

2010-04-26T21:19:00.001-04:00

Well I'm suppose to be writing a powerpoint presentation right now, but instead decided updating this was more import, and a lot more fun. We (my friend and I) began to weld his exhaust manifold. Its tough, but SO MUCH FUN! I can't wait to get over there and do some more. So on with the pictures:

And below is the T6 flange, we're still unsure exactly how to fill the gaps but I will definitely be welding it from the inside. However, the left most welds are SEXY! And I'm ridiculously proud of them lol.

Next up is my new catch can in the works. I am working on it between the stuff I'm helping my friend with. Should only need another hour to two and it will be ready to bolt on. This is just the bottom.

I'm having a ton of fun, and I am loving fabrication!

Short and Sweet

2010-04-12T03:08:00.000-04:00

Clutch is here, notice the HUGE difference in center section (old one had holes, these are just slotted):

Welded a flange and pipe for a friend, aluminized steel w/ mild steel flange. Getting better, still a lot to improve:

Finished up my friend's pipes so far. Stainless v-bands to aluminized tubing, adding rod when needed. Uniformity and the row of dimes appearance are lacking =( lol.

Black yucky stuff is the Solar B flux, which is AWESOME stuff if you don't have the means to back purge. Not even a slight hint of sugaring on the back of the pipes and it was 2x as easy to weld! That unsightly stuff also comes off with a little persuasion from a wire wheel.

School is kicking my @$$, all the teachers think its "cool" to load the homework/projects on when the weather gets nice. Posts will probably be slow as a result. I'm moving all my stuff to that friend's house later this week which is closer to my apartment, once school is out should be able to get a lot done between his projects and mine.

First attempts at Tig Welding

2010-04-03T00:49:00.000-04:00

I've had roughly 3 hrs of tig welding experience with no instructional help in high-school, from there I am now here =D, with my own tig welder. After a few weeks of practice I'm beginning to get the fundamentals down and I can actually begin to make stuff within the next few weeks.

I started off with steel, really thin 22gauge. Wish I had thicker stuff as burning through this was too easy. Not trying to do anything here other than lay a decent bead.

I then attempted to weld two aluminum pipes together, didn't go so well so I just practiced laying down some more beads in a straight line. The bottom one is fairly sexy. No I didn't clean the aluminum.... I won't be using this scrap stuff so no point other than making it easier to weld.

New two pictures are of upcoming projects: First one is going to eventually be my new hot-pipe set up which will have less bends and either be one or two pieces instead of three, still unsure. The second pictures is a good friend's exhaust beginning to be made. Stainless without back purging = ugly. So I'm waiting on some Solar B Flux.

And the last picture is Muffler Man. Made him at work from a Tundra muffler and a mig welder. Looks pretty good up there too.

Clutch Rebuild! Waiting! HUGE projects! YELLING!!!!

2010-03-25T02:36:00.001-04:00

Pictures of clutch...

Got a bunch of welding to do, will get some pictures up when I get a chance. A lot more is being fabricated than originally planned. This should be fun =D.

Possible Outcomes of Tig Welder

2010-03-16T01:21:00.000-04:00

I have a ton of ideas since buying the tig welder, listed are parts I want to make for the mr2:

3 inch aluminum intake with 3 to 6" velocity stack and 6" filter
2.5" hotpipe, reduced down to one or two pieces instead of the 4 separate pieces now
2.75" or 3" cold-pipe
Aluminum dual 3" exhaust (big maybe)
Catch can that supports an excellent baffle

For the bike I want to make an aluminum exhaust w/ a 2.5" muffler, similar appearing to the one I have now

I also have a good friend's car that I will be working on, their is A LOT to do to his car:

Attach V-bands to IC piping and re-route current set-up
Fabricate an entire exhaust system 5" down to 4" w/ two or three mufflers
Roll Cage

As for the MR2, while closely inspecting the clutch discs I found hairline cracks in the metal. Needless to say, I am shipping it back to clutch master for them to rebuild... =(.

The Announcement

2010-03-14T15:36:00.002-04:00

Well I've been holding off on making this announcement as I've been crazy busy with work, working on my car, and getting my bike road ready for summer. I finally broke down and bought myself a Tig Welder. Its an HTP Invertig 201 AC/DC Tig welder. I'm hoping to start making some really neat stuff in the months to come for my friend's cars, my car, and possibly the bike. This will weld stainless and aluminum no problem.

Pics:

I'm also thinking of buying a band saw =D. Lets see what the parents say to that..... I still need to convince them to somehow pay for the garage to be wired for 220 lol.

Well thats your problem!

2010-03-12T23:42:00.000-05:00

Had some fun on spring break and dropped the transmission in my apartment's garage. It actually went better than I thought... I had it out in around 5 hours and that was with me side-tracking on other little projects/thoughts (I've got some wild stuff scheming =D)!

Here is a quick picture of my place:

So I got the transmission down, which is getting replaced with a low mileage LSD unit, pulled off the pressure plate and clutch.... and found some decent carnage.

The clutch disc definitely has material left, but it was slipping.... BAD! I think I was simply overpowering this setup. The clutch material was so overheated it started to glaze and chip.

In a few weeks I'm hoping to have the car running again, forgot to order axle seals =/ hehe.

Parts/Goodies

2010-03-07T00:12:00.000-05:00

I am finally up to date, or close enough to say so. I have a few go fast goodies going on this winter, along with a huge announcement that will hopefully be here in a week or two.

First up: drag wheel set-up, extremely light, all aluminum.... HOTT! I'm currently re-polishing them, I added the rim tape. I haven't seen many people add rim tape to a polished rim, so I think its more or less a "new" thing, which appeals to me even more.

Also bought a 94 LSD transmission with low mileage and a lightly used Clutchmaster FX700 twin disc clutch. These will definitely help the holeshot, 1.4/1.5 60ft times... here I come!!!

A few days ago an exciting gift arrived in the mail.... M&H 24.5 X 8.5 X 15 drag slicks to accompany the skinnies.

I'll finish this post with a few pictures of parts going on the gixxer, a Zero Gravity double bubble windscreen, a zipper protector, and my rebuilt exhaust.

Till next time,

Eric

Gixxer 750

2010-03-02T17:07:00.001-05:00

Right around the end of summer, when bikes are being put away for winter and people begin to sell them for cheap, I found a 2007 Suzuki GSX-R that was only a few miles away for a GREAT price. I've wanted a bike for years and I wasn't about to pass up on an opportunity to get an amazing, adrenaline pumping, road gripping machine!

Pics from the previous owner:

Here you can see that the exhaust was slightly dented from being dropped in the grass. My exhaust had a rattle at idle and I thought it was this. I also thought it looked ugly =D.

So I hacked it off!

Much cleaner and a little louder. I loved it. However, the rattle was still there! Found out later that it was in the first muffler, a rivet had fallen in and was rattling around like crazy. I took it apart, painted it, and re-riveted it this winter. New pictures coming later when the weather warms up.

The toys together.

Recap of Summer 2009

2010-02-28T22:03:00.001-05:00

Their won't be many pics this time, just a recap. I never got the car professionally tuned, all the tuning thus far has been done solely by myself, on the street. I did quite a bit of racing, some on the track. Two of the events stand out over the rest.

First event: I had only tuned it to 14psi, no methanol injection, and the track was shut down to only 1/8th mile. I ran a best of 8.7 at low 90 MPH. The set-up seemed to be on track for an 11 second pass at higher boost levels.

Last event: I had tuned the car to 26psi, injecting 11gph of methanol at this time. I started making passes at 17psi, no meth, just to get the feel of it. I was running 245/45/R16 Hankook Ventus R-S2 street tires on the rears. Sadly, even at low boost, I was experience MAJOR problems with my clutch. The clutch was slipping during launches and while shifting. I *think* my pressure plate is the cause, however I'll determine the main cause during the upcoming winter (don't buy Unorthodox Clutches!!!). My best 60 ft of the night was a 1.906, with a best quarter mile of 12.870 at 108.29 MPH. By the end of the night, I turned the boost up to 22psi and was running methanol injection. With the clutch slipping even more, I was running in the high 13's at a best of 116MPH.

Quick Video - Me vs. a good friend of mine

Apparently I was scurred.... lol.

Great times at Muncie Dragway!!!

More upgrades, coming soon!

Winter 2008/ Spring 2009

2010-02-27T06:34:00.000-05:00

The necessity for larger injectors was clear. I bought some -6AN line, a Sard FPR, Wolfkatz top feed fuel rail and Denso 84lb injectors. I already had a walbro 255 in tank so dropping the gas tank wasn't necessary. This was a perfect time to address another known issue with the 3sgte, the intake manifold's uneven distribution of air and the root cause of the first rebuilt engine in this car. ATS had just came out with their larger plenum, stock runner design so I snatched one up at a discounted price with a 75mm TB. With everything out of the way and "tuck the engine harness fever" in full swing on mr2oc, I decided I would do so as well. I upgraded to T-bolt clamps as well, polished a few more things, made some brackets to place the FPR and MSD coil, and tucked a few other engine parts.

75mm TB Freshly Polished

These two (Above and Below) show the trunk with all the wiring. It still needs to be tidied up. I welded a mount for the stock fuse box shown below. Tucking the wire harness is easy, however I decided to re-wire all shielded wires (knock sensor, distributor signals, etc), all grounds, and cut any extra wires off. This took at least 50 hours. I will be surprised if I EVER do that again :D. Worth the extra effort though, good clean sensor signals!

And finally an engine bay to be proud of:

Goals for summer 2009: Hit the strip for the first time and get a profession tune!

Fall 2008

2010-02-25T18:55:00.001-05:00

Problems with my current setup, and the main reason it did not stay running for long:
-Running out of fuel at 22psi even with 5gph of methanol being injected
-Couldn't advance timing to take full advantage of the increased octane from meth
-This was NOT going to get me into the 10's, or even low 11's

Around August, I found a killer deal on an AEM standalone EMS. I snatched it up, and my car was back down for some overhaulin'!

Due to the fact I was no longer using the factory ECU, I could now get rid of the narrow band o2 sensor and exclusively run a wideband. I cut off the o2 flange on my downpipe and welded a more appropriate bung on.

I added a polished 3" intake and 7" filter since the ugly AFM was gone.

I ended up doing a full brake job while the car was down: I painted the calipers and brackets, upgraded to porterfield RS4 pads all around, slapped on some new rear rotors, turned the front rotors and added some stainless brake lines.

I finished these upgrades around October and was able to drive the car around for a month before snow hit. Still rocking 550cc injectors, I tuned the car to 22psi.... injector duty cycle was peaking at 98%.

Next modification: FUEL!

2008 Winter and Spring

2010-02-24T02:36:00.009-05:00

Lets see how much I can remember, I'll keep typing down :D. Naturally the first winter I tore the car apart.

I knife edged my stock twin scroll exhaust mani. I no longer was running a twin scroll turbo so I figured I could only benefit from this free modification.

I bought a MSD Digital 6 Plus to help with spark, as well as a coolingmist meth injection system so I could safely run more boost and eventually make a lot more power.

I also found a killer deal on some GSC 268 duration, 9.7mm peak lift cams and a set of Fidanza adjustable cam gears. So I set about installing them, while in there I replaced the T-belt, idler pulleys, and tensioner with brand new OEM parts. Cams were degreed to spec with a degree wheel, a dial indicator, and a lot of time.

I also bought a catch can, had the valve cover powder coated red, hand polished the intercooler piping, removed the EGR system, charcoal canister, and numerous related hoses. The engine bay began to look half way respectable!

The car was all buttoned up and I was able to drive the red beast. Sadly, it didn't stay running for long...

History

2010-02-23T07:10:00.003-05:00

In October of 2007 I bought my first car, a 1993 Toyota MR2 from Kansas City, Kansas. The next 10 hours of driving will never be forgotten. I loved the acceleration this mid-engine sports car produced; on and off ramps were my playground!

This is how I received the car. Stock in appearance with the exception of rims, which are no longer on the car anyway. The previous owner modifications were focused around the engine. The car was producing roughly 300rwhp on 93 pump gas and 330rwhp on 50/50 93/110 race gas mix. Power came from an ATS TD06 turbocharger, a rebuilt bottom end sporting Wiseco Pistons, all being controlled by an ATS 550cc dual map rom-tune. All other BPU were addressed, including a Berk intercooler, Apexi intake, and Berk's True 3" Dual exhaust.

What a cluttered ugly engine bay!