So still keepin on with this one... after its passes at the track I was getting some spark blowout, so did new BPR7s gapped down to .02, and ran it around on pump gas for a while to keep it on the road while I worked on it. I had to address some exhaust leaks, here you will notice the turbine housing bolts were backing out.
The turbine housing got taken off, and everything resurfaced.
Then I milled the sh*t out of the housing to get a bolt into this corner of the housing. What it had before was a stud and a nut on either end, not ideal.
Next step was getting rid of that ridiculous key reminder beep! I couldnt handle it anymore!
I also installed a deck. I hooked it up on the RCAs and everything, but still need to replace the full ranges before the sub/amp goes in.
Then came a tasteful hacking of the bumper. I need more airflow without a doubt. So heres the before.
and the after
I left a few verticals cause I dont want any sag, but it should help for sure. I'll clean it up a little more when the time comes but its roughed in for now.
Then I pulled my foglight to make sure it was the bulb that was bad.
This next mod may seem a little bit odd, but it was to solve an issue I have with how I use my car. Think of it like this: Its race day, you're driving your car around on pump gas since E85 is 3 hours away. You pop the fuel feed off, run the pump and empty the tank, splash in the E85, and you're left with a weak ass mix of E45 after that due to all the gas still left in the bottom of the tank. I dont trust the tank drain plug being pulled repeatedly for this normal occurrence, so I wanted to put a radiator petcock into it. It sounded easy in my head, but was a little tougher given the fact I couldnt just drill/tap the way I originally thought. I pulled the plug, stunk up the shop, stole a petcock off a junk radiator, then saw the threads were close in size to each other and the tank drain wouldnt have enough meat left. Welded a nut as a coupler, countersunk so it could still flow somewhat, and made it all work.
Then came outer tie rods, pretty straight forward there.
So I did these mods on a race day mind you, I wasnt all that interested in running at all despite people asking if I was going. I drove out to watch at about 8pm when racing started at 6. Like most people when they drive out "just to hang out..." I noticed a buddys car there running low 12s, my options were to either borrow a helmet and run pump gas, or go drain tank get E85 etc. I picked the latter. I hauled ass home, the drain worked well other than the fact it was a little slow when youre hours late for a race... I got back to the track ready to roll around 9. Tank showed around E55 since I was impatient on draining the gas. First pass went okay considering. I didnt air tires down at all, banged revvy in 1st and spun a 12.2@122 at 30psi with a 2.0 60ft. I aired down, tweaked boost a bit, and worked on getting back out there for a fast pass. Launch went great, did a slight spin to a 1.82, 2nd hit hard as hell, then 3rd/4th it broke up a bit and I lifted. Slowing down I saw the dash light up and knew exactly what it was.
First time in this car, but 3rd for me Ive killed of the 96A saturn alternators. The car was a little hotter this pass, so the cooling fans were on, so that coupled with the fact I had my lights on I guess it was too much for the thing. Im very lucky it didnt cost me an engine, looking at these numbers is pretty scary!
Im pretty disappointed since despite lifting to a 118 trap, it still did a PB of 11.92 so it wouldve been lots better if it ran all the way through. Thinking Ill look into the 130A self exciting option at this point, especially given its sound system thats in store. Despite this though, it still got me home and itll live to fight another day.
