Whats The Status Of Everyone's Projects

Working on my '96 LX, rear rotors and caliper brackets, new Moog front end links as well as rear end links. Then getting the cooling system redone, changine the tranny fluid, getting the new bumper painted, and finally KYB struts and Eibach springs. After all that I will be looking for a cheap set of rims, mine are shot.

After all the work to get my 138k car back to tip top..I may take the time port out the secondaries, swap in a thunderbird 90mm performance throttle body, find a supercharger kit again, get a programable ECU. Should bring me close if not to 300hp and 260-290 on tourqe if I remember right.

Or

2nd Gen Taurus Wagon turned into a SHOwagon, supercharged, 5 speed, shag carpet, ect. I'm still busy drawing this one up. No of any not so complicated 3d programs? Or am I stuck with Autocad?

Originally posted by DMX@May 2 2004, 08:41 PM
For me it will most likely be doing something about the s*** shifting that drives me mad daily, not sure how i'm gonna do that just yet.....since the job market for programmers in my town is appearantly non-existent 

Click to expand...

I don't think it's just your town; it's like that everywhere. The IT/programming market was hot for a while so you had a huge amount of students going into computer science and the like. Now that companies have discovered the joys of outsourcing, and because of the overall state of the tech market, you've got a lot of experienced/veteran programmers competing with the green newbies for the few jobs that surface. No thank you. That's why I'm only going so far as an associates in programming and focusing on another career (law enforcement).

As for the car, it's in various stages of disrepair. Because of that, I'm seriously considering buying a SHO in various stages of disrepair just because I'd feel a lot better throwing money into that than my SLO. Still, here's the stuff that's just laying around waiting to go into either of 'em:

Cone intake
teh Bob's FSTB's and STB's (once they're delivered)
20k Tranny Cooler
80mm MAF
24/26 sway bars
Intrax Lowering Springs
Tokico Struts (waiting on the fronts; backordered to infinity)
Walbro 190lph fuel pump
24lb injectors

Well, this spring (and my new raise, w00t!) will bring my SHO some much needed TLC. First and foremost will be to fix the sticking caliper issue (SS brake lines should help ) and replace the e-brake cables, so I can have a working e-brake. Yeah, that would be nice. After I knock that out, along will come a complete 60k (save for water pump, thanks Bob), including a valve adjustment. I know at least one valve needs an adjustment. And then new tires. The ones that were on the car when I got it... well, they're not gonna make it through the summer. :evil_grin: It's funny though that the s***ty PepBoy's specials are holding up better than the Pirelli P4000's. It's because of the Pirelli's that 1st gear is totally useless from a dig.

After that, I'm thinking that the car could use some new struts, and since I'll be in there already, why not pick up some poly bushings... ALL AROUND! :banana:

So far I've only done the fuel pump (Walbro 190LPH), which actually helped drivability a bit since the old one was humming more than Paris Hilton in her "home movies".

Later mods will be a Wilwood big brake kit, and a Anonda Motorsports FSTB.

And then I can work on going faster... h34r:

Here goes...

For engine/power mods - my american motorsport programmed diablo chip should be making its way back to me tomorrow. :banana: I'd like to get my hands on some headers if they ever come out for the vulcan. I was thinking about water injection, but if I do that it won't happen til the end of the summer sometime.

For maintenance, this week I'm getting my tranny fluid flushed and fuel filter changed.

For suspension - I already got a FSTB, SFC's and new tires - thinking about doing lowering springs & struts possibly towards the end of the summer - possibly new rims/tires to go along with this project.

Aesthetics - Should be getting my windows tinted in the next couple of weeks.

Electronics - Will get my XM radio installed this week. I'm going to replace my front speakers sometime soon, too. Sometime in the fall I'm going to get a 2-way alarm/remote start system installed so my lazy a** can get into a nice warm car this winter

I will run my mostly stock 3.8L Taurus on the dyno in less than two weeks now (will take vids, hehe) To see what she's putting down stock..

I am stuck between a rock and a hard place on what to do. I have all the parts I need to toss an M90 on it.

But thats a lot of custom work and might be too much power for a daily driver. I need this car to stay on the road and be 100% reliable.

I am actually considering something smaller scale now (to keep daily drivability and reliability in mind).. The engine in my Thunderbird SC might need to be torn down this coming winter due to more leakdown on the rings than I would like to see. If that is the case, I might take my fully ported heads from the SC and put them on the taurus, as well as swap the cam. Then go with big valve heads and a bigger cam in the SC.

That combo on the SC put down 330.5 rwhp and 402.8 rwtq at 13psi.. That is about 390 crankshaft hp and 475 crank tq.

That combo on the N/A taurus with stock 9:1 compression would make about 230 hp and 270 tq at the crank via dyno 2000.. This is with supporting fuel, intake manifold flow, and exhaust system flow..

I could live with 230 hp, not much more than a sho, but definitly more torque.

The cam I have now is a .520" 212/218 112 LCA, so its definitly more of a supercharged cam, but that means it will be smooth and have a nice flat tq curve. I could squeeze another 10hp out of it by going to a longer duration cam, but then it would idle really lopey and might not pass emissions. That's fine with me, but not for a daily driver.

Jeramie

Sounds good guys, keep em coming


Reading what you all have got planned reminded me that I want to try welding on a set of SFCs myself, just get some square tubiing from xyz hardware store and go to town on it....... the only thing stopping me, as i've pointed out to Bob before is that i'm scare to death of welding so close to the fuel lines. Am I the only one who envisions a big fireball erupting from under the car, engulfing any unfortunate soul caught underneath?


I got dibs on the first 3.8 dyno video! I've been itching to see what they put down stock.


Also, on the electronics front, I AM working on a little something something....

A ) http://pics.rapperdmx.com/images.php?s=vcr

B ) = the attached image

A+B = ....

Originally posted by DMX@May 3 2004, 02:31 PM
Sounds good guys, keep em coming


Reading what you all have got planned reminded me that I want to try welding on a set of SFCs myself, just get some square tubiing from xyz hardware store and go to town on it....... the only thing stopping me, as i've pointed out to Bob before is that i'm scare to death of welding so close to the fuel lines. Am I the only one who envisions a big fireball erupting from under the car, engulfing any unfortunate soul caught underneath?


I got dibs on the first 3.8 dyno video! I've been itching to see what they put down stock.


Also, on the electronics front, I AM working on a little something something....

A ) http://pics.rapperdmx.com/images.php?s=vcr

B ) = the attached image

A+B = ....

Click to expand...

I've welded more than 50 sets on, and no fires. What I do, to be on the safe side, is to wet an old towel and drape it over the filter and surrounding lines.

Basically, all you need is some 1x2 steel tubing, 46" long. :thumb:

As for my projects, they're all currently changing. The silver 93 I have is now a parts car, the 97 is on hold (we may be upgrading, more on that later), the 91 is getting all it's maintenance done, and the Suburban hasn't been driven in 3 weeks.

Now for my plans: Anonda's been wanting a larger vehicle for some time now, and the Suburban really isn't her cup of tea. Too old, I guess. Anyhow, she'd like to get something blingy, like a Navigator or something. Of course, it would be used, we don't make enough to buy a new one. So, I've stopped upgrading the 97 until we make up our minds on that.

The 93 turned out to need more money invested than it was worth, so I've robbed a few parts off it, turns out the whole rear brake system was new (discs too!), so I used that stuff on my SHO. I'll be pulling some other parts off too, for spares for the SHO. Also, I'm able to help a guy in need. There's a guy near me that has a Sable in need of some parts, so I told him what I wanted off the car and told him he could have the rest. I done good! :lol:

The Suburban is in the same boat as the 97. I had a lot of plans (and parts) for it, but if we're getting a newer SUV, there's no need to keep it around. Most likely what will happen is it will get sold, along with the 97, to help fund the land yacht purchase.

At any rate, I'll still have the 91, which is in almost perfect condition as it is. Plans are to keep it mostly stock, since it's a daily driver, but who knows. I can't leave anything alone!