Photo Opp!

The Best It's Looked In 4 Years!

Over the long 4th of July weekend I put my car back together and for the first time in years I'm proud of my car! I rattle canned the hood black just cause it's all sorts of messed up and the spray paint red looked like shit compared to the newly painted front end.

Only got some crappy cell phone pics right now:

Wash time!

Next to Dougs WRX swapped RS

Squeek-Be-Gone

I had a bad noise coming from under the hood and for the longest time I couldn't figure out what it was. When I finally took the time and looked/listened closely I noticed that my tensioner pulley was wobbling terribly and both my belts were toast!! I replaced both belts and the bearing inside the pulley and now no noises and no squeeks!!!

The Venge Gets A Face Lift

It was finally time to get rid of the hidious front bumper and spray-painted fenders. I found a used front on ASEC that came in very good shape minus a crack on the bottom of it. I fixed the crack in the bumper, straightened the fenders, and sprayed them at work.

The bumper itself is not available aftermarket through PartsChannel or Keystone. Also it's not available reconditioned through Salt Lake Chrome or Collins Collision Products. No yards in the state had one and all the yards that did have one wanted around $200 just to ship the thing!! Add the $200 they wanted for the bumper itself and that's way more then I wanted to spend!

After two months of searching I finally found a guy on ASEC that had one to sell. I paid $200 total for the bumper + shipping!! He managed to fold it into thirds and stuff it in a small enough box to ship FedEx!! When i got the package i took it out and set it outside in the sun for an hour so it could regain it's original shape. The only damage was some cracked paint and the pre-existing crack in the bottom that you can see in the picture to the left.

The following are pics of the repair on the bumper. I grinded down all the paint and used 3M panel bonding adhesive to do the repair.

After removing the paint

Here's patch on the inside of the bumper

After squeezing the adhesive through

Dry time: 24 hours

Fenders are straight and ready for primer!

Primered, sealed, based, and cleared!! Now they're ready for install!

Sunday Wash, BBQ, And Cruise Pics

A bunch of us all washed our cars on Sunday at a friends house, broke in his new grille too :) Brought my new camera along to take some pics!

Soak & rinse!

After about half a can of degreaser and the engine bay is cleaner now than when I originally purchased the car! (oooohhh, shiney!!!)

This is what I see while I drive and it makes me smile!


Someone doesn't look too pleased!

Next to Pauls sick 06 STI

Doug's WRX swapped RS

The line-up

Compression Test Results = Bad News Bears

So a friend and I did a compression test on my motor this weekend and I almost wish we hadn't. #3 was about 25-30psi lower than the other three. Dropped some oil in and the pressure went back up to normal thus concluding my piston rings are bad.

No boosted Venge this year :(

Since this is my only car I figure the best/easiest way for me to get her ready for boost is to buy a used motor and rebuild it over the next year or so. If I'm gonna be opening it up that much to replace the rings then I might as well build the sucker right. JE pistons, Eagle rods, sleeved block, 8.8:1 compression, etc.

I'm really bummed and slightly pissed about this whole situation but I know it'll be better this way in the long run.

I was so looking forward to the Lewistown test track, Beartooth Run, SCCA, & the drag strip this year and it really breaks my heart

To Do List

Alright so the turbo is sitting in my kitchen just taunting me every day to be installed. But there's still a few more things to do before I feel comfortable putting it on:

1: Replace left tie rod end
2: Fix whatever is causing my steering wheel to shake once I hit 50 and other misc front end vibrations.
3: Find and fix my damn oil leak!!!!!
4: Replace the a/c compressor because I'm 99% sure that's where my belt noises are coming from and why not just replace the whole thing when I found one on ebay for $40? My a/c hasn't worked in years anyway and i've had people tell me it's the clutch in my current compressor. That's gettin your cake and eating it too! :)
5: Buy all new gaskets (ie, turbo, wastegate, bov, manifolds, exhaust)
6: Replace all blue couplers with red ones
7: Sand down and repaint IC tubing silver
8: Before the car can go down in the garage.... I must have a new bike motor so I can have transportation.

Once the turbo is on, I have to have exhuast pieces made. The cat-end of the downpipe I got is for a 3" exhaust with a 3 bolt flange. I need to get an exhaust shop to modify it to bolt up with my stock 2 bolt cat. During the install I will most likely be getting a full cat-back with a test pipe to make it a full turbo-back exhaust.

Turbo Pics!

First off is the snail itself.



Turbo Manifold

Wastegate

BOV

Intercooler

Lower intake manifold with bilet fuel rails and supplementary #30 injectors custom bunged in

034EFI Supplementary fuel injector controller & Golden Eagle vacuum manifold

Aeromotive 1:1 fuel pressure regulator

Wastegate dump (I'm junking this and making my own w/ better welds)

Wiring mess for EFI (I will be COMPLETELY revamping this disaster!)

Tubing and stainless steel lines (this will all be redone too)

This end will not fit my exhaust, I have to redue this end to fit with my stock exhaust until I upgrade.