Atom's Speed6

Painting is hard. It's not perfect by any means, but I'm happy with it. More work to do tomorrow.

 

Engine picked up on my birthday (last Thursday). The guy that was helping me, ended up having to pull out of the weekend help for work. Forum member offered to help get this guy in the car and get the JB-Welded 6 back up and running. (I don't think I ever touched on this, but there is a bit of JB Weld on my transmission case, that may or may not be concerning as I didn't realize it was there til we pulled the motor). We're gonna throw in the engine, get the new front suspension work done (coilovers, all new arms, new knuckles, new brakes, new bushings), and put the front back together again and hopefully have it fired up before the end of the weekend he's coming down.

I'm stoked. The build is finally coming together after it's been sitting in my garage for over a year. Big shoutout to CW Turbochargers, Damond Motorsports, Graveyard and Edge Autosport for the damn near full restoration's worth of parts I've purchased for this build.

Once the engine goes in, then I will get the base map loaded, drive it for a couple hundo miles and get the rear suspension bushings and stuff finished.

Oh and I need to figure out how to run wires for the cameras going in the mirrors, and figure out the new speaker wire setup, I am pulling the Bose amp and throwing in an amp for the door speakers and an additional amp for a new sub. Attached below are pictures of the new engine (prior to me picking it up) and what the car looked like on Oct 12th, before my driver side strut tower had its paint damaged by an act of the devil. Currently repainting that strut tower to "fix it" as best I can.

 

Put in an order for some lights from Terlizzi Auto Concepts, so looking forward to that, as well. I doubt those are going to show up before the car gets running again, so luckily I have a spare pair of headlights (that maybe work?) from my parts car.

 

Nice build so far, I am at this stage myself. Do yourself a favor and inspect those shifter cables. Mine were starting to fray underneath the protective shielding.

 

Been slacking off. I'll check that out, tomorrow. I did get the short throw shifter installed with the assistance of one of my buddies.

Speaking of tomorrow. THIS WEEKEND THE ENGINE GOES IN. @phate has graciously offered his expertise to get the engine in and the speed back to being road worthy. I'll try to take pictures and I will absolutely take a video, that I will share if the car starts properly, lol.

Big shoutout to Damond Motorsports, @Matt@DM , @phate, and others for their guidance on parts to buy, what not to waste money on, and the constant belittling of my childish antics regarding buying shit I don't need even when I was told not to do so.

Oh, another fun fact. I ordered the Ducks Garden diffuser back on Christmas Eve and that came in the mail Tuesday.

ALSO ALSO. DTP was gracious enough to do a stock flange custom header for me, with a custom downpipe, complete with recirculating dump. It's pretty awesome. I had them coated at Pro-Kote Indy:

 

Awesome! Jimi makes great manifolds. Don't forget to slap the cock!

Also, you have mega geniuses involved too. Clint is adorable too, so there is that.

 

Yeah I'm incredibly grateful and excited to get to work this weekend with Clint. I'm heading to buy the celebratory booze, to be opened when we fire her up, right after I leave work today in about 20 minutes.

 

Baby steps. Might not get it fired up this weekend but we're making a lot of progress.

 

Well the engine did not go in, few hiccups, but the MAIN problem would be that the hoist that I rented, failed its own namesake and did not do the thing it was meant to do. BUT, we did get a lot accomplished. Intake mani, Throttle Body, MAP sensor, Exhaust Mani, Turbo, Downpipe Connector, new Clutch, new Throwout Bearing, new Flywheel, new AC Compressor, new Brake Master Cylinder, new Clutch slave, AC lines, new Wheel Hubs, new Calipers, new Rotors, new Brake Pads, new Radius arms, new Lower Control Arms, new Upper Control arms, new Front Sway Bar, new bushings, new Ignition Coils, new harnesses, HPFP, Transmission and Transfer Case all installed between Friday and Saturday. Found the boot for my driveshaft is kinda toast, so I'll be ordering a new one of those. Power bled the front lines and clutch and I don't think I've ever seen so many bubbles in my entire life.






Engine is sitting on a roller cart waiting for round 2.

 

Round 2 is this Saturday. Wish us luck lol

 

Got the engine in. Routed the piping to dry fire the engine. IT STARTED. Now I have to get the bay buttoned up, radiator hoses installed, ac lines, vacuum hoses, route ebcs, intercooler piping, route gauge lines, relocate battery, install coilovers and some other stuff.

Realized I bought new knuckles with hubs and bearings for the na 6, so waiting on new hubs and bearings to arrive to press them out and replace with the right ones.

Getting there! Now to order more stuff. Again.

 

Dang man you have put it some WORK. Its going to be killer and we will have to meet up sometime so I can see this thing in person. Great build and hopefully mine will be up to the fun soon as well again.

 

So I got my knuckles to a shop to put the bearings in, only to find out that I had fallen for the same tragedy that at least one other person has fell for on this forum (this is what I get for buying all the things with 0 patience). The knuckles I bought were made by MOOG who doesn't actually make knuckles for the Speed. SOOOOOOO. I'm going to wirewheel my old knuckles and get them over to the shop to get the new stuff installed.

Always. Something.

 

They're not the shiniest, but they definitely look better. Goal is to fire up the car by the end of this week, so wish me luck!

 

She lives!!

 

Been pretty quiet since we fired it up the first time. So update time:

Fun fact about me: I have a herniated disc in my cervical spine (C6-C7 middle of neck). This makes life super fun. The week we fired up the car, I worked on it for about 4-5 hours a day for 4 days straight (Saturday being a 13 hour day). In that time I was in all the cirque du soleil positions we MPS owners tend to get in, under the dash, under the car, reaching inside the engine bay and whatnot. So the day after we got it running, my hands went numb for about 4 days, my neck was killing me, and then I had to have some dental work done that involved the removal of two molars (Thanks Mom for the great dental genetics).

Because of that, I've pretty much not worked on the car at all since then. My neck is better now and my hands are no longer numb, so I'm hoping to start getting back into working on the car soon.

Things left to do to get it roadworthy:

Pull the front clip off
Reroute oil catch cans (oil lines hitting the fan assembly, relay, harness, shifter assembly, clutch slave, and oil pressure sensor adapter hose)
Find out why the radiator fans went full tilt when I turned the key, the first time (Assuming sensor or bad solder job on the harness)
Clamp all intercooler hoses down
Tighten down clamp on turbo compressor to IC piping (Might look at a different kit altogether)
Harness cleanup (ziptie and route more efficiently)
Mount breakers for starter and fusebox power connection
POSSIBLY install the tucked AC LP line
Attach the axles
Fill Transmission and Tcase with fluid
Tighten up Clutch Master
Possibly install upgraded Clutch Slave (Yay re-bleeding)
Front knuckles to UCA
Front axles into wheel hubs
LCA and Radius Arm to knuckles
ABS Sensor to knuckles
Front Rotors
Attach Front Brake Calipers
Attach Front Coilovers
Attach Fork Dampers
Attach wheels
Reattach front clip
Get intercooler mounting bracket (currently using a quick universal mounting kit which allows a HUGE amount of flex to the radiator)
- I don't have access to tools for making a bracket, so I'm going to search for one and also hit up my buddy who owns a metal shop, but the turnaround on that is kinda long

Mount the IC
Clamp down the IC pipes to the IC
Attach headlights
Test fire

If successful:
Install Hellas
Install new washer reservoir
Connect all lights
Front Bumper
Splash shields
Scrape plate
Hood
Roll out and drive it around the neighborhood and weep softly for joy in the car, away from prying eyes.
Go home install exhaust piece.

IF NOT SUCCESSFUL.
Allegedly burn down the house with the car in the garage.

Hopefully I can get back to working on it soon, I'll update again when I have one!

 

Don't know how I missed this thread, we were essentially in the same boat with having to repair and replace everything... Although you definitely did more than I did in a shorter period of time lol. Mine's still in the driveway since I bought it also in '23. Subbing for updates, nice project build you have there