I woke up this morning and it was -7 degrees Fahrenheit. We are officially in the middle of the off season and it’s hitting me hard. I have only driven one of my fun cars since the last drift event and it was only to get the Miata a state inspection sticker.
Car feels naked without the skirts on but was able to get a passing sticker so I am free to enjoy the car without worry for another year. For this upcoming season I don’t have any plans for the Miata as I am so mentally invested in the 240sx. It seems like every spare moment I have I am thinking about, looking up info, and drooling over pictures of 240/180sx. I remember when I used to do this with my Miata prior to going on a full cosmetic overhaul. Nowadays unfortunately 180sx has become the peak in my mind so I don’t even think too often on what I have achieved with my Miata. It is the dream car I wanted to style like this ever since I saw Rus goldstar’s Miata back on google images in 2014. I only really am able to fully reflect on how far it has come after thrashing it all day at an event. Although it isn’t the main focus anymore I still love it.
In other Miata news I have made a couple of trips out east recently to help my friend Wei with his car. I’m pretty sure I have mentioned it here before but in case I haven’t here’s a quick breakdown of where we are at with it. Originally Tyler and I ventured out to Wei’s shop last year to start the process of finishing up his 1.8 swap and turbo kit. Quickly into the process after fitting the turbo kit and trying to start the engine we realized something was wrong. The engine took far too much force to crank over and initially we though maybe it was just a dying battery or starter. After much testing and coming to the conclusion that the engine was the issue we ended up pulling it.
Luckily Wei got the engine from a friend an was able to get his money back on it. He went and grabbed another engine and we dressed that one up and popped it back in. Although we had success in this engine running and driving we had some other issues. The car was pouring out out of the rear oil pan seal as well as water from the oil cooler hose. We ended up parking the car and about a month later came back and dropped the transmission. That was in July and unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it back out to see him until a couple of weeks ago. This time we ended up pulling the engine once again to take care of the the leaks. Engine came out and went back in without a hitch, now just need to hook everything up and in theory it’ll work as it should. I’m really happy we are nearing the point we should have been at 6 months ago and that Wei will be able to enjoy the car soon.
Another thing I enjoy about going to help Wei with his car is looking at everyone else’s projects in the shop. Behind Wei in the above photo is Marks 240sx, currently in the middle of an SR swap. I’m not going to give you guys the full story on it but I will link his build thread HERE.
With all that out of the way that leaves some updates for my 240sx…Well I guess not really much updates on the car itself but more so what I have acquired for the car recently. Only work I have done on the car is start the disassemble the hot side in prep for a manifold swap.
I’m going to be putting on a Megan Racing tubular manifold I got with my spare SR. My hopes is that it will change the sound profile of the car a good amount although I’m not sure how much considering the exhaust I currently have on it. I will also be swapping out the OEM wastegate for a HKS Reinforced Actuator that will allow me to manually adjust the pressure. With this I am hoping to wake up the SR and get some real fun out of it! If I don’t achieve the sound I want with these items my next step is going to be searching for a new catback. I got the HKS actuator from the auctions as well as a couple of other exciting goodies.
That’s right your eyes are not deceiving you I am the proud owner of a pair of OG bronze TE37’s! The spec is 18×9.5 +35 as I wanted to be able to have a good amount of clearance in the rear. I plan to do a roll on the rear quarters but no pull so I will probably end up getting a 10mm spacer for these. Also scored a good handful of drift tengoku DVD’s(They look great next to my option ones lol). Next step in the parts purchasing process will either be a front pair of TE’s or some quality coilovers. I have looked around and from what I can find on forums and from word of mouth fortune auto seems to be the way to go. Well that pretty much brings you guys up to date with my vehicle happenings. As always it means the world to me if you read this far and I look forward to updating you guys again soon!
Bino W0rld 