Its been awhile...
The car was down for a month or more due to some repairs needed in the intake manifold. I couldn't figure out why the car started to idle much higher than normal one day going to work. I thought it might have been a cut o-ring on an injector, but upon closer inspection, I found a crack on the flange at the head, and around every runner on the intake manifold at the plenum. I fixed what I could with my old TIG at work, then passed it off to my buddy who has a newer and higher amp machine.
Once I put the manifold back on, I made a few tweaks to the tune. I had way too much throttle enrichment so the car would hiccup/buck when throttle was given at around 2-3K RPMS. I do have some more changes to make on the warm start-up map. It takes a few minutes for the car to want to idle on its own once warm, which is no big deal, just something I'd rather not deal with.
I was preparing the car for Street Heat yesterday and had a mishap. I had changed the diff fluid and was installing the fill plug when the rear cover decided it didn't want to play nice and CRACKED! I didn't think I had the plug in real far, but apparently it was just a hair too much. Fortunately, I have a spare cover, but it requires removing the differential to change.
So, with removing the diff, comes some upgrades. I've had some much stronger axles sitting on the shelf for a few years now. I figured I'd just run my factory ones until they popped. However, since the diff is coming out, why not install the new axle? They are DSS 600hp axles and they have a ball and cage outer CV which is much stronger than the tripod style CV that is in the car. The inner CV's are Porsche 108mm units, which is also a much stronger design than the existing pieces.
I'll also be installing a new set of rear upper control arms(RUCA'S). I've lowered the car to a place where I feel looks aggressive and still has a functional amount of suspension travel. Far too often I see these kids bouncing off the bump stops cruising down the road. Maybe it's me getting older, but it looks dumb and uncomfortable. Anyway, I've reached the maximum amount of camber I can dial out from the factory arms. These adjustable arms will allow me to dial out a bit more. As it sits, it's roughly around -1.5*, which isn't horrible and quite acceptable if I were to be doing some autoX or road course work. However, the car sees more street and drag strip duty, so I want to bring it down to roughly -.5 to -.75 degrees for every day driving. This will maximize the contact patch of the tire when I squat under WOT. I also have an eccentric lockout kit for the factory eccentric bolts.
As always, I spend a large portion of my time hanging out with Kcoda. He is a week shy of 6mons old at this point and is just at 80lbs. He's taller than my Purebred Lab at the withers as well. My guess is 100lbs by the 1 year mark and 125-130 when he's officially "done" growing. Second picture is a month old with my sister's St. Bernard at 160lbs and my Lab at 85lbs.
