Fuck winter. Its 0 degrees outside. And i'm lucky if I can get the garage to be 40. So instead, i'll just update this from the last month or so.
Ordered a baffled catch can from racecatchcan.com, had it made with 2 -8AN fittings. Very nice piece. Immediately gave it to my buddy to powdercoat black (slacker still hasn't given it back yet...)
Anyways, one day while I was driving home I had an idea. Talked to my machinist at work about it and he made it happen. (the nice part about working at a foundry is having tons of scrap laying around, and when your boss likes you stuff like this happens)
I wanted plugs for my firewall for the harness hole & 2 AC holes. I didn't have enough time to shave them before the respray of my bay, so this would have to do. I took measurements, got them made, and brought them back to work and painted them. Sure they're a step below as clean as a smooth shaven firewall, but whatever. Looks better than previously.
While doing so I obviously had to close off and seal the holes in the condensor box (which is gutted anyways. Wish I could remove this without making the blower motor useless because I still have heat. Thanks Nissan...) So I did some trimming with the dremel, and took a piece of plastic and JB welded it in place.
While I had the engine and trans out, I spent some time scrubbing the trans tunnel and bottom of the firewall, undercoating everything, and then applying some of this heat barrier from thermo-tec. Its real thin and lightweight. I got 2 24x48" sheets, and didn't need all of it. Claims it withstands 400* direct heat, and 2000* ambient. Anybody whos ever owned one of these shitboxes knows what its like on those super hot days. Along with the adhesive backing on this, I riveted it to the floor as well. For those of you who like data, I bought a infrared laser thermometer. On an 84* day, after about 20 minutes of driving home from work my floor was 104* by my feet, and my shift boot was 134*. This is with full interior and OEM sound deadening.
Somewhere in the mix, my block went to Travis' house and got torn down. We were pretty surprised at how everything looked for how bad it smoked and how bad my leakdown results were. So the block and head went to the machine shop. I got a call this morning saying that my cylinders were .002" out of round at the bottom/top and .006" out of round in the middle. So it needs .030" over to be safe. Will likely be getting .040" Wiseco pistons. Oh, and my exhaust valve guides are junk, so new ones will be getting pressed in. While i'm in there BC dual springs and retainers will be installed as well. Ouch.
After wiping off the pistons:
I also acquired some well sought after goodies.
